Mary Mary’s Keys to Health, Wealth and Keeping It All Together
The gospel duo talks balancing career and motherhood.
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Maintaining Grace - For three seasons now, Tina and Erica Campbell of the gospel duo Mary Mary have opened their personal lives up for the world for their hit WE tv reality series, Mary Mary, and as the cameras have shown, it isn’t always a pretty. With Season 3 premiering on February 27, the Grammy Award-winning gospel singers continue to face the challenges of managing motherhood, career and even heartbreak. Speaking exclusively with BET.com, Tina and Erica share how they have learned to keep the faith through it all. By Britt Middleton (Photo: Columbia Pictures)
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Reaching a Breaking Point - Struggling like many women to “do it all", Erica says her breaking point came after she ruptured a vocal cord, threatening her ability to sing, and learned slowing down in life isn’t an option. “I was trying to fully be in Mary Mary and fully be a solo artist. So we would do a Mary Mary concert on Friday and I would leave on Saturday and go do some solo stuff and do something again on Sunday. Then Monday I’d have to come back to Mary Mary and [I found myself] trying to figure out why my body is shutting down. I had to learn to revamp.” (Photo: Erica Campbell via Instagram)
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Dispel the Myth of Superwoman - “As a working woman, a lot of times we try to be superwoman and sometimes we compete with the images we see in the media, with the Oprah’s and the Beyonce’s...and you don’t understand the amount of staffing they have to do what they do,” says Erica, who is a mother-of-three with husband Warryn Campbell, II. “You have to set realistic goals for yourself. But stay committed, because sometimes God does challenge you. If God is opening these doors, then he’s going to give you the wisdom to go through each individual door and be excellent.”(Photo: Kristian Dowling/PictureGroup)
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Don’t Condemn Yourself - Striving for excellence often comes at a price for many working moms, as Tina, who is a mother of five with husband Teddy Campbell, explains. “What happens is that we run around condemning ourselves, and that’s the most horrible thing any of us can do. Most working moms, we sit around condemned because we’re working to take care of our children and we’re feeling guilty that we don’t have the same freedom as a mom who doesn’t work. Put your greatest energy in the thing that is most important or fulfilling to you. If it’s not work, then take a little time and put it into family.” (Photo: Gary Gershoff/Getty Images for Super Bowl)
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Burn The Midnight Oil - Having four Grammys to their name is a testament to their work ethic. It’s important to have for yourself a sacred space where you can work on personal projects, Tina says, free from the distractions of the outside world. “As far as my creative space goes, I find that I have to do that when everybody else is asleep. I literally turn on all my creativity at 10 o’clock [at night]. So I say [to myself] just accept it, ‘Tina, rock your 10 to 2 [a.m. ]and choose the days that you want to get sleep on.’ It works for me.” (Photo: Sony Music)
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