SARAH EZRIN is the author of The Yoga of Parenting. She is world-renowned yoga educator, and content creator based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives with her husband, two sons, and their dog. Her willingness to be unabashedly honest and vulnerable along with her innate wisdom make her writing, classes, and social media great sources of healing and inner peace for many people.
Sarah is a frequent contributor to Yoga Journal and LA Yoga Magazine as well as for the award-winning media organization, Yoga International. She also writes for parenting sites Healthline-Parenthood, Scary Mommy, and Motherly. She has been interviewed for her expertise by the Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, and Bustle.com and has appeared on television on NBC News. Sarah is a highly accredited yoga teacher. A world traveler since birth, she leads teacher trainings, workshops, and retreats locally in her home state of California and across the globe. For more information, visit Sarah on www.sarahezrinyoga.com, Instagram @sarahezrinyoga, and TikTok @sarahezrin.
Welcome everybody, welcome to Spiritual Biz Chat for Spiritual Biz Magazine, I am your host, Kimberly Maska, and today we have joining us an author and a world-renowned yoga educator Sarah Ezrin. Sarah, welcome and thank you both for being with us, how are you doing today?
SARAH EZRIN: Fabulous, exhausted, anxious, elated. All the feels honestly! Ha.
Haha, Excellent! Sarah, have you always sort of known that you were going to build your career in teaching, be it spiritual or educational or any other sort? How and when did you get on this path to your current life’s purpose and work?
SARAH: I mean, I’ve always loved managing and producing. I started working in the film industry right out of college and had dreams of running a studio one day or becoming a producer (read: boss babe) but when my mom got diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, I had a moment of reckoning. I realized that I was just in that industry because that’s what every other kid from LA was doing. Yes, I loved movies, but the industry was toxic, and I was deeply unhappy. What I felt most passionate about was spiritual seeking. I had studied psychology in college and started doing yoga then, as well. Yoga was my refuge from my high-intensity job and when my mom got sick, I realized that life is too short to not do what you love all the time! The day she received her terminal diagnosis, I walked off the movie lot and into a yoga teacher training and I never looked back.
From your personal experience, how do you daily manage working from home AND raising two very young kids at the same time? What have you learned along the way to becoming both a conscious parent AND a conscious business owner?
SARAH: It’s a lot. There is very little downtime, which for my nervous system (I’m an introvert and highly sensitive person) can be quite challenging. My trick is to wake up well before the rest of the family and carve in that quiet time. I will wake up as early as 430a every day, just to have a few hours by myself. It’s a game-changer for me. It allows me time to work, but also to simply reflect. Then, throughout the day, I try (TRY being the operative word here) to set boundaries on my work hours. I love what I do and my work bleeds into my life, so I must set specific hours that I’m answering emails or offline, otherwise, I will never stop, which means I will never refuel.
Understandably, your clients are not only adult parents but also indirectly their children. What is the number one tip you give to spiritual parents on how they can share spirituality with their kids?
SARAH: Our greatest teaching tool is modeling. You can’t force spirituality on anyone, especially those closest to you (ahem, kids, partners, your own parents!). But your family can learn by simply being around you if you are a seeker. They will notice when you take those deep breaths or when you ask for a nervous system reset. They will remember that you had the wherewithal to step away during an argument instead of going toe to toe. And before you know it, your kids will be the ones saying to you, “Take a deep breath mama!” or “I think you need to go to yoga.”
As expected, the majority of our readers are spiritual entrepreneurs, and many of them already have or are planning on having kids and are looking for ways to incorporate their kids into their own spiritual journey. Are there simple and effective exercises that spiritual parents can try with their children to help them connect to their intuition and find their inner spirit?
SARAH: I think embodiment is one of the surest ways to access our intuition. Specifically, the practice of letting your body move you. Whether that’s putting on music and dancing with your kids in the kitchen or rolling out a mat and doing yoga poses or going in the backyard and just jumping around, when we try not to overthink our next move and instead let our body move us, we sharpen the ability to listen to our deeper wants and needs. You can clearly tell, “Ugh, I want to just lie down right now” or “Woohoo, I want to jump!” which in time becomes “Ugh, this job situation doesn’t feel aligned” or “This is my new favorite mom friend.”
Are there certain signs of when your child is ready to be introduced to different spiritual practices such as yoga, meditation, etc? Is there such a thing as a kid-friendly introduction to it all?
SARAH: Our kids are our greatest spiritual teachers. They need no introduction because they come into this world as present, perfect, loving beings. We can learn so much by slowing ourselves down to their pacing and by letting them lead. I’ve never meditated as deeply as when I’m lying with my baby while he nurses. My toddler takes me on adventures where my mind quiets in ways it never does when I just sit for meditation.
That said, my kids also love doing yoga with me. They sit with me when I meditate and have their own breathing practices. There are kid’s meditation and yoga experts who are geniuses at this stuff—teachers that offer kid-friendly approaches to these tools. That’s not my field of expertise, but I try to intuitively offer my kids teachings based on the age and stage they are in. For example, my eldest is all about imaginative play right now, so our breathing exercises involve a lot of visualization and role play, where my baby just wants to be held while I breathe slowly.
Now, your book The Yoga of Parenting: Ten Yoga-Based Practices to Help You Stay Grounded, Connect with Your Kids, and Be Kind to Yourself comes out in June of this year, congratulations!!! What do you hope to accomplish with this work?
SARAH: Thank you so much! It is definitely my third baby! My goal in writing the book was to give parents permission. There are so many “experts” and resources out there, saying to do this or do that, but we are the greatest expert of our children. We know our children best. Sure, there are effective techniques and styles, but ultimately it is our intuition that is the greatest resource. Of course, this doesn’t mean that we will always get everything right. We will mess up, but we will also learn and then we will grow. Each mistake is an opportunity to learn more and get even closer to one another. I want every parent everywhere to give themselves a whole lot more grace.
Is there a final message you want to let our readers know? Or just any last little words that you have for them?
SARAH: It’s all temporary. All of it. Even the best times. It doesn’t mean we have to enjoy every second of the ride, but hopefully, that truth can help us get through the tough periods with a little more patience, knowing there will be an end at some point. And for the beautiful moments, focusing on the temporality of it all reminds us to savor every single second.
Thank you, Sarah, very much! It has been such a pleasure chatting with you today!
SARAH: Thank YOU Kimberly and the Spiritual Biz team. I’m so grateful for all that you are doing in bridging mindfulness and business, and I’m so honored to be included in your beautiful publication!
