Have you ever been guided out of Savasana (corpse pose, the final resting posture at the end of a yoga class) and been a little startled by the teacher’s voice?  Like, you kind of forgot they were there?  You forgot you were in a space with 20 other people taking their rest too?  That is pratyahara: withdrawing from the senses — beginning to block out the sensations of the world around you and moving your awareness internally.  This limb is actually the bridge between our external practices of yoga (Yamas, Niyamas, Asana, and Pranayama) to the INTERNAL practices.  The last 4 limbs moves us closer and closer to mediation and perhaps one day inner peace.  

There is a lovey mudra (hand gesture) that can be used to physically remind you of this practice. It’s the cover image for this post and its name is shanmukhi mudra. As you can see in the picture, the practitioner is blocking out vision, smell, and speech/taste with their fingers. What you can’t see are the thumbs in the ears to block out hearing.  This is absolutely a fan favorite in kids yoga classes. I used to combine it with a bumble bee breath (pranayama) and kids love it. I find that the bumble bee breath (long humming on the exhale) creates the effect of a sound machine and can be really helpful in blocking out external sounds — GREAT for kids who are sensory overloaded in a classroom or any other loud/chaotic environment.

For some people this practice (of pratyahara) isn’t very challenging, however I am not one of those people.  I see and hear EVERYTHING.   All.  The.  Time.   I also have a bad case of “mommy ears.”  Especially now that my yoga practice is a home practice, it takes a great deal of set up and preparation (and luck) for me to be in a mental space where I can even ALLOW myself to block out the rest of the world.  I have to pass the baton of child care specifically to my husband so that I am not inadvertently hearing/listening to the kids’ chaos.  So that my brain doesn’t tell me it’s my responsibility to intervene in the madness.  I turn up the sound machine to do my best to block out their noise.  I remove all devices from my practice space if I can.  And even with all that preparation, sometimes I still can’t shut it all out.

My husband however does this on the regular.  No joke.  We can be having a conversation and all of a sudden I can see in his eyes and on his face that he is no longer with me.  He is lost in thought, in his own world, planning something or solving a problem or trying to figure out how something works.  He also literally does not “see” or “hear” the kids level of crazy until it has reached an unreasonable (to me) level* — which is partially why passing the baton to him doesn’t always work to help ME block out the noise.  I hear the build up to the shenanigans WAY before he does.  By the time it escalates to a level that gets his attention, I’m going crazy wondering if he is EVER going to handle them. (*please know that in no way are the kids actually unsafe at the level at which I hear them and feel the need to intervene OR at the level at which my husband steps in.  I am clearly much more sensitive to noise and have a MUCH lower threshold for ANYTHING that is disrupting the airwaves).

This “skill” that my husband seems to have as a natural part of his being is a double edged sword.  It comes in really handy for someone who has worked from home for our entire relationship.  It never seems to have been a struggle for him to block out whatever madness is brewing on the other side of his office door.  He has a great ability to focus and concentrate and do the deep dives on work projects when he needs to — no matter what else is going on around him.  That said, it’s frustrating at times to live with someone who doesn’t see and hear everything like I do.  Because I see and hear everything first, in my head it becomes “my responsibility” to handle those things (messes in the kitchen, children tearing apart the house, etc).  However, because I know this about him (now), I know that I need to specifically tell him to be present when I hand him the baton.  I need to point out the things that I notice (that he doesn’t) if I want help handling them in a timely fashion.  I have to drag him back over the bridge into the physical world, away from the inner workings of his own mind.

Knowing this about him (and him knowing it about himself) COMBINED with the fact that he’s never upset when I do pull him back into the present (and point out tasks that need to be accomplished) has also been really great for our marriage. I don’t quietly seethe over the things he’s not doing, and he doesn’t consider it nagging (thank goodness) to have tasks pointed out to him that he hasn’t even been aware of. While I DREAM of a day where I am easily able to block out the chaos of my surroundings, I also know that I can’t LIVE in that state, and certainly our house and family would be in shambles if BOTH of us had such great skill at doing it. There is a time and place for blocking out your senses (meditation, a contemplative yoga practice, a deep dive on a project or at work) but perhaps the TRUE skill is being able to consciously CHOOSE when to do it.

Pratyahara obviously can be practiced on your mat as a step towards meditation, but I think it’s clear it has uses off the mat as well.   Perhaps with more time and practice I can hone my skills ON the mat and use what I have learned to withdraw from my own senses — perhaps  when I need to focus on work in the midst of whatever pandemic era madness is going on in the house around me.  

*Caveat / Disclaimer: Please keep in mind I am sharing with you my current understanding of these very complex ideas.  I am a middle-aged white woman from the midwest and have only spent the last 6 or 7 years studying this ancient tradition.  I implore you to consider these factors, and absolutely seek out other resources to dive deeper for yourself.  I also invite you to share YOUR knowledge, in a kind and thoughtful manner,  and offer different interpretations of the ideas I have presented as a way for us to all learn and grow.*