IN THE midst of the chaos created as a result of the outbreak of the coronavirus and as burnout levels reach new highs in London, holistic health and lifestyle coach Francesca Blechner speaks out via her new book, ‘Self-care for Life in the City’.

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 602,000 people in the UK suffered from stress, depression or anxiety in, 2018/19 and 12.8m working days were lost as a result over that period.

After 20-years in the wellness industry, Francesca has finally put her ground-breaking methods to paper to assist the UK’s highly stressed city dwellers in achieving mental and physical balance in a fast-paced time.

It is only now, with many city dwellers having lost their jobs or having to work from home, they are forced to slow down and reflect.

The Voice caught up with Francesca to talk about her book

Lifestyle: Before we get into your book, talk about being in the wellness industry for two decades, that’s not a length of time that many can cite to being involved.

Francesca Blechner: I know, I can’t quite believe it myself! I started off in 2000 studying my diploma in Personal Training and Sports Therapy. I worked in gyms part time soon after as a Fitness Instructor and teaching classes. After finishing my degree in Sports Science in 2004, I quickly built up a full time business of Personal Training clients at a gym I worked at. I did this for many years and branched out on my own working privately with clients at home too. Back then the traditional approach to health was very much based on the physical- ‘lose weight, tone your abs and eat this’. There was little regard to mental, emotional and spiritual health. Being on the go and working all hours of the day for 10+ years led me to burnout and on a search for a much more holistic approach to health for myself and my clients.

I loved what I did but was exhausted. I went on to train in many modalities, including holistic lifestyle coaching with the CHEK institute, Transformational Breath®, yoga and many bodywork practices that demonstrated how emotional states manifest in the body.

They all had a profound awakening on my journey and on my health that had me re-evaluate my life and the pace at which I was living. I now work with my clients through my holistic coaching programs to build a strong foundation of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.

L: ‘Self-care for Life in the City’ – the book addresses stress, depression and anxiety, how to deal with them and how to achieve mental and physical balance, talk about the motivation to write the book?

FB: In the last 5-10 years being in the Health and Wellness business, I have seen a monumental increase in poor mental health, chronic fatigue, burnout, and autoimmune disease. The pace of life and technology has increased immensely over this time, and we have been trying to live at a speed that our human physiology has simply not adapted to. I’m passionate about helping other’s thrive physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually and to live in alignment with the life they desire.

I want to empower people to take ownership of their health and happiness through the self-care practices in my book.

To understand how to nourish the mind, body and soul, increase physical and emotional resilience to withstand the stresses of modern day life.

In the introduction of my book I write; ‘Self-care is not an option anymore, nor is it an indulgence; it is a necessity for the human species to survive and thrive’. having drafted this a year ago, we are now sitting at that critical point in time for the human species to survive.

L: You’re combining neuroscience, coaching, mindset, nutrition, movement, breath-work, techniques to cultivate life-force and more for a 360 approach to health and well-being, explain a little about pulling those aspects together.

FB: We are multidimensional beings, made up of mind, body and spirit. We cannot focus on one alone.

This is the limitation of modern science and the allopathic model. We must understand that everything is connected. Our thoughts influences how we feel, emotions are felt physically in the body.

Our emotional state is linked to how we breathe, not breathing properly affects digestion and organ health. The quality of your food correlates to the quality of your health, cellular function, ability for the body to detoxify etc.

Movement acts as a pump facilitating the body’s detoxification pathways, knowing when to work out and what type of movement is critical for those experiencing burnout, adrenal fatigue, auto-immune diseases. I believe it is everybody’s birthright to vibrant and radiant health, getting the foundations in place is the first priority.

L: I’d imagine during the COVID-19 lockdown demand for your book increased as people looked for alternative ways to handle being cooped up for longer periods of time than they were used to, it’s been a challenging time for many to navigate. Is there anything else you want to share with our readers that will help them in this difficult time or moving forward?

FB: Yes, of course in writing this book I had no idea a pandemic would hit which made the release of it so timely. Everything I have written in there is so key and perfect for this time. Humanity is at a crisis point and I truly believe if that each and every one of us takes time to connect back to self, learn how to nourish their mind, body and soul and come back to their true nature of harmony and balance we will be living in a very different world. It is down to us, to empower ourselves and become the master of our own health, not only will that have a positive impact on our health but our children, future generations to come and that of the planet. 

Check out: www.wholisticbodylife.com for more info