The Eight Limbs of Yoga: Part 6: Pratyahara Explained | Turning Inward in a Distracted World

Pratyahara, the fifth limb of yoga described in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, is often called the practice of “withdrawal of the senses.” But it’s not about shutting out the world—it’s about reclaiming your attention from constant distraction and turning inward toward clarity and peace.

When we practice Pratyahara, we learn how to stop being pulled around by sensory input and instead let the senses rest, allowing the mind to follow the stillness.

Yoga Sutra II.54
स्वविषयासम्प्रयोगे चित्तस्वरूपानुकार इवेन्द्रियाणां प्रत्याहारः ॥ २.५४॥
sva-viṣayāsamprayoge cittasvarūpānukāra ivendriyāṇāṃ pratyāhāraḥ
“Pratyahara is the withdrawal of the senses, when they are released from their objects and follow the nature of the mind itself.”

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What Pratyahara really means in the context of the Eight Limbs of Yoga
• Parallels with Christian contemplative practice (“Be still and know…”)
• Simple ways to practice Pratyahara in daily life: digital detox, mindful eating, creating quiet spaces
• Why reclaiming your senses is essential for focus, meditation, and inner freedom

Pratyahara is the bridge from the outer practices (ethics, postures, breath) to the inner practices (concentration, meditation, absorption). It is how we prepare for stillness in a noisy world.

Remember: a good practice is the one you do.
Join me next Monday at 10am for Part 6: Dharana — The Power of Focused Concentration.

Chapters

• 0:06 Welcome and context for Pratyahara
• 2:14 Understanding Pratyahara in Yoga Sutras
• 4:50 Parallels with Christian traditions
• 6:40 Practical ways to practice Pratyahara
• 10:45 Benefits of withdrawal of senses
• 13:52 Daily applications and closing reflections

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hello everybody and welcome back to the daily practice with me, benita. First of all, I'd like to make note of the fact that I didn't publish this podcast last week. I was on a trip to attend to some family and it was a lot, so I skipped a week. And I am so happy to be back to share the next episode on the eight limbs of yoga as described by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and this week we are talking about Pratyahara, which is withdrawal of the senses inward. Once again, this episode is a perfectly fine standalone episode if you just want to find out about Pratyahara specifically, but if you're interested in the broader context, feel free to go back and listen to the previous episodes the first one outlining all of the eight limbs and then each following episode diving into the other limbs and let's outline them. So yama, nyama, asana, pranayama and today pratyahara. So in english we could see those as yamas, as the ethical principles, nyamas, inner observances. Asana is the posture and pranayama is breath and life force, or extension of life force, expansion of life force, however you wish to translate or conceptualize it. So feel free to go back and listen to those for more context and let's dive right into it. So we're talking about the fifth limb of the eight limbs of yoga, and it's often translated as the withdrawal of the senses. And once again, this can also be seen as the bridge between the outer practices of body, breath and ethics and the inner, deeper, more profound practices of concentration, meditation and absorption that we'll be looking at in the following weeks. So in Sanskrit those are dharana, dhyana and finally, samadhi that we're going to look at in the next few weeks.

Speaker 1: 2:39

Well, again, for context, it's useful to look at the actual original writing about Pratyahara in the Yoga Sutras, and it is written in Yoga Sutra 254. In Sanskrit it says Again, I apologize for my pronunciation, I haven't brushed up. Apologize my pronunciation. I haven't brushed up on my Sanskrit, but it is loosely translated as Pratyahara is the withdrawal of the senses when they cease to be engaged with their objects and follow the nature of the mind. Another sutra, yoga Sutra 255. Tata Paramah Vasyatendriyanam.

Speaker 1: 3:34

Then comes the supreme mastery over the senses. The idea is that when we're no longer engaged with the senses in the outside world looking at things, feeling things, hearing, tasting, smelling the senses chitta is the mind and that is really also what Patanjali writes is Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. So through Pratyahara we become aware of the mind, we become aware of the mind, we can withdraw senses from the outer world and look inside, at the mind, at the chitta. And once again I'm going to point out that there is a similarity or a parallel in the Christian tradition, because so many people consider yoga as some kind of demonic, weird, antagonistic practice to Christianity. But truly is also written in Psalm 46, 10, be still and know that I am God. So there are many Christian contemplative traditions that also value withdrawal of the senses from the outside and becoming still and witnessing the divine. And so Desert fathers and mothers did practice solitude and silence as a way to turning inward, to hear God, to be with God, to witness the divine. And some could argue that there is a certain difference, that in Christianity this withdrawal is framed as creating a space for God or the divine, whereas in yoga pratyahara is creating space for inner awareness and preparation for meditation. But really I would argue that ultimately these are the same thing, that as we are created in God's image, we are witnessing the divine within us and we are opening that crown chakra, sahasrara chakra, as a connection to the divine to God, even as perceived in the Christian faith, especially that of the New Testament, and I could go into a whole tangent here about whether the God in the Old Testament and the New Testament are actually the same deity, but let's not get into that now.

Speaker 1: 6:24

What are some ways to actually practice pratyahara? Of course, certain meditative practices where you turn your attention inward as opposed to outward are great examples of this. Your attention inward as opposed to outward are great examples of this. And there are also certain yoga poses, yoga asanas, that are kind of created to create that space for turning the senses inward, and those are ones where it is kind of easier to witness this interception of the physical body and that of the mind.

Speaker 1: 7:01

But what I would invite a lot of people and this has become more and more popular maybe in the past couple of decades is floating, is a sensory deprivation tank. It could be called a pratyahara tank. Okay, when you float in a tank full of or half full of salt water, that is body temperature is completely dark, it's completely soundproof and uh, your body kind of melts into this uh darkness and you're floating in weightless in this water. That is exactly the same temperature as your body and also the air in the sensory deprivation tank is the same temperature as body temperature, so you kind of lose sensations off the body and that way you are actually getting this kind of shortcut or kind of a quicker route to observe, observing the workings of the mind, and a lot of people find a lot of healing and realizations and it's a really beautiful way to actually achieve a state of pratyahara without the kind of arduous practice of yoga, asana and pranayama to prepare the body for that.

Speaker 1: 8:21

Because for a lot of people the practice of pratyahara in a seated posture becomes hard to achieve just because a lot of people have aches and pains or discomfort in the body. So just sitting down for an extended period of time to achieve this withdrawal of the senses inward becomes challenging. So just lying down in a float tank is a great way to practice pratyahara. If your body doesn't yet feel comfortable sitting for an extended period of time in a seated meditation posture, which I do have a video on YouTube, feel free to go back and look at that. On my YouTube channel, daily Practice with Benita, you can find an outline of how to sit in meditation. So I give a lot of options on how to sit if lotus posture or cross-legged posture isn't yet really available to your body.

Speaker 1: 9:24

So but what are some maybe more mundane ways of practicing pratyahara, if we're not talking about formal meditation or float tank or anything like this? One example could be that you just take some time off your phone or off screens in general. So I've taken the practice of some form of Sabbath, so each Sunday I leave my phone at home or I turn it off completely and I just let myself be more in the present. So this doesn't mean that I'm in a meditation all day, but it just means that I don't look at my phone every five minutes. This could also be just being really present when you're having a conversation, when you're eating, whatever it is, that you're actually not allowing the external stimuli to take you away from what's happening in the present. And this could also look at actually becoming present with your emotional, physical and mental states, if something upsetting might have happened in a conversation, and really just taking a pause, watching your breath, watching your sensations and then taking a moment just to respond instead of react.

Speaker 1: 10:50

So why would any of these practices matter? Or why do we practice pratyahara? So we are really living in a world where a lot of us, especially if you live in an urban environment, there's an excess of stimulation, notifications, noise, people, the traffic, whatever it is. So really taking moments to turn that attention inward is so, so valuable and it brings us space and just more presence in our lives. And also, without pratyahara, the next limbs of yoga are increasingly out of reach.

Speaker 1: 11:34

So Dharana, concentration and Dhyana, meditation, are not truly available to us if we're constantly distracted by sensory stimuli. So if you get distracted by a crying baby over there or your phone binging over there or whatever else might come up, then concentration is not there and meditation, dhyana, is certainly not really available if you're not able to withdraw the senses inward. We could also consider that pratyahara is really reclaiming our attention from this external bombardment, constant bombardment from the outside, and obviously, of course, in a more maybe scientific sense, when our nervous system is constantly overloaded by sensor input, we become more stressed. Our nervous system is kind of shot all the time when there's constant input from the outside, and intentional withdrawal of the senses inwards resets the nervous system. So that's obviously a very, very practical and powerful application.

Speaker 1: 12:57

So, once again, what are some other ways that we could practice this in our daily lives, so we could just choose one of our senses to take a break from it. Maybe it is choosing silence. Maybe you put your earplugs in for the day If you're at home, of course, maybe there's some things you need to attend to, but trying to become still in that, maybe you're not listening to music all the time, instead actually paying attention to your mind, your thoughts, your physical sensations, turning inward, even if it's not in a, you know, formal meditation. And another one is a simple, you know meditation technique, of course, where we can just sit down, watch our breath, even for one minute, two minutes. You really notice that when you really turn your senses inward, watching the breath, allowing thoughts to happen, but always gently coming back to the breath, that's a really powerful way to just tune into the present moment and tune into your own state.

Speaker 1: 14:07

So that was basically today's episode on Pratyahara, the withdrawal of the senses, and we have three more limbs of yoga to explore in the next following weeks, and I will do my best to stay on schedule to publish this podcast each Monday morning at 10 am and the practice videos on YouTube at 7 am Fridays. And yeah, this week, this past two weeks kind of flew by because of, yeah, traveling to family, but I am so happy to be back with you guys and, yeah, please do go on to youtube and subscribe, like videos, uh, and leave comments. That really helps other people to find this content. And, of course, feel free to share with a family member or friend and yep, uh. Just one last quote for reflection as a tortoise withdraws its limbs, so the wise withdraw their senses from sense objects.

Speaker 1: 15:23

That is from Bhagavad Gita, 258, yep, and I guess that was all for today. A little bit of an express episode. I hope you found some Yep, and I guess that was all for today. A little bit of an express episode. I hope you found some nuggets of wisdom or new context for your everyday practice and always remember that a good practice is the one you do. My practice has been to be consistent with this production of this podcast and I will continue to do so in the following weeks. Thanks so much and I will see you next week.