This article is part two in an ongoing series.

1. When I close my eyes and breathe in deeply, I feel …”an expansion across my chest.”
2. If I could sit with my younger-self right now, I would tell her …”everything she is experiencing is actually happening and she is going to get help.”
3. To know the power of yoga, is to know …“my body and myself.” 

As a mother, you carry your child in your body, connect with them and protect them. Then, a time will come when you have to teach them how to connect to their own bodies and manage their own feelings. Meet an intuitive mother of three who believes we must meet our children at the intersection of their emotions and physical awareness in order to help them build a true connection to yoga.

“What would it have been like to have these tools so young? There could have been a lot of different things that happened in my life if I had known how to find my breath or if I had known how to ground,” Kim reflects wistfully with a thoughtful pause.

The poignancy of her words makes way for a truly intimate conversation between two mothers.

Kim wears many hats. Alongside mothering, she owns a yoga studio, is a Reiki healer and works as an end-of-life companion. Her no-holds-barred approach to life is wrapped around her intuitive gift to feel other people’s bodies inside her own and then suggest the right healing tool.

But finding her own healing, she says, has been key to bringing her children into her practice. “I recently discovered that I have CPTSD, so it changed a lot of things …recognizing this is what my experience is, rather than some generalized anxiety or stress. So through that, I have to be able to regulate myself so I can be present with them. And a lot of times it means being present to their pain.”

We may wonder, what does it look like to teach our children to have an early capacity to hone their emotions, especially since physical awareness can be a complicated concept?

“We use meditation when they are having a lot of emotions. I have this vivid memory of my 3-year-old yelling, ‘I need to do a meditation!.’ I thought, I’m so glad you are doing this, I’m not thrilled you are screaming and crying at me but we’re going to do it! Get the phone!” Kim reflects with a contagious and hearty laugh.

When our children emote, we need to believe them. Creating exposure and opportunities to explore those mind-body connections through yoga and meditation, Kim believes, is essential.

“There are a lot of conversations that can come from the practice when you are talking about the body. Then you have to build trust with them … the trust needs to come back where you are able to say ‘I hear what you are saying to me and now we are going to do something together about it.’”

And, is it ever too early to start your child on their mind-body journey?

Kim shares a memory: “There was a distinct moment [practicing with] one of the teachers in SOULFEST Revolution Festival … and the baby took a deep breath with us. I don’t think he was even a year old and then he repeated it! I don’t think it is ever too early.”

Micaela V. Rosario lives with her husband and daughter in New York City. Becoming a mother, divinely reshaped the way Mica chooses to show up in her life, in her yoga practice and in the world. With her writing, she wants to empower mothers, women and young girls to prioritize honoring their authentic spirits in order to fill the world with the greatest feminine superpower: empathy. Her dream is to spend the rest of her life living near the ocean writing: copy for wellness brands, short stories, poetry and prose centered around motherhood, wellness, relational growth and spiritual development. Follow her @thecopymami and at meditationsinprose.com