Francesca Lily Yoga: A Day In The Life

Francesca is just 25 years old but she founded her own yoga teaching business two years ago. She aims to inspire, motivate, enhance, challenge and encourage everyone she can during her weekly classes in East London, as well as her blocks of classes in central London throughout the year. Her classes can be found on www.fancescalilyyoga.com and include a variety of styles of yoga including Hatha Vinyasa, flow/dynamic yoga and yin yoga.

Francesca says:

My morning rise tends to depends on the events of the night prior to going to sleep. I teach yoga as well as working in a full time job in the catastrophe insurance industry and having a social life! Due to my busy schedule I urge myself to sleep for as long as I can during busy periods. However when life is a little more breezy, I treat myself to a morning swim, which means rising at 6am. I love seeing the sunrise and sunset all in one day. Regardless of the time I always enjoy some yoga when I first wake up, specifically twists to really detoxify my body. I like to allow time for an herbal tea before heading out to work, walking a couple of miles to the station to get a 20 minute train. I have breakfast when I get in, usually a bowl of porridge with chia seeds and banana. I start my office job at 9.30am but often arrive earlier to work on the postgraduate course I am doing with UCL. Yoga teaching on Saturday mornings starts at 9.30am too. Coffee is my mid-morning treat.

I love learning about the world- everything from culture to climate- understanding global processes and interconnections. So I studied geography at university which comes into my every day assessment of natural disasters to provide accurate risk analysis for insurance to global businesses. My yoga teaching was something I feel like I was always meant to do and it was prompted by learning about the world too. I travelled to Bali to meet my friend who was living in Australia and I went to a class in the Gili Islands one evening, after an amazing day diving and exploring. The teacher was so inspiring I felt a spark light up inside me and I knew I wanted to make people feel how I felt in that moment. I got home from Bali and booked my yoga teaching course with Marianne Wells’s yoga school in Costa Rica. My favourite part of work has to be meeting new people, my least favourite having to find a sensible balance between yoga teaching and my analysis job. I often wish I could be superwoman all the time!

The best advice I’ve received is that if you are thinking of doing something the time is always now. Say yes to experiences and go for it. We don’t know how long we have got to live a fulfilled life. I was always interested in health and wellbeing- my background was an array of sports, swimming, running, and ballet. This led me to take my first yoga class at university alongside jobs including working in a lovely harbour view pub and fundraising for an amazing charity, the RNLI. My will to help others, as well as working at things that I enjoy has led me to where I am today. I think to be a yoga teacher you have to have passion for people. You meet students from all different backgrounds and it is really important to do all you can for them to have the best experience at your class. I’ve never really been hung up on role models as I very much aim to be me but my parents have always encouraged and supported everything I do, and they are the sort of parents I wish to be.

At lunch time I always get fresh air. I’m not sure how fresh London air is but at least its air! I go for a run, meet with friends, complete some life admin or just wander. I eat well and always look to feel full for the entire afternoon. My favourite snacks are rice cakes, Eat Natural bars, and fruit: pineapple, mango, grapes and Wylldson seed mix. I finish my full time job at 5.30pm, and outside of this I teach yoga, participate in other teacher’s classes to learn more myself, go to the gym, socialise, go on adventures with my boyfriend in our VW van or walk my dog. It’s difficult to maintain a set routine and I prefer a level of spontaneity in my weeks. I look to swim one morning a week, run twice, do one gym session and I love gym classes too- spin or body attack. I try to prepare lunch the night before, making enough dinner to extend to a nutritious meal the following day. I must admit my boyfriend is amazing at cooking so he prepares a lot of our food, but we use a lot of fresh ingredients so it doesn’t ever take too long.

I once saw advertised a job as “the Great Barrier Reef caretaker”… Now that would be incredible, documenting coral, fish species, improving the environment. I love animals and once wanted to be a zoo keeper, but then also a doctor. I think I have always looked to care in my job. One day it would be incredible to run a retreat house on the beach cooking up delicious food and fruit smoothies with surf lessons and yoga classes daily. We’ll see.

My 3 online sources of inspiration are:

I follow Rachel Brathen on Instagram- she has some wonderfully inspiring insights.

My favourite app currently on my phone is Spotify for my yoga classes, I love to create new playlists, but always discover new music and get lost in that.

I enjoy looking at a website called ‘The Lane’ for beautiful imagery and travel ideas and also Mind Body Green for a browse on wellbeing!

My top 5 yoga tips for energising are:

Full Wheel

A true heart opener. Completely uplifting and energising. Best to do a posture like this in the morning to set you up for the day. Also good to heal pain/broken heart. Strengthens back, arms, legs.

Seated Forward Fold

Calming, relaxing and grounding, a great posture to do in the evening to prepare for a great night’s sleep. Stretches the hamstrings and eases tension in the lower back.

Firefly

An exciting arm balance that increases strength in the core, arms, shoulders. The preparation of this posture also offers a hip opener. Provides exhilaration and energy, the hover from the ground makes your mood elevated.

Boat Pose Hold

Increases heat and fire in the core, which builds self-confidence. A calming posture due to the stillness and concentration it requires. Also a great stretch for the hamstrings and calf muscles. All encompassing.

Crow

Another arm balance to increase energy and once hovering you feel light and happy. Improves trust of oneself, increases strength of the shoulders, back, arms and core.