Wellness for Creatives founder Byron L. Edwards discusses his journey to finding balance
While today’s Byron L. Edwards is a champion of wellness, passionately advocating for those in creative fields to prioritize their mental and physical health, there was a time when his own wellbeing was so depleted that he was regularly checking into the ER.
Despite having landed on-paper dream entertainment industry jobs working for Roc Nation, BET Networks and The Shade Room, he found himself getting increasingly mentally exhausted. Although it took him a while to realize it, he was dealing with bouts of anxiety and self-doubt, which even led to stress-related illnesses.
“I was having all of these feelings that I couldn’t express because I was at my dream job,” he says. “I couldn’t accept that I was having anxiety, that I was unhappy, and instead I was going to the ER because I couldn’t understand why my heart rate was so high.”
Burnout has been on the rise around the world over the past few years, particularly in the wake of the pandemic. Last year, Microsoft polled 20,000 people in 11 countries and found that almost 50% of employees and 53% of managers said they were burned out at work. Thanks to precarious job contracts, high competition for paid work, and a constant demand for new ideas, creatives are particularly susceptible to burnout, and mental health support can often fall by the wayside.
“Entertainers, artists and creatives are celebrated for creating the music, the beauty, the art, but they’re also the ones that are depleted, can’t afford anything, and don’t take care of themselves.”
Edwards’ first focus was fitness. Running had been the tool he’d turned to to deal with his anxiety, and this in turn had introduced him to the wellness space, as he became a running coach for a local club in LA. This inspired him to leave his entertainment work and build a full personal training business. He earned professional certifications, and began working as a concierge personal trainer.
“I was running around town training various influencers, entertainers and more, but I hit burnout again. I was so committed to building this business, but I was not fulfilled.”
So Edwards decided to explore a new path, this time combining his experiences in entertainment PR and social change by working for Color of Change, a nonprofit civil rights advocacy organization fighting injustice against African Americans. Through this world, Edwards understood that there was a bigger way for him to use his interest in wellness to change the landscape for those in the creative industry.
Initially, Wellness for Creatives acted as a lunch club, encouraging those in creative industries to carve out the time for them to get outside and set aside a moment in their busy day to prioritize themselves.
“It really allowed people to get comfortable with the idea of taking time for themselves, but it also showed that some people were more willing to prioritize their wellness if it wasn’t centered around one particular workout. At the time, I was also training at a gym in Brooklyn where the clientele were only focused on the fitness aspect. So I decided to start bridging the two with GetWell workout sessions and a focus on removing the barriers to being vulnerable and sharing our personal struggles.”
Today, the club is a holistic wellness organization that helps creatives nurture and maintain their fitness, mental health, and creativity. Working with individuals and businesses, Edwards tailors a curated programme of tools to help make meaningful lifestyle changes, whether that be through fitness training or InkWell, an art, writing, and sensory experience for creatives to identify new outlets.
“It gives people an opportunity to connect with their creativity and use it as a form of wellness and a way of giving back to themselves. If they are an artist, it also removes some of the pressures of needing to show up in a certain way—they can just create whatever they want.”
As it turns out, Wellness for Creatives has encouraged Edwards’ own creativity. After exhibiting his own art in various galleries, Edwards began repeatedly drawing faces as a way to stimulate his own free artistic expression. He decided to compile them in In My Mind, an adult coloring book that invites creatives and non-creatives alike to release their stress and maybe prompt their own artistic inspiration.
“Today, I’m most proud that people associate me with wellness. There was a time when I was so not well that nobody could see me in this light, but when I started to tap into my wellness, people actually started to see me. Not the me associated with different professional accolades, but me standing on my own. People say if you don’t have your health you have nothing, and I’m starting to really appreciate that.”