Amanda Nguyen’s Best Wellness Advice? Breathe Like Navy Seals

There’s no right way to “do” wellness, but Marie Claire’s Doing Well offers a glimpse into the self-care mantras, therapies, and affirmations practiced by industry trailblazers.

Amanda Nguyen’s name has been everywhere this week—rightfully so. She was part of the six-person, all-female Blue Origin crew that jetted into space for a 10-minute journey on April 14, 2025. But the bioastronautics research scientist (and sexual assault advocate, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and NGO founder, and Harvard graduate) spent months getting her body and mind in shape for incredibly intense G-force (the force of gravity and acceleration while flying, for inquiring minds.)

She focused on journaling and therapy. She ate the colors of the rainbow, something very easy given her Vietnamese roots. She set aside a good chunk of time for self-care and a feel-good beauty routine, which is stocked to the brim with e.l.f. Cosmetics (who doesn’t love a drugstore find?). But while Nguyen is dedicated to doing the wellness activities she knows work, she’s also open-minded about incorporating new practices. Mouth tape, the longevity movement, and red light therapy (she habit stacks it while she sleeps) have all crept into her do-good, feel-good approach to life.

Through a Zoom screen, Nguyen tells me how she works smarter, not harder when it comes to wellness—and why we should all take breathing tips from the Navy Seals.

I use the Navy Seals technique to ground myself. It's box breathing—hold in four, breathe four out, hold four, breathe in four—and it helped me while I was in front of those hot Senate Judiciary lights testifying in the UN, and it’s what I did when I was blasting off of Earth.

The truthful answer is that I would be on the phone with my therapist. My therapist has been with me longer than some of my relationships. I love her. She's a real one. I also love this bird noise song. If I go on another mission, I’d bring the sounds of Earth with me because I love the planet I live on.

I ask myself two brainy questions every morning: What is my place in the universe, and what am I going to do about it? By performing this historic flight, I was able to shine a light on the communities that I represent, both as the first Vietnamese Southeast Asian woman in space and as a survivor of violence. We can heal, and our dreams can still come true.

Definitely my red light panel. This is actually my lazy girl hack to working smarter, not harder: I sleep with it. So when I wake up, it’s just like, BOOM. Or, if I’m just scrolling through TikTok, it’s there and a whole double situation because I have a red light mask as well for travel. I want to be consistent with my skin health.

All of my e.l.f. Cosmetics. I love the Satin Lips and the Holy Hydration Coconut Mist. I always bring it on the plane with me, and it helps me look awake when I land. Skin is wellness—it’s literally an organ.

I am spending a lot of time journaling, and I’ve also been revisiting all the places that have changed me in my journey. I went back to Harvard, I went back to the seat I testified in—it was the same seat as all of the justices. I went to the United Nations. I even went back to the hospital, and I wanted to. It's part of exposure therapy, which is the idea that we can go and release the places that hold this charge for us, allowing us to heal. I honor all those parts of me to thank those that survived. I feel like I'm getting choked up even thinking about it. Wellness for me is about healing and joy.

I’m literally eyes shut and on do not disturb. I meditate and I journal, too. It’s a brain dump, you know? To be able to write whatever is on my mind and then sort it through to prepare for the next day has always been helpful.

Well, I tried mouth tape. Every time I woke up it was off. I was hearing about these benefits, but perhaps my subconscious hadn’t gotten around to reading the studies yet because it certainly felt different.

I eat the colors of the rainbow. I'm very lucky that Vietnamese food, which is the food I grew up with, my heritage, is very diverse.

My hot take is that it's real. That’s what science is about: health is wealth. So many people have asked me, Amanda, what's the next thing you're gonna do once you're back on Earth? I just want to sleep. I want to be a girl hiking in the woods. I want to experience this Earth. I want to have fun. I want to be joyful.

The biggest message that I want to tell all the younger parts of me is that you will make it through. You will have your dreams accomplished. You will win your rights. You will find justice. You matter. That's what I'd tell her.