Actor Eric Bernier immediately associates the word vitality with a day at the spa. He even jokes that the spa he frequents in Montreal was custom-built for him. “I’m a bit of a vampire. I like closed spaces, I need dim lighting to relax.” He can easily be broken out of this zen state with a bad soundtrack. “Sometimes I just lose it. When the music is too generic, put on specifically to help me relax, I can’t stand it!” Besides this inconvenience, the spa is still at the top of his list of places to go to reenergize. “Putting my body through extremes of hot and cold, it fires me up.”
If that doesn’t cut it, Éric Bernier pays his acupuncturist a visit, who gets on his case about not coming by sooner. “I always go when I just can’t take it anymore, when I’m at my wit’s end!” The actor wonders why he doesn’t listen to his body tell him it’s tired. “Acupuncture is a much more intelligent technique than I am. I have to do it, instead of fighting the fatigue on my own. It’s electric, the body relaxes with the needles and it does so much good.”
His theatre activities are often a workout in and of themselves, as was the case for the high-energy play Irma Vep. “I felt like I was in a punk metal show every night. There’s so much adrenaline, happiness when you finish a show like that.”
Habits Eric follows to keep his vitality:
- Don’t wait until you’re burnt out before changing your habits
- Pay special attention to what you eat
- Treat yourself to a spa day every once in a while
