In conversation with Fearne Cotton

Fearne Cotton embodies true bravery in wellness, redefining what it means to deeply care for ourselves and breaking down the stigma surrounding mental health and self-care.

In an intimate and thought-provoking conversation, our Head of Innovation, Jenna Macciochi, and Head of Nutrition, Jo Woodhurst, sat down with Fearne to explore her personal journey of healing. Together, they delved into the ways she truly nurtures her wellbeing, maintains balance amidst life’s demands, and why our True Ashwagandha and True Magnesium+ have become trusted staples in her daily ritual.

Watch or read the full interview below.

 

 

So Fearne, as somebody who's openly ambitious, spinning many plates with a career, parenting, building a beautiful community with Happy Place, do you see value in a fast-paced life and when does it start to take its toll? 

Such a mind-blowing question because I know that I'm naturally drawn to living in quite a fast way and I don't want to pretend otherwise. I love talking about well-being, I love talking about looking after yourself but I know that I've got a desire to constantly do the next thing. I feel really excited about what's coming next, I am ambitious and I don't like to pretend otherwise about that. I think sometimes women feel they can't say that, but I am really ambitious and I enjoy being so, but I also love being a parent and one that wants to see all the milestones and be there, so it does feel really overwhelming and I think it does take its toll. 

I feel like I'm always in the thick of it, I am living quite a fast-paced life, at times a very fast-paced life, juggling it all and I do notice how it's taking its toll. It could be physically just not feeling quite balanced and grounded and how I want to, so I can do the job well and be a good parent. Sometimes mentally [I feel] just completely overwhelmed with brain fog, which sometimes spills out into your life in terms of you start letting people down because you've said you've committed to something, such as a social event and then you just do not have the capacity to do it. 

So I hit those road bumps all the time, it's not like I've learned the lesson for good, I have to keep relearning it and relearning it but I think that's all right. I think my approach to wellness is one where it's all right if you get it a bit wrong sometimes and that you stumble and if you are pushing yourself too much, then you have to pull back again.

Do you recognise it in yourself when things do take a toll? 

Yeah, I used to be completely unaware of how I was feeling and pushed myself and pushed myself, and that probably comes down to just a bit of self-compassion and not being very kind to myself back in the day.

I think with age I’ve wanted to be kinder to myself and treat myself with [more] respect. I think we aren't really taught that and we get influenced by what other people are doing and we lose sight of what we want and what makes us feel good. So, I'm on that learning curve, again I haven't nailed it but I do feel in my 40s so much more able to go ‘oh this isn't feeling great’ and I need to change something.

So Fearne, what do you think it means to be truly happy and how has your definition of being happy evolved over the years? 

I like this question, obviously because Happy Place is called Happy Place, and it's quite a loaded title, because I don't think it's an end destination and I think our title could allude to that, but it's very much up for debate.

I think the old model of happiness for me was this ginormous roller coaster of having these huge highs but definitely believing that it lived in the future, that it was this other iteration of me that was better and more liked and more successful and respected. I learned that one the hard way because you reach a milestone and you get whatever the accolade is or the thing that you wanted at the end and you go ‘oh no I've bought myself, I'm still here and I haven't changed. I thought there would be a new one of me when I got here and it's just me still’ and it's really irritating, so I don't pin my happiness on that so much anymore. I still have goals but I don’t believe that I'm going to be a different version of me at the end of it. 

So I think happiness now is really hard to articulate but it's something about feeling very alive and being engaged with what's going on around me. I know when I'm not feeling good I check out and I'm just going through the motions and I'm not feeling present with what's going on, good or bad so I think now I don't know if I even use the word ‘happy’  it's more about that feeling of being really engaged with what's going on around me, and I like that feeling. 

Jenna: I love that and it's not like the end destination it just comes and it goes.

Fearne: It might result in that job or that thing you wanted and it might feel great, but I think if you pin all of your happiness onto an outcome you just end up disappointed again and again. 

I think the thing that's changed my levels of happiness over the years is how much I like myself, and when I really didn't like myself. We all have moments of self-loathing, but when that was really ruling the show it's so hard to feel happy when you don't like yourself.

I think now I'm so much more comfortable in who I am and what I want to say, it's so much easier to feel good because you believe you're a bit more deserving of it.

 

Jenna: Your perception can become your reality, if you have that negative perception of yourself you find yourself in this sort of negative reality. 

Fearne: Completely, and everything looks terrible because that's your mindset.

Jenna: Self-compassion is just such an important part of that isn't it?

Fearne: It is, I believe honestly the biggest game changer for me is learning to be alright with my flaws and things in the past and things that I know don't sit well with me and parts of myself that I would like to see grow and change. I think I'm getting better at being accepting of those things. 

So we're Ancient + Brave and what does brave mean to you and does it have a part to play in wellness?

Oh yes I think it does, I think being brave has something to do with being authentic, and that word is so overused that it's almost sort of meaningless now, but I do believe it takes absolute courage to act authentically and to be completely yourself without outside influence, without the fear that people are judging you and without really the fear of being disliked. 

That's a big one for me I think, because I've had a job in the public eye for the entirety of my adult life and some of my childhood there was so much weight in people liking me and it felt almost like a currency. So, I think for me bravery at this point in life feels like a peeling back of layers, how can I be more me and not worry if I walk away today and people in this room didn't like me, or thought I was talking nonsense, because it doesn't actually matter at the end of the day. So many of your decisions in life come down to how in touch you are with yourself, and that could be things that we see as true acts of bravery, from the cliche ones that we can all think of to just moving through the world more peacefully, because you know who you are, so I think bravery's got a huge part to play in terms of wellness. Nobody wants to live in a small way where they feel they can't be their true selves or try new things or try and fail or grow. Nobody wants to lead a tiny, trapped life like that, so wellness for me is expansion and growth so I think that's where bravery fits into it. 

 

Jo: I love that and when you're being yourself you feel more confident to try and navigate your own path as well and so much of wellness at the moment is telling people exactly what they need to do, follow this protocol, and this diet and actually when you’re authentic and you get to know yourself, you can navigate that and make the mistakes, even if it might not work for you. 

Fearne: That's the biggest problem with wellness, that now we're in this weird place where you have to do all these things, and there's so many of them it's so overwhelming. And you don't know if you're meant to be doing all of them, or some of them, or half of them and how many days a week, and then you're stressed because of the wellness schedule and it's like no this is doing the opposite this is counterproductive. It’s about knowing yourself and knowing your body and knowing your state of mind and what might help that. 

So Fearne, are there moments where you doubted the path you're on? 

Oh yeah like massive chunks of my life, huge huge chunks, and I don't think you're aware of it when you're in it but something feels off, and then I think retrospectively you can think ‘I don't know what I was doing there’, and I was just stumbling through life without a clue and that's not to say I'm on a clear path now. I always like to leave room for ‘oh I didn't think I was going to go down here, this is interesting’, I don't want this rigid path I have to walk down like this is the only way for me. 

So, I think although I'm probably a bit clearer on what I know works for me and where I'd like to go I'm very open to a little offshoot side road over here that I wasn't expecting. I think that's exciting and that's where we can grow and learn.

Jenna: It sounds like you develop that sort of awareness of where you were lost, how to bring yourself back to your core values, things that were important to you, and where you might be blindly walking and then steering yourself back to where you want to go.

Fearne: I think 'values' is a very important word because I think rather than having some dead set route that you want to follow, if you can always navigate via your values you can't really go wrong and that might mean your path changes greatly at some point in your life, but I think if you can always stick to your values and know what they are and they're going to be different. No one can tell you what they are, they're bespoke to you and I think that definitely helps you find your way. 

So Fearne, in a world where pressures never seem to ease and it's really difficult to step away, how do you find time and what do you do to reclaim balance? 

That one's changed for me recently too, probably the age I'm at, my kids are a bit older that I feel I'm in a bit of a new era of my life. It’s still simple things like walking- if I'm back to back all day recording or I'm on a writing deadline, if I can get an hour's walk at some point in the day where I'll just listen to really beautiful music, it makes me feel really happy and that is usually enough to just reset me somewhat.

What I'm trying to do is introduce a bit of fun. I didn't think I had the capacity for it and I just thought I must be very serious and I must concentrate on the things that I know I want to achieve, and nothing else will get in my way. 

What I'm trying to do now is go ‘no’ I need to schedule in a bit of fun and let loose a little bit, that for me is balance because the balance had tipped the other way for me where I was just being so dedicated to everything and everything was a schedule. Having joyful moments of fun with people that I love is something that I'm really getting back and it feels so good. 

It does mean that some mornings are chaos in my house because I'm like oh my god I definitely went to bed too late and I'm definitely a bit tired this morning, but it's getting that balance back of fun. I think we sometimes think that balance is just puritanical and everything's going to be so perfect and amazing and that isn't it. I think there's got to be room for mess, problems, failure, hangovers and eating bad food occasionally, so fun is becoming a little tonic for me at the moment. 

So what are the key tools in your personal well-being toolkit?

Moving my body when I can, doesn't have to be anything wild, actually it's getting less and less wild as I get older. I love walking, and painting which is something that I just adore and it makes me feel really happy, seeing friends having a laugh, and therapy. 

I've got to be really honest about that because therapy has changed my life in surmountable ways. I think it's really important to be clear that therapy has been something very important to me and something that I'm still very dedicated to. 

Jo: I love that and I love that you recognise that wellness is so many different things like you've pulled in something for your body like walking, creativity which kind of speaks to your values, and then getting some help as well, I think so many of us think you have to do it all alone. 

Fearne: I think even if it's just a good friend that can listen to you I think that's great, I absolutely use and abuse my friends in that way and I hope they do for me too. I'm not trying to fix anyone, they're not trying to fix me, but just having someone that listens to you I think can be enough that that you're heard.

How did you discover Ancient + Brave and why did you choose to work with the brand?

I think my first awareness of Ancient + Brave was, like all good things, on social media and looking at the delightful packaging!

As someone that is hugely interested in wellness, I love trying new things, I love learning about supplements, and I love learning about how we can take care of ourselves. I don't know what the first product I tried was, it might have been the Cacao and Reishi and I still love that one. It's an ultimate favorite and it’s a very versatile product as well. 

In terms of working the lovely partnership with Happy Place, I think we're just very simply on the same page. We want exactly the same things, our ethoses align beautifully and we want to try and do some positive things and put some goodness out there. Also trying to streamline the information that feels quite overwhelming in all areas, we're definitely trying to help with Happy Place in terms of how bombarded people feel, whether it's advice around mental wellbeing or just simple things that can help you daily, and it's so clear that that's exactly what Ancient + Brave are doing as well, so when two brands align like that it's a beautiful thing. 

True Ashwagandha and True Magnesium+ have become an essential part of Ancient + Brave's toolkit for balance and resilience. How have these become part of your daily life and are there any rituals that you've created around them? 

I've always been pretty rigid with taking supplements and making sure that I'm fueling my body in the best way that I can for energy levels and just to feel okay. I think these particular products for me are all about feeling calm and balanced, I'm not the sort of person that needs g-ing up or energising ever, I need to wind down, so anything I can find that helps aid a sense of calm and grounding and being in my own body, that is what I'm headed towards. I don't need the things that are lifting me up because I've got energy for days, so I just need something to help me find that state of balance.

Fearne: I'm really intrigued by your expert minds as to why they work together, what is that magic combination? 

Jenna: We wanted to find something that we could give to people that would fit in with all the other wellness practices, so not a replacement, not a quick fix but more of a daily ritual that we knew was going to work on the things that they needed most- to deal with just the chaos of life really.

Magnesium is an amazing mineral it does so many things in the body and it's really important for the nervous system, helping to calm our neurotransmitters, and it's something that we know that people are deficient in, not only because if they're stressed that's going to use up more but also because our soils are depleted and so we're not able to get the same amount from our diet anymore. It's really great to supplement with this mineral because we know that so many people are going to be getting enough in their body.

Ashwagandha is this gorgeous botanical and it's got this lovely ancient history of use, for calming and adapting the nervous system. Together they're just that brain, body synergy and they help, not as a quick fix but for plugging in your wellness toolkit with all of those other lovely practices like going for your daily walk, finding some fun and doing other things that we know make us feel good in our body.

Fearne: Does magnesium help with digestion? 

Jo: yeah it can do, so we've used three forms of magnesium here and what magnesium is, it's a relaxing mineral, if you think about your digestion, if it's all tight and wound up it's not going to be working optimally, so by relaxing the different systems in your body it can really have that knock-on effect.

Often stress can have a huge effect on how we digest our food as well, so if you're working on the pathway from the brain, if we start digestion in the brain (which is a good way to think of it), magnesium is helping the body just to chill, digest, rest for what it's supposed to be doing. 

Fearne: What I love as well is when you look in the back [of the product] and I do this with everything. Normally, you've not got eight trillion things in there and you're like I don't know what these words are. But with this I'm just having the actual thing that I need and that's it. That feels really important to me that we're not putting in other stuff that our body doesn't need, it's just the stuff we do need. I love that. 

Jo: Absolutely we're all about pure, potent, sustainable and we really trust nature. It gives us what we need and so we look to it for inspiration and in all of our products we make sure that we've not got unnecessary additives in there, flavours or sweeteners. In the True Ashwagandha in particular, we've used a really amazing high quality extract which is called KSM- 66, which is the most studied in the world. It's a really amazing product. 

Fearne: It's so interesting to learn about, and I'm so intrigued about the sort of philosophy behind Ancient + Brave and I guess I'm curious what that means to you, what is that philosophy, what do you want people to understand about Ancient + Brave?

Jenna: In terms of developing the products we're thinking about the person who might be using it but we're also thinking about the planet and how we can tie those things together. For example when we're sourcing ingredients, making sure that that it's sourced from a sustainable source and it's not going to have an impact on the planet, that it's not an endangered species, and then also how can we harness nature in a way that we give the best quality ingredients to the product and synergise that with other ingredients. 

For example, we know that the True Ashwagandha and True Magnesium+ work so well together, and in the Cacao and Reishi, we've combined it with a whole bunch of other botanicals that we know are working synergistically and as Jo mentioned, we're not adding anything unnecessary. We're just letting nature do its thing, making sure that we've got everything in there to make products that taste great, that we know work, and then don't have any impact on the planet. 

Jo: I think our philosophy is really embedded in our name so the “Ancient” sort of speaks to the ancient wisdom that we really believe in and we look to that in terms of ingredients like ashwagandha, which has got such a long history. But also in terms of how our ancestors looked at health they never looked at these separate systems of the body, we see it in a very holistic whole body health way and it has a beautiful ripple effect across the body. 

The “Brave” is looking to the future and innovation and being brave in making sure that we're doing the right thing by the planet, it's actually a really tough choice in the supplement world to always be sustainable and eco-friendly, it's never the cheapest path to choose and we have to be really brave from the beginning to make sure that we do that. We're certified B Corp, we give to 1% for the planet, it's something that's embedded, it's baked into the brand from the beginning. 

Jenna: Those values as you say when they're part of the brand it gives you that compass in every decision you make when you're developing a product because it's steering you and keeping you on course and it's not the easiest but you know it's the right thing to do. I think everybody in the team feel that you know we live it we breathe it and that comes through without a doubt without a doubt