Common Shares His Self-Care Journey In A New Book!

TheRoot.com, By Angela Johnson, Posted November 8th 2023

“AND THEN WE RISE: A Guide to Loving and Taking Care of Self,” set to drop in January 2024.

If you’re the kind of person who’s used to giving up on your New Year’s resolutions before Valentine’s Day, you’ll be able to get a little help from Common in 2024. The award-winning rapper and actor is giving us his guide to self-care in a new book, “AND THEN WE RISE: A Guide to Loving and Taking Care of Self,” set to drop in January 2024.

In the book’s four sections, The Food, The Body, The Mind and The Soul, the “I Used to Love H.E.R.” rapper shares personal stories and best practices along with recipes, exercise tips, and, of course, workout playlists to help get readers on the path to being their best.

Common’s workout and healthy cooking videos on Instagram go consistently viral and inspire his over 4 million followers.

But in the book, he admits he didn’t always have the healthiest habits. “Back in the day, as a young man in Chicago, I loved French fries, fried chicken—really, anything fried and good that I could get my hands on,” he writes.

With “And Then We Rise,” Common says he wants to pay it forward and share the knowledge he’s gained from wellness experts who have supported and guided him along his journey.

“I felt like whatever way I could provide some good energy and joy and love on the planet to people — especially to the communities that I come from — I was like, man, I want to do that,” he told PEOPLE in an interview.

And although the book is for everyone, he hopes Black Americans, who are disproportionately impacted by health issues like heart disease and diabetes will be inspired to make self-care a priority.

He writes:

“For Black women and Black men in America, self-care is a revolutionary act. The most fruitful and impactful human beings have had to have a certain love for self and taking care of self in order to go out and do the work they did. Those that forgot about it or strayed off that path got depleted at times. We all feel that. If you want to keep going, you’ve got to re-up. When you’re working against dark forces, you’ve got to prepare yourself so that you can step forward with everything you’ve got.”