On the list of life’s biggest hurts, divorce ranks high when it comes to kids. For parents, the transition can bring on a host of stressors—emotional, financial, and physical—making it that much harder to focus on the instinct to protect your children, says kids’ mindfulness and yoga teacher (and recent divorcee), Susan Verde.

“It’s hard to separate yourself from the worries that come with divorce, like money, custody, and visitation, change of lifestyle, and loss. If you’re lucky, many of these things go smoothly, but it’s still an enormous transition, especially for the children involved. A more difficult divorce can be filled with a lot of animosity, sadness, guilt, and other intense emotions,” says Verde. To read more from Erika Prafder, click here.