by Chelsea Logan: To say you’re busy right now is an understatement. Both your book and The Real Housewives of New York premiere on April 7. How do you balance it all?

Awaken

Bethenny Frankel: It used to be that I would say getting a good night’s sleep if you can get it. It makes all the difference in the world the next day. I still feel that way, but I would say having quality time with your children, if you’re a mom. If I am not with my daughter, that’s when all my meetings happen. That’s when I get right on a plane. That’s when I go and do my book tour. When I am with her, it’s just all with her. I always know that I am where I am supposed to be. I don’t feel torn and I think that is really important. I am also very, very organized. I balance it all by being extremely organized, and I am a very efficient delegator.

CL: You touched on when you are with your daughter you’re fully present with her. Is that something that yoga has helped you improve on—the ability to be fully present?

BF: I mean, yoga is a gift that you give yourself. Right now, I am moving. I am moving an office and an apartment. It would be almost too much of a disservice to be doing a yoga class right now. When you are like a maniac, you just have to accept where you are and what’s going on in your life. I always am able to pick it back up again and never has there been a time that I do it that I don’t say thank you. It’s a gift to yourself.

CL: I love that. What made you first get into yoga?

BF: I was at a gym and I had always heard about it. It was intriguing. I didn’t like it the first time. I think that yoga, it really is a process. Yoga has so many different practices. I don’t really enjoy Ashtanga. I don’t really enjoy Bikram because I don’t like knowing what’s coming. In life, no two days are the same for me. It’s like a snowflake. I like my practice to be unexpected.

CL: What are some of the benefits of yoga that you have seen in your life?

BF: Sleep. It’s like giving yourself a massage. You finish a class, you feel like you have just gotten a mind, body, and soul massage.

CL: I just saw the trailer for the Season Seven premiere of The Real Housewives of New York. There is a part where you are in the backseat of the car talking with Ramona and you say, “Failed show, failed marriage.” How do you pick yourself back up after that?

BF: They are not very similar failures. One is so personal. One is professional and ultimately feels a little bit like a success, because I didn’t enjoy doing the talk show. I think that if you don’t enjoy doing something you are not going to be good at it. They are two very different experiences. A failed personal experience is just fear and anxiety.

CL: Did you find it difficult to film this season when you had so many personal things going on?

BF: Well I said this to Andy [Cohen] recently: If I had done this two years ago, I couldn’t have done it. It would not have been good television. It would have been too dark and it just would not have been a good place. Now it is. There is a story. There is some hope from the beginning of the season to the end of the season. It was definitely a transitional time for me and for a lot of people. I think it was a little bit therapeutic.

CL: How do you find the balance of what to share and what not to share? Or is everything fair game?

BF: I am always willing to share my perspective and my personal experience and my journey. There are friends of mine that wouldn’t want to be on the show, for example. I wouldn’t put them on the show. It’s not for them. Some people believe that they should have two different lives, and one is what they show on TV and one is their personal life. I am not that person. I am pretty exposed. There is a lot to being in the public eye, but I am very blessed.

“Some people believe that they should have two different lives, and one is what they show on TV and one is their personal life. I am not that person.”

CL: A lot of people are going to look at your track record of relationships and read your new book, I Suck at Relationships So You Don’t Have To, and wonder why they should listen to you. How do you respond to the critics?

BF: It’s a “do as I say, not as I have done.” I think that the whole premise of the book is that I have failed so much, but I have learned so much more in life from my failures than my successes.

CL: What do you hope to teach your daughter about relationships and love?

BF: To love yourself and to not settle for less than what you deserve. To be independent and not try to think someone is going to save you or look to someone else to make you happy or look to someone else to complete you. That if you’re happy on your own you are going to be okay.

CL: What are some of the upcoming projects that you are working on?

BF: I have so many different products coming out. I have salad dressing, a natural energy drink, and non-alcoholic Skinny Girl sparklers. I have microwave popcorn. I have coffee. I have a lot of different TV offers. My book is coming out and the show is coming. I am in a nice place right now. I enjoy business. I enjoy inspiring women. I enjoy writing. I enjoy communicating and connecting.

Bethenny’s new book, I Suck At Relationships So You Don’t Have To, is available in stores. New episodes of The Real Housewives of New York are currently airing on Bravo.

Photo: Mathieu Young/Bravo Media

Source: AWAKEN