Showing Up Whole

The Yoga of Parenting with Sarah Ezrin

April 04, 2024 Christina Fletcher/ Sarah Ezrin Season 4
Showing Up Whole
The Yoga of Parenting with Sarah Ezrin
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

When the worlds of yoga and parenting collide, magic happens.
Join me for an enlightening chat with Sarah Ezrin, the acclaimed yoga educator and author behind "The Yoga of Parenting," as we unravel the threads that intertwine these two transformative journeys.
Sarah's wealth of knowledge shines through in this episode, offering a practical yet profound perspective on how yoga's essence of presence, mindfulness, and connection can deeply enrich the art of parenting.

Meditation often seems like a luxury we can't afford in our jam-packed schedules, but in our conversation, we reveal its hidden treasures in everyday life. Whether it's grounding ourselves with a simple mantra or just feeling our feet connect with the earth, these acts of mindfulness create spaciousness that carries us through our days.

 With Sarah's inspiring guidance, we explore how these brief moments of reflection can have a lasting impact, helping us show up whole for our children and ourselves.
So tune in and let this episode be your guide to weaving the transformative practice of yoga into the tapestry of parenting.

Sarah Ezrin is a world-renowned yoga educator, content creator, and mama based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
She is the author of The Yoga of Parenting. Sarah loves guiding people along their wellness and parenthood journeys. Her words, classes, and social media are supportive, healing spaces where people can feel seen and heard.
Learn all about her book, The Yoga of Parenting, and her work, at her website here.

Or visit her on
Instagram.
or on Tiktok @sarahezrin

Christina Fletcher is a Spiritual Alignment coach, energy worker, author, speaker and host of the podcast Showing Up Whole.
She specialises in practical spirituality and integrating inner work with outer living, so you can get self development off of the hobby shelf and integrated as a powerful fuel to your life.

Through mindset, spiritual connection, intuitive guidance, manifestation, and mindfulness techniques Christina helps her clients overcome overwhelm and shame to find a place of flow, ease, and deep heart-centered connection.
Christina has been a spiritual alignment coach, healer and spiritually aware parent coach for 7 years and trained in Therapeutic Touch 8 years ago. She is also a meditation teacher and speaker.
For more information please visit her website www.spirituallyawareliving.com

Want to uncover where you need the most energy alignment?
Take her new Energy Alignment Quiz to identify which of your energetic worlds (mind, body, heart or spirit) needs aligning the most!

Or Follow her on her social media accounts:
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Linkedin...

Speaker 1:

And hi everyone and welcome back to Showing Up Whole the place where we discuss balance in mind, body, heart and spirit in every aspect of our lives. And today we are diving into a topic that's deep in my heart, as most of you know. We are diving into parenting, spiritual parenting, but more importantly or more specifically, the yoga of parenting. We are talking to Sarah Isrin, who's the author of a beautiful book called the Yoga of Parenting. Sarah is a world-renowned yoga educator, content creator and mama, based in San Francisco Bay Area. She's the author of the Yoga of Parenting and Sarah loves guiding people along their wellness and parenthood journeys. Her words, classes and social media are supportive, healing spaces where people can feel, seen and heard. So we are discussing all about parenting, yoga parenting and how to combine those two for wholeness. Hi, sarah.

Speaker 2:

Hi, I'm so excited. You know, you and I we had our pre-chat a couple months ago and I was like we should have been recording that because we had such a rich conversation. So I'm even more excited now to see where we go with this and I love what you offer the world and you know. Thank you so much for sharing my book and my voice on here today. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for sharing my book and my voice on here today. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for reaching out, for telling me about your book and for coming on, because I must admit it's so funny. I don't usually do pre-chats to these what most people don't know, and so when we did connect at a pre-chat, there was almost a part of me that was like we should record. We should record. This is all about those real conversations, right, about what it is. I like to dive in to the present moment, which is all about yoga. It's all about being in that beautiful flow. So, yeah, let's see if we can kind of recap our original pre-conversation here. So, tell me, yoga of parenting. This is such an amazing, I gotta say.

Speaker 1:

Your book is beautiful. I've been reading it. It is truly fantastic and I love how practical you create this flow of finding presence in your parenting, the beautiful. And you know you have this beautiful system of the layout where it is like you know your top tips for the summary of each chapter at the end and it's just a beautiful practical mix of flow and ease. So thank you for sending that and sharing that with the world and let's talk about that. What is the yoga of parenting and how do you combine those two?

Speaker 2:

Well, it's funny because you know books go through so many different titles, right? Like what your original idea is and what you're originally pitching, it's very different than what it ends up being. And you know for good reason. You're working with different editors and everybody's got a different opinion. And then you know, as for good reason, you're working with different editors and everybody's got a different opinion. And then you know, as you're writing the story, things just take different shape.

Speaker 2:

In my case, I had a lot of interviews and that was sending me on different directions. You know much, like I assume you know, with your conversations right, these free flow conversations you don't even know where you end up going. So one of the original titles of the book was actually the Perfectly Imperfect Parent going. So one of the original titles of the book was actually the perfectly imperfect parent, and I still love that title, but I think it wasn't yoga specific enough and they really wanted me. You know that was my expertise, right? Like, yes, okay, I've been in therapy since I was eight and yes, I've studied a lot of psychology and I read a lot of books and I almost I got one semester into getting my master's, but I am a I mean that's, I'm a yoga teacher, I've been practicing and meditating for two decades and I've been teaching for 15 years. So they're like, okay, well, you have to kind of stand on that right. Like you can't just like jump into the parenting sector Also.

Speaker 2:

I mean, the whole thing was going to be yoga based but we figured putting yoga in the title would just be a little clearer for the audience. But, that being said, like the term yoga, like the actual word, right the root, and the word yoga, the Sanskrit word, means connection, and I would argue that parenting is connection, relations, right, A joining together of two souls. So sometimes when people I'm like you know I used to think, oh, the yoga of parenting, it changes right. But like now, even just like in the year since the book was finished and I've been talking about it with people in depth, people like you and I get to brainstorm about it, I used to think, oh, the yoga of parenting was like a practice of parenting. But now I'm starting to think it's almost redundant and, like you know, it's almost like saying yoga, yoga or parenting, parenting, because they're just so one in the same.

Speaker 1:

That interconnection yeah, that's beautifully put.

Speaker 1:

And honestly, I will tell you that, as much as I love the imperfect, perfect parents it's beautiful I find that the yoga of parenting is something that it's beautiful.

Speaker 1:

I find that the yoga of parenting is something that, uh, as much as yoga is a way of life, not just what you do on the mat and I mean I think most people who listen to this will will, will, have a general knowledge of that as much as as yoga is a practice of life, there is still this feeling of structure to it, which is what's, which is what's such a beautiful thing about your book is that it provides structure with flow, and to me that's a beautiful balance that that really needs expressing more often in in every aspect of life, because we do have these two signs and and so I find that the yoga of parenting does remind us of that flow of parenting and yet introducing some of that beautiful framework and all of you know how we have these, you know purpose of parenting and authoritative parenting and, honestly, the yoga kind of framework of parenting, I think is something that could really catch on.

Speaker 1:

Your marketing team was right on.

Speaker 2:

Well, you know it's funny. So in what you're talking about too, and you know when we're talking on the physical mat and specifically about physical poses, there's this concept of sthira-sukha, right? Sthira being strength and container and structure, like what you were talking about, and the sukha being the flow and the ease and the looseness and the way that physical, the physical practice is described, or at least you, at least. What we're aiming for in all poses is a balance of those two. So sthirasukha asanam is the yoga sutra that talks about it, right, and it's basically saying posture should be a comfortable and steady seat. So from the parenting lens, that's everything I mean.

Speaker 2:

Most chapters I talk about that spectrum. So I'm so glad that you came to that, because whether it's that particular chapter where I actually used Stirosuka is about boundaries, but we can think about that in so many different ways. We can think about it in like our efforting. In some ways we have the I feel like that strong effort towards things, but then also the letting go of the results, and you know we are constantly toggling on the spectrum and on the pendulum between those two points and finding where we need to be at any given moment, which always changes.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, absolutely. And in every relationship, parenting or other there is this thing of, like you said, the boundaries. So you have the framework, but everything changes all the time, and you can have your basic principles, you can have your ideals, and then all of a sudden you find, well, something doesn't necessarily feel as comfortable as you might have assumed it would have when you set those principles in place.

Speaker 1:

So you have to have that flexibility. So it's just such a beautiful metaphor, I think, for all of the intricacies that comes in these relationships. So, yeah, it's, it's really profound the ability to have that balance. So, all right, so you were a yoga teacher for quite a while and now you have two young children, and this was the birth of the book.

Speaker 2:

That's my third child.

Speaker 1:

So how did that flow for you? Like what? What was that moment where you know, coming from a position of of, of having the background of yoga and your psychology and and all of this understanding of self-development, and then all of a sudden you have a child? What was that transition for you where, all of a sudden, you're like I think I need to actually bring both of these practices together?

Speaker 2:

so you know, in addition to being a long-time practitioner and obsessed with psychology and, you know, very deeply, deeply immersed in it from a very young age, I've also been a writer my whole life. So I think all those lines were happening simultaneously and one would take the forefront for a little bit and then the other, whether it was in my undergrad studies and then trying to get my master's in marriage, family therapy, it was like I went a little more psychology-based and then kind of back towards the yoga or when I'd go through writing jags. So I kind of toggle between all three of them at all times and I've been wanting to write a book since I could put pen to paper. I mean, this is a lifelong dream that manifested, which is so amazing and wonderful, and you know, it's the coolest thing to be able to hold that in your hands, right, and that's why it really is the third baby. It's like you know, it's the coolest thing to be able to hold that in your hands, right, and that's why it's really is the third baby. It's like you know, it's like lifelong birthing.

Speaker 2:

But to put all three of them together, I mean I'd always wanted to write a book. When I got into yoga. Then I was like, oh, I want. You know, when I was in psychology I'm like I and philosophy and I thought what? It was my ego that was driving it, because I wanted, I was trying to write the book that helped me in my moments of need, which are books, so psychology-based books, parenting books and yoga books.

Speaker 2:

There was something missing. First of all, the parenting books I read while brilliant, many of them made me feel way worse about myself. I couldn't find any yoga and parenting books that were a combination. I found a ton of mindful parenting books, which were incredible, but they're all from the Buddhist lineage and I just I was like, wait, what? There's something that's missing here. So I had an aha moment. It was literally like I remember being in the shower. It was, you know, probably the only time I was by myself in like the last you know two years or however long. Yeah, cause I was 20. He was Jonah was about 22 months when I got pregnant with my second. So I wasn't pregnant with my second yet I got pregnant with my second the same day or week that I signed my contract. Oh my God, because my book was due the exact same time Jacob was due, which was April. They were both due in April, but anyways.

Speaker 2:

So the idea to write the book, I mean, obviously I I had a barely two year old. I mean, I did have my psychology background, I had my yoga background. I didn't have the parenting background yet, um, you know, I still don't think I do. I probably won't think I do, even when they're in their forties. But what I? What was amazing and the biggest realization for me was I can't do this book alone, because I can't do this parenting thing alone. I can't do this book alone either. What I'm seeking is a village, and I'm seeking it in the form of a book. And so what if I went to all these different people and I gathered a bunch of wise information and I put it all together into one place?

Speaker 2:

And that was what inspired it. It was like this the hole that was missing from yoga and parenting in general. And then what I needed in that moment, which was that book and a village, and I was like, okay, let's just put it into a basket.

Speaker 1:

It's a powerful time and the way things have been just isn't working anymore. If you've been feeling disjointed, overwhelmed or scattered, you're not alone. Many are feeling that there's a feeling of needing more. Something's missing. What this feeling tells you is that it's time to claim your inner self and step away from the stories you've been taught to follow. It's time to listen to your heart, to heal your hurts and learn to lean into the universe. Having your back, it's time to take all of that self-help book knowledge and embody it, assimilate it and make it your own.

Speaker 1:

I'm Christina Fletcher and, as a spiritual alignment coach at Energy Healer, I can help you take spirituality off of the hobby shelf and into your everyday, sometimes messy life so you can truly show up whole. Through coaching courses, books and more, I make sure you have practical tools to support you through these challenging times. To learn more, check out my website spirituallyawarelivingcom, where you'll find information on how I work, as well as a free guide to releasing the beliefs that have been holding you back. I look forward to connecting with you. Love and light. So when you had the need, when you were looking for the books and you were looking for that beautiful combination of all of your passions. Was it coming from a place of challenge, of something that you were trying to figure out within your parenting, or was it because it was coming from the need, because you were already using certain tools that were working and therefore you wanted to find the outside resources that would?

Speaker 2:

express that? That's a great question and you know, I think, what people think the answer will be. You know, because you you teach yoga too is like they're going to think that we're going to answer the latter. But absolutely not my tools. I could not get my tools to work. I had severe postpartum anxiety. I had mild postpartum depression.

Speaker 2:

It was deep in the pandemic. Nothing my yoga practice was making me feel worse in a lot of ways, because it was too much physical energy when I really needed to be doing something restorative. I could barely focus, let alone sit for a meditation practice. So, no, it was not born out of tools that were working yet. It was born out of me looking for the tools that I needed and the tools that I intuitively knew would work, and let's start applying these in real time.

Speaker 2:

So so much of what I wrote in. There were things that I was dealing with in the moment. And then, because I got pregnant while I was writing the book, and it was an HG pregnancy, which is hyperemesis gravidarium, so I was severely nauseous and throwing up the whole time that, and also trying to take care of my toddler, and still deep in pandemic, like the world hadn't really reopened by this point, you know my husband and I were doing the relay race of daycare and you know, between the two of us care, so it was like, you know, everything was happening in the moment. And then my first set of edits was right after Jacob was born. So everything that I had to do then I got to apply and put into the book.

Speaker 2:

So it was. It was kind of this amazing, like I'm rereading the interviews, I'm relearning from my own teachers. I'm then relearning from things that I once learned a long time ago, you know, and reapplying it. So it was. It was definitely not from a place of like realization or like groundedness. It was actually because I needed it. I needed all of those practices I still do Even now. When I get to reread the book for some reason, I'm like, oh right, I like forget every time.

Speaker 1:

You know, yeah no, that's fantastic and that's it's such a great way I mean, like we talked about having these kinds of conversations and connecting with other people and getting information from other people Such a beautiful way that you had those interviews that you can then put into those stories, but then so much of the book is actually information, not based on interviews, or was a lot of that, yeah, like a lot of the concrete tools that's coming from you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, it's so it's. It's interesting. I think when I first pitched the book, I was still in my small self, I was still in imposter syndrome. I thought that part of what was going to get the book picked up was if I had these bigger names that I was hiding behind. And also I was still shy about being a younger mom, and so my original vision of the book was that it was actually going to be like every chapter was going to be dedicated to a specific parent and then we were going to weave from there.

Speaker 2:

But my editor and thank universe, because she really saw something she said no, you're a good writer, but I want more of you in here. Start to bring in your personal experience. And by that point I had already been. I was in the gauntlet, you know. I had started to come out the other side with certain things and I started to have the material and the juice to be able to talk about it from my perspective. Of course, you know, the yogic theme is like that. So now everything is based around the yogic theme, whether and then. Underneath that, we have a pose to explain it, we have psychology to back it up, we have the interview, but it's also woven together by my own personal experiences.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, which I think is a beautiful thing and, honestly, that's why I think it is important to express that to people, because, honestly, I think that witnessing you, throughout the book, absorb the information and bring things from your past and then weave them into the current moment of your parenting is such that's again the same kind of practicalities and flow at the same time, where it's that structure and then that flow you're, you're integrated and that's one of the beautiful parts of the book. The book it really is that it's, it creates that through you and through your voice. So, all right, so how do you find this is I mean, let's continue along that theme when you actually have witnessed your journey, not just as the writer of the book, but as witnessed your journey, not just as the writer of the book, but as your parenting journey, how do you find the yoga path of parenting actually shifts your parenting?

Speaker 2:

Well, I'll share a story of what happened this weekend, which that's not in the book, that nobody knows You're the first person I'm talking to about this publicly is that we were at a kids amusement park it's like a discovery center and my son fell from one of the planes. What did he say? That on the weekend, wow yes.

Speaker 2:

Yes, well, not only were we there with was I there with both kids and my sister was helping, but, yeah, my son fell from one of the structures and I I don't know if you're at that point in the book, but I actually go through a visualization meditation about imagining different scenarios, from our kids being in the backyard and in a quiet space and what that feels like in our body to them almost coming up to a busy intersection, and what that feels like in our body too, and the final example is them falling off of a play structure. And I consciously wanted these things to be visualized because I want us to feel in our body what the nervous system's reaction is to all of these things, whether you're just imagining it and how our imagination can almost amplify things. Day, because it was all of my yoga practices in one from grounding in what was happening in the present moment because you know your mind can go into a thousand places to being able to be connected and keyed into him to also managing all the people around us. I mean, it was full on. We had a hospital transfer. He was taken in, thankfully, the CT scan was clear, clear and he's at school today and everything is knock on wood. He had a uh, he was bleeding from the back of his head and like, oh my God, having to have enough breath and feeling my feet on the floor and really tuning into him, and then my other baby is screaming and crying for me and being able to kind of triangulate that energy. I mean 1 million percent. That was my yoga practice. 1 million and 700 percent Because, let me tell you, there are many weekend mornings where I'm like, oh, just sleep in and I get up with the kids, and then I'm like in the worst mood because I'm playing catch up all day long.

Speaker 2:

But I didn't On that day I got up and I did my practice and thank goodness, thank universe, because it really kept me grounded. And it's not to say that there haven't been like. This morning. There was like a like a like tiny little thing that happened and one of my kids cried out and I was like like I freaked out. It's not to say I'm like perfect, but there are by any means, like by by, I think, because I'm still like in a bit of fight or flight from the weekend. But I mean, there are these glimpses where I'm like I can, I can feel myself being the wiser person, or I can almost sit back from it. It's like that, you know, observer as opposed to the doer, and that is all the yoga practice and it's, you know, it's. It's such a relief at times too, because it creates a spaciousness, so you can really plan out your responses in a different way. And you know, respond rather than react.

Speaker 1:

And again it's like, obviously that's why I wanted to call it perfectly imperfect, because it's not every day and it's not all the time, but I think it's interesting when those emergencies do happen, when you have things in place, and I think you bring up a really fascinating point where you know it's always important to remind people how important it is to top yourself up, to keep yourself topped up, to not just wait until you're fully drained out or in an emergency situation, to actually practice that space, that that space is actually what sets you up for the day. You know, the other day I was talking to someone and it's like, well, it's like brushing your teeth. It's like you don't brush your teeth after you get the cavity or just before you're about to get the cavity. You brush your teeth before in order to prevent the cavities, like that's, you know it's the same analogy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you have to make sure that you're putting those things in place, even though you don't see the reason why you're doing it, so that you have that, you know, gas in your tank in order to be able to facilitate any stressful situations and I don't know, I think. I think it is easier to to flip out at the minor little things that happen in your life and then, all of a sudden, there is something that naturally occurs when there's an actual emergency. It's also fascinating how we can imagine those emergencies, and they're always different than what we thought they were going to be.

Speaker 2:

Well, I also, like I kept checking in, I was like am I in my body? Am I in my body? No, no-transcript in the book about how proud I was that my yoga practice helped me only freak out a little, but I I feel like I was much more calm and even this time and I and I know that it was because of I had done a longer sit I was. I'm just in a more grounded place in my life right now.

Speaker 2:

Um, but it's exactly like what you say, and and something I wanted to bring up, because I hear this from people all the time too is I don't have time to meditate. I don't have time to meditate, not realizing that the 10 minutes that you sit in the morning or the evening which everybody has right, you know you can find your 10 minutes, you know, even if you're sitting on the toilet, but that that that 10 minutes is actually going to create a spaciousness throughout the rest of the day, so that you're not constantly playing catch up the rest of the day there, that you there's a breathability in everything that you do and you actually end up finding you have more time. It's the same hours of the day, but there's more spaciousness. I don't know how or why it works, you know, but it's. I mean, this is the science of it and it's fascinating.

Speaker 1:

It is absolutely fascinating and it's interesting because as long as you're telling the story that you don't have the time, you won't have the time. But if you start looking for the two minutes and then the five minutes, and then you'll find that all of a sudden it peaks up and that can be just a question of putting down your phone, you know, because most people will spend five minutes on their phone, you know. So it's like okay, well, if you, if you replace that with that connecting in, then, uh, it just builds from there and also like it doesn't have to be so here.

Speaker 2:

I'm also very much on my phone a lot. You know I talk about that in the book too. Like I am on my phone all the time, but I like I just want to be clear too, like it doesn't have to be like put your phone down and sit in silence for five minutes Right, and I know you know this. But like just to remind our listeners, your listeners, is that like just even getting outside for five minutes and just like feeling your feet on soil and breathing can count tremendously 100%.

Speaker 1:

Meditation does not need going for a walk. Yeah, it's literally, you know, like taking a few minutes to put your hands on your heart and leaning. Um, you know practicing. One of the things that I often pass on to clients is just the simple mantra of I open to love, I receive with love, I give thanks with love and I connect with love. That's it.

Speaker 1:

I love that and you will find yourself feeling far more present and far more in the moment. It's amazing how little time it takes to actually create that space for yourself. It's like a little flip of a switch of awareness, isn't it? It doesn't have to be the big scary meditation.

Speaker 2:

Yes, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, and I mean, I think there's a level of intimidation that comes in with that pause. So you were already practicing yoga. Did you have a struggle when you started implementing this? What, as a parent, what was your negative chatter around, but I'm a parent. Do I have time to actually do this Like was there any question? Or did you glide through that?

Speaker 2:

My meditation practice has been off and on my whole life. So I started meditating. I didn't even know what I was doing. When I was 12 years old, a therapist taught me visualization meditation and honestly, I thought it was just an easy way to get out of talking for the 20 minutes and I would lie on her couch. But I was doing it, I was actively doing it, and I've always had a really big imagination and I've always been able, I've been, I've, I'm highly sensitive, I've always been a feeler. So we know what I was like in it, you know, and like like the little actress in many ways. So you know she's, you know she's like, picture the sand, I'm like picturing, like the glistening, you know I'm like down to it and I found it so grounding and it was so helpful and it, you know it, just planted these seeds and this interest in spirituality at a really young age.

Speaker 2:

And then I didn't really get into yoga until I was 19. And I would like dabble here and there with the meditation of it. I started with asana but I loved strong, fast flow, like that was because I'm like super fast and scattered. So I was like, oh, what's the thing that matches my personality. So I got into like the hardest classes and you know ashtanga yoga, you know which is a six day a week practice, two hour practice, and you know very dedicated and you know my meditation would be at the end every time. But I never really had like a dedicated sit practice, honestly, until the last year. And I like like dedicated, I mean again I would, I would go, I would dabble and I always practiced and I loved pranayama and and, but like the actual sitting on a cushion keeping my bum down, that's only been in the last year and I I think part of it is my body is kind of broken right now. Those strong, fast flows, you know I love them but they don't feel great. In the same way I'm not getting that same dropping in because I'm in so much pain.

Speaker 2:

Um, and when I do work out in a, in a way that I almost want to be like I want it to be loud and bright and you know so I'm, I'm still I'm missing what I was getting from my asana practice, which was the dark room and the quiet and the tuning in. But since I can't get it through my body, I now I'm just getting it through the sitting and I actually prefer the sitting. I realized now that like, oh, the movement was kind of distracting me from what I really wanted to be doing. So it's been an interesting transition.

Speaker 2:

It's been cool kind of learning in real time, you know, just getting more and more dedicated to it. Because I remember my teachers would always say like you just wait, wait, until you get older. You're not going to be wanting to do your leg behind your heads in the same way and you're going to be more into like wanting to do the long sits. And I was like, yeah, right, I'll be doing like behind the head the rest of my life, but you don't know, I would much rather sit now than actually do down dog, which is wild. Yeah, I never thought I'd say that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I can believe it. I can believe it Well, and and we're living in such a changing time too, so things are changing in our responses and relationships, and things are changing as well. So it's fascinating to hear you say that Out of curiosity, because your kids are now old enough to see this. No-transcript.

Speaker 2:

Uh well, I do most a lot of it before they wake up. But they, they always know when I'm I'm doing my yoga practice and they're they will like they're very respectful of Shavasana, they're very respectful of those last few minutes where I would sit and get grounded. So, you know, I'm not sure they they see like the shift in that way. Um, I probably should do it more often in front of them because I know modeling is such an important teaching tool, but I think they know when I'm doing my spiritual practices that they are aware of and they treat with respect. My eldest has his own yoga mat and loves to come in and do yoga and sit crisscross applesauce and all that.

Speaker 2:

And then my baby I mean I was meditating with him, really like on my body in the very beginning because he was, he's, on me all the time. If he could be, he'd be on me all the time. He's 16 months, but you know, so I would breathe with him and do different things with him. So you know he's, I think it's just like a part of what we do. It's not something that they noticed because you know, like you said, it's like how many times a day does mom brush her teeth, like you know. I think it's just something that's just part of our daily routine. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Well, and that's exactly. It's a fascinating thing when it is for the kids that are raised with it as part of every life, everyday life. It's a fascinating shift that happens and I always find it interesting. The kids who chose to come when mom didn't know this stuff Because I mean, I know personally my children, like my first two children, had to actually deal with, you know, stress mom who was figuring out how to implement these things, and they, they really really found the contrast.

Speaker 1:

So it was like, yes, mom, please go, meditate, please go, you're much easier to deal with. Like they knew that structure, whereas by the time my son came along, that that was already so in flow, so he didn't have that same contrast. However, there he does integrate it far more into his everyday life, even at 14, because it's just part of his everyday life. So he would probably, rather than a an emergency tool, he would use it as an integrated tool. So it's a fascinating thing where kids come to choose and I do feel like they choose when they're going to come in on on your journey and explore that.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, I mean the. The other thing that it was bringing up for me is that. So they may not see like the 30 minutes sit in the morning, but they will see if I, you know, snap at Dada and then I apologize to them and I'll say and to him in front of them and say mama didn't get to meditate today. So I think that's also important too is, you know, even they may not be seeing it literally happening, but show them the results right Of when when you're being more conscious and when you're you're doing your practice, versus when you're not. But yeah, I mean, we'll see. You know it's TBD, because I know some people that are yoga practitioners whose kids just were fully into it, and then I know many where they just reject it because that's like that's what mom does you know so well.

Speaker 1:

and I think also those are things that happen in waves, right, yeah, as long as it's not pushed, as long as it's not like oh, you should do this. No-transcript, you could if you wanted, or you know some kind of mindfulness or something. It's like I never lie of how to do that, because it is their own personal journey. Yeah, the rebels, they is their own personal journey. Yeah, the rebels, they discover their own path.

Speaker 2:

And maybe they, like you said, maybe they'll come back to it later in life and it'll be. You know, who knows right? I mean, it's their journey, it's their journey.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. This is. I'm so excited for your book to be out into the world, so you have your website. Let's make sure everybody knows where to find it. You can get it, I'm sure, on Amazon and everywhere as it is.

Speaker 2:

Yes the book is available everywhere. Books are sold and my website is sarahesaranyogacom.

Speaker 1:

Okay, brilliant, and when they go to your website, they'll find out about the book.

Speaker 2:

Do you?

Speaker 1:

also have services that you offer online? Or is it simply the book? I haven't checked out your website?

Speaker 2:

I will. I have a lot of on-demand classes through different sites. I've got some free classes up on YouTube. I'm adding more content all the time. I'm not currently teaching, I just let my asana classes go, which is just, you know, further evidence of my kind of moving away from that. But I have a meditation course that's coming soon and you know, I mean it's all like the integrated stuff, the pranayama and a little bit of movement. But yeah, it's. You know there's exciting stuff. I'm probably most active on Instagram. Honestly, that's where I spend a lot of time way too much time but I love interacting with people on there. So please feel free to reach out, send me a message and ask me any questions.

Speaker 1:

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for coming and having this conversation. Thank you, christina, thank you so much and sending all our best for your third baby, the book, and also your other two babies and your whole family. Thank you, all right. Thanks so much.

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