Grey’s Anatomy star Kelly McCreary took full advantage of her downtime over the summer by visiting The St. Regis Punta Mita Resort in Mexico. McCreary, 42, shared some gorgeous pictures and video of her vacation, including shots of her gazing at the sunset while posing in a white swimsuit. “What is better than savoring sunsets in an exquisite location, far away from the non-stop pace of home life? My nervous system needed settling, and this place, this moment really did the trick. Very grateful for our escape to @stregispuntamita, for the opportunity to slow down, reconnect and reset,” she captioned the post. Here’s how McCreary stays grounded.
McCreary took up yoga again during the pandemic lockdowns. “Up until a few years ago, I had been a fairly ardent yogini with a consistent practice,” she says. “Then, life got busier, my daily routines changed, and I fell off. Quarantine has given me time to ease my way back into my self-care habits. In many ways, rediscovering my yoga practice feels like becoming reacquainted with myself again. I didn’t realize how much my mind and spirit had been craving the moving meditation, and to be grounded and stabilized by a daily practice once again.”
McCreary says she can’t live without her yoga strap. “This is my no-excuses stretching tool,” she says. “Even on my laziest mornings, I can use it with very little effort and work out all the kinks. I stand up a lot for my job, so it’s a great tool for extension and for getting my length and strength back. I started practicing yoga probably 15, 16 years ago when I was in college. My sister — who was actually on Grey’s this season — is also a yoga teacher. She took me to my first class. And this is like my shortcut yoga tool: When I don’t have time for a full practice, I can still get a couple really good stretches in.”
McCreary journals as a form of self care. “I free-write first thing in the morning,” she says. “Sometimes I’ll even have an agenda of, Today, I really want to write about that thought or that event from yesterday and process that. Before I know it, the second my pen hits the paper, I’m writing about something completely different, and it’s just my brain emptying itself out. I try not to censor or force myself to write about those other things; I try to respect the fact that that’s not what I needed to reckon with today. I’ve been making a point every day to write down something that delights me about my daughter or some new thing that she’s doing just to keep a record. I could spend all morning writing about that.”
McCreary is a strong proponent of therapy. “I’ve done all kinds of therapy,” she says. “I’m actually seeing a hypnotherapist right now, which is really fun. You sort of go into a meditative state and are thereby able to access the healing in a little bit of a deeper layer. I’ve done a lot of talk therapy over the years, and I do feel like I kind of get it; I get what’s going on inside my head. I don’t really need to talk about it that much anymore. Now I really want to start doing whatever it takes to really heal behavior patterns and psychological habits.”
McCreary enjoys bathing in magnesium salts. “I’ve never been big on baths. But for my birthday this year, a friend sent the loveliest set of bath goodies, and I was finally moved to indulge,” she says. “Now, I’m hooked. My friends and castmates Ellen Pompeo and Caterina Scorsone both exhorted the benefits of magnesium bath salts, which I’ve recently integrated into the routine. Bathing this way feels like pure heaven.”