Ronda Rousey On How Motherhood Has Changed Her, Says It’s Helped Her Mental Health

Ronda Rousey says that becoming a mother has had a major positive impact on her mental health. Rousey recently spoke with PEOPLE for a new interview promoting the new reality show Stars on Mars, which she’s in the cast for, and talked about how hard it was to be away from her young daughter La’akea for the filming process. You can see the highlights below:

On the hardest part of filming the reality show: “That was the most challenging thing, just being away from my baby. I had a really hard time being away from her, and she was only 1½ when I was gone. It’s the cutest age and everything like that.”

On undergoing ‘mom guilt’ about being away: “I was having a better and better experience, that I felt worse and worse about being away from her. And so, the mom guilt was compounding by the day, and I think that was more difficult than any part of the experience itself.”

On how motherhood has changed her: “I’m just so much happier that I’m no longer ruminating over myself all day. I’m always thinking about her and focused on her and… I don’t know. Am I more considerate? I think the best part about it is that it’s mentally made me more healthy and made me stop beating myself up so much because I’m so concerned with taking care of her.”