Do you ever find yourself kicking yourself at about 10:47pm at night for losing your temper with your child? When it happens to me, I think, ”Yeah she pushed my buttons but why did I get so mad? She’s only nine and the situation probably deserved a glare not a scream with trumpets blaring…”

And thus another installment of Mommy Guilt plants itself securely in my heart.

Which is why I decided to try something new: applying the principles of Yoga to my parenting style, or Yoga Parenting.

The very first thing I did focused on “centering.” How exactly do you get yourself “centered” when you are not in a quiet Yoga room, sitting on a squishy soft mat, with an instructor purring gently about breathing in and out as the light scent of incense floats about? It’s not easy. Especially when your setting is more like a grumpy kid who doesn’t feel like getting ready for school when you know you have a conference call first thing, your dog needs to go out before it’s bladder explodes, and…

Center, center, center. How? Like this: I pause for just 2 minutes every morning (in a fantasy land, it could be 5 minutes, but it’s more like 1 minute and 43 seconds in our world) and take some deep breaths.

Then, when my daughter snaps at me with something not-very-nice, I pause before I reply and take a few calming breaths – this simple tactic gets me centered! And my response comes out in a much more productive manner - peaceful, strong, and in-charge - not flustered, loud and bossy.

We all know if you’re kid says something rudely to you, and you respond back in the same way, you’re just keeping the rudeness-cycle going. But applying that knowledge when you’re exhausted from a full days work, trying to make dinner, and dying to put on your pajamas is really difficult. If you can stop and take a few breaths, it really helps! Try it out!

For anyone who has ever been to even one Yoga class, you can probably come up with many more ways on your own to apply the principles to your own daily life. I actually took an online course (which you can read about here if you’d like to).

I’d love to hear anything else you do to keep yourself sane when dealing with the everyday matters that make up a working mom’s life!

Have a great day!
Swati