Maricel on mellow mode

Her words are more measured now, her manner, less hyper. Yes, you can still expect biting words and veiled threats from her, but the sting now comes in trickles.

The eyebrows arch less often; the lips don’t curl into a snarl anymore. The smile comes more easily now; the laughter, much more so.

Maricel has learned to pace herself, knowing that in the process, she is taking a giant stride in guarding her well-being. Not too long ago, the star of Viva Films’ Abandonada was confined for three days at St. Luke’s Hospital due to excess bleeding. It turned out that too much tension was taking its toll.

"The expression duduguin ako sa ’yo is true after all," she attests.

She was thinking too much in-between tapings and shootings. Inevitably, the migraines came, then, the bleeding.

Maricel’s obstetrician-gynecologist (the same one who helped her give birth to son Tien six years ago) told her she had to undergo dilation and curettage and that she had to rest right for a month after – no shootings, no tapings, no stressful activity (including stressful thoughts).

Thus was this workaholic forced to let go, relax. She turned to her hobbies – surfing the net, reading, making calling cards for friends in showbiz. Maricel even fashioned posters (for free) to announce shows of friends like those of John Lapus’s and Allan K’s.

It was so much fun time flew swiftly for Maricel. She was able to make the posters in 10 minutes flat!

"I’d get the concept of the show and that was it," Maricel describes her working style.

Since exercise is another stress buster, Maricel now huffs and puffs regularly, following a physical fitness regimen her doctor gave her. Thus sweating all her cares and worries away has had a calming effect on her.

Now, Maricel can do all those confrontation scenes with Edu Manzano (who plays the husband who left her for a new wife played by Angelu de Leon in Abandonada) once again without ending up a bunch of frayed nerves.

With her newfound stress management program, her appreciation of the laidback life, and hopefully, the calming effect of a renewed faith in Divine Help, Maricel will make it through.

After all, someone who has worked so hard even as a child deserves nothing less.