Fearne Cotton talks to Chris Evans about the importance of self-care: 'I'm often useless at it'

Virgin Radio

7 Oct 2022, 10:34

Fearne Cotton joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky this morning to talk about the importance of self-care and her new Happy Place app which makes it all a bit easier.

The presenter started up her award-winning Happy Place podcast in 2018 following the success of her book Happy, all about how to bring a little more joy into your life. Since the first episode four years ago, Fearne has welcomed hundreds of guests to talk about what happiness means to them with the likes of Craig David, Sam Ryder and Rylan Clark joining the podcast recently.

“We thought a podcast could be cool because I wasn’t really doing radio at that point,” Fearne told Chris, “It felt like a nice organic place to end up in and I love interviewing people.”

She added, “It felt like a conversation, I wasn’t imparting any wisdom. I was just sort of talking about my own experiences.”

For Fearne, self-care is very important in this day and age and is something that she wants to bring to people’s attention.

She explained, “Life’s really fast and hectic and we all get swept along with that. It can feel quite exciting, but it can also be detrimental to all of us as well.

“I think we’re, on mass, quite bad at self-care and we feel uncomfortable about it like it’s self-indulgent or it’s selfish or even pointless. We can be quite nihilistic about that and say ‘I don't need to look after myself.’”

 She continued, “We look after everybody else, especially if we've got families and we're juggling lots of stuff or we work with a team, or we're constantly looking out for others, and we totally abandon ourselves.

“But obviously, if we're looking after ourselves more, and we're more grounded, balanced, all that good stuff, we are going to be of more service to the people in our lives because we're feeling energised and good and able to do it.”

However, the presenter admitted she wasn’t always the best at keeping up her own self-care practices and often has to remind herself why it is so important.

“I’m often useless at it,” Fearne revealed, “I self-sabotage and do all the stuff that we know we shouldn't do. So, I have to implement discipline where I can and when I don't, that's when I end up in a terrible place.

“The first thing that goes if I'm not in good shape is my sleep, it just totally disintegrates and it's just awful. I go into a panic and all sorts. So that's my alarm bell.”

As Fearne says, making self-care a daily practice and being disciplined about it is not always easy, which is why she has created a new Happy Place app, which has everything you need to practice good self-care in one place.

Speaking about the project, Fearne explained, “I’ve collated everything that I've learned over the years with all the different brilliant experts that I've not only spoken to, but I'd say 80% of the practitioners on the app are just mates of mine that have luckily said yes to being part of this project.

“So, all the tools that I've used that have genuinely helped me reduce stress and sleep better because I haven't been a great sleeper historically, have helped get me back in the moment rather than racing ahead. There's everything from meditation, yoga, tapping, yoga Nidra, sleep stories and there are articles on all these things as well.”

The goal for the Happy Place app was to become “a one-stop shop” for these kinds of practices and Fearne aims to introduce her audience to things that will genuinely help them in their day-to-day lives.

She added, “That’s what I’m deeply passionate about because I think we still spend too much time watching and looking and imbibing information from the wrong people and we’re looking at things on Instagram that are just like ‘meh’, whereas there are all these brilliant people with these wise minds.

“My job is to bring them to the forefront.”

The Happy Place app is now available to download, and you can listen to the Happy Place podcast on most streaming platforms. Find out more information at happyplaceofficial.co.uk.

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or  catch up on-demand here.