Pratyahara- the 5th limb of yoga

Can be known as the most important yet the most forgotten limb of yoga.

Pratyahara is the key to the relationship between the outer and inner aspects of yoga; it shows us how to move from one to the other.

The term “pratyahara” is composed of two Sanskrit words, prati and ahara. “Ahara” means “food,” or “anything we take into ourselves from the outside.” “Prati” is a preposition meaning “against” or “away.” “Pratyahara” means literally “control of ahara,” or “gaining mastery over external influences.

In yogic thought there are three levels of ahara, or food. The first is physical food that brings in the five elements necessary to nourish the body—earth, water, fire, air, and ether. The second is impressions, which bring in the subtle substances necessary to nourish the mind—the sensations of sound, touch, sight, taste, and smell that constitute the subtle elements: sound/ether, touch/air, sight/fire, taste/water, and smell/earth. The third level of ahara is our associations, the people we hold at heart level who serve to nourish the soul and affect us with the gunas of sattva, rajas, and tamas (the prime qualities of harmony, distraction, or inertia).

Pratyahara is twofold. It involves withdrawal from wrong food, wrong impressions, and wrong associations, while simultaneously opening up to right food, right impressions, and right associations. We cannot control our mental impressions without right diet and right relationships, but pratyahara’s primary importance lies in withdrawal from or control of sensory impressions, which frees the mind to move within.

By withdrawing our awareness from negative impressions, pratyahara strengthens the mind’s powers of immunity. Just as a healthy body resists toxins and pathogens, a healthy mind resists the negative sensory influences around it. If you are easily disturbed by the noise and turmoil of the environment around you, you need to practice pratyahara. Without it, you will not be able to meditate.

Withdrawal of the senses allows the practitioner to connect with their inner world, thereby creating optimal conditions for self-realization. Pratyahara also helps to provide an understanding of how much the mind is influenced by sensory input, and to acknowledge the role of thoughts and feelings in suffering.

As the most important limb

Personal practice of pratyahara

Pratyahara techniques give me the ability to step out of all that reactivity. It puts a psychic shield between me and the world. It stops me from being so easily swayed by what’s going on around me.

I find myself less reactive and a much calmer, happier, able handle stress better, and have more joy.

The techniques I use to practice pratyahara daily are keeping my diet as clean as possible, when I deviate from my normal everyday diet and eat foods less rajasic I can feel “garbage in, garbage out” gut!  Fasting is a great way to detox and get back on track!

Checking how much time spent on electronics, mobile devices, what/who/how much you are taking in. Filter out your social media, news sources and keep them to a minimim.

The company you keep will raise or lower your vibration. I’ve had to do inventory of my friends and although at the time it was difficult to weave them out of my life I appreciate the lessons I learned from them and the time spent together. I now know and understand it is ok to let some friends go.

I keep up with my meditation practices, gratefulness, journaling and breath work. I feel more grounded and rooted.