I just returned from a longish time away from Seattle to help welcome my niece Lulu to the world. My younger sister asked me to be birth and postpartum doula (attendant) for her first child and I jumped at the opportunity to go home to help.
While away I was given an excellent opportunity to practice the art of balance, the balance of work and play, of productivity and rest.

As a self-employed businesswoman, I have the great fortune to be able to travel when I wish. I have amazing managers and teachers at 8 Limbs who keep everything rolling smoothly along while I am gone. However, I still have plenty of work to do.

When I arrived in New Orleans on June 25, we had all been so relieved that I made it before Lulu arrived that I hadn’t really considered that she might not arrive til the end of my two week trip, making the purpose of my visit less “productive” (at least that’s how my mind saw it).

In my mind I felt regret for a few days: “why did I come so early? will I even be here when she goes into labor?” Then I realized that I am someone who is very good at working hard and being productive, and also very good at totally unplugging from work/phone/computer. What I found difficult, and what was making me anxious in the days leading up to my sister’s labor, was a challenge in balancing the two. I couldn’t be fully productive: I had my 4-year-old with me who missed her father and sister and was not going to let her mother out of her sight for long, I had internet issues, and I was needed as a birth doula and postpartum helper. But I also didn’t have the option to ignore my work responsibilities.

So I shifted my perspective. With the help of one of my mentors, Heidi, I saw the longer trip as an opportunity rather than a regret. And it made all the difference. Instead of feeling a dread of what I wasn’t getting to work on, I simply made time to work a little bit each day and prioritized. Then I enjoyed my time with family and helped my sister with her big transition to being a mommy.

Sweet Lulu arrived on July 2nd, smack in the middle of my visit. We think she’s the bees knees.

Posted by: Anne Phyfe Palmer

My wife and I recently had our first kid, a baby boy named Octavian. While I am brand new to being a parent, one thing that struck me immediately was how similar in some ways being a parent is to meditation. Both require you to stay with the moment, to simply be present with what is happening, and both require a certain balance of effort and surrender.

While I’ve had a meditation practice for a while now, I will admit that at times, it’s been hard for me to see concrete examples of how I’ve grown through that practice. I might be able to stay with my breath a little longer now than when I started, but I wasn’t sure that my life had changed much as a direct result of the practice. It‘s sometimes easy to think of yoga as something that you do only in a controlled environment – either at the studio or in a meditation corner at home, while the rest of life continues on pretty much as normal.

As a new parent however, I’ve had to call upon my mindfulness practice repeatedly in order to be fully present for my child. A meditation practice has given me a valuable tool in beginning this new journey, and conversely, bringing mindfulness to my every day life allows me to practice yoga wherever I am.

Being a parent has reminded me of why we practice – so that when life calls on us to be present, to deal with a crying child without crying ourselves, to experience the rush of rush hour traffic without losing our sense of calm, or to be there for a friend in need, we are able to call upon our experiences and remind ourselves that “I know how to do this. I know how to stay with this moment and be centered even when other thoughts might be trying to draw me away from that center”

Posted by: Andreas Fetz

“Every year as this season of giving rolls around, I begin to reassess my goals for our family’s holiday traditions. What do I want my children to learn and remember? What seeds am I planting for their future holidays with their own children? What did my parents do that I treasure?
In a world that stresses materialism over spirituality it is difficult to make sense of it all. What I want my children to learn is that receiving gifts provides only a fraction of the satisfaction that giving away one’s love and energy can. I want to imbue their holiday traditions with a spirit of generosity and unconditional love. But how?
It is easy to feel that my days are spent in service to my family, since my primary job is as a stay-at-home mom. But if I want to take my yoga practice further, I need also to look further into ways that I can serve my larger community, ways to practice the selflessness of Karma yoga.
It can be extremely challenging to find ways to volunteer with children, but this last year my diligent searching finally came to fruition. On Thanksgiving my husband, two daughters ages 6 and 2, and I were given the opportunity to serve our community a beautiful and free meal. The day was transformative for us all; unquestionably, this is just the beginning for us. As we continue to create a family holiday true to our own values, we will deepen our commitment to our yogic practice as a family as well.