Gloria Estefan says losing her mother encouraged her to begin therapy.
While at the 2023 Simmons Leadership Conference on Tuesday, the Grammy-winning singer shared that although she's experienced her share of grief and trauma, she didn't think she needed therapy until her mother, Gloria Fajardo, died.
"I understood therapy and I knew the value of it. Despite the fact that I went through very difficult things in my life, I didn't feel I needed therapy at the time," Estefan said at the event in Boston, Yahoo! Entertainment reported. "I needed it after I lost my mom."
Estefan said her decision has been effective, praising therapy as something that has "really worked in the last few years."
Continued the "Hoy" singer: "I think it is very important nowadays, as I see anxiety growing in our youth, that we focus on our mental health because there's a lot of information, a lot of negativity, a lot of difficult things. We have to learn to tune it out."
Estefan said that meditation has also been "helpful to me, because it quiets those voices that we all are hearing constantly.
"I focus on the things that fulfill me: my family, my grandson— he's 10 years old and is the light of my life and spending time with him is the most incredible thing for me. So I put the phone away."
Along with losing her mother, Estefan said suffering a 1990 bus crash also gave her a new perspective.
"One more millimeter and my cord would have been severed," she said, per the outlet, adding that she had "to grieve my body that was no longer there."
She became depressed as she couldn't complete seemingly minimal tasks.
"I couldn't turn over, I couldn't sit up. I couldn't be by myself," she said, adding that she allowed herself 10 days to grieve. "And then I said, 'You know what? Okay, that's enough. I've given myself enough of a pity party. What do I need to do?' "
She took small steps in her journey that led to her full recovery.
"Sometimes ego gets in the way of people's climb. Ego is a waste of time, ladies," she said. "There really is no room for it. But if we always come from a place of strength, kindness, openness and inclusion — it's a much better way to lead."
Fajardo died in June 2017. She was 88, according to E! News.
Estefan said in an Instagram post at the time that Fajardo died peacefully and was surrounded by family and "her most trusted friends," two of whom were pictured in the post.
"I know it was exactly the way she would have wanted her departure from this earth to be, surrounded by love and the true representations of everyone that was special to her in life," Estefan said.
