Sometimes we need to just breathe….

I just finished a yoga class and as always feel more open, relaxed and tuned in. These days it’s getting increasingly more difficult to move and breathe with ease (thank you baby #2), and I haven’t been able to keep up with my practice or usual exercise routine. It’s forced me to sit back, accept and try to take all a little bit more slowly (not my nature).

The latest pregnancy woe (or WHOA!) has been the excruciating leg cramps that I’ve been getting at night (think charley horse on steroids or someone stabbing you in the calf). The pain has been ridiculous, and I’ve found myself feeling it long after the initial attack. My calf muscles are all bound up, and I’ve resorted to stretching before bed (mainly long holds in down dog with deep breaths) to try and ease the pain.

So far stretching and breathing has been my biggest relief, and today in yoga class I found myself particularly tuned into the power of breath. Vinyasa, of course, is the linking of breath and movement, but we as human beings so often don’t fully breathe (in yoga or in life).

As I sat on my mat practicing pranayama, it became especially clear to me how the simple act of breathing opens us up, and allows us to move towards a place of ease and away from (even if only temporarily) pain and discomfort. We all have our own stresses and traumas, and although none can be healed instantly, the simple act of breathing is a powerful place to start.

The last 24hours, I’ve been thinking a lot about Alison Parker and Adam Ward, and the horrendous situation that occurred yesterday morning. As a former news reporter, it hits home with me, as I’ve stood in her shoes so many times. Countless mornings I’ve been out live, conducting interviews and watching the sun rise with camera men and crews who become a second family. My heart tightens when I think about this tragedy, her bright smile and potential, the lives so pointlessly lost, and the tremendous pain their families must feel. And then I need to breathe. Deeply.

We all have our own traumas. Some much greater than others, but inevitably in life we will all face hardship and pain. We will all come to a place at some point where the pain is so great that it binds us, and we feel like we simply can’t breath. It’s then that we need to most. To let the rhythmic steadiness of our inhale and exhale be our focus, and allow it to open us up, and help lead us away from the hurt. It sounds so simple (and perhaps silly when we are really suffering), but it is perhaps one of the most powerful things we can do.

So today, I say we breathe. Deeply, fully and deliberately. And hopefully, we can all find relief from whatever pain we hold.

Modern Women: Can We Ever Really Have It All?

I was flipping through the channels this morning and caught a tease on GMA about an upcoming story on Bethenny Frankel and new details on her “brutal divorce.”  The segment that followed had Bethenny sharing a couple new details of her bitter divorce and custody battle for her 3 year old daughter Bryn, but focused mainly on her entrepreneurial success. [As an aside I passed Bethenny’s ex Jason Hoppy pushing a stroller on the street in Tribeca a few months back and he’s obviously a real hands on dad (no nanny in site!)]

As I watched the segment I heard all about Bethenny’s new ventures, and, yes, she is a powerhouse. About to launch another book and debut her TV talk show this fall, she seems to be at the height of her career. Not to mention she was recently on the cover of Forbes, and titled as one of “The New Celebrity Money Makers”.

Intrigued by the the former Real Housewife’s current status,  I looked up the full interview online. In it,  ABC News Reporter, Deborah Roberts said something that got me thinking. “Despite the lowpoint, or maybe because of it, Bethenny’s career is reaching new heights.”

Reconciling work and family is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. It seems like we very few modern women can in fact “have it all” — at least not at once.  For women like me who have set career aside for the moment to raise a family, it’s a somewhat strange place to be.  After all, for many years my career was my baby– the thing I poured all my time and energy into, sacrificed for and nurtured into what I wanted it to be.

During my first year as mom I was so focused on baby (and truthfully quite happy to not be working) that I didn’t give my former TV career too much thought. Yet, perhaps it is because motherhood is trying at times and society really doesn’t recognize or credit the hard work that comes with the job; or maybe it’s the fact that I had a coveted job that doesn’t come around often; or perhaps ultimately it’s just my flawed nature of never being fully satisfied and always driving for more and better, but this conversation and question of being a modern woman/mom, and what that’s all about, still happens in my mind.

So, can we really every have it all?

I like the answer Maria Shriver (a woman I admire greatly) gives in this video. She relays that her very wise mother told her that women can have it all… over a lifetime, not necessarily all at once.