Shawn Mendes shares why addressing his mental health after taking a break from touring was important to him

Shawn Mendes opens up about the effects of fame and how canceling his tour two years ago was one of the hardest but most important decisions of his life.

The singer, who canceled his 2022 ‘Wonder’ tour2 to prioritize his mental health, opened up about everything from his new music to mental health and more in an interview with Jay Shetty on the ‘On Purpose’ podcast. , which was published on Monday, and the journey he has been on over the last two years.

Why was it important for Mendes to cancel his “Wonder” tour?

Before the tour was canceled, Mendes recalled how difficult he felt at the time and that he had “nowhere to go.”

“I’ve done a lot of tours and been in difficult situations before, but I think the reality was really clear to me that I needed to diversify my life,” he said. “Since I was a child, my whole life has been focused on one thing. Performing and making music, it was just a constant cycle.

“I didn’t have other aspects of my life that I felt connected to, that I could lean into, take a break from touring, come back and just find balance,” Mendes added.

Mendes said canceling the tour was “one of the hardest pills to swallow” and thought about the sacrifices people made to bring his tour to life, but it was important to him.

“It gave me life,” he said. “It gave me time to discover so much about myself.”

What did Mendes learn about himself after the tour?

In the two years following the tour, Mendes learned a lot about himself, including the consequences of the decisions he made, how to be vulnerable, and how fame took a negative toll on him.

“It was all about perception and I just wanted to feel comfortable in my own body, not crawl in my skin,” he said. “From every word that came out of my mouth to the way I sat in the chair, everything.”

“I think it just takes time because the reality is that if you spend your life around cameras, social media and people constantly talking about what you look like, what you sound like and how you act, in a way that maybe it has something to do with performance and perception, then you will focus on that,” he added.

He said the only way to change your perspective in a situation like this is to surround yourself with people who don’t care about any of these things. Mendes said talking about it in therapy also helped him.

“I often went from wanting to look like an ideal of perfection to just being a man in the forest and I don’t care what I look like, I don’t care what you think,” he said. “I’m sure there’s a good period where people may have seen paparazzi photos.”

While Mendes said it’s okay to take care of your appearance, he’s learned how harmful it can be.

“I started finding that middle ground again and I was like, OK, you know what? You might care. “Just don’t kill yourself with this thoughtfulness,” he said. “Extremes – they don’t work for me anymore.”

How has the view of relationships and romance changed?

Since the tour, Mendes has also reflected on love and his previous relationship with singer Camila Cabello. They dated for two years before breaking up in November 2021.

Mendes said the public relationship was “brutal.” He said he and Cabello “have done the best job of keeping our private little fire of love for each other burning” and have “worked extremely hard to just protect each other and protect that love.”

But he said that no matter how strong you are mentally, even though many people criticize the relationship, “it’s hard not to be influenced by it and be influenced by it.”

The singer said he has learned to stop using social media and not worry about what people say about his love life.

“It’s really too damaging to the relationship itself and I’ve become quite strict about it,” he said.

What did Mendes say about the making of his new album?

In October, Mendes will release his self-titled album “Shawn,” which he says is one of his most “honest” albums ever.

“When you’re done with all the ideas of what you want to make it, there’s a tipping point, you give in and the album starts to become what it was meant to be,” he said. – And you just have to come to terms with it.

He added that while creating the album, he learned to make sure that the foundation of the album was “authentic truth.”

“If you work really hard to get to this point, and the first brick you lay is true, every brick after that will be much easier,” he added.

“Shawn” will be released on October 18 and is available for pre-order now.