I like to think that I take pretty good care of my health and well-being but I’m also juggling jobs as a working mother and my life can be pretty hectic. I’m currently on location in the Pyrenees filming Waiting for Anya, an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s 1990 novel about a young shepherd who helps to smuggle Jewish children out of Germany during the Second World War. I play Madame Jollet,
alongside amazing actors including Anjelica Huston and Noah Schnapp, the American actor who plays Will Byers in the Netflix science fiction series Stranger Things.
I’ve just finished my first novel and our production company, Blonde to Black pictures, has just completed Two for Joy, a coming-of-age drama starring Samantha Morton and Billie Piper. We are taking it to film festivals now for release later this year. Sometimes, I barely have time to draw breath, all the way making sure I’m there for my four kids, Finlay, 27, Rafferty, 21, Iris, 17, and Rudy who is 15.
Yoga and meditation has been a big part of my life for over a decade, and I usually get up early to make time to practise, but even that has to compete with filming schedules, deadlines, and other stuff. I’m a bit of a workaholic, and my partner Jemima French and I are just about to bring our FrostFrench yoga wellbeing clothing line into stores alongside our existing swimwear line.
In the midst of all this activity, I sometimes need to escape for a bit. I can go to a retreat and feel great and then come back home, and within two days, I’m back to square one. The problem seems to be pretty universal. We can make huge lifestyle changes, and see great results, but it’s not sustainable in our stressful modern-day lives. At least, not without the right support.
I first met Chris Nelson, the author of ‘Wake Up and Soar’, when I visited his yoga retreat in Goa, Ashiyana, and completely fell in love with the place. It’s the essence of equilibrium between mind, body, and spirit, and it’s where I feel at my happiest. In fact, everyone there just seems to be happy all the time. 18 months ago, Chris told me about his latest project – BEST ME, a digital app with a human face, which is actually designed to overcome the barriers we all face to sustainable behavioural change, simply because we can’t always be in a yoga retreat next to a gently flowing river, eating wonderful vegan food.
I now have the app on my smartphone, which combines access to a Health Coach trained by Ashiyana in Yoga therapy, Mindset &
Lifestyle coaching, together with an incredible BEST ME Retreat and Community. The best way to describe it is that it’s like having a really comforting friend with you who knows a whole about calming your mind, overcoming limiting beliefs, as well as lots of interesting ways to stay healthy and motivated. In video sessions with my coach, which lasts 50 minutes, we focus on my goals, and what is holding me back from achieving them. When I got a bone density report from my doctor which suggested that it was lower than it should be, my coach emailed me a load of information about what the results meant and how I could take steps to boost my bone density through dietary changes and build my strength through weight-bearing exercise.
The BEST ME app is currently available to companies, so they can invest in their workforce’s wellbeing. It will be available to individuals through the app store in a few months. In the digital age, with limited time and stressful workloads, BEST ME has helped me to stay calm, and to realise my full potential without overreaching 🙂
