Rita Moreno health: Star explains how she stays fit and well at 90 – ‘you sink or swim’
Rita Moreno discusses starring in Spielberg’s West Side Story
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Rita Moreno is an American performer, famous for playing Anita in West Side Story in the 60s. Over the years, she has experienced rock bottom: she attempted suicide at one point and had a rocky relationship with The Godfather’s Marlon Brando. Yet today, she is keeping in good health thanks to previous therapy sessions plus physical and mental exercises that she does weekly.
Moreno shared how she had a total of nearly eight years worth of therapy to work on her self-confidence.
The star said spent many years “not liking” herself because it was made clear to her Puerto-Rican girl in America was “not a good thing”, she said.
Although she said it “took a long” time to improve, that improvement did happen and today she believes that overcoming mental health is a “choice” anyone can make as she did.
“You sink or swim, and I have chosen to swim,” Moreno told the publication Parade.
“That’s a choice that you can make.
“I’ve learned to take a breath and say, ‘This is how it is, at least for the time being, and I’m going to accommodate it.’
“The best thing I ever did for myself, other than having my daughter who I absolutely adore, is love myself. …”
As well as making efforts to fix her mental health over the years, the star shared the precautions she takes to protect her mental ability.
She plays ordinary board games but also goes to the extremes of regularly walking backward and writing with the opposite hand.
“I do a lot of crossword puzzles. I play word games, which I love,” she said.
“My daughter and I absolutely adore Scrabble.”
According to a freelance science writer called Mr Costandi, who is trained as a neurobiologist, it’s not entirely clear how ambidexterity affects the brain.
He wrote in The Guardian: “The question of how ambidexterity training affects brain function is still largely underexplored.”
The unusual activities she does aren’t just for improving her brain health. For physical fitness, she sticks on a piece of music and conducts along with it.
According to a freelance science writer called Mr Costandi, who is trained as a neurobiologist, it’s not entirely clear how ambidexterity affects the brain.
With enough effort conducting “you’ll become out of breath”, she explained.
Moreno explained how she only does limited exercises because years of dancing left her knees “absolutely shot”.
Despite this, she has a mini trampoline she uses and keeps going on walks.
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