In a new interview with InStyle Magazine singer, songwriter, and philanthropist Alicia Keys gave fans an inside look into her everyday life sharing personal home photos with the magazine taken by her husband and kids. She also reflects on many lessons she learned throughout her entire life.
The singer opened up about being the tender age of 20. Back in 2001 the singer had a number one album called Songs in A Minor that earned five Grammys. Although this was an eventful time for her in her life she boldly stated she wouldn’t want to go back . ““I swear, I wouldn’t go back to being 20 if somebody paid me — it was literally the worst time ever. I wanted to fit in so desperately. I was so blind, so dependent on everybody else’s opinions, so uncomfortable, so unclear.”
Keys also revealed she had suffered an emotional breakdown in her 20s during a photoshoot in 2006 according to PEOPLE magazine. This was the turning point in her fast-paced life. She cancelled all of her future engagements that year and went on a solo trip to Egypt. She said, “It was either get the hell away or just explode.”
The singer admitted that although she was releasing empowering songs like “A Woman’s Worth,” it wasn’t something she believed. “There hasn’t been one that I wrote because I actually believed it at the time. I needed to pull myself out of a rut or a place of confusion.”
Keys told InStyle the solution for getting out of that rut was yoga and mediation something she still practices today.
While in quarantine with her husband Swizz Beatz, 41 and their two sons Egypt and Genesis, Keys says she is reaching a place where she is “able to love more fully in my skin, my imperfections, my feelings, which are so hard to access, because we want to protect our heart, right?”
One fundamental thing that Keys has learned in her life was that “humility was sometimes a mask for self-worth issues.” She said, “I was saying, ‘Oh, I don’t need much! I only need a little bit and I’m fine,'” she said. “I was kind of cutting off my blessings. But I started to recognize, ‘Wow, I have this wrong’ …. Swizz is such a wild dreamer, and he loves beautiful art, beautiful clothes, and things that are well made. I’ve learned that I can totally remain humble but I don’t have to cut off the wonderful things that I deserve.”
Keys recent lesson came after the tragic death of Ahmaud Arbery. She said, “most important thing people can do is take a second to see and appreciate each other as we are.”
One thing that Keys said can change the world is “the way we raise our kids, the way we choose to be with each other, the way we face the world — that is how things will start to shift.”
For more life lessons check out the July issue of InStyle now on newsstands, on Amazon. The digital download will be available on June 12.