52. Yoga and Parenting: Healing Postpartum Anxiety with Sarah Ezrin
Motherhood has a way of rearranging everything, our bodies, our rhythms, and our sense of self. In this episode of The WandHERwild Podcast, Monica Virga Alborno sits down with Sarah Ezrin, maternal mental health advocate and author of The Yoga of Parenting, for an honest conversation about postpartum anxiety, healing, and redefining yoga beyond the mat.
The Freeze of Early Motherhood
When Sarah Ezrin became a mother for the first time, she imagined a smooth transition — a few weeks of rest before she’d be back teaching yoga. Instead, she found herself in the depths of postpartum anxiety following a traumatic birth and the onset of the global pandemic.
She recalls being “frozen,” unable to move through the simplest tasks. “I was frozen. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t get my face washed.” Despite the paralysis, she still made sure her son was cared for, “Somehow the kid was always very well dressed,” she laughs. That detail, both tender and telling, revealed the impossible standards mothers place on themselves while quietly unraveling inside.
When COVID hit, isolation deepened the struggle. Without family support or outside help, Sarah and her husband were left to navigate new parenthood on an island of exhaustion, fear, and uncertainty. “It was an island of anxiety and fear, and it really overtook me,” she shares.
When Yoga Didn’t Help (At First)
Surprisingly, yoga, the very practice she had devoted her career to, initially failed her. “Believe it or not, the yoga actually didn’t help at first,” she admits. “Anytime I came to my mat, it was too quiet. It didn’t feel good in my body, given my tear and what was going on with my pelvic floor.”
The stillness she once sought became unbearable in those early postpartum months. Instead, her body craved movement, something more expressive, intense, even dance-like. Over time, she began to rebuild her relationship with yoga through smaller, gentler practices: journaling, breathwork, and self-compassion.
“I didn’t have two hours to do a movement practice, I had ten minutes,” she explains. That shift from long studio sessions to micro-practices taught her what yoga truly means: not the poses, but presence. “Yoga’s not movement, it’s anything we do to still the mind.”
The Toolkit of Healing
Sarah’s healing came not from a single breakthrough, but from what she calls a “toolkit”, a combination of practices and supports that helped her find her footing again. That included journaling, meditation, outdoor walks, therapy, and medication. She describes it as a cumulative effect, a layering of tools that grounded her mind and body.
“I always thought it was going to be one thing, yoga, therapy, having a baby, losing 20 pounds, but no. It ended up being this incredible toolkit of practices that worked together.”
It’s a message that resonates with many mothers who are still processing the collective trauma of early motherhood during COVID. As Sarah and Monica reflect, so many parents from that era are only now realizing the depth of what they endured: isolation, uncertainty, and the loss of communal support. “We were robbed of that first year, as social creatures, we’re meant to be surrounded by others,” Sarah says.
Writing The Yoga of Parenting
When Sarah began writing her book, she didn’t set out to create a manual or step-by-step guide. Instead, she wanted to offer a compassionate resource for parents who felt unseen by rigid “perfect parenting” advice.
Having been a lifelong writer, her first diary began at age seven, Sarah used words as a form of therapy and curiosity. “Research is me-search,” she quotes Eve Rodsky, reflecting on how her own struggles inspired her to study parenting through a yogic lens.
She read every book she could find on pregnancy and parenting, but found them too procedural, too focused on methods and scripts. “People were starting to feel shame for not being able to follow these strategies,” she explains. What she craved was something more fluid, a guide that honored the imperfection and humanity of motherhood.
That realization led to The Yoga of Parenting, a book rooted in yoga philosophy but written for real life. “Yoga is the umbrella for it all, anything we do for connection and stillness,” she says. Rather than ten steps to success, she envisioned a “suitcase” of ideas mothers could pick through and personalize.
Permission to Redefine Practice
One of the most freeing lessons Sarah has learned, and shares in her book, is that practice doesn’t have to look the same every day. For some mothers, it’s an hour of movement. For others, it’s five minutes of breathing between school drop-offs.
When she asked seasoned yoga practitioners and parents what their practice looked like now, none gave the expected answers. “Even those whose kids had grown into teenagers said, ‘My practice is staying calm when my teenager slams the door,’” Sarah recalls. That permission to redefine what counts as practice is, in itself, deeply healing.
“Books like this and community, hearing stories from people ahead of you on the path, it’s powerful,” she adds. “It’s the reminder that you’re not alone and that motherhood isn’t meant to be perfect.”
The Everyday Rituals That Keep Her Grounded
Sarah’s days now revolve around small, meaningful rituals, sips of stillness woven into the fabric of motherhood. Whether reading a page from her daily Al-Anon reflections, lying on the floor with her legs up the wall, or savoring her morning tea in honor of her British mother, she treats each moment as a connection.
“As long as I’m doing one little thing that is that form of stillness and connection, that’s a day done,” she shares. “One is enough.”
Her yoga has evolved to include play and movement with her children, too, a series of “monkey flow” moments where her kids climb on her during vinyasa transitions, laughter replacing alignment cues. “We do this flow where they hang on me like little monkeys, it looks cool on video, but it’s pure chaos and joy.”
Picture of a woman meditating in front of the sunset.
Redefining Motherhood: The Guest House
When asked to describe motherhood in one word, Sarah paused. “Drowning,” she joked, before softening into something profound. “What a privilege to be a guest house for these souls.”
Her philosophy on motherhood captures the balance between surrender and reverence. “They are not my purpose, and I’m not theirs. I’m here to temporarily care for them, shelter them, and make sure they’re safe. But like any guest house, they’ll leave one day to form their own lives.”
This reflection, part spiritual, part grounded realism, feels like the heart of her work. It’s not about control but connection. Not perfection but presence. And it’s an invitation for every mother to find her own version of yoga: the stillness, breath, or movement that brings her home to herself.
Featured Quotes
“I was frozen. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t get my face washed.”
“Believe it or not, the yoga actually didn’t help at first.”
“It ended up being this incredible toolkit of practices that worked together.”
“My practice is staying calm when my teenager slams the door.”
“What a privilege to be a guest house for these souls.”
Final Thoughts
Motherhood, much like yoga, is an unfolding,a daily practice of coming back to yourself. Sarah’s story reminds us that healing isn’t linear or singular. It’s built from the small, sacred acts we weave into ordinary days: journaling for ten minutes, pausing to breathe, or simply sitting in silence.
Through her journey, Sarah shows that yoga isn’t about the poses but the presence we bring to our lives. The stillness, the movement, the breath, each is a pathway home to the self.
For every mother navigating her own waves of overwhelm, may this conversation serve as a gentle invitation to meet yourself where you are, one mindful breath at a time.
Connect with Sarah Ezrin
Website: sarahezrinyoga.com
Instagram: @sarahezrinyoga
Sarah’s book The Yoga of Parenting is available through Penguin Random House and wherever books are sold. She shares daily reflections and resources for mothers on Instagram, describing it as her “giant group therapy room.” “Instagram is like a group therapy for me, I love hearing from moms, reading messages, and sharing experiences,” she says.
Pictured is Sarah Ezrin.
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