Interview with Yoga Instructor and Author, Hilaria Baldwin

Hilaria Baldwin is a yoga instructor, health guru, wife, and mother. Her recent book The Living Clearly Method lays out five principles for moving through our lives consciously and positively.

What does living clearly mean? Being present. Living clearly means getting to a place where you’re living each moment as a well as possible, as strongly as possible, as passionately as possible. So many of us get wrapped up in daily life that feels monotonous. Becoming clear gives you the ability to say, “Hey this is what’s going on, and I’m snapping out of the monotony” and snapping into a place where you can start to make changes that potentially need to be made in order to live your moments in this life as strongly and as best as you possibly can. 

What advice do you have for parents who are feeling overwhelmed by everyday life? When I find the moment where I feel like I might snap I realize that I’m not taking care of myself as best as I should be. The most important thing is to tap inside yourself and summon the strength because getting angry or reacting never makes the situation any better. Getting a little perspective, which is the first principle in the book and saying “this is what it is” and realizing that it will pass at some point. Checking in with your breathing—if you can start to regulate your breath, you are less likely to be tense and then you’re less likely to lash out. If you breathe your body will soften. And then grounding, take notice of your surroundings and become very present, and connect to your physical form and then you can start to find balance, ask yourself “what needs to be done?” And then letting go, letting go of these things. In the hardest moments creating a little more consciousness and a little more clarity will give you a lot more strength. 

How do you keep it healthy in your home with young kids? A lot of it is getting out the bad and having the perspective of knowing your kids might be upset that you’re taking away their junk food, but in the end they are going to be healthier. So knowing that you might have to go through a little bit of a difficult phase in order to get to a place where everybody is healthier. I talk about recipes in my book that appeal to each principle, and there are recipes for improving lung health, brain health, and that help you root yourself to the ground using vegetables that come from the ground, and a salad dressing that has lavender and honey that helps with relaxation. I have toddlers and they can be a real pain to feed. One day they will eat something and the next day they are like, “No, I will never eat that.” You do the best you can with toddlers. They will not be toddlers forever, so you want to encourage them to eat good things so they do eventually grow out of that “no” phase and into being healthy individuals.