For Laverne Cox, wellness is a never-ending journey of staying focused in a world where stress is everywhere. The Orange Is the New Black star recently partnered with Airbnb to host one of the hospitality company's social impact experiences in celebration of Pride, taking four guests out on a day-long wellness excursion themed "What I'm All About" Do things that take care of "body, soul, spirit, and try to stay healthy," she tells Bustle.
All proceeds from the day, including the $250 ticket price per guest, were donated to the newly opened Trans Wellness Center in Los Angeles. The Trans Health Center is an offshoot of the Los Angeles LGBT Center and is dedicated to providing comprehensive services to transgender people, including “hormone treatment and transition resources, HIV testing and care, mental and sexual health services and education, job training, housing and law”. A wardrobe is also provided for those who need clothing that better expresses their gender identity, Cox said, according to a news release from the center.
As part of the shared experience, Cox and her guests, two of whom are transgender, shopped at a local antique store to help fill the center’s wardrobe. Like other elements today, antique store shopping "has been a big part of my life for many years," Cox explains. She and her clients also try transcendental meditation, which Cox says is crucial for her: "The crazier my life gets, the harder it becomes to quiet my mind. Dealing with Anxiety And stress has always been a big problem for me."
The concept of wellness entered Cox's life as she began working on her craft, which involves "mining all my own personal acting stories" and confronting childhood trauma that she had yet to process. "I didn't know what to do, so I needed to go to therapy and really work on myself," she tells Bustle. "Part of being an artist is getting healthier, getting better... being in the public eye and having to go out into the world with this sense of purpose and center," she said.
Cox says wellness has helped her create a space of surrender as an artist, but it's also been a source of strength, especially when facing what all trans women, especially trans women of color, have to face. : Street harassment. "As a black trans woman living in New York, trans people are experiencing this street harassment, that insecurity, it's deeply traumatic," she said, adding that she had been harassed hundreds of People, maybe thousands. Second-rate. "Finding a way to deal with this in a way that wasn't self-destructive, where I didn't want to be angry at the world and other people, and to be a space of healing and transcendence was really meaningful. Crucial to me," she explain.
For Cox, one of the core elements of wellness is that "it's not something I own," she says. "This is a pursuit for me. It's something I continue to work on every day."
The Airbnb experience Cox and her guests enjoyed was one of more than 50 LGBTQ-specific experiences offered through the app during Pride Month, according to Airbnb. Because it’s a social impact experience that helps guests connect with their communities by learning directly from local nonprofits, it’s dedicated to the Trans Health Center, which just opened this spring.
“Honestly, part of the reason I wanted to do this was I wanted to learn more about what [the health center] does,” Cox said. "For me, it's been amazing to connect with these incredible people and I know I've grown a lot. So I'm so grateful to Airbnb for giving me this opportunity to spread that love and awareness."
