Fearne Cotton, mental health advocate, author and highly acclaimed broadcaster joins Happiful’s podcast I am. I have to talk about life in lockdown, letting go and practising gratitude

Like so many parents, Fearne Cotton is currently juggling work with homeschooling, managing endless loads of laundry and picking her way through the lego on the floor, all while negotiating the uncertainty Covid-19 has brought to us all.

Sharing her response to these strange times, as well as her three 'I am's (you’ll have to listen to hear more about those!), founder of Happy Place Fearne reflects upon some of the lessons she’s learned in lockdown and how she's working on surrender and letting things go.

Fearne is all too aware of the enormity of the current pandemic, explaining that it has touched people within her circle and that she has a friend who is working on the frontline who she checks in with regularly. Keeping this human perspective, she shares, is really important, especially when we’re being bombarded with news that can detract from the very real impact the virus has on people's lives.

And as for how she’s managing the lockdown situation within her own home? “I’m doing pretty good,” Fearne reflects. “I mean, I wouldn't even say it's like good days and bad days, it's like good minutes and bad minutes!

“For five minutes I'll feel amazing and like I'm nailing it. I'm working and I'm parenting and the laundry's not so bad. And then five minutes later everything is just going so tits up and I feel like I can't deal with another second of it! So I'm just trying to be in the moment.”

Taking lockdown as it comes and also practising gratitude is hugely important to Fearne, and something that she did daily before coronavirus, but it has become even more important to her now.

"I think it's a good thing to do, whether you're in a global pandemic or not. Just to have gratitude for the basic things."

“I've been really grateful for every basic thing since this started and I've been really trying to go to bed and think every night, 'I'm really grateful for the food I ate and having a nice warm duvet…', because you know, there are people going through horrific things, and I know people that are right now and it's not nice, and I think it's a good thing to do, whether you're in a global pandemic or not. Just to have gratitude for the basic things.”

Gratitude is a reccuring theme throughout Fearne's conversation with Happiful, coupled with real honesty about her current situation, reflections on life lessons, her own introversion and deep love of being at home with her family.

Listen to Fearne on Happiful's podcast I am. I have below or find it on all major podcast apps.

Fearne's Happy Place podcast is now in it's seventh brilliant series. Hear Ricky Gervais speak about After Life Series 2, and a discussion with Vex King, author of 'Good Vibes, Good Life.'