Born and raised in California, VIS Mentor and WNBA Forward Monique Billings loved her time with the Golden State Valkyries. Surrounded by family and friends, the Bay Area provided several outlets for her to feel both mentally and spiritually balanced outside of basketball.

So, when Billings joined the Indiana Fever as a free agent, this disruption to her stability was jarring. Suddenly her support system was far away, and she was left feeling like a fish out of water.

Nearly midway through the 2026 season, she has yet to find the same equilibrium, but not without trying. In her VIS Session, Billings shared how balance has looked different in each phase of her life and how she’s adapted her current lifestyle to prioritize it.

Love Your Uniqueness

Looking back, Billings knew she was a little different in high school, simply by the way she dressed. She preferred wearing thrifted clothes over shopping at mainstream stores. 

While it might not have been the most trendy, it was undoubtedly herself, which brought joy into her life.

Now in the WNBA, her style continues to bring her confidence as a pro. Walking into the tunnel with a gameday fit gives her a moment to embrace who she is outside of a WNBA player, which helps her separate her personal life from her athlete identity.

For Billings, the outfit isn’t just her representing her personality. It’s also her uniqueness. 

Prioritize Positive Self-Love

The Indiana Fever are one of the most spotlighted teams in the WNBA. This constant focus on the team’s performance often draws scrutiny, resulting in hate comments online or in player’s DMs. And Billings is no stranger to these messages.

As a response, Billings has developed a technique to recenter herself when the noise gets too loud: reciting affirmations.

Every day, she says these 5:

1. I’m kind

2. I’m a person of faith

3. I’m sweet

4. I make every environment that I’m in better than how I found it.

5. I’m resilient.

Focusing on who she wants to be outside the court, Billings explains, helps her separate her athlete identity from her personal life. The 5 affirmations serve as constant messages of self-love that balance out the negatives she hears and help her pick herself up.

Waking Up Slowly

As a pro, morning and night routines are non-negotiables.

Every morning, Billings wakes up and does some form of journaling. Something she started very early in life, it helps her focus on her goals and start each day prepared to feel her best.

The rest of her morning depends on whether or not she’s on the road. She prays, meditates or listens to positive affirmations. If she’s home, she ends her routine by eating fruit.

For days when she has time, she loves to do some box breathing while meditating to help slow herself down even more and focus on where she is in the present.

All this happens before she even steps foot inside the facility. Making sure she’s feeling good before going to work helps bring balance before the day moves on.

Recentering Before Bed

Then, her night routine is focused on reconnecting with herself after a long day of hard work. She focuses on getting off her phone, doing yoga, or reading a book. 

As a yoga enthusiast, or “yogi” as Billings calls it, she finds that being on the mat grounds her to her body and spirit, in addition to providing beneficial stretching. 

And at the end, just as in the morning, she tries to listen to a positive sound bite before falling asleep. For Billings, this last step improves her sleep quality and helps set her up for the next day, both of which are vital for a pro athlete.

Balance is Being Flexible

As a WNBA and Unrivaled player, traveling is a part of the job. Away games can span from days to almost 2 weeks, so keeping an exact routine when she’s living out of a suitcase is almost impossible. 

But no matter what, Billings finds a way to stick to her routines. She just has to be creative. 

The easiest way to keep consistent is by being flexible with the amount of time. “[The routine] doesn't always have to be perfect. It could be five minutes. It could be one hour. It's going to look so different on different days,” Billings explained. 

In the end, the goal is to keep those moments of peace wherever she goes and prioritize herself whenever the schedule allows. 

“There’s always different ways to find balance. It’s about doing what pours into you. What you can do to pour into yourself. What you can do to make yourself feel good to be the best version of yourself.”

VIS Mentor Monique Billings

Where to Start

No matter what phase of life we’re in, we’re all looking for some type of balance—something to ground us when we are unsure what the future looks like or how we’re going to handle it. 

But when there’s so little we can control about the future, there’s always something out there we can control: us and how we prioritize ourselves.

Start with a small affirmation. Then another. Or if you don’t want to make them up, start off your day listening to guided affirmations.

Commit to building a moment of positivity to balance out the unknown. Nothing about it needs to be extreme. It just needs to fit you and your life. 

“There’s always different ways to find balance,” Billings said. “It’s about doing what pours into you. What you can do to pour into yourself. What you can do to make yourself feel good to be the best version of yourself.”