Will Smith has been undergoing an important weight loss and mental health journey and has documented his progress on social media. As his new YouTube series that launched this week was approaching, he revealed that his journey wasn’t just a matter of healing what was on the outside of his body. He also took the opportunity to discuss the struggles he was facing on the inside, to the point that he shared that he had once been considering suicide.
Taking on Weight Loss and Mental Health
The YouTube docuseries called “Will Smith: The Best Shape of My Life” documented the celebrity’s 20-week journey to lose 20 pounds. That said, ahead of the series launch, he discussed some of the other challenges he faced along the way. What he found was that weight loss and mental health were not too far from each other. He discovered that there were fundamental issues he was required to face in his life so that he could arrive at his goal.
“When I started this show, I thought I was getting into the best shape of my life, physically. But, mentally, I was somewhere else. And, I ended up discovering a whole lot of hidden things about myself,” he explained.
It was at that point that he brought up a reference to a discussion he’d had with his family, saying that “That was the only time in my life that I ever considered suicide.” He did not provide any further details, suggesting that there might be more discussion on the subject of his weight loss and mental health discoveries in the docuseries.
A Complement to His Memoir
As the YouTube weight loss and mental health series dropped, Will Smith was also drawing attention to the memoir he authored and that released shortly afterward on November 9.
Both the memoir and the docuseries were being created simultaneously, and what Smith had thought would be an effort aimed at losing extra pounds turned out to be a complexly interwoven weight loss and mental health journey.
As much as the series was certainly an income opportunity for the star, and a marketing opportunity for his book – and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that – it more importantly placed the spotlight on an important fact that many people have yet to discover for themselves.
It focused on how weight loss and mental health are tightly connected. Dropping unwanted pounds isn’t simply a matter of eating less. To achieve these physical goals through lifestyle changes that will make sure the results are long-term, there is a commitment to looking internally. It is that step that can make reaching dieting goals highly challenging, particularly over time.