Yoga with Pollyanna

Yesterday some of the wonderful
.yoga.uk teachers & volunteers (aka Lee Osborne our ✨ 🆕 ✨ resident photography expert)
spent a glorious day together in the beautiful grounds of home & studio!

🎥 Filming content for the Virtual Studio 🧘 👀
🚀 which launches 🚀 very shortly!

🔜 Businesses will be able to subscribe to our Virtual Studio & unlock staff team access to:

🙏 fully accessible Mindful Movement & Yoga to suit all levels of mobility and experience
🦸‍♂️A way to fulfil ESG & CSR goals whilst also investing in the wellbeing of staff members!

🎦 Content will include recharging & stress busting exercises such as:
🔋 Breath work (guided Pranayama)
🧘‍♀️ Mindful physical Asana practices
🕊️Calming and energy boosting sequences

🔜 you can support our CiC to do we what we do best, by subscribing & joining our Virtual Studio!

👀 If that sounds fun but you’d like a trial run, why not drop into our upcoming Lunchtime Lives series - bookable on Eventbrite - or just search 🔍 Umbrella Yoga CiC on Eventbrite & nab your ticket 🎟️ for just a few pounds !

✨Sincerest thanks to our dream team for making yesterday work! .intheflow .henning

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1004652802577?aff=ebdsshios

Fab Wellbeing Cafe Session HIVE Community and Cafe with K.I.N.

☕ We had a wonderful time with Kirklees Involvement Network today at the fabulous Hive Cafe - for the wellbeing cafe session!
🌿🌱 Featuring lovely vegan and vegetarian food for all at the HIVE Community and Cafe
🧘‍♀️ Mindful movement, Tibetan Singing Bowls, Om chanting, and chair Yoga for all too!

🧘‍♀️Thank you to the wonderful venue, our lovely partners and all the fantastic participants- for a lovely wellbeing session. 🧘‍♀️

Amazing work & fantastic team making it happen 💚

Some new sessions and partnerships to kick off 2024 ☺️
Lots of new community yoga members - with sessions restarting at and very popular class growing at 🙌
Check our website for full schedule, and get I. Touch if you have a partnership proposal 🤗 we’d love to hear from you 🙌

What a glorious afternoon with a lovely group (not everyone is featured in this picture) of seven lovely Yogis!

Hugely grateful to everyone who made it over to this half term class 💚🩵💙 & tea & chat workshop!

We had an hour of pranayama, mindful movement, Asana practice & meditation…
Then we enjoyed some coffee ☕️ & cake 🍰 & chats x
Everyone agreed it was some needed time to unwind & socialise!

🙏
.yoga.uk

🐉🎊🎎🏮🧧 Happy Lunar New Year to all of those celebrating! 🐀🐂🐅🐇🐉🐍🐎🐐🐒🐓🐕🐖

🐉🙏🧧 today I was lucky to deliver my first ever event at The Portico library- in partnership with Manchester Chinese Centre & Chinatown Children’s Chorus & Artist 🧑‍🎨 Siew-Kiang Ng…
This is what the other part of my week is spent doing!
We sold out & received more than 300 visitors today !
It was an absolute honour to be a part of this event & meet so many local families from Manchester & beyond!

Practice is the present. & brings me back into the here & now.

Been talking a lot about embodied healing with a new perspective being offered via a trusted professional without an agenda. It’s been a tonic. 💓

We love working with you guys! to bring Yoga to all, every Thursday at the main conference space & chapel, a beautiful place!

Join us for accessible & energy boosting mindful chair & floor based Yoga & Pranayama & meditation!

Participants have been anonymised at their request

Generously provided by in partnership with .yoga.uk

✨💛Feeling so much gratitude for this lovely group of people.

✨💛Wonderful class today with .yoga.uk team of stellar 🌟 volunteers & participants!

✨💛We are so grateful for our funding that enables us to continue to provide free Community Yoga classes across Kirklees..

✨💛 If you’d like to sponsor us or donate please 🙏 visit our webpage (www.umbrellayoga.co.uk) or email us on [email protected] or [email protected] to

Gentle reminder to reconnect with joy.

💚 🕊️

Happiness is part of hope, and can give you energy to support others to hope.

Recently I had a chat with one of my students about spirituality.

Initially the chat centred around his shift in mindset.
From the “Hurry disease” (a legitimate problem evolved under productivity obsessed capitalism) to the slowed down, self acceptance & relinquishing of non-stop culture, and replacement with deep listening & deep rest.
My student is a long Covid survivor & described their experience of being chronically ill as one of the best (worst) things that has ever happened to them.
The more we talked, the more apparent it became that the practice of Yoga Asana (physical practice of postures) has led to shifts in Mind or “Citta” …
The function of yoga…
Sage Patanjali said:
@
“Chitta vritti nirodha.” This means if cessation of intellect happens, you will be in yoga. The fundamental nature of your intellect is, it is divisive.

Ultimately this student has found a stilling of the mind, (the objective of Yoga Asana) and an increasing feeling of wellbeing due to their surrender to the divine within… “Ishvara Pranidhana”

This student discovered how to honour his own new limits & with them, a newfound self compassion.

It’s a profound lesson, and a hard learned one.
To slow down. To sit with the present. To accept.

✨🤩🙏🤩✨ beautiful way to close the year!

🎄 All the lucky yogis that are part of Alida’s groups have been treated to a Sound Bath - gong an’ all! - in their Christmas specials! 🎄
💐 These are some of the lovely ladies that have been part of the yoga group in 💐
Thank you for making these sessions possible. 🙏🙏

Awww. I loved leading this free taster session ... it feels like a whole world away now!

Dream Team!! Adore these fabulous people! What a fabulous way to draw 2023 to a close... Whilst I couldn't make it to this final Umbrella Yoga staff session of the year, I am excited for what 2024 holds

Wonderful final Sunday Open to All .yoga.uk class of 2023 at today! Excited for a whole new year’s calendar of Yoga adventures thanks to our fabulous funders & students for their support & dedication! Some students aren’t pictured, but we had a packed class today & practiced nourishing asana for boosting energy as we move towards Winter ❄️ 🕉️🙏

Absolutely love this heart-full Asana 💓

💕🙏💕

💐 Our Story featured on the TSL website! 💐
“Overall, Ellie and Umbrella Yoga are an inspiring example of how a social enterprise can use yoga to benefit vulnerable groups while also generating income through trading activities. By remaining open-minded, listening to feedback, and collaborating with others, Umbrella Yoga has been able to grow and adapt, even in challenging times. With a clear vision and a commitment to sustainability and community-focused values, the future looks bright for this innovative organisation.”
Thank you Helen for the interview, write-up, and share!! 💐💐💐
Find out how you can get support to start your own in by visiting the TSL website 🙌 huge shout out to and .intheflow for persevering and believing in what we can do 🙌🙌🙌

Just some of the beautiful souls who joined todays Sunday session ♥️🙏♥️ no matter how rough the week’s been this class always brings joy ✨♥️✨ .yoga.uk thank you to Yasmin & Paula for volunteering & helping pack up & take the register as always! 💚✨🙏✨💚

Enjoyed some soothing self practice this weekend after having to postpone classes due to venue-double bookings & a blip in health 🙃

♥️We’re all only human, and as long as we’re learning from mistakes, that’s the best we can do.. 🙏

♥️Join me on the mat 8-9pm this Tuesday for Yin to Yang slow strong 💪 flow

♥️Open to All Community Yoga Thursday 12.30 - 1.30 pm

♥️Wake Up the Heart Saturday 9.30 am - 10.30 am

🙏Email me at [email protected] for booking at The Mission class

🙏 DM me for Tue/Sat bookings at 💪

🙏My classes should be up on timetable 🔜 thanks for all your support & enquiries so far

🔋wishing you power & good energy for the week ahead

Looking forward to seeing you at a class soon…

Forgot to take pics in our busy & fabulously sunny class today at Batley Community Association, via .yoga.uk - our Sunday session has been going for more than 2 years now & the group has gone from strength to strength, evolving & always fun. Today’s picture credit goes to Yasmin, masseuse, support worker, carer & community volunteer extraordinaire. Yasmin recently tried to get away with not having us all make a fuss about her birthday… so I sneaked some flowers & cakes into todays class 👀🥳 we love you Yasmin! (& miss you Paula ❤️‍🩹 get well soon)

♥️💪♥️ Feeling physically stronger can unlock other benefits.

♥️It can help you feel safer, in your own body, and boost your capacity to focus, because working out or carrying out mindful movement and exercise stimulates areas of the brain that often don’t get a chance to light up during our sedentary lifestyles.

♥️Personally, daily exercise is the only way I manage mood, which has been a real challenge lately, until I realised it was low because I just hadn’t been moving enough.

♥️If you want to start exploring the benefits of functional movement, and yoga- get in touch with me.

♥️ I have a few spaces left in my current classes which I run twice a week: Tuesday 8-9pm & Saturday 9.30 - 10.30 am.

♥️I will guide you through movements that involve callisthenics (getting strong using your body weight)

♥️Isometric & primal movement techniques

♥️& Yoga asana - the physical branch of yoga which involves moving into a posture (or ‘Asana’)

♥️ Led by pranayama and correct, safe alignment

♥️We’ll also practice yin & guided meditation

♥️ TASTER CLASS 10.45 am this coming SATURDAY!! Whoooo! See you there

(Please NB: you can join my class with a discount if you’re retired, low waged or an NHS worker)






I send my students short videos in-between practices so they can get the best out of my classes & I keep costs as low as possible…
Contact me if you’re interested in starting a new class in Huddersfield
♥️🙏♥️

Hey all! Classes restarted at The Soothill Community Association last week, and continue from Sunday 21st! Excited to meet you if you can make this session! Open to all, PAYF/ donations welcomed! Delivered via Umbrella.Yoga & gratefully funded by TSL Kirklees Volunteering

Hello! Good to be back. I’m battling jet lag & catching breath with all the life admin stuff that builds up whilst on holiday.

Behind the scenes I’ve been mourning a friend’s loss 🕊️ & grief has it’s own story & sense of time, which doesn’t abide by calendar rules.
My lovely dog has also been rather poorly so it’s been all about switching up to emergency mode🚨 rushing him to vet appointments & watching a lot of the calm & joy I’d tried to store up whilst away, rapidly dissipate…

Then I remembered - life is constantly flowing, and being hit by these emotional responses to loss & challenges and somehow staying afloat - is part of my unique path, and yoga enables me to cope better than I would have in the past.

🌞Big thank you for sticking around & bearing with me as I navigate these changes & adjust to being back in the UK after my first (non working) holiday in half a decade!

Happy to announce that Saturday classes will recommence next week as usual & I am adding a new class to the calendar on Tuesday nights… watch this space 🌸🙏🌸

Picture 📸: a still from my practice in Kyoto, Japan 🇯🇵 on tatami mats & with Spring sunshine 🌞 making a welcome appearance.
Asana variation: eka pada urdhva dhanurasana (one legged wheel) a deep back bend that helps me to fight fatigue, lethargy and anxiety…

If you’re interested in starting Yoga, or picking it back up again, get in touch.

Gorgeous relaxing 😌 session today with lovely participants ✨🙏💛✨🧡✨🙏 we practiced chair 🪑 yoga & Pranayama and made time for some meditation at the close of the session 🕯️✨❣️✨🕯️ .yoga.uk gratefully funded by Do Something Now Kirklees

What a month January was! Thank you for all of your support, donations, time and effort to help Umbrella Yoga share the gift of yoga with communities across West Yorkshire 💓🌱🙏

Join me every WEDNESDAY for this fabulous new class 🧘💓🙏

🚨 New Session!! 🚨
A lovely gentle chair yoga session is starting in Paddock on Wednesdays at 11.45am at our new partner - Jubilee Centre. The wonderful is leading this.
The is funded by our Do Something Grant from - thank you!