Though Jane Seymour has experienced success as an actress for nearly 50 years, the star has revealed she still relies on her late mom Mieke Frankenberg’s life lessons to help her stay grounded. “She would often remind her daughters, ‘When life is difficult, do something to help someone else, and your problems will diminish,'” Jane recently told Closer Weekly in an exclusive interview.

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“As a young girl, I always tried to be what I thought other people wanted me to be. Life is full of choices and change, and weathering these changes can only be done when I open my heart and mind and learn to move forward,” the 66-year-old actress continued.

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Jane and her mother in 2005.

Over the years, Jane — who currently has five movies in the works — has perfected how to balance her showbiz work and other business ventures with her personal life. “I’ve always been a juggler. I somehow manage to spend time with grandchildren and family whilst running my businesses, writing and pursuing my acting career,” she confessed to Closer, adding she likes to schedule film shoots “into short periods” so she can spend as much time with grandchildren Rowan, Willa, and Luna as possible.

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One of Jane’s latest work projects are her two new fragrances, His Open Heart and Her Open Heart. “I have a wonderful organic garden in Malibu where I grow everything from aromatic roses and lavender to fruit trees and pine,” she told Closer. “As a child, I used to make my own perfume and was taught by my mother who had done it for her own cosmetic line, Miss Lavender, in Indonesia before the war.” Jane’s mother, Mieke — who passed away at age 93 in 2007 — was Dutch but later lived in Indonesia where she became a prisoner in a Japanese concentration camp during World War II.

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