Balancing Motherhood, Yoga and Writing

It’s strange how relaxing it is to just come away from home for a while and be in a different place. We are at my partner’s family in Devon now, having arrived yesterday afternoon after a 5 hour journey. The Pibler has already happily discovered the contents of the kitchen cupboards and is currently playing with pots and pans on the lounge floor, so I thought I’d grab this moment to write.

I managed to fulfil my Suite 101 writing commitments before leaving, writing a book review on Alfie Kohn’s wonderful, thought-provoking book Unconditional Parenting. It was fun to write, and reminded me of the core concepts by which I hope to parent: trying to see my child’s perspective, being open to solutions rather than trying to control, and giving him as much choice as possible.

The train journey up was quite stressful, as both trains were packed full of holiday-makers and the Pibler got fed up with not being able to exercise his new ‘legs’. He is now walking so ‘fluently’ and even ran a little yesterday when we finally arrived, and he was released from the constraints of public transport!

Next time I think we’ll have to get him his own seat, as it was quite challenging keeping him occupied on our laps and on the table (luckily we’d reserved table seats). I don’t wish to contemplate what the 12 hour flight to South Africa will be like next May!

My ‘in-laws’ house is beautifully decorated in a subtle way - to me Christmas decorations need to strike that balance to avoid being kitsch or overkill. For now, it’s fairly quiet, until the rest of the family arrive this evening. The Pibler will then have his older cousins to entertain him and I’m sure the noise level will go up considerably!

My yoga practice was non-existent yesterday but today I managed a few exercises this morning, and even a sort of ‘meditation’ where I did a few lovely affirmations to myself, and just generally tried to set up a good energy for the day. I’m getting back into affirmations again, because they really do have the power to shift you out of a mood and into something more positive.Well, that’s all for now! Happy Christmas!