The genius way Hilaria Baldwin uses yoga techniques to conquer parenting challenges

When I call Hilaria Baldwin to chat parenting, the pregnant mother of three tells me she’s multitasking in the car with her husband Alec (Baldwin, the actor), en route to watch him do a quickie appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s show. Uh, same. 

Her hectic schedule provides the perfect segue to dive into questions about how she manages to accomplish everything she does—Baldwin’s a wellness and fitness expert, author of The Living Clearly Method, co-owner of Yoga Vida studios in New York City, mother, wife and, it must be said, a real babe—without seeming to break a (non-workout-related) sweat. I especially wonder how she keeps it all together when new babies arrive, as they have with impressive frequency in the Baldwin house over the past five years.

The trick, with parenting as with yoga, is to breathe through the burn and stay present.

With a sweet “Oh my god,” Baldwin assures me she has off days just like the rest of us. “Do I cry sometimes? Absolutely,” she admits. “I have had a tiny meltdown after every baby.”

Her trick for regaining balance, she says, is actually borrowed—like much of her advice—from her yoga practice. “I tell my students when they’re in a hard pose to just remember that this is temporary,” she explains. “It’s the same when you’re going through a difficult life transition—it might be difficult at that moment, but you’re going to figure it out.” The trick, she says, is to breathe through the burn and stay present.

Baldwin also falls back on another mantra that she says reminds her to engage her sense of humor. “Somebody once said to me, ‘No baby ever dies from crying,'” she says (of those long sleep-training nights in particular). While it can be difficult to keep this perspective when your tiny human is wailing at you—or, TBH, throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the grocery store—Baldwin says the quote’s true purpose is to give her permission to take a moment to breathe—and laugh. “You’ll then be better capable of handling [the stressful situation] without getting overwhelmed,” she explains.

But through all the chaos (which is a given with three tiny tots), Baldwin says she finds comfort in an idea that she and Alec both have inscribed on their wedding bands. “‘We’re a great team’,” she tells me the rings read. “And that’s really our mantra at home.”

On that note, it’s time for Fallon to start and she must go; however, she leaves me with one last too-relatable thought. “I really have no idea what I’m doing,” she admits with an almost incredulous laugh. “Hopefully, it’ll all work out.”

This is my favorite mantra yet.

This story was originally published on May 15, 2018. It was updated on January 18, 2019. 

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