Tamron Hall Shares Joys, Challenges and Secrets to Slowing Down: 'I'm Trying to Be More Mindful'

Mike Coppola/Getty Tamron Hall

Tamron Hall is giving fans a glimpse of what her life is really like.

In this week's issue of PEOPLE, the journalist and host of Tamron Hall opens up about her joys, challenges and secrets to slowing down.

"I meditate and pray throughout the morning, just to remind myself of where I am," Hall, 51, says of her morning routine. "I'm at a point in my life where I'm in my dream job and am experiencing things that I never imagined. It's easy to get caught up in the show and the scripts and the mechanics of it and forget those moments of gratitude. I'm trying to be more mindful."

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For the mother of one, who recently kicked off the third season of her daytime talk show, life can get crazy at times — but work is her saving grace.

"Work is what I love, and it's what I've been doing for 30 years," she says. "That subsequently makes me happier when I go home. Don't get me wrong, there are frustrations. But when I go home and I'm able to watch the show, it's exhilarating and it makes me feel good. I hope later on my son will look at my Emmy [for outstanding talk show host in 2020] and say, 'My mom earned that after a tough time in her life.'" (Hall left NBC's Today show in 2017 after losing her third hour time slot to Megyn Kelly.)

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Hall and her husband Steven Greener welcomed son Moses in April 2019. Now the 2-year-old is starting school — a concept Hall is still trying to grasp.

"At first I was very anxious," she says. "I thought, 'How could it have gone this quickly?' But he needs to be out playing and learning what it means to bond with other people. So I've slowly started to turn the corner and accept that, as difficult as it is for me, letting go is what you do as a parent. You put them first."

These days, when Hall isn't working or taking her little one to school, the award-winning journalist says she finds solace in cooking — while sipping on a glass of wine or two!

"My dad was the cook in our home," she says. "When he passed away in 2007, I realized that one of the last things we did together was make a sweet potato pie. He walked me through it. So I really committed to learning to cook. It's an escape for me. It's an opportunity just to create something that's not show-related."

Tamron Hall airs weekdays (check local listings).