Gisele Bundchen believes ditching her "bad habits" has helped her to keep her panic attacks and anxiety at bay.
The 39-year-old model suffered with her mental health in her early 20s and has revealed that as well as a vigorous meditation routine – which has her up and stretching at 5.30am every day – she credits swapping out sugary foods, quitting smoking and exercising with reducing her anxiety levels.
The mother-of-two – who has Benjamin, 10, and daughter Vivian, seven, with her NFL player husband Tom Brady – admitted she felt like "she couldn’t breathe" and was "going to die" when she’d get the elevator before she started adapting her diet and lifestyle, and it was a huge "shock" to her system when she made the changes, which resulted in the "the worst headaches".
She explained to Vogue Australia: "I felt like I reached rock bottom.
"It became so unbearable I couldn’t breathe and I thought: ‘I gotta change.’
"It wasn’t easy – I had the worst headaches ever because I was withdrawing.
"My system was so used to that life it was in shock because I stopped everything, so it took time.
"We are beings of habit and I think you can’t just expect to do something you have always done and stop. You have to replace bad habits with good habits.
"So when I stopped having coffee, the mocha frappuccino for breakfast and four cigarettes when I woke up in the morning, I started running. I don’t run anymore, but I ran then because it allowed me to feel my lungs and every time I ran for 20 minutes I was like, ‘OK, I can feel my lungs, OK, I’m not smoking.’ And then I was meditating with breathing techniques so I would not feel anxious.
"[Before that] I would get into the elevator and I would feel like I was going to die. So I replaced bad habits with things that were supporting me and I realised that every day I was feeling better."
Gisele Bundchen credits ditching ‘bad habits’ with improving her mental health
