That's The Way It Is • michael b jordan

05

"Do you take a lot of pictures of him?" Manoucheca asked.

"Oh yeah, all the time. I have a camera dedicated to just taking pictures and videos of him," Sasha answered with a smile.

Manoucheca smiles.

"Yeah, I take too many pictures of him that he just naturally poses when someone pulls out their phone like he knows someone is going to take a picture of him," Sasha told Manoucheca.

"Now do you plan on having more children?" Manoucheca asked Sasha.

Sasha nods.

"Definitely. I want maybe four or six kids," Sasha answers.

"Oh wow," Manoucheca said.

"I want a big family," Sasha said.

"Having a child, how do you handle the demand, you know the transition to motherhood with your career?" Manoucheca asked Sasha.

Sasha nods.

"It's a lot, but I'm so grateful for a great support system... Everyone pitches in to help me out. For me, what's most important is that my son be with me. Whether that is while I'm doing hair and makeup, which takes two hours — that is two hours with my son on my lap playing with me. Then, I'm making the time to also be good to myself, maybe as soon as my son falls asleep. I might take time to binge-watch something on TV and take those moments for myself. I'm grateful that I have such a loving family who has been on this journey with me and who support me," Sasha explained.

"That makes a huge difference. It really is all about being mindful of how you spend your time," Manoucheca said.

"That's the key. When it comes to mindless scrolling on Instagram for an hour, I'm like, No — if there's an hour that I could spend with my son, that's what I want to be doing," Sasha said.

"As someone in the public eye who has to constantly be 'on', how do you prioritize your mental health and wellbeing?" Manoucheca asked Sasha.

"It's exactly that; you have to make it a priority. Carving out days and times where you just put you and your mental health in first place. I think it was about a year ago that myself and my sisters sat down and said, listen, we're going to burnout. We are in such a burnout culture right now...I actually love that the burnout culture is turning its ugly head on itself where now we're seeing memes that are like, no, everything is not about, 'I'm hustling, I'm hustling. Can't stop, won't stop.' No, please stop. Please stop for a second and give yourself a moment so that you do not burn out, so that you can prioritize your mental health. My manager and I actually started scheduling time for my mental health. On my weekly schedule, we'd look at everything. We'd figure out where we'd do anything and then we'd say, you need a day off. So, I would take one day off a week...that was, literally nothing would get scheduled on that one day. And it wasn't always the same because obviously with a demanding schedule, there were people that were like, 'no, we need you on Saturday, so you can't take Saturday off.' And maybe it was the Tuesday that I was able to take off. I love the saying that says, if it doesn't get scheduled, it doesn't get done. Putting into your scheduled time, an hour, two hours, a whole day if you need it. I needed a whole day...just one whole day a week, that I can dedicate to my family, to my mental health and to myself. We make sure that is in my calendar...it is in my planner," Sasha answered.

"So, speaking of mental health and mental wellbeing...I want to learn more about the support systems that you've utilized throughout your career. What support systems have allowed you to thrive throughout your career?" Manoucheca asked her.

"I have to say, I really, really am grateful and I am so fortunate that I have an incredible family. For me, my family really is that. I've always been given wings to soar because I know that I have a strong foundation...having a foundation of people that don't expect me to be amazing all the time. They don't have expectations of me that I have to hold myself up to. I think sometimes that kind of pressure can be really draining and really difficult and really scary and can cause anxiety and depression when you're like, oh my God, all these people are depending on me, all these people are expecting this certain thing from me. I'm really grateful that I've surrounded myself with people who, their expectations of me are to be healthy mentally, physically, and to be happy.