Pratyahara

There is something in Patanjali’s yoga sutras that I think is skipped over or given short shrift: Pratyahara. This is the bridge between the physical and the subtle movement towards meditation. Pratyahara is also the first stages of Yoga Nidra. Not yoga nidra as marketed by many studios as a form of guided meditation & relaxation, but the true turning inward of our sensory awareness. It is this turning inward that allows us to be free from the push and pull of how we interpret the world around us, including our thoughts. This is a practice that few engage. We think we can do asana, pranayama and boom! let’s do meditation. But how can we enter into meditation when we are still completely guided by our sensory awareness of the external world? I am curious about what this must be like, not to remove myself from my senses but to turn all that attention into myself.
We are offering a workshop on this very limb of the yoga sutras, Pratyahara. Asana, breath and touching into the work of pratyahara. So different from meditation, pratyahara. I welcome anyone who has been working with this limb to begin a conversation.
Saturday June 15th, 1-3pm at the studio. Please come and join us. See our workshop page for more information.

Martha