Hub Meets Naomi Annand - Author of 'Yoga for Motherhood'

I leave Celia and head towards a familiar haunt, Yoga on the Lane to meet it’s founder, Naomi Annand. I’m unusually early so I find myself peering into the studio's inviting little reception. Naomi’s fold up bike is resting under a rain jacket and a satisfying stack of ‘Yoga for Motherhood’ finds itself illuminated under a dazzling gaze of window light. A similarly dazzling Naomi bounds out of the next door coffee shop (in an Allsea knit by the way) and we pick up where we left off.

It's been a while.

Yoga for Motherhood
Available in-store and online

While we shoot, Naomi talks me through what’s been happening. Her family. Her studio. Her teaching. The fullness of her days. (And the accompanying stresses.)
Her joys. Her health. Her books.
She's refreshingly open. And wonderfully articulate. 
I tell her about my wiggly path to becoming a mother myself. And she too reflects, without edit.

Her second book, 'Yoga for Motherhood' is a myth-dispelling revelation - about yoga, about being a mum. It is truly wonderful.

'This is a book about the whole mother: pre-pregnant, pregnant, post-partum, never-pregnant, menopausal. It's about how yoga can help you through every stage of the whole thing, from pre-conception to life after they've left.' 

Naomi's personal journey is interwoven with beautifully articulated mother-kind yoga sequences; Yoga for profound exhaustion (a personal fave), Yoga for compassion and Restorative Yoga for anxiety. There's even a glossary for Yoga beginners like me, and I love that. It doesn't float off into a cosmos. It's refreshingly grounded (like it's author) and bound in a relatable truth.

'Mother to Mother letters' take up precious space in this book. These are beautifully poignant (and sometimes heartbreaking) admissions from women Naomi has met along the way. And when Naomi talks about her book, like the people in her life, it's clear that it's a thing she holds close. 

We have a joyful window of time with each other and before I go, Naomi offers up a handstand. On the pavement. Naturally.
We laugh. A stranger walks by. He laughs too.

For what it's worth, this book might actually be the very thing that inspires a little more self care and compassion in my own life.
It's also going to be my gift to another new Mama I know.

(Words and Photography by Charlotte Gascoyne for HUB)