Camila Cabello reveals the pandemic made her feel 'cripplingly anxious'

Fresh off a highly publicized, though seemingly amicable, breakup from boyfriend Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello has opened up about her experiences with anxiety.

Each episode of the Time to Walk show, an Apple Watch for Fitness+ program which is now in its second season, functions kind of like a workout set. A celebrity shares their stories, thoughts and inspirations while a listener takes a walk for 25 to 40 minutes and listens along.

In Cabello's episode, the 24-year-old gets contemplative, sharing, "Before the pandemic, I felt really burnt out. I had been working pretty nonstop since I was 15. And the rigor with which I started working, there was just no time off."

Seemingly touching on her time with band Fifth Harmony, Cabello then added, "I was barely home. I didn't have time to get to know who I was outside of my career. Pile that onto struggles with mental health, with anxiety, with these toxic levels of stress, it wasn't even a meltdown because I would just work through it.

"I was just exhausted in every way and at that point, I felt like I was running a marathon with a broken leg. I kept going, but it was extremely hard. And I wish that I would've just been like, 'Let me just stop for a second and get a nice cast for my broken leg and get some physical therapy.' But I didn't. COVID stepped in and kind of did it for me."

The singer-turned-actress has indeed had a busy year, from performing at the MTV Video Music Awards to starring in a live-action Cinderella to working on her third studio album, Familia.

It was when she was partly through shooting for the Disney film that she and the rest of the cast and crew were sent home due to the pandemic. Once she got there, she says, she "would just break down crying once a day at least."

"I felt so anxious, cripplingly anxious. I just felt really unstable, and I just felt a mess because suddenly, this thing that was distracting me, my work and filming, was not there," Cabello said. "And so I was just left with my anxiety and my mind. And it was getting in the way of my relationship. It was getting in the way of my friendships, my time at home."

Mental health is something we know Shawn and Camila bonded over. In an October Glamour profile, she shared that he would help her work through it and she felt comfortable to "to talk about my patterns with someone."

In Time to Walk, Cabello explains she finally realized that she had to "shift her priority" to her wellness and away from work – a tough feat when your slate is particularly full. So Cabello asked for help.

She says, "I asked for time. And I learned a lot of tools. I tried a lot of different things, different kinds of therapy, meditation, exercise, changing the way I eat, definitely changing the way I schedule my time and making sure that there's balance, that I have time for friendships and connection with people and I'm not just nose to the grindstone, not paying attention to my body and my needs."

She also let it all out: "It was pretty life-changing for me just having the first moment, I feel like, since I was 15, to cry, to feel the negative emotions without feeling like I had to bury them and perform in five minutes, to be in the same place for more than two weeks because I hadn't been home for such a long time. It gave me the gift of finding new hobbies and other things that soothe me."

With words like that, and that TikTok mantra she coined back in July and which her fans still love to quote – "Being at war with your body is so last season" – Cabello continues to be the relatable voice her generation needs.

BEFORE YOU GO: Lin-Manuel Miranda makes his feature directorial debut with 'Tick, Tick...Boom'

[video_embed id='2326737']Lin-Manuel Miranda makes his feature directorial debut with 'Tick, Tick...Boom'[/video_embed]