Today has been a long day. Up at 5am to catch the 5:49 train to London to practice at the Dharma Shala in Euston. I had a mid morning client meeting which meant that I had to buy a peak-time train ticket – £42! So I thought why not use the opportunity to go and practice at the Dharma Shala, aka Astanga Yoga London (AYL) aka Hamish’s.

Hamish is one of 2 certified (see footnote) teachers in the UK and he’s backed by a team of highly regarded authorised teachers at the shala. You can check out their biographies on the AYL website. You really do get a sense of the lineage of Ashtanga Yoga at the shala which I really appreciate.

Door to door the journey took 2 hours. The shala is a house with the front rooms converted into practice rooms, changing rooms and what may have been a shower or toilet. You start practicing in one room and Hamish calls out ‘One more’ and you move into the bigger room as someone else is finishing up.

The room was much warmer (hot!) than I’m used to so I was sweating profusely half way through the sun salutations. I was also really nervous. I’ve not practiced Mysore style outside of Brighton and I’d never met anyone (teachers or students) so it was all new, exciting and a bit edgy. In order to keep myself grounded I really focused on my breathe and dristi.

I may have been a little too focused because I couldn’t identity in a police line-up any of the people who I practiced with this morning!

The atmosphere in the shala is amazing and it reminded me of the first time I experienced a Mysore room here in Brighton. It’s a place of warm, silent, sweaty devotional intensity. I love it! I flew through my practice and what normally takes 2 hours took 1.5 hours. I’m not sure how that happened!

It’s well worth the trip and I’d love to do a couple of weeks practicing there and am just in the process of working out the costs. A big thank you to my friend who shall remain nameless for all the details on getting to the shala, most helpful indeed

Now it’s time to cook dinner and get an early night to get to practice in Brighton tomorrow. Oh the luxury of a short walk!

Footnote: The other certified teacher is Philippa Asher who teaches at Triyoga Soho.

I recently watched the film Enlighten Up, a documentary made by a female American yogi following a yoga-virgin journalist on his global quest to find the meaning of yoga. Various gurus and yoga ‘celebrities’ were interviewed, including Shri K Pattabhi Jois. I’ve been practicising Mysore style Ashtanga for a year now and naturally consider Pattabhi Jois to be my guru. However, although I’ve seen him interviewed before, this time I was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion. I felt a great sadness and loss, not only because he’s no longer with us, but because I never had the opportunity to meet and practice with him. Guruji seems to me to be such a gentle, kind man full of peace and joy. I’m filled with love and calmness whenever I picture his face and have a lump in my throat even as I write this. I feel so grateful to him for his teachings and so sure that his path is the one I want to follow. I’ve never had a guru before or felt faith so strongly and, even though he died the very next day after I started practising, he has always been and will always be my guru. Long may his memory live on in all our hearts.

In this month’s Yoga Journal I spotted this tribute to Guruji with tributes by some of Ashtanga’s most notable names: David Williams, David Swenson, Eddie Stern, Richard Freeman, Beryl Bender Birch, Bhavani Maki (who’ll be doing workshops at the BNHC this month on Patanjalim’s Yoga Sutras.), Kino Macgregor and others. It makes for some interesting and touching reading.

You can pick up a copy of Yoga Journal from Infinity Foods in Brighton.