Pratyahara or ‘sense withdrawal’ is the yoga practice for you if you’re lost in a constant loop of distraction!
This can take the form of getting lost in social media black holes (guilty) or numbing your feelings through food for example, or allowing any external thing to control your thoughts, attention and senses.
Essentially, most of us are addicted to sensory activity — and not always of the healthy kind!
Fulfilling engagement of our senses can be through dance, music or any other form of creative expression, but when the mind is manipulated or controlled through external forces, well then, that’s when we’re losing the big game of life!
Pratayara is the fifth limb of the eight-fold path presented by the author of the Yoga Sutras — a text that has its origins in Samkhya (a system of ancient Indian philosophy).
In Patanjali’s Sutras (200–500 BCE), there are eight steps or limbs ‘ashtanga’ to a yoga practice — or stages to self-mastery even. This is the order in which they occur:
- Yamas (universal morality/ethical codes of living)
- Niyama (personal habits and observances)
- Asanas (postures)
- Pranayama (breath control)
- Pratyahara (sense withdrawal)
- Dharana (concentration)
- Dhyana (meditation)
- Samadhi (realisation of Self, the state of bliss)
Traditionally, these steps are seen as stages towards the goal of Samadhi — each limb building upon the other — rather than being separate practices. However each phase is a whole lifelong process of its own!
The Deeper Workings of Pratyahara
Pratyahara sometimes referred to as ‘restraint’ can seem anti-feminine with its connotation of ‘lack’ and ‘limitation’ (where the feminine symbolises abundance and flow). However, the word loses its deep meaning in translation to the English language. In an overall framework, pyatyahara is part of the physical practice of turning the outer gaze ‘drishti’ to the inner gaze — withdrawing one’s attention into the inner body, i.e. moving consciousness inward. In modern experiences, it’s a vital prepping for meditative states like in savasana or yoga nidra — not a meditation in itself — it’s more the physical movement or process to anchor the senses inward. In hatha yoga this is to eliminate distraction so you become non-reactive to outside stimuli, which is important for the next stage of Dharana (concentration and stillness) where the actual meditation practice begins.
Pratyahara is the first opportunity in hatha yoga (the physical movements) for the body to be nourished from the inside rather than from the external environment. This is important for us empaths and people with high sensitivity or hypervigilance. We need respite from the never ending sense of noise pollution, sensory overstimulation and unconscious reactions triggered by outside influences. Do you see its connection with upholding our personal boundaries? (I’m sure you have an awareness of where these manifest in your own life!)
Overall, we practice hatha yoga to move from an externally aware state to the meditative inwardly-aware state. In short, pratyahara is the crucial step in creating steadiness and clarity to focus the mind for meditation.
Yoga itself is an austerity or ‘tapas’ if we are to take its meaning from the ancient Vedic texts. It a warrior’s pathway: A training to master one’s energies; a self-discipline artfully cultivated. It takes effort to begin — effort to transform or discard toxic conditioning present in our modern lifestyles and patriarchal cultures.
Questions to ask yourself in Quarantine:
Where is my mind going throughout the day?
Am I leading it, or is it leading me?
Where is there an unhealthy addiction or an over stimulation? (Energy is being depleted.)
Where or when could I benefit from a ‘sense withdrawal’?
In the last 3 weeks I’ve practiced my own kind of pratyahara. This has taken the form of time restricted eating or intermittent fasting, which I’ve been practicing for a couple years now as a lifestyle (it has many health benefits!).
I decided to use our current lockdown as an opportunity to instigate a deeper healing at the cellular level and do ‘autophagy fasting’. (This stimulates and rebuilds old and dead cells, recycling them creating healthy versions, boosting immunity as one of its many benefits.)
For a 3-week period, I’ve eaten nutritionally-dense food in a 4 hour feasting window and clean fasted for 20 hours. I ‘restrained’ from overeating and numbing mind and emotions senselessly whilst being at home. Pratyahara, after all, is a measure towards an inner purification and nourishment (such like meditation brings). It requires willpower, but this is very subtle in nature. I would say, it begins with an intention, or possibly a conviction in one’s overall vision, whether this is simply for personal physical health gains, or the Samadhi of the eight-fold yoga path.
We can indeed apply this yoga practice to other areas of life! Is there a need to withdraw from unhealthy choices and behaviours? Are there negative relationships or addictions that compromise your mental and emotional health and sense of inner alignment and balance?
When we move into pratyahara, we begin the step of anchoring into the clarity that comes from the observing presence within, or the ‘action-less witness’. With this shift of awareness, perspective and inner stability, we access our power to make conscious choices that benefit our well-being.
Now is a time to offer yourself an audit! Begin to watch your mind, your breath, your actions and senses. Invite in simplicity. Invite in subtle practice from an ancient wisdom.
Go within every day and find the inner strength,
so that the world cannot blow your candle out.
–Katherine Dunham
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