Motherhood: A Blissful Daze - Harmanjot


HARMANJOT began practicing, studying and teaching Kundalini yoga in 2008 when she met her teacher Guru Jagat. She worked side by side with Guru Jagat until her passing in August 2021. During this time, Harmanjot was instrumental to opening and growing the three RA MA Institutes (Los Angeles, New York City, Palma de Mallorca), and developing the creative programming that made RA MA the unique blend of sacred and secular it became known for. With Guru Jagat’s passing, Harmanjot’s destiny has called her to continue the mission they worked so closely on together. Harmanjot has partnered with top brands to teach yoga and meditation. She is newly contracted with L’Oréal USA as an astrologer to their corporate team. For her client list, which includes Academy Award winners, Golden Globe nominees, executives, artists, tastemakers and individuals of all walks of life, Harmanjot offers private yoga, meditation and various levels of astrology readings. Taking a page from her teacher’s book, Harmanjot is soon to launch her wellness-lifestyle brand aimed at carrying the majestic teachings of Kundalini yoga with fidelity and modernism, empowering the every-woman, expanding magic in the world, and living with irreverence.
Firstly, can you take us to your favorite place in nature, whether that’s a far off dreamy destination or your own backyard. Paint the scene how you like!

I grew up in a semi-rural part of New Jersey. Most people don’t believe that it exists, but it does! It’s a bit of horse-country, a bit of town. I loved it. We belonged to a local swimming club in the Sourland Mountain area of the state. It wasn’t a country club. It was private but very quaint. In any case, this part of New Jersey is so imprinted in my subtle body. So quiet, so thick with green. Dark and cool at night. Shimmering and rich in the day. Old and timeless. A space out of time. I will forever love New Jersey.

Mmm. Thank you! Now that we feel grounded, let's get into your unique experience with motherhood. I’d like to say that your workshop, INFINITY MA, is such a powerful series of practices and intuitive education. I have tuned into the fertility session countless times preparing for conscious conception in the future. Kundalini is a powerful tool for women to access at any stage, but preconception, pregnancy, and motherhood seem like such a ripe time to be engaging with the practice. I would love for you to share with us your relationship to kundalini in conception, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and beyond. 

When I first started practicing Kundalini yoga in 2008, the motherhood practices were an instant draw. I knew from the age of 15 that I wanted to be a mom. But when I say that, I wasn’t someone obsessed with babies and marriage. I definitely trended toward an edgy identity. I wanted to be different, original, an artist. So I was counter-culture. But still I wanted to be a mom. And I wanted to create a healthy beautiful family. I love my parents, but our family was a mess. I'm talking about drama. Pretty awful. I wanted to be a mother, but I couldn’t repeat my nuclear family. When I found Kundalini yoga at the age of 22, I felt I found the jackpot. A method of healing that was visceral, a way to reprogram my childhood, a system of spirituality that was organic, artistic and without dogma. I started teaching that year. 

Cut to 10 years later, after the birth of my daughter I started Infinity MA.

Beautiful. Thank you for that. I think that motherhood is unique to each mother and so much of the time we can try to mother from an intellectual place, rather than a feeling or intuitive place. Can you share with us any thoughts on this and how you utilize and trust your own intuition as a mother?

I love just connecting to my kids. I think the biggest thing a child looks for in their parents is a relationship. They want to know you, feel loved and accepted by you. They want to enjoy you and play with you. So beyond spiritual teachings, enjoying the child-parent relationship is the most powerful of all.

At Milky Oat, our mission is to nourish motherhood. We have very specific guidelines for doing so when formulating and creating our menu and meals but we hope that our meals are a gateway to more self-care and self-love during the postpartum season. I’d love to learn about how you experienced postpartum. Were you intentional with rest? What did your nourishment look like? Did you have helping hands? Boundaries? Practices?

In Kundalini yoga, we suggest the mother and baby stay home, inside, for 40 days in order to let the infant aura regulate on planet earth without a lot of outside stimulus. It is said that the baby who stays at home with their mother for 40 days after birth, and is never more than nine feet away from the mother, that baby will never have insecurity. This time is also to let the mother’s body heal.

I had to jump through some hoops to get someone to hold the baby nine feet near me while using the bathroom or showering, but I really enjoyed simply resting at home with my baby, cooking, nourishing, and taking the occasional visitor

"I did not miss the outside world at all. Both my kids are confident."

In terms of nourishment, I’ve heard you say before that “fruit makes you fruitful”. I love this sentiment, that perhaps eating more of the abundance of nature that mimics our own female form can in turn support our journey towards pregnancy and motherhood. Can you talk about these energetics? 

I am majorly into nutrition. Here are the essential nutrients I think every mother needs:

Zinc to reduce pain in childbirth and prevent tongue ties. Do not supplement with inorganic zinc. Get your zinc from sprouted lentils, hemp seeds, squash, pumpkin and sesame seeds, cashews, milk, cheese, and oysters.

Folate (B9) to help form the baby neural tubes and help prevent major birth defects of the baby’s brain (anencephaly) and spine (spina bifida). Take 400 micrograms (mcg) of folate or get from sprouted kidney beans, peas, lentils, asparagus, leafy greens, citrus, wheat germ, bananas, avocados, and eggs.

Iodine for the production of maternal and fetal thyroid hormones that regulate the development of the fetal brain and nervous system, important for baby IQ. For iodine, do not supplement. Get your iodine from food-based sources such as cottage cheese, grass-fed yogurt, prunes, and sprouted lima beans.

Selenium to help prevent miscarriages, protect DNA, detox mercury and other heavy metals and prevent cystic fibrosis. Take 1 cap of selenoexcell a day and you can use any brand. Selenoexcell is food based, bioavailable, and pregnancy safe.

As your little ones grow and get older, how does your relationship with motherhood evolve? Are there cycles that you’ve experienced as a mother? What about in terms of being a mother, business owner, and teacher? What does this full embodiment look and feel like for you?

As a working mother, I have to juggle bottom lines with being present. Sometimes it's tough. Sometimes I’m wanted by the kids, but I can’t be there. It’s a reality. But owning my business does give me flexibility at times and I can spend more time with my children than some moms I know who work corporate jobs. Either way, whenever I am with my kids, I respond to calls of affection immediately. I feel like a protege of Amma, the “Hugging Saint,” because I am always in an embrace. I also make sure to listen deeply and look into their eyes. I want them to know they are heard and received and how happy I am to have them.

Thank you so much for all of your insight. I’d like to end with a final question on postpartum. On your perfect vision-board of the world, what does the postpartum experience look like for modern mothers? What can we leave behind going forward?

Thank you for this perfect segue! It’s so hard to have the perfect postpartum experience. On the one hand, the postpartum experience is intrinsically euphoric. I look back on my two postpartum experiences and I realize, “Wow, I was high as a kite.” At the same time, I wasn’t all that cognizant of my euphoria. I was happy, but checked out, healing, turned around, breast feeding, getting to know a new person who I loved desperately and who also clung to me and never wanted to leave my body, a new person who I was keeping alive through my nourishment, a new life that I was in charge of. I was stressed, freaked out, still bleeding, hungry, out of my body, looking for sleep, bored and in a blissful daze all at the same time. No emotion was distinct or discernable. It was all just one blurry breastfeeding day into breastfeeding night. I can say I was and am so grateful for my husband who was with me every step of the way. As an artist, my husband also has a flexible schedule and was able to really commit as a parent and partner. For women who are birthing alone or with partners who have more rigid schedules, someone you trust such as a parent, a nanny, an assistant or a trained postpartum doula is an absolute essential to the postpartum experience. Then just stick along for the ride!

 

harmanjot.com

instagram.com/harmanjotkaur

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.