Kelsea Ballerini is sharing her gratitude – in her swimsuit. The country singer shows off her strong abs in a bathing suit in one of her latest posts, opening up about her recent tour. “Spent the last few months touring with my hero turned brother @kennychesney,” she wrote. “My heart is so full from a beautiful collection of new memories. Thank you to everyone who made it so dang special,” she captioned the series of Instagram snaps. “Oh I love this ! 💕Making Tennessee proud,” commented her friend, Reese Witherspoon. How does she stay so fit, mentally and physically? Read on to see 6 ways Kelsea Ballerini stays in shape and the photos that prove they work—and to get beach-ready yourself, don't miss these essential 30 Best-Ever Celebrity Bathing Suit Photos!
1. She Battles Anxiety
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Kelsea discussed her mental health with Reese Witherspoon in a video discussing her poetry book. “I have anxiety. A lot of people do. We live in a very difficult time,” Ballerini confessed. “It’s something I talk about a lot: mental health and being able to feel safe.”
2. She Goes to Therapy
“I have been in therapy in and out my whole life,” Ballerini revealed to Reese. “It’s interesting, though, because when I was younger it was stuff that I was always made to do. It was all kind of forced upon me. So, I always had this stigma around it like, ‘this feels taboo. This feels like something other people want me to do.’ It wasn’t until the last few years that it was my decision that I was like, ‘I can be a healthier person.’”
3. She Strives to Be Healthy, Not Skinny
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“I think for me, I’ve had to redefine I don’t want to be skinny, I want to be healthy,” Ballerini added in the interview “I want to be able to nourish myself and take care of myself, and that doesn’t just mean my body. It means my mind, it means my soul, it means my creativity. All of that. Nourishing those things makes me feel healthy. And when I feel healthy I’m a better wife, and daughter, and friend, and writer, and all the things that I actually care about way more than how I look.”
4. She Took a Break From Exercise
In 2022, Kelsea took a “season of rest” from her workout routine. “As someone that's really struggled with body image my whole life, I really have to be checked in to, 'Am I doing this for the right reasons?' And I felt like by the end of that tour, I was starting to detach from the correct reasons for working out," she told Women’s Health. “I'll definitely start introducing cardio and strength training again so I can perform well, but I’ve been in a 'Season of Rest' before tuning up again.”
5. She Takes “Long, Slow Walks”
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During her Season of Rest, Kelsea focused on doing “a lot of things to kind of reconnect with my inner child.” For example, she took really long, slow walks," and aimed for 10,000 steps per day. “Just to get fresh air and get sunshine and move my body, but not move my body in a way that I'm feeling like I'm needing [to see] some results."
6. She Dances
Kelsea did “all kinds of dance” growing up, but recently returned to classical dance. “I started taking ballet again. I danced for 10 years when I was younger, and quit when I was 14. But I loved it so much. And then my path really shifted to music,” she told Women’s Health. “I'm just trying to see what my body remembers and then and then relearn the art of it, because it's so beautiful. It's the little micro muscles in your ankles and in your inner thighs, and the (idea) that there's a string pulling you directly up to the ceiling while your toes are pushing down into the ground."