The journey into motherhood is different for everyone, and yet one thing is for certain- our lives change dramatically with parenthood. Whether you find yourself a mother through birth, adoption, or fostering a child, there is undoubtedly a process of letting go and shedding of the old self as the new self takes form.

Recently I jumped at the opportunity to chat with San Francisco based Janet Stone about her offering for mothers: Radiant Mom Yoga. In her workshops, and her new DVD, she creates a sacred space for women to take care of themselves, so that they may better care for those they love.

This is not your typical post-natal yoga; rather, the workshops and DVD are more about learning as women to truly, deeply, nourish our selves in a healthy and sustainable way, in a new way that celebrates our path as women.

If you have never practiced with Janet, consider this your invitation. Janet beautifully manifests the path of bhakti— she radiates her love and excitement about all aspects of yoga, and seamlessly weaves devotion, passion, and presence into her vinyasa classes, workshops, and DVDs. Janet has an ability to create challenging flows that allow access your internal power and possibility in a safe and harmonious way. There is something so authentic and clear about her, you can’t help but want to spend more and more time in the vessel of sacred space she manages to hold and tend for all of us.

Radiant Mom Yoga, like her other offerings, is a feast for the eyes. It carries you to a beautiful place you’ll want to visit again and again. Radiant Mom includes two vinyasa practices— one is twenty-minutes, and the other forty-minutes. They are challenging, well sequenced practices that can be squeezed into pockets of time, or done together. As moms, our sadhana, or practice, morphs over the years, and I feel like this practice will be a great place to landwhen we need to reignite.

The beauty of yoga practice is that it can act as a support for the shift in identity and sense of self that is part of the journey into motherhood. As we struggle to let go of the past (our old sense of who we are and what we should be doing in the world), and let go of the future (how we think things are supposed to be), yoga can act as our refuge and place of transformation as we learn to live in the present moment. Janet’s offering does just this: it creates a space of nurturing, caring, and radiant embodiment for women as they access the divine feminine within, the source of bottomless intelligent wisdom and strength.

As we discussed in our conversation, in many ways coming into the circle of motherhood means loss and well as birth: the death (of the old self) occurs alongside the birth and bliss of creation. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to let ourselves off the hook— we don’t need to be that person we were before we became a parent. There is such freedom in that: we just need to be us, grounded in the present moment, doing what we can manage in this moment, with this breath.

Motherhood, with of its messy joy and struggle, can also be an opportunity to wake up to our lives. Through the lens of parenting we see daily how nothing is permanent— just when we think we have something figured out, it goes and changes on us. Being in such clear contact with the changing nature of reality shows us what nothing lasts. And again here we come back to freedom— we are off the hook! No longer tied to being perfect, we are free to explore the world before us. We can release expectation and see what is in all of its brilliance and sparkle.

I hope you enjoy this conversation I had with Janet about her offerings, and I hope to see you at her Radiant Mom Yoga Workshop in January.

Image credits:  #1= Mario Covic; #2= Jody Greene; #3= Jody Greene

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To learn more about Janet Stone, visit her website janetstoneyoga.com

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Emily Perry, L.Ac., RYT-200, is an Acupuncturist, Herbalist & Yoga Teacher. She teaches and writes in Santa Cruz, CA, and can be reached through her website Emily Perry Yoga, on her blog, Elemental, or via email at emilyperryyoga{at}gmail{dot}com.