Melissa Wood-Tepperberg Reveals How She Approaches Relationships With Grace

The workout and wellness leader knows that prioritizing the right friendships is important.

Melissa Wood-Tepperberg was photographed by Yu Tsai in Dominica. / Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Forming and maintaining relationships isn’t always easy. Melissa Wood-Tepperberg knows that. She understands that as we age, we have to be more discerning about what and who we put our time into. She also knows that sometimes distancing yourself in a certain relationship is the best way to proceed, no matter how difficult that may be.

In the latest episode of her podcast, Move With Heart, Wood-Tepperberg took a deep dive into “relationships, challenges we face and how to move through them with more grace so we can keep becoming more of who we really are,” she explained in a recent Instagram post.

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“Life changes so much as you get older,” she said, and you have to change with it. That may mean growing apart from “people you love” and “outgrow[ing] certain relationships.” While that may be a hard lesson to learn, it’s likewise a very important one. Distancing yourself from someone you care about is a means of “protect[ing]” ourselves and “preserv[ing] our energy,” the workout and wellness leader explained.

In consciously tending to relationships with grace, you have the chance to become “more aligned with the core of who you are,” she said.

Wood-Tepperberg’s latest bit of advice stems from personal experience. The same is true of each of her podcast episodes, during which she engages in conversations with friends, coworkers and subject matter experts on everything from mental and physical wellness to motherhood and fashion. For more meaningful advice, be sure to check out Move With Heart and her wellness platform, MWH.