NEWSRed Carpet Confidential: ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Star Kyle Richards Takes Unique Approach to Coping with Anxiety
Apr. 1 2013, Published 7:25 a.m. ET
While some choose to treat anxiety with medication alone, Kyle Richards incorporates gym time into her regimen.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 44, admits taking part in power yoga twice a week does the trick when she’s stressed out about the demands of her busy life.
OK! GALLERY: KYLE RICHARDS AND HER REAL HOUSEWIVES PALS PARTY AT HER NEW STORE OPENING
“Well, I started going to class years ago with a teacher named Mark Blanchard, who has taught Jennifer Lopez,” she begins during Mohegan Sun’s Reality Check event in Uncasville, Conn. “I started thinking ‘this is all baloney—yoga; how can this really be doing anything?’ And my body completely changed. My arms are completely different. I was more narrow.”
She continues, “It changed my body, but more importantly, mentally, it helped me, because I suffer from anxiety.”
OK! GALLERY: 8 HOT REAL HOUSEWIVES HAIRSTYLES
For Kyle, power yoga does the trick to make her less jittery.
“It also helps me to say ‘slow down,’” she says. “Even my movements, my teacher Mark was like ‘you’re always so fast, fast, fast—moving—with your kids, your work, your husband. You need to slow down with everything you do. Even your movements—when I tell you to move to this move to that move, you jerk. Everything you do needs to be slower.’ That gave me confidence to slow down. I close my eyes, and he forces me to realize how high-strung I have to be in order to be doing all this stuff that I’m juggling all the time.”
Kyle discovered power yoga was the key to keeping calm after going without it.
“When I first started doing yoga again, I called Mark up after many years of a break from yoga—after I got pregnant with Portia six years ago, I think, was my last class,” she says. “He started coming to my house more to help me relax mentally, and my body started changing again. I was like ‘thank God.’ I don’t ever want to give it up now.”
OK! GALLERY: SEE PHOTOS OF BETHENNY FRANKEL AND OTHER REAL HOUSEWIVES IN THE VALERIE GALLERY
Hm, how does power yoga compare to regular yoga?
“Every other class seems so easy after doing Mark’s power yoga,” she says. “For me, regular yoga can be slow and easy. I found other classes being way too easy after doing his class. I mean, he has me doing things that make me look like I’m doing Cirque du Soleil sometimes! laughs”
Catch Kyle on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: Reunion Part 2, which airs tonight at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
Who’s your favorite Real Housewives star? How does exercise improve your lifestyle? Tweet us @okmagazine.
