Yesterday we said goodbye to Sarah Miles who’s been teaching the morning Mysore classes for 5 years since Russell Case left Brighton. She’s off to Spain with her husband for a few months and then who knows what other adventures. We’re sad to see her go and obviously wish her luck wherever the road takes her.

Personally I feel that Sarah demonstrated an inspiring level of dedication and helped me through the many difficulties I’ve had to face in my own practice. She’s 100% committed to both the practice and her students. I’ll miss her.

We’re also very happy that Adriane is back in Brighton and will be teaching at the BNHC until the end of the year.

August saw Hannah and I catching a train up to Edinburgh for a mid week city break with my Mum, sister and nephew. On my last trip I’d found Bristo Yoga School located in the centre of Edinburgh to practice at during my stay. Karen who runs the school was rather sensibly away in a balmy warmer Mysore, practicing with Sharath at the KPJAYI. Each morning I trudged through the magical snow-covered streets to the studio where I met and practiced with Tim, a decent Aussie bloke, and another guy with a ponytail – sorry dude, but I can’t for the life of me remember your name! You can read more about my last trip and practicing in Edinburgh here.

Fast forward 8 months and this time it’s Hannah and I walking in the early morning light to practice. There have been lots of changes at Bristo Yoga School since my last visit. It’s had a refurb and there’s even a new floor which Tim says was laid about a week ago! Hurrah! No more bandha-busting spongy mats on the floor. We also got to meet the lovely Karen from Florida who is the main teacher of the morning Mysore classes. The other big difference is – lots of students! I didn’t count but there were between 15 to 20+ practitioners each morning who are clearly committed to the path of yoga.

The energy in the room was great – soothing, energising and nicely warm. In fact Hannah remarked after our second morning that she felt really at home in the subterranean vault, like we’d been practicing there much longer. I felt it too – it’s the energy of Ashtangis coming together to practice as the sun rises, with devotion, dedication and commitment. There’s nothing else quite like it.

A big thank you to the Bristo Shala for their hospitality. Anyone looking to practice morning Mysore style Ashtanga yoga in Edinburgh should definitely visit Bristo Yoga School.

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.

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 found this on Hamish’s website:

Sharath Rangaswamy, Assistant Director of the Astanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, will be teaching in London this summer as part of his European Tour.

There will be 2 classes each day:

Led primary series and Led Intermediate Series
Dates: 23rd – 28th August, 2009
Venue: Camden Centre, Bidborough Street, Kings Cross WC1H 9AU
Cost: £170 for full week (6 days)
£32 drop in