Pratyahara

Patañjali’s Fifth-Limb of the Eight-Limb Path of Yoga is known as Pratyahara.

Pratyahara translates to withdrawal of the senses.

If you recall from my previous blogs, on Patañjali’s Eight-Limb Path of Yoga, these ancient teachings help a person reach Samadhi (Eight-Limb) a state of Oneness.

But how we all get to Samadhi will look different. Not every person can sit comfortably to practice meditation. Also, there are folks who don’t want to sit to feel a meditative state. Somedays I don’t want to sit either.

Most likely you have experienced activities that feel meditative.

When you do an activity for any duration and you feel comfortable then you’ll start to witness yourself doing the activity. You begin to ‘Feel’ more than ‘Think’ while doing the activity.

My yoga teachers used the following description when explaining the Fifth-Limb. “Pratyahara is similar to a turtle withdrawing its head into it’s shell.”

While driving through the busy city which I live in I can easily become over stimulated. With the many posted signs, advertisements or the latest newsflash it’s not easy to withdraw from the stimulus.

Last weekend when George (my spiritual partner) and I decided to unplug from the city we drove to the Columbia River. The plan was to nourish our souls by immersing ourselves in nature.

We donned our full body wetsuits (similar to a turtle going inward).

In my past I have experienced open-water swims to be meditative. On this day I wanted to tune into to another period of meditative swimming.

We scoped out the scene, on the slow moving river, that lay before us. George and I made a promise to stay between the Osprey’s nest, built up on a light post, and the stationary fishing boat.

As I stepped into the water to warm up my body I noticed there were many distractions around me. The boats, people, dogs and birds were pulling me away from my single point of focus.

I noticed when I floated on my back, with my eyes closed, I felt a brief moment of equanimity.

The time had arrived to actually swim away from the shore. I checked that my goggles were secured, taking a slow breath and away I went.

We took turns at the open water swimming. One by one we swam out in a southward direction and then back to the shore.

I did have a few moments where I was moving into a meditative blissful feeling of observing only my internal breath. I felt as though I was shutting down all my external senses. The more I practiced surrendering to the present moment, by trusting my internal self, I had no sense of taste, smell, sight, sound or touch. My intuition told me, ”this is where you need to be, right now. Enjoy!”

I could feel something resisting against me and it was George who pointed out, “The tide is strong.” I realized the tide was pushing me out to the west. I was happy that the tide was making me a stronger swimmer but I craved to go back into observering myself in a meditative swim.

No matter where you practice meditation it takes practice to be able to shut down all your senses.

Back at our apartment I was craving a longer period of meditation. I choose a soothing meditation technique known as Yoga Nidra. My favorite Yoga Nidra teacher of all time is Kamini Desai.

If you’d like to try one of Kamini’s Yoga Nidra videos you can her on You-Tube. The link is below.

https://youtu.be/rogU4H6LlEk

Note: when setting yourself up for Yoga Nidra (sleep-based meditation technique) - No Wetsuits Required :-)

Here’s to discovering your special moments of meditative bliss. ***on-line Pratyahara resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratyahara

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Alicia <3

Portland Oregon

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