| The spiritual growth which yoga stimulates, can also play havoc with relationships outside your home and family. A developing yogi can increasingly find themself in a conversational void with people who are solidly attached to a life direction in apparent opposition to the one you are now taking. Not that the spiritual life and the everyday life are incompatible – they should in fact be integrated – it’s more that one’s perspectives on mundane things can alter greatly as your meditation deepens.
A pregnant woman and a new mother can also encounter a similar situation. It is frequently said – by those who haven’t been there – that new mothers are dreadfully boring because all they want to talk about is their new baby! Yet, if this criticism were to be returned, it would be the free and easy singles with their endless talk of parties and films, mating rituals, restaurant dinners, holidays and job opportunities, that the new mother now finds irrelevant!
As your life priorities change – due to a change in your inner, spiritual needs as well as your practical, maternal ones –
some of your friends may think you are |
“going a bit weird”.
“It’s the yoga”, some will whisper behind your back.
“It’s the hormones”, others will say
Well, actually it’s both – but that’s OK!
Out and about in the community, naïve and insensitive comments about your pregnancy can really wear you down.
“Oh you’re not going to that hospital are you. I’ve heard it’s a dungeon”.
“You look like you haven’t been getting much sleep lately”.
“Well, yes actually. You’re right. I am very tired. Have you tried sleeping with a watermelon down the front of your pyjama pants lately?” – you may feel like replying.
The best approach to handling such shifts in social interaction is to try to remain detached and to accept that there is an instinctive need to pull back into your nest during these times. Your real friends, those who have done some spiritual growth work and those who can empathise with motherhood, will recognise your changes for the better and accept that you are temporarily out of the social loop. The others will probably just drift away (if you let them). And have faith, that as some old doors close, new ones are sure to open up. | 
