Pratyāhāra: Unplug and Refresh

Pratyāhāra

प्रत्याहार

“To withdraw from the senses”

One morning I left my house to run errands and half a mile away I realized that I’d left my phone on the kitchen table. “I don’t need my phone,” I thought. “Everything I have to do, I can do without it.” Of course, the next thing I did was make a U-turn in the middle of 16th Street, and bee-lined to my front door to pick up my iPhone. Not having my phone with me felt uncomfortable and vulnerable. I felt out of control and out of contact. In retrospect, I see how not only is this uncomfortability a good thing, but it was also just the beginning of my journey into practicing Pratyāhāra. Pratyāhāra is one of the eight limbs of yoga. The term is made of two words: prati, meaning “without,” and āhāra, meaning “food” or “nourishment.” Simply put, Pratyāhāra is the practice of being without the things that feed us. Nourishment might come from food, and yet it almost certainly comes from the other senses as well. We live in a society that feeds off of the positive affirmation of likes and hearts on social media. It makes us feel good when we see that blinking green light on our phones that tell us something or someone is waiting for our response. They are reminders that we exist. Constant dings and blinks and notifications of information that can almost always wait. Recent studies show that notifications on our phones send messages to the pleasure centers of our brains, releasing dopamine, kind of like nicotine, sugar or caffeine. Our other senses find ways to satisfy us too. I love to eat. I love my chai latte in the morning. But sometimes, I drink it without tasting it because I’m rushing off to work or to run errands, or just rushing for no reason. Have you ever seen a person eating potato chips as if someone was about to steal the bag? I’ve done that before, and when I do, I don’t really taste or enjoy the food. Have you ever driven to work and realized that your commute is over and you didn’t notice a thing you passed? Maybe your radio was on or you were on your phone or texting, or simply staring out at all the sensory overload of electronic signs and neon billboards. When that happens to us, we can become so absorbed in a world of overstimulation that we become numb. Pratyāhāra is the opposite of numbness. And it’s the opposite of sensory overload. Rather than overcome by cravings, Pratyāhāra is when we are in harmony with the perceived world without sensing it through the lens of desire, need and attachment. Pratyāhāra is a state, however short, in which we are able to become unattached to all of the things that feed us.

When we go into savasana, we are trying to add a little touch of Pratyāhāra into our practice. And when we make the choice to go to yoga class, to walk into the studio and into the classroom, to leave our phones and watches outside, we are choosing to take a tiny but important step forward towards Pratyāhāra as part of our daily lives. We don’t need our phones. We don’t need our music or our television or our caffeinated beverages. Take some time to withdraw from Facebook, Instagram, 24-hour news channels and all the other chatter surrounding your life. Close your eyes. Don’t move. Don’t speak. Just breathe.

When I was a child I loved playing in the fields after the grass got too high. Just before my father mowed it all down with his vintage David Brown 880 selectamatic, my sisters, our black lab Sugar and I ran, cart wheeled and spun through the grass and clover. When we were out of breath, the three of us would plop onto our backs with our legs and arms spread as wide as we could get them and just stare up at the open sky. In those moments, everything slowed down. My breath, the wind, the motion of the clouds, and the rustling of the trees and birds’ wings became profoundly present. I was aware of all of the life and motion surrounding me, but it wasn’t overwhelming. By allowing myself to stop and withdraw from the world around me, I was able to experience it more fully. That’s Pratyāhāra.

Try these little changes once or twice and notice how it changes your experience:

Take a walk without your phone or iPod.

Sit on your porch and just look out and up for five or ten minutes.

When you’re walking outside, look at the sky.

Eat dinner with your family or by yourself by candlelight without your phone.

Meditate for five minutes a day for a week. Set a timer. Maybe try for 10 or 20. If you don’t have that kind of time, then try for an hour. ☺

Turn off electronics an hour before bedtime.

Take a hike, or a walk in the city. Find a spot to rest and just sit there for a while.

Go to the top of a mountain, or to the middle of a field or a lake in a boat. Then, take a seat, close your eyes and breathe.

#pratyahara #yoga #yogaethics #yama #niyama #ashtangayoga