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.
Last week, a meme started circulating among a certain subsection of New York literati posing a simple question that perhaps we’re not asking ourselves enough: Who is your spirit Gwyneth? The past lives of actor and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow are fertile ground for mining our own identities—who we are and who we want to be. There are a few obvious places the mind goes when pondering such existential questions: Great Expectations–era Gwyenth in the iconic Donna Karan unbuttoned blouse and matching skirt; The Talented Mr. Ripley–era Gwyneth with near-perfect blonde and body. But let us not forget Manhattan teen Gwyneth in a leather jacket, gold hoops, and an enviable side swoop of hair; ’90s-era fashion-show Gwyneth, front row and double-fisting a cocktail and a cigarette; and oft-forgotten but still worthy of consideration goth Gwyneth, when the Oscar winner and vagina candlemaker traded in her cornsilk strands for a deeper shade of espresso that she accessorized with occasional swipes of oxblood lipstick.
No less aspirational is present-day Gwyneth: business boss Gwyneth; blissfully happy-seeming in her second marriage Gwyneth; approaching middle age and not afraid to talk about it Gwyneth. “I had a full midlife crisis when I was turning 40, and I went to this doctor and had a really bad injectable experience,” reveals Paltrow, who turned 49 yesterday. “I came out a complete monster, and I was like, I can’t do this anymore.” So she swore off cosmetic procedures in the short term, leaving the door open for trying something new should the desire compel her. “I’m not ready for permanent choices. I have friends who, back in the day, did permanent lip filler and it’s the bane of their existence,” she continues of her feelings on long-lasting procedures. But three years ago, when she found herself at an injectable party with friends where a doctor was administering vials of Xeomin, she decided, “Fuck it, I’ll just do a little. I was so afraid that it was really going to change my face like the first time, but it was so nice and really subtle.”
What Paltrow refers to as “the purified aspect” of the neurotoxin made it an easy sell when the pharmaceutical brand recently asked the queen of clean beauty to become an ambassador. “Xeomin has removed a lot of the proteins that other companies have in their neurotoxins, which makes it less likely to tamper with our immune systems,” New York dermatologist Michelle Henry, M.D., suggests of the toxin’s minimal-ingredient promise. (“We need more data,” adds Henry, “but if you can extract that additional concern, why not?”) Paltrow now gets biannual Xeomin touch-ups to keep herself looking and feeling her best, a state of body and mind that she elaborates on below and includes maintaining her long-standing relationship with trainer Tracy Anderson, a good old-fashioned shvitz, and meditating to stay present. “I’m pretty much a here-and-now person. I don’t get nostalgic very often, and I don’t walk down memory lane,” elaborates Paltrow. “But I appreciate all the other spirit Gwyneths, too.”
