If I were to put some elements of this choreography in a yoga sequence for fun – would I be met with rolled eyes or … mirth? Things get too serious and intense sometimes. It’s just yoga – no wonder some flock to … Zumba ! for example. Where’s the fun? along the road on to transformation?
Actually love more her video on river boat going down the stream but… it was taken down…Isn’t UTUBE supposed to be a public domain?
This blog is a non-profit outlet (lol)…a travel log of a seeker on a journey to cultivate the extraordinary in the ordinary everyday…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-BIxL7gyYE
May need to just find a Karaoke box to get this out of my system …somethings Never End …the question is as always, can you ever schedule such a time to be “in a box” anymore? So trapped in an hour-glass, our daily structured schedule.
Those going ??? what does this have anything to do with YOGA … relating all back to it – the practice of “Prayyahara” is one of the eight limbs of Ashtanga yoga:
V. Pratyahara (Control of the Senses)
Pratyahara means drawing back or retreat. The word ahara means “nourishment”; pratyahara translates as “to withdraw oneself from that which nourishes the senses.” In yoga, the term pratyahara implies withdrawal of the senses from attachment to external objects. It can then be seen as the practice of non-attachment to sensorial distractions as we constantly return to the path of self realization and achievement of internal peace. It means our senses stop living off the things that stimulate; the senses no longer depend on these stimulants and are not fed by them any more.
In pratyahara we sever this link between mind and senses, and the senses withdraw. When the senses are no longer tied to external sources, the result is restraint or pratyahara. Now that the vital forces are flowing back to the Source within, one can concentrate without being distracted by externals or the temptation to cognize externals.
Pratyahara occurs almost automatically when we meditate because we are so absorbed in the object of meditation. Precisely because the mind is so focused, the senses follow it; it is not happening the other way around.
No longer functioning in their usual manner, the senses become extraordinarily sharp. Under normal circumstances the senses become our masters rather than being our servants. The senses entice us to develop cravings for all sorts of things. In pratyahara the opposite occurs: when we have to eat we eat, but not because we have a craving for food. In pratyahara we try to put the senses in their proper place, but not cut them out of our actions entirely.
Much of our emotional imbalance are our own creation. A person who is influenced by outside events and sensations can never achieve the inner peace and tranquility. This is because he or she will waste much mental and physical energy in trying to suppress unwanted sensations and to heighten other sensations. This will eventually result in a physical or mental imbalance, and will, in most instances, result in illness.
Patanjali says that the above process is at the root of human unhappiness and uneasiness. When people seek out yoga, hoping to find that inner peace which is so evasive, they find that it was theirs all along. In a sense, yoga is nothing more than a process which enables us to stop and look at the processes of our own minds; only in this way can we understand the nature of happiness and unhappiness, and thus transcend them both.
– William J.D. Doran
At first read, “Withdrawal” from what’s “nourishing” does not sound right, right? It’s more about outside triggers and stimuli that we are withdrawing from, which leads to a more NOURISHING care of what’s within us – it’s about the content of our vessel, not just the vessel, it’s that content we tend to neglect… the content that fills and enriches our vessel, our lives. It’s so much about the practice of restorative yoga that prepares us better. Judith as always guides us well in our understanding of this concept of “Pratyahara” from a perspective of a yogini who is in this world fully engaged. Here is the illumination. We are not checking out and taking off to retreats because we are needed around here. It’s in the ordinary everyday that’s lived with grace.
Namaste.
