First Lady Michelle Obama beams as she covers the October 2011 issue of Essence magazine. Check out an excerpt below of Michelle’s interview courtesy of USA Today,
On needing her girlfriends: “Women energize me. My husband is terrific. He is my true partner. Spending time with him is key…. But it’s also important for us as women to find each other. And there’s that natural reenergizing that happens when women get together. We kind of hold each other up.”
On finding balance and teaching it to her daughters: “If we don’t have the energy, we can’t pass it on. I learned it from watching my own mother (Marian Robinson) not invest in herself, for example. She’s starting to do that. But she came from the tradition of family first. She wouldn’t even go to the hairdresser on a regular basis. I want to show my girls that it is perfectly fine to invest in yourself and to start to do it early, embrace it and not feel guilty about the time we put into ourselves.”
What her version of “me” time is like: “You’ve got to force yourself to take time for yourself, period. As women, we have to put ourselves higher on our own priority lists. That means, for me… taking that time to rejuvenate; taking the time every day to exercise; taking the time to go out for dinner with a girlfriend.”
On her inclination to hug people, especially children: “They’re nervous, and sometimes the best way to break that is just to give them a hug, because that’s ultimately what we all can relate to and we can all connect to, regardless of our race, our gender, our ethnicity, our geographic location.”
The issue hits newsstands on September 12th!
