How yoga prepared me for motherhood

In Mountain Pose, feel your feet deeply connected to your mat. Go beyond your mat and feel the Earth, gently pushing back up against you, holding you, & supporting you. Now, begin grounding your right leg and foot beyond the mat, like roots, deeply connected to the earth mother. Simultaneously, using your inhale, bring your left knee toward your chest, sweep your hands above your shoulders, into stork pose. Focus on balance, flexibility, and core engagement. Spine straight, tips of the ears reaching to the ceiling so the back of the neck remains long. As you exhale, drive your left foot and arm behind you to meet the reaching of your left hand to grasp the inner or outer edge of your lifted foot. Check your breathing. Drive your standing leg beyond the mat and keep that big toe GROUNDED. Open your chest, kick back into your hand, trust, and create a backbend. Your right finger and thumb meet in Gyan Mudra, extending forward inline with Ajna, the third eye. Maintain a strong core and focus your gaze to enhance balance. Breathe into your Dancer's Pose. Natarajasana. Expand yourself in all directions, don’t lose your gaze or focus. With your next exhale, just as gracefully as you entered, release the hand from the foot, return to your stork pose, keep the hips square and recalibrate your breath as you centre yourself, before returning to mountain pose. The real yoga starts now. How can you continue this sense of awareness and embodiment with the world outside of your yoga mat.

Now, allow the discomfort of cold bathroom tiles in Melbourne Winter under your bare feet to just be part of your experience. Take a deep inhale and mindfully, gently bend your knees and slowly lower your bottom on the toilet seat. Keep your quads slightly engaged in the squat so as to not stress the pelvic floor stitches from birthing. Don't forget to keep your breath steady and calm, and repeat kind thoughts like a mantra toward your body as you do your business. Use your right forearm to balance your newborn as they feed from your right breast while you twist your thorax to the left and reach for the bidet with your left hand. Be sure to press the bidet ever so delicately despite holding the activation of muscle and structure throughout the rest of your body. Cleanse your stitches and hemorrhoids, exhaling to manage the shock of the cold water. Allow your breath to move softly. Let the warmth of your tears into the skin on your face, afterall, you don’t have a free hand to wipe them anyway. Feeling annoyed is only an illusion. Emotions are, after all, just energy in motion. Once that feels complete, take a moment to reground, centre yourself and smile at your baby. Bring your gaze back to your third eye and embody the gratitude for where you are on your journey. Bring yourself back to standing with your inhalation. The real yoga starts now. How can you continue this embodiment of mind and body that you were able to cultivate while in the bathroom, into your life outside of this space.