In our Sleeping With… series, we ask people from different career paths, backgrounds, and stages of life how they make sleep magic happen.
Tunde Oyeneyin regularly teaches Peloton classes to thousands of people at a time. She is known for her epic sequences, her sweat-proof makeup, and her uncanny ability to make people fall in love with her through a stationary bike display screen. Oyeneyin is a fan favorite for good reason: She is inspiring, she is kind, and she pushes everyone in her orbit—no matter their physical distance away—to be the version of themselves that they truly want to be.
As if her influence on the Peloton-sphere wasn’t impressive enough, Oyeneyin has a brand new gig: As Nike’s newest ambassador, she is stepping into a partnership every athlete dreams of. For Oyeneyin, this is nothing short of a full-circle moment. “10-year-old Tunde tried out for every single sport,” Oyeneyin tells SELF. “Literally tried out for every single sport and never made the cut.” Through the partnership, Oyeneyin hopes to share her message of self-love, improvement, and redemption with any kid who ever felt like they weren’t good enough for the team.
“It’s a moment of truly being proud of myself,” Oyeneyin says. “I’m moving to this new space, or this new season of my life where I’m allowing myself to acknowledge just how awesome I am.” To show herself that level of love and appreciation, Oyeneyin relies on what she calls “soul-care.”
“I think that if we were to remove the word ‘self’ from self-care and call it ‘soul-care,’ we can think of it as actions that you take for the good of your soul,” she explains. “‘I’m going to bed early tonight because it’s good for my soul.’ ‘I’m going to take this Epsom salt bath because it’s good for my soul, because it’s going to allow me to show up better tomorrow.’” With this framework, she hopes, there will be a stronger baseline of rest and wellness for everyone. “When we call it soul-care, it becomes much less of this luxury treat-yourself thing, and much more of this thing that you must do to be able to show up at your very best going into the next day.”
Now that Oyeneyin is balancing her regular teaching schedule, speaking engagements, the upcoming launch of her first book (Speak, out May 2022), and her new Nike partnership, showing up ready to hit the ground running is at the top of her priority list. “My wind down routine is forever evolving, because I’m forever trying to grow my soul-care,” she says. “So I’m working on just really finding balance to make sure that nighttime is really my space where I’m able to bring myself back to my center.” Here, Oyeneyin walks SELF through a typical night in her New York City apartment, where honking trucks and cars soothe her just as much as her favorite moisturizer.
I start by dimming my phone.
Once I start to dim the brightness of my phone, it signals to my brain that it’s time to start unwinding and taking the day off of me. I put on a playlist, and I hook it up to my Apple TV so that it blares throughout my apartment.
I take baths. Don’t judge me.
So I then start to fill up the bath. I like to do an Epsom salt-meets-Herbivore combination in my bathtub. I light a candle. The MALIN+GOETZ leather is my favorite scent. I usually always open the window regardless of if it’s cold or raining, just to let the smell of fresh air come in. New York is loud. I live in Manhattan. I’m so into all the honking and the taxi and the buzz when I’m in my wind down. I think it makes me really feel the fact that I’m in New York City. There’s so much breath in the city.
Then I usually do a skin-care routine.
Dr. Dennis Gross peel pads are my absolute favorite, it’s a daily exfoliant. I change up the rest of my skin care a lot. Right now, I’m really into the Tatcha Water Cream. And then I usually do some type of teeth whitening situation either morning or night. Smile Direct Club is a big go-to for me.
I lay down, and I have a good snuggle session with Caesar, who’s my dog-son.
He knows when it’s time too, because it’s his favorite time of the day as well. So he does this little shimmy shake dance as we get into bed. We have our mother-son cuddle session. I’ll either meditate, or I’ll listen to white noise and I’ll start to fall asleep, hopefully.
Before, I looked at the recovery phase as a “nice to do,” and less of a “need to do.”
I realize now that recovery is even more vital than the hustle—the hustle being the workout, the sport of it. You’re only as strong tomorrow as the recovery that you’re willing to put in today. I know that if I want to show up at my full self tomorrow, then I have to take the time to properly fuel my body with recovery.
10-year-old Tunde would’ve never believed this.
For so long, I didn’t believe that I was an athlete. I never felt like I was worthy of being an athlete. I would say to my 10-year-old self, “You can do it.” I would say to her, “Despite everything that all the voices around you are saying, you can do it anyways.” And I’d say that I think that anybody is an athlete—any body is an athlete. Your mind is your strongest muscle. Your mind is your strongest muscle. Whatever you tell yourself you are, you’re going to move your body into doing, into being.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Source: SELF
