LeAnn Rimes’ ‘Wholly Human’ Journey, Plus: Her Wishes for Britney Spears

Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter, actress, and mental health advocate LeAnn Rimes is back with the second season of her mental health and wholeness podcast “Wholly Human,” which is out now.

“My intent was to connect with people on a human level,” Rimes shared of her first season, “a human, soulful, spiritual level, because I feel like starting so young the way that I did, people didn’t get to know me as a human being. They only know me as ‘LeAnn Rimes.’ And I don't think many people really wanted to know. I don’t think we are in a society where people wanted to know the humanity of the “stars” that they say performing and this was my way of being able to share my own journey, my own human journey, my own experiences, and also use my celebrity use my name to connect with people that a lot my listeners probably wouldn’t be able to connect with so I wanted to utilize my name and my celebrity for something positive.”

Rimes does feel a shift in how people are starting to connect with each other to support each other, in person and on social media. She said, “I think we are all starting to connect on a deeper level. Something came up to me recently, that was really clear, after my first show back. I don’t want to entertain anymore. I want to connect with people. There is a big difference in that and I think a lot of us, really all of us, have really been walking around in some way entertaining one another instead of connecting. We are now not keeping our humanity from one another. We are actually allowing the whole experience to be there.”

Rimes also weighed in Britney Spears’ fight against her 13-year conservatorship. She commented, “Unfortunately, [what] you are seeing with Britney at this moment... it’s just awful. It’s so triggering for me to listen to her testimony because I’ve been there. I know that experience very well. We are finally opening up to recognizing that we cannot treat each other in this way. We cannot... you know... just looking at the way she was treated, how I've been treated in a lot of ways, you know, like we’re a commodity and humanity is completely left out. So, it’s sad and lonely and I’m glad people are waking up to it because I think it gives us all an opportunity to connect on a deeper level and to really get more out of one another. In the best way. Not to exploit one another but to actually connect in a way of what we are really here to do. I wish her the best. It’s an awful, awful situation.”

With the second season of her podcast, Rimes hopes to provide more opportunity for her fans to connect through thought-provoking topics like “emotion regulation” as discussed with one of her guests, experimental psychologist Dr. Ethan Kross. She raved, “He was amazing. That was one of my favorite shows. The conversations that we had. We all have this constant voice in our head (laughs) that we don’t pay attention to. It can just like… basically it runs away with us and we think that it’s us. You talk about fear, there’s a loop that is playing in our head all the time that can be really feeding into that fear. What is actually real and what this voice in our head, the bully, is convincing us of are two very different things and that was one of my favorites because I was kind of in the throes of the bully in my head when I talked to him.”

Rimes explained the importance of providing tools for fans to have at the end of each podcast so that they can help themselves in real life as well. “With every episode I try to give our listeners some legitimate things to walk away with, to go play around with, to explore. Healing and learning about ourselves is definitely not one size fits all. You have to experiment. You are the scientist and you are also the science experiment so be a bit of both. You have to dig in and find what works for you. I try to guide people and give them the information and yes, it’s kind of up to you to go play.”

Her advice for dealing with your “inner bully”? She answered, “First you have to recognize that is happening and then once we start to recognize that, we can take a bit of the back seat and be aware of that... then we can say okay, “pause” and start to bring ourselves into the moment of where we are now and recognize that the present moment is happening and we can be present in the present moment and not lost in our judgement or past experiences or projection of future experiences,” she says.

Has her Zen outlook been picked up by the family? She admitted, “I am pretty Zen, although I have a lot of anxiety inside and at the same time those can both be happening and I’m very emotional so if you are around me you will definitely get the wide spectrum of my humanity.”

Rimes has learned the key to a strong connection with loved ones is communication. “Every day is different,” she explained. “I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety my whole life basically and I’ve learned to express my emotions as much as possible to be in touch with the whole range. I feel the best thing that I give, or that I’m learning more and more to give to people around me is honest communication and allowing them into my own internal world of what’s going on and not retreating and not being able to communicate that. When we are really able to learn how to calmly communicate what is going on in our heads  and our experience it just brings people so much closer together.”

Rimes has started playing shows again and is looking forward to more fan connection. “I’m excited to go back and play for people and at the same time it’s a bit frightening,” she laughed. “But I did enjoy it. We all enjoyed it. To be back out there and connecting. I’m going to be doing some shows at the end of this year and I’m coming out with a new album sometime hopefully in the fall.”

Before that, she has a birthday to celebrate in August. Of her birthday plans, LeAnn dished, “We are actually going to be doing what we did last year, believe it or not. We are going to be in the woods. I love nature. I love getting out in nature anytime I possibly can. That’s kind of my time to escape and enjoy the trees and nature. Nature was a huge part of the whole lockdown experience for me. I’m still kind of continuing this thing as we are still in lockdown and I’m okay with it.”

Listen to LeAnn Rimes on her “Wholly Human” podcast, airing now on iHeartRadio.