WEDDING WELLNESS: Movement & Mindfulness

As a part of my wedding wellness series, which focuses on feeling your BEST possible self when planning and preparing for your special day, I sat down with the amazing Jessica Lambert to pick her (very healthy!) brain a little more about movement and mindfulness…

Wellness is something I am hugely passionate and interested in and while it is very much a way of life generally, I truly believe your overall well-being while wedding planning is something that should be a huge focus so that you feel your very best self!

Jessica has worked as a yoga and pilates teacher, osteopath, and trainer at some of the most prestigious wellness locations in the world so I felt honoured to have this conversation with her!

Take a read & let me know if you have any more questions you would like us to answer or dive a little deeper into…

Q&A:

  1. Weddings can be super stressful and overwhelming so do you have any simple tools for breathwork/meditation to calm that nervous system and instill some peace when it all gets a little much?

“So many of us are not actually breathing fully, or deeply, we are breathing in this really short, shallow stressful state, and that is probably why we carry a lot of tension in our shoulders, our neck, our jaw – so I don’t so much sit down and do a whole breathwork practice, I would just try and feed it into everyday activity and life, and just really take some time throughout your day to just take some really big deep breaths and that’s it! It really is nothing fancy, it will just help calm you down and ground yourself. Particularly when things are really busy or you have been rushing around and everything just feels a lot, some simple deep breaths are all you may need!

  1. There’s a lot of pressure to ‘look’ a certain way as a bride and be pounding the pavement, etc., but when it comes to movement, particularly for women’s (BRIDAL) health, what are your top tips for brides who want to feel their best?

“For this one, I personally do a lot of training and a huge variety of training and I really enjoy training and that is WHY I train so much… But when it comes to brides, if you’re not someone who naturally moves a lot, you have GOT to find something you enjoy doing! Because if you’re doing something in this forced, stressed way, that you’re not getting any joy out of and is very much a chore, your cortisol levels are going to be high. It’s not going to sit well with your body. So maybe walking is it, maybe Zumba, maybe gym, whatever it is, it has to be something you enjoy to get the most out of it!

In terms of, my favorite exercises, for what I think suits or tends to suit a very stressed female body, I would say pilates and yoga, because it just calms everything down, and are the biggest hurdle when it comes to feeling our best is stress! It’s not the kind of movement we do, it’s not a set exercise, no specific exercise burns more fat in one region of the body, no matter what people tell you, that’s not how it works.

You have to find something that overall makes you feel good. 

There are huge benefits of weight training and resistance training particularly for women’s health and of course, cardiovascular training, and I know then this sounds like it’s quite complicated and can be quite overwhelming but it really doesn’t have to be huge sessions. You don’t have to go for an hour’s run, you don’t have to do an hour in the gym. It may be that you have 2 dumbbells at home, and you do a 15-minute bodyweight circuit. Your cardio may be that once a week you get really good walk with a friend or just something that gets your blood rushing around the body!

My staple throughout these two would be layering in a little bit of yoga and pilates into most days, doesn’t have to be hours, can be just 15 minutes because often that’s really all we have and really all you need!”

You can find Jess’ videos on her website and social media here

  1. How soon before the wedding should a bride start incorporating Pilates into her routine to feel and see noticeable benefits?

“Ok, so, my honest answer… would be, yesterday! Because the sooner you can start moving the better! Again, does not need to be hours at a time. Maybe it’s a 10-minute ab series, and not because you’re striving for this perfect six-pack. But because that’s just somewhere easy to start. 

You don’t need much, you don’t need equipment, you can simply lie down and start! You will also feel the rewards of that, and there is something nice about feeling the burn and I don’t say that because you’ve got to be burning calories and sinching in your waist – I say ut because it’s true. It feels good to know that what you’re doing workout-wise is affecting the body, it’s just a reward mechanism!

A good 2 months before your wedding, you will feel and notice a difference. You will feel a difference from day one, particularly if you’re new to exercise, just 10 minutes of exercise will make you feel good! But if you want my honest answer on how long it takes to affect the body through training, probably stay consistent for at least 2 months.”

  1. Habits are HUGE! For a busy bride-to-be, what habits do you think could be really helpful for them to build when it comes to movement / mindfulness?

“My habit advice would be; commitment, action, doing something daily.

Even if, you’re still a full-time very busy working bride, and that commitment is a 15-minute walk after your lunch but it just depends on what works best for you, so you have to look at your schedule and factor this into your routine. 

The next one would be sleep. You really need to protect your sleep and not be so stimulated in the evening, the better you sleep, the better you recover.

If you can get out and walk a little every day and get a little bit of fresh air, then actually, your mental health is going to be in a better place!”

  1. What are the mental health benefits of Pilates, and how can they complement the emotional challenges of wedding planning?

“I’d say the mental health benefits are managing to turn off, that ability to switch off and not let everything else distract you. On your wedding day, there’s going to be a LOT of things running around your mind, so the ability to just zone in, and enjoy the moment, to be IN the moment, as opposed to worrying about everything that is going on outside of you. 

It very much is intrinsically being able and notice how you feel, often at the start of my classes, I will say just take a moment to check in and see what’s going on in your body and see how you feel. You can absolutely do this on your wedding day, you don’t have to stop, and you don’t need to make a big deal of it, but it just becomes second nature. So again, as I said earlier, the sooner you practice the sooner all of this becomes natural.”

To celebrate the start of my wedding wellness blog, I am now offering planning and pilates where we would meet and do a pilates class together (or via Zoom!) and also do some power planning together! To book a pilates and power planning session, please fill in a form or email alicia@aliciamarieweddings.co.uk