Deals with Stress by Lighting Negative Thoughts ‘Literally on Fire’

Anne Hathaway has a unique way of dealing with stress and anxiety.

The Serenity actress, 36, revealed how she gets rid of any negative feelings in Town & Country’s February issue

“Set a timer on your phone, have a candle nearby, and write it all down,” she says while recommending at least 12 minutes to expel all troubles on the page.

“You spew it all out. You do not read it,” she explains. “The time goes off, you tear it out of the book, and you light it on fire. Literally on fire.”

She adds, “All of this energy, this angst, this rage — everything is smoke.”

While Hathaway has discovered one method of expelling her stress, she’s found another way to keep in touch with the global world — through social media.

“Having the ability to do something on my own terms has been good for me,” she says of using Instagram as a way to fend off paparazzi. “It has allowed me to calm down and communicate in a way that’s more clear.”

4 Things You Didn’t Know About Anne Hathaway

1. In addition to her acting ambitions, Hathaway had dreams of becoming a nun when she was a child. “When I was younger, I thought about becoming a nun for a while,” she once said. “You know how it is when you’re growing up and you’re going to be a lot of different things, but I actually wanted to be an actress before I wanted to be a nun. The nun was more of a sidebar thing.” Hathaway, who was raised Roman Catholic, broke from the church after her older brother came out. “The whole family converted to Episcopalianism after my elder brother came out,” Hathaway said. “Why should I support an organization that has a limited view of my beloved brother?” But Episcopalianism didn’t really take either. “So I’m . . . nothing,” she said. “Fuck it, I’m forming. I’m a work in progress.”

2. She got her big break in 2001, winning the role of Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries. But unlike other classic success stories, Hathaway earned the role with just a single audition. The story goes like this: She was traveling to New Zealand to star in an independent film called The Other Side of Heaven and had a 26-hour stopover in Los Angeles, where she auditioned for a little movie called The Princess of Tribeca (the original name of The Princess Diaries). There, she met with director Garry Marshall and the two hit it off immediately. “At some point during the audition,” Hathaway recalled, “I got really nervous and fell out of my chair, and I think that’s what he was most impressed with.”

3. Every year since the 2001 release of The Princess Diaries, Hathaway has said, she reflects and gives thanks on the film’s anniversary: “I remember [the day] and I give thanks to the universe, a big open-hearted thank you, because that was the day that dreams came true for me. There are a lot of aspects to my life that are very real, but also a lot that are very fairy tale. That was the day that my fairy tale started.”

4. While Hathaway has starred in many popular films of the past decade, she actually turned down a starring role in Judd Apatow’s comedy Knocked Up. Why? Because she was reportedly uncomfortable with the film’s explicit birthing scene. “My issue with it was that having not experienced motherhood myself, I didn’t know how I was [going to] feel on the other side about giving birth,” she said in 2012, adding, “I could pop a kid out and think, Oh, well, I really should have done that movie.” The role ended up going to Katherine Heigl.