What if motherhood itself was considered a practice of yoga?
This heartfelt reflection from one of our Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training graduates Elena, explores how the simple acts of caring for a child can become expressions of selfless service, devotion and compassion, while offering a new perspective on our changing bodies after pregnancy and birth.
Elena is from Guadalajara, Mexico and wrote this piece originally in Spanish. If you are a Spanish speaker, you can read Elena’s original article here: Motherhood Transformed My Sādhana.
Before becoming a mother, I believed my sādhana—the spiritual practice we cultivate day by day to transform our awareness—existed primarily on my yoga mat: during my asana practice, in meditation, through pranayama, or by consciously choosing the foods that nourished my body.
Today, as the mother of an 18-month-old son, I understand that my deepest practice begins when my son wakes up each morning and continues until I tuck him into bed at the end of the day. Motherhood has taught me that sādhana is not defined by where it takes place, but by the presence, intention, and awareness we bring to every ordinary moment.
For me, parenting is a living expression of Karma Yoga, the yoga of selfless action. Everyday is made up of countless acts of service: preparing meals, cleaning, carrying, comforting, playing, guiding, changing diapers, moving through sleepless nights, and still waking up ready to begin again. These are repetitive tasks, often invisible and performed without expectation of recognition. Yet when I approach them from a place of love rather than obligation, they no longer feel like chores; they become a spiritual practice.
My son is unaware of the effort it takes to care for him, and he does not need to be. His love for me is not dependent on everything I do for him. Understanding this has brought me closer to the true essence of Karma Yoga: acting without attachment to the outcome. I do not care for him expecting gratitude, validation, or recognition. I care for him because serving is also an expression of love.
Motherhood has also awakened in me a new understanding of Bhakti Yoga, the path of devotion. I once associated devotion with rituals, ceremonies, or contemplative practices. Today, I find it in the simplest moments of daily life. There is devotion in preparing a nourishing meal, in holding my son through a difficult night, in responding with tenderness when exhaustion tempts me to react differently, and in choosing to remain fully present even on the most challenging days. I have discovered that unconditional love is not always experienced as an intense emotion; more often, it is expressed through the conscious decision to offer presence, patience, and care, again and again.
My body did not need to be fixed: it needed to be heard.
One of the greatest gifts of motherhood has been transforming the relationship I have with my own body. Pregnancy and childbirth changed my body in ways I had never experienced before. For a while, I felt the urge to “get my body back”, as though there was a previous version of myself that I needed to return to as quickly as possible. Yet yoga invited me to question that belief and to see my body from an entirely different perspective.
In a culture that constantly encourages women to erase the signs of motherhood as quickly as possible, yoga taught me to choose a different path.
Through Ahimsa, the principle of non-violence, I realised that the journey back did not have to be built on self-criticism, guilt, or dissatisfaction. My body did not need to be fixed: it
needed to be heard. In a culture that constantly encourages women to erase the signs of motherhood as quickly as possible, yoga taught me to choose a different path: one of
supporting my body with mindful movement, rest, patience, and compassion. Each practice became a conversation with my body. I learned to recognise its new needs, to honour its own pace of recovery, and to feel deep gratitude for everything it had accomplished. I stopped seeing it as a body that had lost something and began seeing it as the body that conceived, carried, birthed, nourished, and continues to sustain another human being every single day.
Today, I understand that returning to my body does not mean returning to the woman I was before pregnancy. It means learning to inhabit, with love, the woman I have become. Yoga has taught me that healing is not about going backward, but about embracing every transformation with acceptance, kindness, and profound gratitude. Perhaps this is one of the greatest lessons motherhood has brought to my sādhana: understanding that the purpose of the practice is not to return us to a previous version of ourselves, but to accompany us with awareness through every stage of our evolution.
Motherhood has taught me that yoga is not measured by the amount of time I spend on my mat, but by the way I respond to life. Today, I understand that yoga is not limited to asana; is revealed in the way we meet each moment: by taking a conscious breath before reacting, embracing uncertainty with patience, and choosing love even when exhaustion seems to take over.
* Stock image via Unsplash: Bethany Beck
Further Reading related to this topic:
- A Deep Dive into the Connection Between Yoga, Philosophy, Femininity and Motherhood by Ana Davis
- Yogic Philosophy: Tuning into your Intuition During Pregnancy, Birth and Parenthood by Claire Holloway
- The Sādhanā of Motherhood: tips for integrating yoga into daily life by Nadine O’Mara
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