Posture Practice and Pratyahara
Posture practice and how to go deeper….
Okay, so here’s the deal… I’ve been teaching yoga since 2015 and have been exposed to the 8 Limbs of Yoga a number of times now. And it wasn’t until this year, while studying yoga and ayurveda through Kerala Ayurveda USA, that I was able to grasp the 8 Limbs. And by grasp, I mean, really understand how my practice and my teaching has been very heavily focused on only one part of the limbs (asana/postures) and that I had been engaging in at least some of the limbs as part of my own natural progression in my spiritual practice. Let me share more!
Anyone who has taken a 200 hour yoga teacher training in the US likely has heard of the 8 limbs and also likely knows of Patajali. Patajali is an ‘acharya’ or sage who is credited with having gathered and written the content of the 8 limbs. What I always felt was lacking in my yoga training was an understanding of how it is that I can engage in the different limbs and that we all, really should be engaging in the different limbs day to day….
Fast forward to this spring where I was able to learn about the limbs from an ayurvedic lens and with a much more clear state of mind so that I could ‘intake’ the information with ease. The 8 Limbs are the following:
Yamas
Niyamas
Asana
Pranayama
Pratyahara
Dharana
Dhyana
Samadhi
And there is so much to unpack and learn about in each of these. Literally, we could take lengthy classes on each to dive deep into each topic and there are plenty of resources out there if you are interested. What I want to focus more on is Asana and Pratyahara for no other reason other than, it is what has been on my mind lately.
Asana is the sanskrit term for pose/posture. When we look at this with a little more depth, we understand that asana is about a person with a still and undisturbed body. That’s it. Nothing about handstands, arm balances, warrior poses… nothing about creating sequences of poses with the latest pop songs (about codependent relationship patterns), while heat and humidity is being pumped out and we all end in a sweaty puddle and sometimes someone will say Namaste, or talk about joining a monthly membership….I say all of this fully owning that I have been that teacher. I have taught handstands in sweaty, hot studios, while meticulously planning songs that would match the vibe I was going for and I have ended all my classes saying ‘namaste’... I don’t think I ever actually chimed in a sales pitch at the end of class as we were supposed to at my big name corporate studio…. I digress… All of this to say that what many of us in the West understand as yoga is actually asana…. Or more specifically a group fitness class that we take at something called a ‘yoga studio’. I recently read that yoga in the US could be called a #posturepractice and I really like that. So I’m going to use it here. Again, I have to be clear, I have benefited from this posture practice, personally in a very deep way. I was able to pay the expensive membership fees and practice in the big corporate studio for years and I also took my teacher training through this same big studio. It got me to where I am now… And that is an article for another time. What I'm trying to get at… is that there is such a vast and expansive experience of yoga that exists in the 8 limbs of yoga, outside of yoga studios and outside of expensive membership fees.
In more modern times (and in ancient times) the use of the #posturepractice is (and was) meant to remove gunas (qualities in sanskrit) from the mind. These gunas are called rajas and tamas. Rajas is action and assertion. Tamas is dullness and darkness. We need both of these in our day to day, rajas is how we live during the day time and tamas is how we sleep. Because of the nature of our existence now, we are all often in these extreme (or even just in unbalanced) states of rajas and tamas. We rush around every day, we have a google calendar that is packed full and we have sleep that never feels like enough…. And then we take #posturepractices that may be really good and well intentioned, that may help release stored energy, but don’t give us the deeper awareness… of our own inner landscape. This is where pratyahara comes in.
Pratyahara is about a deep place of self knowledge. It is the ability to draw our senses (indriyas in sanskrit) inward, where all the inputs (ahara in sanskrit) can be sorted, stored, organized… made sense of. In ayurveda, we learn that there are 4 types of ahara: water, breath, food and perception. Perception is the one I want to focus on… because when we have the ‘right’ perception, that is neutral… that is the ability to see more than just your own perception in situations- that is authentic power. And this authentic power is something I think is missing in our culture and in our #posturepractices. This is all great and well… but how do we practice pratyahara? This is where I would always get stuck… like I can get the concept of this, but how does one practice this?
Yoga nidra. Nidra is sanskrit for sleep. But when I talk about yoga nidra here, I mean the practice of deep relaxation and rest. It is something that many of us desperately need but few of us actually obtain. Nidra, in this sense, is a sleep based meditation. It is used to place the body into deep relaxation and the mind in slower brain functioning so that all the sensory information, all the emotions, all the stressors can be processed and sorted. Kamini Desai, author of ‘Yoga Nidra: The Art of Transformational Sleep’ writes this about the practice, ‘we simply rest as the space through which all experiences come and go… the more we rest as who we are, the less we are at the effect of what is passing through… we can be at peace and steady in the midst of external and internal disturbance…’
The chaos of our world isn’t going anywhere… but maybe it could if we all dropped into the practice of pratyahara…
Please know, yoga nidra is not the only way to practice pratyahara, it just happens to be my current preference. Do you have your own preferences? I’d love to hear about them!
And you know, you can practice this using a few apps, from the comfort of your own home. I AM Yoga Nidra and also Insight Timer (then search for yoga nidra) are the two I am using (I have no affiliation with either one) I just want to share the resource. So when the #posturepractices cease to wow you, you can’t afford them, or you are just seeking something else… something deeper… something richer… look inward. Practice pratyahara.
Okay, but what is ayurveda?
What is ayurveda?
Ayurveda. Let me start with how to pronounce it first. R-U-VE-DAH. That’s it! Ayurveda is a sanskrit word. What is sanskrit? Well, it is a very auspicious language! Some of the most ancient documents we have today are written in this old Indo-Aryan language. The ancient texts, perhaps you’ve heard of them, the Vedas are generally described as being composed as far back as 1500 BCE! You didn’t know you were going to get a mini history lesson with this, did you!?
Okay, so you know a sanskrit word now! So what does ayurveda mean? The word literally translates to the ‘science (or wisdom) of life’. ‘Ayuh’ is life and ‘veda’ is wisdom, science or knowledge. It is an all encompassing platform for health and wellness. Though this practice of ayurveda has been in existence for thousands of years and is a normative experience for people in India currently, it is relatively new to the West. My short answer to the question ‘what is ayurveda’ is that it is the sister science to yoga. But there is so much more. Keep reading for a deeper dive!
There are two things with Ayurveda that I think are really important to know right away:
1) The emphasis placed on maintaining the health of the person
2) Restoring the health of a person experiencing dis-ease (disease) or imbalances.
My own experience with Western medicine is in stark contrast to this idea of maintaining health, or what is also called prevention (svasthavrtta in sanskrit). I’ve heard from people in my life who have described experiences of being told they had to wait for a cancer screen to come back or there was no treatment offered until they had cancer (or whatever the disease was). Without getting too much in the weeds here, because I can also do that, I want you to know that in Ayurveda, there is an understanding of 6 different stages of a diseased progression. This is called ‘sadkriyakala’ in sanskrit. This means there are ways of recognizing the manifestation of diseases before there is a fully identifiable disease. The first 3 of these stages (caya, prakopa and prasara) occur before the disease has fully manifested. In these 3 stages, the disease itself can still be prevented. The final 3 stages of the diseased progression (sthana samsara, vyakti and bheda) can be understood as when the disease has more fully manifested. Though there is/can be a cure, it is more difficult to get there at this point (in the final 3 stages). I’m not western medical doctor and to be honest, my experience with the medical system in the West is minimal both in that I’ve had little need to seek the services of a medical provider and for the last 5 or so years, I have sought the guidance of an ayurvedic practitioner (or an otherwise alternative care provider, like a chiropractor), I’m saying this so you understand my context here.
Having said all of this, I want you to know this next point. And one of the big reasons that I love ayurveda so much is that it is a very specific approach to caring for people. In no particular order here are some key points:
People seeking care (rogis) are trusted to have their own healing mechanisms from within (healing is an inside job, the ayurveda professional just helps to facilitate this healing). The doctor isn’t a healer (just a healer of themselves), each of us are our own healers!
Each person is made up of a very unique body and psychological constitution (prakriti).
Rather than a cookie cutter approach where everyone is treated as a type of machine that just needs to be given a pill, there is recognition in the ayurveda field that everybody is different and every treatment (cikitsa) should be tailored to that rogi.
Practices or remedies (cikitsas) provided may be long term (think yoga practice or daily rituals) and may also be short term (think herbs or formulations, what is called dravyas) to boost the body's own wisdom to care for and heal oneself.
The recommendations are meant to be obtainable and accessible for a wide range of people. While there may be recommendations for something more intensive, if this is not feasible either because of finances, inability to travel (because of physical limitations), unwillingness to try something (ghee is often used as a medicine and this may not work for someone who is living a vegan lifestyle), or the needed herbs may not be available… it is incredibly important to meet rogis where they are.
The person is viewed not just as a body (sarira) or not just as a mind (manus) but rather seen from all levels: physical, spiritual, emotional, behavioral, familial, universal etc.
Sounds really great, right? There’s more! Ayurveda comes from a scientific and philosophical framework. There is so much to explore within each of these, but for now I just want you to expose you to the following:
There are 3 compilations of texts (samhitas) outlining Ayurveda which come from schools of physicians and surgeons. The texts are known as Caraka Samhita, Susruta Samhita and Astanga Hrdayam.
Astanga Ayurveda describes the 8 different classifications of care (you may liken this to the 8 limbs of yoga, if you are familiar with that). You may recognize some of these from the western system (though to be clear these have been established in ayurveda for thousands of years): internal medicine (kayacikitsa), surgery (salya tantra), ear/nose/throat/eyes (salakya tantra), pediatrics (kaumarbhrya), toxicology (agadatantra), psychiatry (bhutavidya), rejuvenation (rasayana) and aphrodisiacs (vajikarana). The difference between the western approach and ayurveda here, is that there are no specialized professionals- one professional can work with you for each of these.
There are 6 categories of philosophical understanding (Saddarsana) on which ayurveda is built. These categories are Samkhya, Nyaya, Vaiseika, Yogadarsana, Mimamsa and Vedanta. They are fascinating to learn more about!
So, long story short… ayurveda, is an all encompassing, amazingly deep and rich field for healing and restoring the health of each of us. There is so much more, so friends… think of this as a preview of coming attractions!