This video is part of Health's My Mantra series. Follow along with new videos on our Instagram page and share your own words of wisdom using #MantraMonday.
Country singer Carly Pearce has made a career out of writing songs that tackle her own breakups and heartbreaks. And the 29-year-old singer relies on a powerful personal mantra to keep herself strong when relationships and other issues start wearing on her.
“The mantra that I feel like has influenced me in a huge way is, 'there is beauty in vulnerability,'” Pearce tells Health. “And I don’t know if I heard that somewhere or it's just my interpretation of so much that’s happened to me in the past few years.”
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Pearce explains that one of her first hits, “Every Little Thing,” showed that vulnerability. “I don’t know that you can get more raw, real, or vulnerable than that,” she says. “And I feel like that moment, when I saw what that song did, it made me kind of look into my life and understand that sometimes great things come from being honest.”
The song doesn't just apply to breakups, she adds. She uses this mantra when dealing with trolls on the internet, too.
“When I’m talking to anybody or just being Carly or playing a show or on social media, I really try to just really speak my truth and not be afraid of vulnerability,” she says. “Because if we're all the same and we all pretended that everything was okay, we wouldn’t have the scars and the grit and the just little ins and outs of things that make us, us.”
Pearce has a couple of other mantras that help inspire her as well. “Everything happens for a reason" is one she calls on to make sense of her journey.
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“I struggled in Nashville for 10 years, cleaning Airbnbs, working retail, being a backup singer, not wanting to do that and not understanding why I had to do that,” she recalls.
“Fast forward and those 10 years in Nashville prepared me for the schedule and the life that I was about to have," she says. "And no matter what you’re going through in life, no matter what season you’re in, if it’s a hard one, if it’s a good one, understand that things happen to prepare you for what’s next, and everything does happen for a reason, and one day you’re gonna look back and understand why.”
Another mantra she uses (especially when internet trolls come out) focuses on body positivity and self acceptance. "'Love the skin you're in'—I think that is just an empowering thing for body image.”
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"Instead of hiding what some little people have said to me, I’ve decided to just exploit some of the things that I go through with body shaming," she explains. "As women, we need to learn more about loving who we are and loving the skin that we’ve been given and loving our shape."
Pearce says she tries to remind herself of the beauty in being unique, and she wants fans to see this as well.
"Everybody deals with body image and everyone deals with loving themselves, and I think that what’s so interesting is you exude confidence when you feel confident in your own skin," she adds. "It’s not about a size of jeans you wear, it’s not about a number on a scale, it’s not about any of that. It’s about loving who you are and loving the skin that you were given."
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