Huffington Post Lifestyle Editor, Poorna Bell, interviews Wake Up co-ordinator, Elina Pen on meditation flash mobs. Read here.
Mindful content from our community
Wake Up London is a community of individuals practicing together to promote peace and reconciliation within ourselves and for our planet. We’d love to highlight what’s happening within our community, and how the practice is positively impacting our society.
We have some wonderful monthly events exploring movement arts and well-being over the next 3 months.
During this Wake Up in Motion evening, we will practise a gentle restorative session in the IYENGAR yoga tradition.
An evening of movement and stillness
Wednesday 2nd April, 8pm to 9.30pm
We will use gentle yoga-based movements to explore how an awareness of the body, the spine and the breath can feed into the stillness of our sitting practice. We will also use some simple therapeutic touch to see how we can support each other in finding ease and lightness in the body. This will be followed by a deep relaxation and we will finish with a short seated meditation and some time to share our experiences.
All activities will be accessible for everyone, even if you have health challenges or have never tried yoga before. The challenge for this evening is not how physically flexible you are but how fully you can inhabit the body!
Please wear comfortable clothing that you can move in. You may also want to bring some socks and something to cover up with so that you can stay warm during the relaxation. Bring your own yoga mat if you wish to or there will be some available to borrow.
Wake Up in Rhythm
Wednesday 7th May 2014, 8pm to 9.30pm
From the heart, to the beat, to the movement of your feet!
Touching the stillness and silence of our bodies,
we can hear the soft thunder of our own heartbeat.
Starting with sitting, standing and walking, we will start to feel how it is to move in rhythm. Starting from our own inner drum, we will listen and engage with both our ears and our bodies to rhythm, exploring whether the barrier we create between what is and isn’t music is more permeable than we may think…
Arrive from 7.40pm to start at 8pm.
Restorative heart-opening yoga session
Wednesday 4th June 2014, 8pm to 9.30pm
During this Wake Up in Motion evening, we will practise a gentle restorative session in the IYENGAR yoga tradition.
IYENGAR is known for its attention to alignment and the use of props. One of the benefits of using props is to allow opening in parts of the body where it would otherwise be difficult. One such area is the thoracic spine. Using props, such as cushions, we will practise gentle resting poses allowing the back ribs to spread, the thoracic spine to be supported and the chest to open. The yoga class will consist of sitting, chanting OM (optional), a series of supine (reclined) poses, forward bends, and relaxation. This yoga class is suitable for all levels, beginners welcome. Facilitated by Jo, a certified IYENGAR yoga teacher and has many years experience teaching.
Please wear comfortable clothes to move in. Avoid eating a large meal close to arriving. A light meal or snack at least one hour before class is advisable. Please arrive from 7.40pm onwards in time to settle in (and, if you would like, enjoy a cup of tea) before an 8pm start. The evening runs until 9.30pm.
All these events are held in our usual venue and open to all those who have attended a Wake Up London afternoon of mindfulness. See you there!
What are you doing to celebrate the 2nd year of the United Nations International Day of Happiness on 20th March?
Wake Up London will be spreading some positivity in the morning during rush hour on Hungerford Bridge, by Southbank with inspiring messages.
Please join us for breakfast at 7.50am at EAT at The Southbank Centre and then we will start the flash mob at 8.15am until 9am.
Bring a sign with a simple, inspiring, uplifting message.
Watch this video to give you an example what happens:
For more details – see the Facebook event.
Supporting the campaign by Action for Happiness.
A little email to say hello from plum village!
After a rather eventful few days (details of which may have to wait until our return, but involved torrential rain and a b&b; broken pedals, punctured tyres and bent wheels; my first hitch hiking experience; 1 out of use train station; and a 3 hour midnight cycle ride around Bordeaux..!) we arrived last night at 3am. We slept a couple of hours in the small meditation hall, then awoke at 5 this morning for morning meditation. So today, we are two pretty sleepy, but very happy villagers 🙂
It feels wonderful to be here. So beautiful, calm and peaceful, especially so at the moment. There were only 11 new arrivals this week, we are told during the summer there are around 350 each week. It feels very intimate.
Pure joy was the breakfast spread this morning. (With Ethan! 🙂 )
In 10 minutes we have walking meditation…
Speaking this morning to a new friend from Belgium. We were telling him about the London sangha – how wonderful it is. We are feeling so very appreciative of you all.
With love, bells, bicycles and peaceful steps,
Meg and Joe
Xxxx
Meg and Joe, two Wake Up London members, left the UK with their bikes a few days ago and started their long journey to Plum Village, the practice centre of our teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh in the south west of France.
We will be following them and posting updates on here to let you know how they are doing.
Update and pictures from Meg:
Hello from our tent. We are pitched amongst some bushes beside a canal path. I am cosy in my sleeping bag, listening to the rain as it pours down outside. Joe is asleep beside me, from his slumber he sends his love 🙂
Our days are calm, very peaceful and very beautiful. The scenery is all shades of green and blue. The weather is changeable, but when the sun comes out, even for 5 minutes, it brings a warm and bright joy that always makes us smile to one another. We meditate each morning, and most evenings. We take our meals in silence, enjoying all the flavours. One of the joys of travelling in autumn is the Harvest. We forage most days for corn, apples, chestnuts, cabbage leaves, and nettles, which we mix in with tinned lentils and beans, rice cakes and oats – I have never enjoyed food so much (although, we finished our 1kg tub if peanut butter on Friday and have not yet been able to find a shop that sells it here in France… I am hopeful that today is the day we find some!)
We cycle a few hours each day, and every few days we summon the courage to swim and wash in the canal (which feels colder (‘invigorating’) every time!) We expect to reach Nantes on Thursday morning, from there we will take a train to Bordeaux, and camp outside Plum Village so that we can arrive first thing on Friday morning. (I had to chuckle the other morning – to think we would ever be able to cycle to Bordeaux in 11 days!)
Each day feels like a retreat already – arriving at plum village will be wonderful.
With love to all,
Meg (and a sleeping joe 🙂 )
Xxx
Music and Poetry Evening
Saturday 18th May 6:30pm to 9pm
Friends Meeting House, near Charing Cross
Directions
Saturday 18th May 6:30pm to 9pm
Friends Meeting House, near Charing Cross
Directions
Please note, there is no Afternoon of Mindfulness this Saturday 18th May because our room is being used for an event.
However, in the evening from 6:30pm to 9pm, you are warmly invited to our Music and Poetry Evening in our usual venue. Confirmed performances include Charlie Shuttler, Kareem Ghandour, Joe Holtaway, Megan Gray, Anna Wawryzyniak and Tom Manwell.
We ask for a donation of £5 that will go towards the rent of the room and you will receive a free copy of Peace Sounds.
You’re welcome to bring some food and drink to share.
Enjoy these videos from last year’s event!
We hope to see you there. Please email us at info@wkuplondon.org if you have any questions.
Peace,
Wake Up London
Nearly a hundred people, friends and strangers, gathered together on Friday 21 September for our meditation flash mob near City Hall.
It was the first time it ever rained on us, but we continued to sit peacefully with each other.
After the meditation and soundbath, we preceeded to singing John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ to remember the powerful message of this song.
You can see the pictures here and a video will be published soon.
Here are some feedback from the event:
Imagine a symbol of flowers
Brought from near and far
Placed with loving kindness
Under the shadow or the shar d
Imagine finding stillness
As the rain drops fall
Breathing in I smell the incense
breathing out, I feel calm
The warmth of love surrounds us
The sound bath brings me peace
I open my eyes to the lights of London
And even brighter smiles
Imagine all the people
singing in the rain!
You may say i’m a dreamer
But I know i’m not alone,
Meditation will allow us to wake up
and the world will live as one.
– The Hub ChaChaCha
When you really hear the sound of rain
You can hear and see and feel
Everything in the same way –
As needing no translation, as being
Just what it is, though it may be
Impossible to say what.
– Sean Gainford
My first time at one. It was lovely even if it did rain. The atmosphere was so tranquil. I have never felt so at peace. Thankyou
– Teri Raymond
It was so great! Even under the rain..Thank you all for your love!
– Nathalie Dubreu
It was raining but because of the rain everyone was so relaxed, settled and undistracted. I loved the atmosphere and the energy was very peaceful. I loved the “Imagine” song at the end. Thank you to John Lennon and thank you to organisers. I’ve also met some lovely like-minded people. I am very grateful for all of that.
– Elina Vasilevska
We hope you can come to the next one on Saturday 20 October outside the National Gallery! Click here for the event invitation.
Wishing that you’re all at ease this week. This Saturday (8th) is our next fortnightly Afternoon of Mindfulness from 2:30 pm to 5:00 pm, where we come together to practice mindfulness in the tradition of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. Our meetings are open to young people from 16 to early 30s. We welcome people of all experience levels, faiths and backgrounds.You can find further details on our website about where we meet and what we do.
We also encourage people to attend the Mornings of Mindfulness every Saturday hosted by our sister sangha, Heart of London sangha – you can find out more information here: www.hols.org.uk.
Last Tuesday, we organized a positive messages flash mob in front of the National Gallery. What’s that?! Well, it’s a new initiative set up bu ourselves to spread positivity, and above all, make people smile. How?! By holding up signs with a positive message. And, it really does work!
Many participants would express how shy they are in the beginning, but after a while, they feel totally uplifted and energized. Maybe because making people happy makes us happy too. We had around 40 people gather together last Tuesday, which was the biggest number of participants we have had so far (this was our 4th gathering)! We hope to keep this initiative going and inspire people around the world to take part!
Check out this beautiful video of the flash mob here:
Postive Messages Flash Mob from Wake Up London on Vimeo.
And also the pictures: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.476142549071906.113365.264304326922397&type=3
Continue until you see yourself in the cruelest person on Earth, in the child starving, in the political prisoner. Practice until you recognize yourself in everyone in the supermarket, on the street corner, in a concentration camp, on a leaf, in a dewdrop. Meditate until you see yourself in a speck of dust in a distant galaxy. See and listen with the whole of your being. If you are fully present, the rain of Dharma will water the deepest seeds in your store consciousness, and tomorrow, while you are washing the dishes or looking at the blue sky, that seed will spring forth, and love and understanding will appear as a beautiful flower.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
Public Displays of Positive Messages is Wake Up London’s latest project to expand positivity in our city.
Last night, 25 people came together with their signs and happily held them up on Millennium Bridge. Some signs read “You are beautiful”, “Thank you for your smile”, “Be fearless, love fully” and ” You’re loved”. The accounts from participants were very positive:
“Incredible experience – totally surpassed my expectations. Wonderful group and amazing reaction from passers-by to our messages along the Bridge. Thanks very much for organising 🙂 ” – Emma
“This was such a great turn out.. This world needs more love and this is the way forward to spreading that positive message to the world! Peace and love” – Shaima
“An absolutely fantastic experience. Surprised by how at ease I felt doing it and humbled by the friendliness of those I met. Thank you!” – Mark
“I would just like to thank everyone for sharing and shining their true essence. I feel so much more connected to my own as a result of the energy and love we were able to exchange. I’m filled (literally) with warmth and gratitude. Thank you all xx” – James
Below are a few pictures. More will be posted on our Facebook page this weekend.
Peace Sounds is a music album recorded over the past five months by Wake Up London, as well as songs contributed by their wonderfully talented friends.
It is now available for streaming and downloading here.
We are raising funds for an upcoming event with Thich Nhat Hanh on March 31st 2012 in Trafalgar Square, Central London called ‘Sit in Peace’, an invitation to sit together in peace in the heart of the capital city.
Together, we bring to life an album that celebrates peace within us and around us, in the here and now.
“I got a little garden growing in my heart
sowing seeds of poetry, music and art
I’ve been cultivating peace with my family
This garden is growing with the whole community”
-Joe Reilly, singer and songwriter
Minimum donation: £7
All proceeds will go towards registered charity The Community of Interbeing UK, who are funding ‘Sit in Peace’ and the entire UK tour with Thich Nhat Hanh.
By supporting The Community of Interbeing UK, we will help them continue to promote and facilitate the practice of mindfulness in the UK, by hosting future talks and retreats, and supporting local practice groups.
Check out the official album website: www.peacesounds.org
Dear friends,
Just a little message to express my deepest gratitude to those who came to sit with us in Covent Garden on Tuesday 28th June. I’m still beaming from this experience, my heart feeling so warm and wholesome from connecting with new friends on this path.
Credit: Nicolas Laborie
Some wonderful photos have been shared with us already, look here
and a couple of videos are currently being made and will be posted on here soon.
I also wanted to let you know that we were featured in yesterday’s Evening Standard newspaper on page 26! 
Other mentions are in Shambhala Sun and Mindful.org….How amazing that our actions are being recognised like this!
A great article has also been written by Kenneth Bok.
I also wanted to let you know about the date for the NEXT one and this will be a GLOBAL meditation flash mob, coordinated with over 50 cities across the world. Together, we’ll be creating a giant world wide meditation community! So please, save this date: Thursday 28th July, evening time – exact location in London not yet decided….
Keep in touch by adding us as a friend on Facebook if you like and we’ll invite you to the next event. Or you could send us an email to wkuplondon AT gmail.com to be kept updated. With thanks to MED MOB for organizing this amazing global movement.
Sending much joy and love to nourish your kind and beautiful hearts.
Elina
The Wake Up London Sangha
