How Julia Morris found contentment & happiness

The latest issue of Prevention features comedian Julia Morris on the cover, discussing self love and the deep contentment she's found over the last 12 months.

"Happiness is not a destination, it's just looking for happy moments each day," she says. "It's looking for how many laughs we can put into one day."

Her philosophy was put to the test when she spent two weeks in quarantine in a Sydney hotel before filming the latest season of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. She admits having the right mindset was crucial.

"The most important thing I prepared for hotel quarantine was my attitude, thinking, this is going to be fun," she explains.

It's also turned out to be a canny decision - the first episode of the show aired on Sunday night and was a ratings smash, attracting 1.38 million national viewers. 

The upside to locking down

Julia says the Victorian lockdown during 2020 brought her family together in a way she hadn't expected.

“Throughout those months [of Victoria’s lockdown], we got a chance to come together as a family and learn everyone’s quirks and learn how to be patient with each other," she explains. "And as my daughters enter their teenage years, I’m really grateful that I know them so much better than I did at the beginning of the year.

"There’s become a great love in the resilience that we share and the patience that we’ve shown each other. No disrespect to them, but there’s so much less of them doing the normal kid thing where they go off to their rooms to be by themselves, and instead they’re coming to me now.”

How Julia learned to love her body

At age 52, Julia says she's wishes she hadn't spent half her life "being kind of mean" to herself.

"Now I think, you know what? I'm alive and my body is still working and I feel pretty amazing. And that is incredibly freeing," she admits.  

Julia also answered these five fast questions that our editor, Andrea Duvall, fired at her. 

One thing people don’t know about you?

That I’m addicted to raspberry bullets. Oh, my goodness, yes!

The tell-tale sign when you’re stressed?

I do a lot of ‘comsplaining’. It’s a word I’ve made up (a mash-up of complaining and explaining). I love comsplaining when I’m in a high-octane head space.

What makes you laugh?

My girlfriend Meg. She makes me do that laugh where you’re absolutely convinced some snot is going to fly out of your nose.

One ingredient you put in everything?

Anything I can wrap around Nutella. My family has invented a new ice-cream: vanilla ice-cream with frozen raspberries and Nutella and it’s called Yummy Delicious!

Ambition from here?

Relaxing more into myself. And I guess it’s seeing my children in their 50s, happy.

Have you listened to our podcast with Julia?

Julia shares hilarious stories of her own menopausal adventures and opens up about the professional counselling she went through to relieve her menopausal mood swings in a Prevention Podcast: "About Thriving in Menopause"..

Buzzsprout: Click here.

Read Julia's full interview in the February/March issue of Prevention, which also features articles including "21 Ways to Change Your Life in 2021", "Belly fat - The Art of Middle Management" and a 20-minute body workout designed by leading Melbourne personal trainer Tash Jack that's guaranteed to firm and tone you all over. 

(And click here for a healthy Homemade Nutella recipe)