I got this sweet note from a reader while I was pregnant with the Twins:

“Hi Taylor

I am amazed at how you have stayed the amazing Super-mom while being pregnant with your twins; it is possible for anyone right? Can you please write about this?”

First of all, I’ve always marveled at how EASY pregnancy is—when someone ELSE is pregnant.

LOL, but it’s true.

A student of mine is now 22 weeks pregnant and I swear, she just told me she was pregnant yesterday.

It’s flown by so fast!

For me.

But when it’s you who’s carrying that little baby(s), it can be a long road, especially if you have nausea, vomiting, exhaustion, varicose veins, insomnia and any of the other difficult side effects that can accompany the miracle of creating life.

I personally get this weird “itchy” thing at night. My upper arms itch so intensely that I scratch in my sleep till my arms bleed. I googled it and read that a lot of people get this in relation to the seasons and hormones. Literally the only thing that helps—the ONLY thing—is ice packs. So while pregnant, I sleep with ice packs on my upper arms. Or I don’t sleep at all.

I also get this super-uncomfortable/awful “chill” thing. Only my mother-in-law and sister-in-law seem to understand this one (no midwife I’ve asked has ever heard of it), and maybe they’re just trying to make me feel better (LOL), but it goes like this. When I get in bed to go to sleep, I get this subtle but painful “chill” going through my body about ever 15 seconds. EVERY FIFTEEEN SECONDS! Try sleeping with that happenin. It ain’t gonna happen, Sister. And it’s so incredibly uncomfortable to boot.

But you know what? It’s all worth it. So worth it that I did it five times.

How to continue on while so many symptoms (and emotions—helllooooowwww hormones) are pervading your being?

It’s all about the power of the focus of your mind.

This is your yoga.

Where are you focusing your mind?

Where are you looking?

What’s your drishti? (A Sanskrit word that means “gaze or point of focus”)

Because Girl, if you’re walking down “I feel sorry for myself street,” it’s gonna be a loooonnnnng 10 months.

So what I learned, slowly but surely, through many months of many pregnancies, is to focus on the good. Moment to moment.

And to continue to “live.”

To take the necessary precautions for safety (no skydiving my Sisters!), but to continue to be “you.”

To remember who you are.

Throughout the pregnancy.

And to remember what it’s all for.

I remember when I was pregnant with Madison (now 13), and feeling so sick, so nauseous, throwing up 20 times a day, and almost nightly lying down on the floor and just sobbing from the overall discomfort of it all.

Then my husband’s assistant gave us a little white onesie set. This was super early on Supermoms, at like 7 weeks pregnant.

I stopped in my tracks, looked at that little white onesie set, and said to myself “Oh, yeah, THIS is why I feel this way. I’m going to have a little baby.”

I gazed at that white onesie set as often as I could, remembering what it was all for.

So that was my yoga, during my 5 pregnancies, remembering who I am and remembering what I was doing—the most miraculous thing on the planet: creating life.