Thanks for visiting my site. This is where I post where and when I teach yoga (mostly in London), things I recommend checking out and little pieces of writing and images that inspire me. If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to ask! You can email me anytime at anurbanom.at.gmail.com . Hope to see you soon!
x bridget
12 - 18 October 2013, in the Charente, France
Once again join my dear friend Sarah Slyne and me for a yoga retreat at the gorgeous Les Passeroses in the heart of France. Expect delicious food, two daily classes of yoga (a mix of dynamic and restorative yoga), meditation, walking through vineyards and to leave deeply relaxed and refreshed. Prices are £550 -£650 for the week (includes food, yoga and accommodation, excl.travel and one night eating out at a local restaurant). Email an.urban.om.at.gmail.com for more info!
6 April 2013, 3 -5:30pm, £25, Shoreditch
Come celebrate the brightening of the sun and our selves as we draw to Beltane, the Celtic festival of ‘bright light’. Join Jo Ibbett and me for an afternoon of grounding, flowing and fiery yoga, exploring balance, backbends, contemplation, chanting, mudra and meditation. This is a celebratory yet challenging session where we get to connect with our inner brightness and bask in the glow of each other’s.
Cost £25, bring a mat if you have one. Tea and snacks are provided. You can pay on the door (bring cash) or online transfer if you prefer. Please email anurbanom@gmail.com to reserve a spot. Places are limited! This Yoga Play shop not suitable for complete beginners.
One of the most frustrating things in life is when we feel that we are not being understood.
When I feel misunderstood I get defensive and snappy and this perpetuates the problem and I feel worse. But when I truly listen to myself and the people around me we have a deeper more meaningful connection and experience.
The yoga room is an opportunity to examine aspects of our selves, our bodies, our attitudes and relationships. What is happening when we drift off, minds wondering on other things far away from the body and this moment? We are not listening to our bodies or the teacher’s guidance. Rather we cloud our view with worry and comparisons. We get caught up in anxious thought and behavioural patterns and this is echoed in our bodies. Not listening is stressful.
On the yoga mat when we listen with an intelligent, enquiring open mind and then lay that into the body the reward of the practice is so much deeper. Once able to translate instruction from the teacher and interpret that into our own body, adjusting it according to our needs we truly embody the practice of yoga. So much more liberating than “worrying if we have got it right” – ultimately the embodied choice you make, the pose you discover time and time again for yourself, is the right one.
My intention for March is to focus on listening. Listening to the wants and needs of others and balancing it with my wants and needs. On and off the mat. This is a lifetime practice and I have a feeling it may reap great reward if practised daily.
Join me for a deliciously relaxing and nurturing afternoon... Yoga on the Lane, 10 March, 3- 5:30pm, £25
An offering of gratitude to women of all ages, this will be a time to honour the gentle holding and absolute strength of a mother, as it’s mother’s day. Allow yourself the space to reconnect to the intention to look after yourself as well as others. Enjoy melting tension with restorative yoga, let yourself be truly heard with some chanting, then find silence in meditation followed by the ancient traditional ritual of tea and chat with friends.
All are welcome (whether you are a mother, have a mother, want to be a mother), you can even bring your mother! (Appropriate for all stages and ages).
Email yogaonthelane@gmail.com to book.
A most beautiful teaching from Rumi below I thought I’d share – I came across whilst reading about the pulsation of contraction and expansion we experience in nature and life.
Birdwings
“Your grief for what you’ve lost lifts a mirror
up to where you’re bravely working.
Expecting the worst, you look, and instead,
here’s the joyful face you’ve been longing to see.
Your hand opens and closes, and opens and closes.
If it were always a fist or always stretched open
you would be paralyzed.
Your deepest presence
is in every small contraction and expansion,
the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated
as bird wings.”
–Rumi The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing, Translation by Coleman Barks, Harper-Collins e-books
Recently I went on a personal pilgrimage of sorts to India. As a yoga teacher it’s a rite of passage to visit the birth place of yoga. But actually what I discovered in India is that you do not need to go to India to find yoga. It’s alive and kicking inside of me and you. Rather what I came away with was how deeply humbled and grateful I am for my life and all the privileges I have access to – ample food, a comfortable bed, education, hot water, electricity, and all the support I could possibly need.
I have no idea why I have all this and sadly so many other people in the world do not. I am so grateful that I get to travel and see and meet other cultures and ways of being. But I am also extremely happy with how and where I live…
2012 brought on a whirlwind of highs and lows for everyone it seems, but in my little life the simple things are to be celebrated. Mostly I want to thank all the people who offer me support – colleagues, mentors, studio owners, therapists, students, friends and family (all are one and the same).
This Christmas I want to celebrate these dear people by offering thoughtful gifts, food, time and love. And in the New Year for a change I do not make plans for ‘major improvements’ on myself. I finally realise I’m kind of alright as I am and will rather aim to nourish and nurture myself and those around me.
(By the way you can check out my photos from India over here.)
Yoga on the Lane is closed from 19 December – 2 January. On the 19th of December the studio will be running a pop up shop all day with yoga clothing, yoga props and some Christmas present hampers on sale. ALL classes will be £5 that day, and yours truly will be teaching the 7.45 – 9pm class. Come along if you can and give your self, your heart, your liver and internal organs some love.
“A gift is pure when it is given from the heart to the right person at the right time and at the right place, and when we expect nothing in return” - The Bhagavad Gita
This last week I got bitten by a nasty bug (a fluey thing) , I rested as much as I could but still had some commitments I really wanted to keep. I knew in the long term I would be grateful if I could just about keep it together. It proved an interesting experience.
I felt a lot of resentment towards having to ‘do things for others’ when all I wanted was to be looked after. But this resentment was making things even more of an effort.
Then I remembered times when I have had nothing to do, no sense of purpose – I felt so miserable. This shifted my P.O.V. Doing things for others is actually doing something for myself! Giving to others is what makes me happy. So why fight it? Why think of it as me vs. them? We’re in this together, if we all give, we are all happy and we all receive.
Giving my all, ultimately I felt proud of myself even if it wasn’t the ‘best’. I had to admit to people I was vulnerable, but would do my best and make my offering such as it was. As soon as I ‘let go’ of my expectations and beliefs I felt much freer.
I remember once a wise old friend saying, ‘When you travel, you still have you with you’.
Adventures roll up! This Autumn … I’m off to France for a coupla weeks at the beginning of October … me, my dad and a van explore the French terrain (and food) and then to Les Passeroses retreat centre with a bunch of honies. We’re booked up this year, but will repeat next year so pop it in your diary if you fancy joining!
I’ll be back in London at the end of October to reconnect with peeps at Yoga on the Lane – check out my workshop on the 22nd of October if you fancy a yogi adventure. Also I am co-teaching an Urban Wellness Day with the super Sinead Mac Manus and friends on the 25th of October.
After about 5 years of threatening to go I am finally doing it, got my tickets, fellow travellers and vaccinations – I’m off to India! I am so grateful that I get this opportunity in my lifetime. At another time or place this would not be possible. Sometimes I take traveling for-granted and then I speak to my friends who don’t have the same resources as me and I am reminded how truly lucky I am.
For the rest of the winter I will be back in the city where everyday is an adventure … London, my home.
PS on my return join me for an alternative Christmas party on 8 December (you are invited!) and also check out this immersion I shall be assisting in the New Year, it promises to be fabulous!
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