For Alec and Hilaria Baldwin, there’s no place like Om
Photography by Mitch Mandel & Justin Steele
Picture a busy mother of three children under the age of three. Now imagine she’s also a popular yoga instructor and owner of four thriving yoga studios in Manhattan. She recently came out with a new book, which she is actively promoting. Oh, and by the way, she’s married to Alec Baldwin.
Hilaria Baldwin certainly has her hands full, but somehow she doesn’t seem the least bit overwhelmed. “I spend a lot of time with my kids,” she says. “I plan each of my days around being with them. I want to work and be a very hands-on mom, which means I have to be really present all the time."
For Baldwin, that means yoga. “I’m constantly reminding myself to breathe properly,” she says. “Put one foot in front of the other, try not to get overwhelmed, let go of what is stressful, uncrease my brow, relax my shoulders, use my balance.”
Born in Mallorca, Baldwin split her childhood between the U.S. and Spain. Always drawn to dance, she learned about balance, literally, at a young age, when she studied ballet, flamenco and, later on, Latin ballroom dancing. At New York University—where Alec also graduated—she majored in art history and dance. Baldwin became a dancer, but eventually switched to yoga. As a dancer, she says, “you’re trained to make other people happy, by your performance, whereas yoga can be beautiful, but the purpose is that you’re creating a stretch, a burn on the inside. It can look nice, but the goal is that it feels nice.”
Baldwin is renowned for being able to do yoga anywhere, and spent a year striking daily yoga poses all over New York City—on construction beams, leaning on her baby’s carriage or against her kitchen stove. Just check out her Instagram feed.
Her recent book, The Living Clearly Method, is based on five principles, a kind of roadmap to self-care, which she lays out as Perspective, Breathing, Grounding, Balance and Letting Go. “If you can come to the grounding point of where your body is right now, then you’re physically present. That’s when you can slow down. The hardest thing to find is that center of balance, but once you find it, you know exactly where to find it again. You must unite the body and the mind.” To find that balance, get healthy and stay healthy, she espouses a lifestyle in the book that is based on eating well and regular exercise.
Baldwin, a longtime vegetarian and sometime vegan, followed the advice of her doctor and began to eat fish and eggs when she was pregnant with her daughter. She still does, and her children do, too. And what about Alec? “My husband calls himself a vegetarian, but he eats poultry and fish,” she laughs.
Alec lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for 20 years, but the Baldwins now live downtown, just a few blocks from one of her Yoga Vida studios, and not far from the restaurant where they met. When Baldwin opened her second yoga studio, a group of friends took her out to celebrate. Alec Baldwin was dining two tables away, and he kept staring at her. “He was clear, he knew right away,” she says. “I wasn’t sure. We had completely different lives. I didn’t own a TV. I lived in a yoga studio. He is 26 years older than me.”
It seems that he was a bit shy with her, and even after dating for six weeks, he still hadn’t kissed her. “It was refreshing,” she says, “but a little strange.” When they had gotten to the point in their relationship where they were talking about children, she said, “You know, you have to kiss me first!” Apparently he did, and they all lived happily ever after.
The Living Clearly Method
Loaded with relatable snippets of wisdom and tasty recipes, Hilaria Baldwin’s book is open, honest and smart—like she is—and and features a mean carrot-ginger dressing recipe!
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