Lily Aldridge Will Try Every Wellness Practice Once—But You Won't Catch Her in an Ice Bath

There’s no right way to "do" wellness, but Marie Claire’s Doing Well offers a glimpse into the self-care mantras, therapies, and affirmations practiced by industry trailblazers.

Lily Aldridge is throughly enjoying the heatwave in London, where she and her children are following her husband Caleb Followill on tour with his band Kings of Leon. "We're spending the summer touring with him and having fun and seeing the sights and showing the kids all the different places in the world," Aldridge explains. After seeing shows in the U.K., the supermodel and her family are headed to Ireland, Germany, France and Poland, before heading back stateside just in time for a Kings of Leon’s concert in Austin, Texas in August.

Professionally, Aldridge is just as busy. She recently hosted a shopping event with denim brand Paige to mark CMA Fest in Nashville, shot a campaign for Gap x ​​Dôen with her sister Ruby Aldridge, and starred on a special 60th anniversary cover for Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue, alongside a bunch of other industry greats. She’s also partnered with the buzzy athleisure brand Beyond Yoga, a perfect fit for the fitness fanatic in her.

Though Aldridge leads an undeniably glamorous existence, the simple things in life matter most to her, like spending time with her two kids, getting microcurrent treatments, and turning self-care into an art form. Here, the model explains the practices that help her feel her best from the inside out.

I'm very into the idea of cold plunges, and I've done many cold showers, but I've never actually done, like, an ice bath. I just haven't gotten there yet. But it's something I'm working towards.

I try not to think anything is woo woo. I want to try everything and explore all options. The wellness world is always evolving and changing and I'm game for all of it. I also think meditation is such a lifelong practice, and so effective and wonderful for the mind, body, and spirit. I do all kinds of different meditation but I love a really simple guided meditation. I like yoga nidra, where you lie down and it kind of goes through your whole body, and by the end of it, I just feel like a new person.

There's not really anything I can't get into except, like I said, I haven't done the full ice bath, but I've done cryotherapy. I've done cold plunges and all that kind of stuff. But it really is hard for me to just go into a full-blown ice bath.

I'm all about waking up at 5 a.m. It's something that I've been doing for the last few years. In the mornings I will journal, make myself a cup of tea and just get ready for the day. I find the days where I don't have that, I don't feel as ready for the day. I do find that working out, whether it's the morning, night, evening, at any time I can fit it in, really sets me up to have a great day.

I'm not naturally an early riser. It was a practice that I had to get used to. And then obviously having kids, you start naturally waking up earlier anyways. Then I wanted to wake up before everybody else woke up, so I had that time for myself in the morning. It was a discipline at first where I had to set the alarm, get up, roll out. But then eventually you're waking up and your body is just used to it.

Something I'm trying to do is not touch my phone, because I do think if you touch your phone first thing in the morning, it actually does wake up your brain. But I've purposely tried to not do that to try to teach myself to wake up more naturally.

I'm all about home self-care. I do these things called Artist Dates. I read this amazing book called The Artist’s Way and it really changed my life and led me in a new direction of creativity. I started these self-care moments during COVID when I couldn't really go out and do a bunch of things. I became really into my dates, whether it's taking a hot shower or making a beautiful, intentional bubble bath where you put on your favorite album, put the candles on, put a mask on, and just have that moment for yourself. I recently I listened to Kacey Musgraves' new album and it was very intentional to put the album on during a bath. It was just such a beautiful experience. I messaged her after and was like, "I had the most amazing time listening to your album. It was beautiful!"

I love good facials. I think it's such a treat. I get to visit wonderful people around the world. Afterwards, I just feel really refreshed, glowing, beautiful. I love having nice, clean skin, so that's one thing I really like to treat myself with. A few of my favorites are Shani Darden in L.A., and Joanna Czech in New York. I also love the salon Complexion in Nashville.

I try to do a facial once a month, wherever it is in the world. It's something that I notice if I am able to do it regularly. Also another great facialist that I love to go to is Fabricio Armand in New York. I also love hydrafacials, which you can get at lots of spas around the world. It's really good at deep cleaning all your pores, which I think is so nice. And then, there's amazing tools now, like I love microcurrents and treatments that give you instant sculpting for a red carpet moment. I'm open to all of it.

I think it's all about treating myself both physically and mentally, and doing things that make me feel good. I love working with Beyond Yoga because I'm challenging myself to all these different kinds of workouts. I love that the brand is so multidimensional with what they do for workouts. I love Pilates. I love yoga. I love Ballet Beautiful!

I always said I hated running and I was like, "Do I hate running?" They have this amazing PowerBeyond™ line that's like more for harder physical workouts. So I've been doing that up and down my drive. I've been doing sprints all summer and feeling really strong and proud of myself. So my wellness vibe is just being open to everything, working on myself, not just for looks, but for how I feel about myself, my mental wellness, my physical wellness, and my strength.

My sisters. They're the people I talk to the most. We all give each other advice and are there for each other.

I have so many wellness apps on my phone. I really am one of those people that’s constantly trying to better myself and evolve and grow. I want to do it all. But, I really love Headspace. It's a great resource for meditation and I think that's one of the best things you can do for yourself.

I'm all about just being at home, journaling, reminding myself of all the things that I'm grateful for, taking time and just being present. I think all of those things are so important.

My current state of mind is that I am water and I just go with the flow. That has been my mantra.

It's ever-evolving. I think mental health is so important, and I think it's all about just growing as a human, evolving, doing my best to be a good person and continue challenging myself, not being like, "Oh, I can't do this. Oh, that's too hard for me." Really empowering myself and challenging myself.

I'm definitely happiest when I'm with my kids, watching them, and just being a proud mama.

I'm sure there's a trillion stories about me trying to do funny wellness things and not doing a very good job of it, but I had a story recently that I thought was really cool. I was at a spa, or like a hotel, and they had a hot and cold plunge. I went there and I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna take an hour and do this for myself." And I got in the hot tub and then I got in the cold plunge, hot tub, cold plunge. Then this mom and her teenage daughter got there. They were in the hot tub and I got in the cold plunge and the daughter was like, "Oh, I'm gonna do it," and she jumped in and the mom was like, "I can't do it." And me and her daughter were like, "You can do it!" We cheered her on and she did it and then we all jumped back in the hot tub and she just thanked me after and was like, "Wow, I would never have done that if you guys hadn't cheered me on." I just thought it was a really beautiful moment of, "We can all do things we didn't think we could and how nice it is to support and cheerlead each other on."

I'm a pretty positive person and I think that if you get advice that's not great, just to follow your instincts and your gut. You have to know what's right for you because what's right for other people might not always be right for you and that is okay.

I would tell my younger self that wellness isn't about what you look like. It's about how you feel and doing things that make you feel good. I've always told my kids, I'm like, "It doesn't matter what you look like on the outside. It's about how you feel on the inside." I've always believed that beauty comes from the inside.