Celebrity Trainer Massy Arias Shares Her Tips for Juggling Motherhood While Running Her Own Fitness Brand

When it comes to mom bods, Massy Arias' is athletic, confident, and always on the move, as evidenced by the Dominican-born fitness coach's Instagram channel. That's where her more than 2.6 million followers go for creative workouts, club-worthy dance routines, and motivational words, delivered in both English and Spanish. It's also where they get to fawn over photos of her adorable, nearly 3-year-old daughter, Indi (short for Indira). After all, she's the reason Arias feels stronger than ever.

Here, Arias shares the most important parenting lessons she has learned since giving birth to Indi, how she manages stress, and how she encourages other women to prioritize their self-care and step into their own power—physically and mentally.

"What I've learned is that there's no way to parent. There's not a specific way to be a parent. Before I had Indi, I had all these expectations of things that I would do. I would never do that with my child or I would do this with my child, and the next thing you know, Indi comes in. I'm doing things that I said I would never do. She doesn't have a lot of phone time, but if I need to pull out the phone so that she can just stay, I will. Or it's inevitable that she'll be at a party, and they'll have cake. There's no one way of parenting, and when you're in it, we just have to find a way to make the best out of what you have."

"Indi has started remembering songs. Her language skills are really developed for her age. So, we have this little karaoke microphone, and we shut down the lights, and we put one song that she actually remembered, and now she's singing. You could actually look at her Instagram page right now (@growingupindi), and you'll see that she has this 30-second video where she's singing full-on with her soul, her heart. I want her to express herself creatively in all these different ways, because I think there's a big connection between just being yourself and exploring those things."

"The most rewarding is just seeing her, how she is. I see myself, I see the traits that she is taking from me on a regular basis. The most challenging is that she's an octopus—she touches everything! Kids are relentless, they are unapologetically themselves, they're exploring, their brains are developing. You have to have 20 eyes on her. She just took a pen and just started drawing on the bed, so I'm like, 'Oh well, great. Thank you, Indi!' They don't listen, you have to tell them 20,000 times: 'Hey, don't touch that, don't touch that, don't touch that.' And they still touch it! But that just comes with the territory of having a toddler."

"I feel like us as females, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves, and we should be doing what makes us feel good. For me, it's about making myself happy. I feel a lot of confidence comes in when you're doing things for yourself, as opposed to comparing yourself to others. I want a better version of my weight. I want a better version of my arms. When you start loving yourself and when you start just working with the mentality of being a better version of yourself, I think things are going to change. You're not in it for the 'gram. You're not doing it for other people."

"I've learned that being healthy is more than just eating well. You can eat well, you can exercise. You can take care of your kid. But if you don't take care of yourself, none of that matters, because stress will be the thing that will disrupt everything. I've been at a time in my life where I almost had a nervous breakdown because I didn't take a break, and as a mom, you don't know when to stop. I learned how to do that this year. In order for you to be productive and be healthy, you have to allow yourself enough time to take a break. On Friday, I scheduled a massage. Allocating a little bit of time for yourself helps you be a confident, happy mom. And a confident woman is a happy mother, and a happy mother means having a happy child."