I’ve been meaning to blog about this for a while. I was in Edinburgh for a week in December 2010. Before I went I did a bit of research to see if I could find a Mysore room to practice. I was slightly surprised that there wasn’t a more established Ashtanga community in Edinburgh.

I contacted two yoga studios:

• Ro-Yoga run by authorised teacher Rowena Warren.
• Bristo Yoga School run by Karen Breneman

Rowena was away on honeymoon and Karen was away in Mysore. Fortunately one of her students an Australian called Tim was opening up the studio for morning Mysore practice.

The Bristo Yoga School is located in a basement under a church. There’s lots of space and thick mats on the floor which make balancing in Uthita Hasta padangustasana rather challenging. There was a small group of about 5 or 6 of us practicing each morning.

I quite liked the down to earth urban setting and instantly took a liking to my host Tim which always helps. He’s been to Mysore so we chatted about his experiences – he loved it and his comment was that practicing in Mysore adds an extra 25% energy to your practice.

I had a great time in Edinburgh and it’s always lovely to meet other practitioners and have a place to practice while away from home. A big thank you to Tim for being so welcoming. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to return the hospitality when he next visits Brighton.

I discovered this series of 4 videos on Youtube by certified teacher David Garrigues. It’s particularly interesting to explore the effects of diet on asana practice. If you’ve been practicing for a while and feel like you’ve plateaued then looking at your diet can be very beneficial. It’s something I’ve been vaguely aware of for a while but David brings it into focus nicely. He’s not offering a ‘silver bullet’ in terms of diet but rather a balanced approach. David also introduces the 3 gunas and offers an Ayurvedic approach to diet.

Part 1: Quiet digestion helps practice

Part 2: Food is prana

Part 3: Good food means progress

Part 4: Diet and the 3 gunas

A shanthi path is a mantra for peace, harmony and happiness.
Shanthi path literally means the falling down or descent of peace.

The following shanthi path is chanted at the beginning of teaching.

Om Saha naa vavatu
Saha nau bhunaktu
Saha viiryam
Karavaa vahai
Tejas vinaa vadhita mastu ma
vidvishaa vahaihi
Om shanthi shanthi shanthi

It means:

May we together be protected
May we together be nourished
May we work together with great energy
May our study together be brilliant and effective
May we not hate each other or dispute with each other
Om peace, peace, peace.

Shanthi means peace.
The first shanthi is peace from personal suffering.
The secondary shanthi is the peace from the suffering caused to us by other beings
The final shanthi is peace from suffering caused by larger patterns in life like storms

The three shanthis also refer to physical, mental and spiritual peace.

This chant is easy to learn and appears on Richard Freeman’s Yoga Chants CDs and Manju Jois’ Shanthi Mantras CD.