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From mantras to meditation, mindfulness to manifestation, Well Intentioned offers an intimate look at how to make space for self-care in meaningful ways, big and small.
Throughout her career, Allyson Felix has become a powerhouse on and off the track. While hearing her name might conjure visions of her sprinting to Olympic gold (Felix is the most decorated track-and-field athlete of all time), she retired in 2022 and has since made a name for herself as a health activist—advocating for positive change in care for women and people of color. For her, being a voice for the health and well-being of others lends itself to many forms.
At one moment, it’s as simple as practicing positive affirmations with her 4-year-old daughter, Camryn; at another, it’s running her footwear brand, Saysh, a line of running sneakers catered to women’s needs. “[I want to be known for] just having fought for other women,” Felix tells Vogue over Zoom. “I hope that when it’s all said and done, I’ve used my platform to better those areas that I’m really passionate about.”
The strength in Felix’s ability to connect with her community lies in the openness of her journey. It was, after all, her moving opinion piece for the New York Times outlining her own experience with her formal footwear that amplified the conversation around maternal rights for athletes. Now she’s opening up again—this time in partnership with Athletic Greens. The two have come together to create an exclusive three-part video series detailing the experiences that pushed her from running for medals to running toward change.
The brand’s beloved greens supplement, AG1, was already part of Felix’s daily routine. “I’m very particular about what I put in my body, and that comes from my athletic background,” the 37-year-old says. “Right away, I was really impressed by its NSF certification because previously that was something that I looked for if I was going to take some sort of supplement or anything.” The simplicity of taking AG1 was an added bonus (she mostly mixes the powder with water).
When asked what she hopes people take away from the series, titled Starting Blocks, she states that it’s all about maneuvering through the twists and turns of life. “The entire story of where you start from is not where you finish,” she says. “The overlaying message is just that taking care of your body looks a lot of different ways. I hope people are inspired by that.” Below, the multihyphenate walks us through how she takes care of her body—through thoughtful self-care and prioritizing rest.
Practicing Gratitude
“Every morning I wake up and I try to make an entry in my gratitude journal, and it just sets the tone for my day. I try to do it before the family gets up and everything. I just jot down some things that I am grateful for. It can be something small or something bigger, but it makes me kind of shift from, like, ‘Okay, this is a hectic day’ or ‘There’s so many things on my plate’ and going to the negative place to say, let me pause and intentionally look at all the positives in my life.”
Intelligent Change
The Five Minute Journal
Papier
Joy Gratitude Journal
Moving Her Body
“Making time to move my body is a huge one. It’s so different from waking up and having five hours of training, but I have to actually look on my calendar and put it on a schedule so everyone sees I’m doing a tennis lesson today or I’m going to Pilates or I’m doing a track workout. Really just making it a priority, since for me, it makes me feel like myself. When I don’t move, it doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t feel like I’m making space for myself. That’s a huge one for me.”
Being Present
“I feel like I’m really fulfilled by things that might be, like, small to other people, so taking the time to take my daughter to school or pick her up or go to soccer practice—you know, just being present in the moment. The culture right now is grind culture, no days off, we’re always looking to the next thing, and for me, for my self-care—I have to just dial it back and say, okay, I’m going to be in this moment. I’m going to say no to something else so that I can just, I don’t know, paint with my daughter in the backyard.”
Leaning In to Help
“Leaning in to help has been huge. To me, it’s self-care, because I always feel like I can be Superwoman—I don’t know why it’s always so hard for me to ask for help. I will try to do it all, and I feel that it’s taken other people telling me, ‘No, you have people who love you. You have people who want to help you,’ so just saying, ‘Okay, today I’m going to not make things more difficult for myself. I’m going to ask my mom to do something for me or my husband and make it more of a team effort.’”
A Power Nap
“I love to sleep; I think it’s been one of the hardest things. Even just moving away from training—I used to have a built-in nap in my day—I would train, I would take a nap, then train some more. And then, having a child, you know that goes away, and moving away from training and going to real work hours—I miss that. The power of a 20-minute refresher is key.”
Take a Recovery Day
“Even when I was training, it was one of the biggest lessons I felt that I learned—it’s like you have to have a recovery day. You’re going to burn out, you can’t keep going. I think that’s the same for so many different aspects of life. You have to give into yourself and take a day. If you need a day, take a day. I now feel recovery days look like an out-of-office day. I used to feel so guilty about that—like, oh my gosh, there are a million things that I should be doing. Just realizing that I have to fill my own cup and sometimes that looks like a day of rest—sitting in bed with guilty-pleasure TV or splurging on something I really want to eat—and not feeling bad about it.”
