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Pratyahara Techniques: How To Do Mind Yoga [2020]
yoga

In this article, we will be looking at the very best pratyahara techniques and exercises.

Pratyahara yoga is the fifth limb of yoga. It’s a powerful way to master your mind, cultivate
inner peace, and boost your focus and concentration.

While you may have tried some of the many yoga meditation styles, and you may have tried all
of the 28 forms of yoga of yoga,. Pratyahara yoga is different.

Pratyahara techniques are all about sense withdrawal. They are about reducing the effects of
negative influences in your life.
Imagine if you could access a state of mind where you are not distracted, where you are not
affected by other people, where noisy environments do not bother you?

What if you could maintain total inner peace even in the hardest of times?

It’s possible when you learn the art of Pratyahara yoga.

Introduction To Pratyahara Yoga: The Yogic

Mind Training Technique
In my guide to using yoga for positivity I reveal how you can boost your mindset by using
certain yoga poses.

Pratyahara is similar because it boosts positivity and inner wellbeing. But it also goes much
further.

When you practice pratyahara techniques you truly come to master your mind.

As all experienced yogis should know, meditation is important in yoga

Pratyahara is very similar to meditation.

Pratyahara techniques are all about training the mind to withdraw from the senses.

Judith Lasater, Ph.D., P.T., says that Pratyahara yoga is when we “have a space between the
world around [us] and [our] responses to that world.”

When we practice Pratyahara techniques we train the mind to be present in the world but
spiritually and emotionally protected at the same time, as though there were a psychic shell
around us.

Put simply:

When you learn Pratyahara yoga your mind becomes invincible to external stimuli.

 Benefits 
Pratyahara exercises offers many benefits, of which the most important is this: With pratyahara
yoga, we are not reactive.

Most people spend their entire lives in a constant cycle of reactivity. Your phone rings so you
immediately answer it. It’s a meme your friend sent. You laugh. Look for other memes. Send one
back. Now you’re on Facebook. Oh—there’s a big news story on Facebook, better read that…

Most of us know what it feels like to live in this perpetual cycle of reactivity.
Pratyahara techniques give us the ability to step out of all that reactivity. It puts a psychic shield
between us and the world. It stops us from being so easily swayed by what’s going on around us.

Because we are less reactive, we are also calm. And calmness itself offers many benefits too.

Being relaxed:

 Is essential when you want find happiness

 is good for the body and mind
 improves the immune system
 reduces negative feelings like stress
 promotes inner joy and happiness
 reduces free radicals, which cause illness and death.
Clearly, there are many benefits of Pratyahara, of which the most important is that it distances
the mind from the overload of external stimuli.

Sounds good, right?

So how can we experience Pratyahara yoga?

To experience the benefits, we have to practice it properly. And to practice pratyahara exercises,
we need to understand its role in the yogic system.

Let’s take look.

What is Pratyahara yoga? 

Many pratyahara techniques are similar to meditation because they create inner calm and help us
focus our minds, giving us mental strength and emotional control.

But there are important differences between pratyahara exercises and meditation.

In fact, Pratyahara yoga and meditation actually work best when practiced together.

 Meditation creates inner peace and focuses the mind

 Pratyahara yoga helps us to maintain that inner peace
and focus.
So, when you practise yogic meditations such as Bhakti it is best to complement them with
Pratyahara yoga.
Here’s how meditation and pratyahara yoga work together

Many meditators find that they can produce inner peace when they meditate, but they lose their
calm when they stop meditating.

This makes sense when you think about the nature of the mind.

The mind is like a boat with holes in it. When you meditate, you empty the water (empty the
thoughts / sensory information) from the boat (the mind), but it doesn’t patch the holes, so
inevitably water will come back in.

The water (the noise) in the mind comes from the senses.

Information flows into the mind through the senses, and no matter how much you meditate you
will always end up with a mind full of noise unless you stop that overflow of information from
entering your mind in the first place.

To keep the mind empty, stop the noise from getting in.

That’s what it is all about. It safeguards the mind from external stimuli so that we can keep our
inner peace and quiet.

That’s why, if you lose focus shortly after meditating, you should start practicing Pratyahara
techniques.

Keep focus by withdrawing from your senses

We get distracted because of the senses.

The Katha Upanishad (an ancient Sanskrit text containing many of the founding philosophies of
Hinduism) explains that sensory overload will derail a person.

In Katha Upanishads, there is the depiction of the Hindu philosophy of “Ratha Kalpana”
(“horse image”). This description shows the body as a chariot that carries the self. This chariot
is pulled by horses that represent the senses, and driven by “Budhi” (inner wisdom), which uses
manas (sensory mind) as reins. This horse-drawn chariot symbolises how we lose control of the
mind when we become too caught-up in the senses.

Do you experience any of the following problems:

 Easily being distracted
  Overreacting to things around you
 Restlessness
 Checking your phone or email all the time
 Unwanted habits
 Sensory overload
 Information overload
 Addiction to social media
If so, your senses might be getting the better of you.

Senses have a will of their own. They tell you what to do. They direct you to check your email,
visit Facebook, perform unwanted habits and so on, without you even being aware that they are
taking control.

Enlightened people have complete control of their senses. But the average person is on auto-
pilot, reacting to sensory information, allowing their senses to dictate their actions.

By controlling the senses, we can shape the

subconscious mind
Pratyahara yoga is very beneficial to the subconscious mind because it gives us control of the
information we absorb.

Too much negative sensory information will corrode the mind just like fat will clog your arteries.

Many people experience violent, depressive, angry, sad, or just plain negative thoughts. And the
majority of those thoughts come from the sensory information we expose ourselves to.

We can think of these things as bad mental hygiene. They put impure information in the mind.

Take the daily news, for instance. A constant stream of negativity and violence. It makes the
world look like an awful place. And those impression enter the mind and change our
subconscious. In fact, scientific studies have proven that people who watch the news every day
are more likely to experience anxiety and depression because the news makes them believe the
world is a bad place.

Facebook. Twitter. Negative people. They all do the same thing. They give the mind poor
nourishment. They make the mind fat on negative impressions.

Ayurveda (an Indian medicinal system) states that mental impressions are the food of the mind.
When you’re on Facebook every day, or watching the news, you’re essentially ingesting the
mental equivalent of McDonalds. It will make your mind ill.
The idea of information as food is important in yoga.
Yogis use the word “Ahara” to refer to the different kinds of “food”. There’s:

 the psychical food;

 the elements of earth, water, fire and air;
 impressions that feed the subconscious mind;
 sensory information (sight, sound, touch, taste, and
smell);
 and associations—people who nourish our soul and
influence our gunas, sattva, rajas, and tamas.
It involves all these kinds of foods. It involves eating healthy (withdrawing from unhealthy
foods), and removing negative impressions (TV, social media, etc).

When we withdraw from unhealthy “foods” we achieve both a healthy body and a healthy mind.

This is something many different spiritualities focus on, but in shockingly different ways.

Many spiritualities focus on controlling the senses

Most religions recognise how the senses drag us off-course.

Some spiritualities go to extreme lengths to master the senses. There’s:

 Fasting
 Celibacy
 Lying on a bed of nails
 Solitary confinement
 Suspension (putting hooks through the skin to
suspend the body in painful ways)
 Wearing a hair-shirt (a shirt made of goat skin that
creates agonising discomfort)
 Self-flagellation
  Sunlight diet (taking no nourishment but air and
sunlight)
 And for everyone else, there’s meditation and
Pratyahara yoga.
Meditation and pratyahara are safe, healthy ways of achieving control of the senses.

Pratyahara yoga is the Fifth Limb of Yoga

Pratyahara yoga comes from Ashtanga yoga, a classical form of yoga devised by the sage
Patanjali some 1700 years ago.

Ashtanga yoga describes Eight stages or “Limbs”:

 Yama (observances)
 Niyama (disciplines)
 Asana (postures)
 Pranayama (breath control)
 Pratyahara (control of senses)
 Dharana (concentration)
 Dhyana
 Samadhi (absorption).

Eight Limbs of Yoga

The fifth limb of yoga is Pratyahara, which literally means “withdrawal of the senses” (this is the
same as the first stage of the Buddhist “Kalacakra” tantras “sadangayoga”).

Long story short: Pratyahara techniques are about withdrawing from the senses.

As such,  it is a halfway-point in yoga. It is between the outer aspects like asanas, and the inner
aspects like Samadhi. And because Pratyahara is in the middle, it is one of the most important
parts, binding the outer and inner together.

It benefits both the mind and body. It helps with both the physical aspects of yoga and the
psychological aspects.
We’ll look at precisely how to do Pratyahara techniques in a moment. First let’s look at the
meaning.

Meaning
The actual definition of the word “Pratyahara” comes from two Sanskrit words: “prati” and
“ahara”.

The first word means to move away from and the second refers to anything we take into the mind
or body.

Prati: Move away from

Ahara: Things taken into us

Interestingly, “Prati” also means to copy.

So, what does Pratyahara mean?

meaning of pratyahara yoga

It means to move away from things taken into ourselves. In other words, to withdraw from
sensory consumption. And then to replace the senses with something more positive.

Yogis and Buddhists use this sense-withdrawal in different ways.

Buddhists remove the senses in order to replace them with mental images of the Buddha.

Yogis use Pratyahara techniques to achieve Samyama, a meditative state where we transcend
mind and body to achieve complete awareness of the true self.

Pratyahara yoga may also be used in more practical, down-to-Earth terms. For instance, we can
use Pratyahara yoga to relax and focus the mind, and to replace negative sensory information
(such as violent images from the media) with positive thoughts (such as love and kindness),
which will promote happiness and inner peace.

Here’s what it feels like

When we practice pratyahara, we stop the different types of sensory information [the five senses]
from reaching their respective areas of the brain. In other words: we turn off the noise of the
world.

Imagine being able to walk through the busiest of cities while maintaining inner peace. Imagine
not been affected by raised voices and bright lights. Imagine always having inner calm and
composure. That’s what Pratyahara gives us.
How To Do Pratyahara Yoga: Techniques
And Exercises
We’ve taken a good look at the background. Now it’s time to start to learn how to do Pratyahara
techniques.

To start with, let’s look at the four main types of Pratyahara yoga.

Types  
There are four main types of Pratyahara yoga practice:

Indriya  
When we take in too much information via the senses, we lose focus and risk losing our inner
peace.

The problem is that society predisposes us to sensory overload.

Books, social media, TV, video games, magazines… all of this can be junk food for the mind (I
say can be because some games, shows, social media pages etc. actually do give positive
impressions. In our newsletter, for instance, we always share positive impressions to create
positive minds. But we are one of the rare few who actually do that. Most publishers focus on
sensationalism).

Indriya Pratyahra yoga focuses on withdrawing from these negative sensory impressions. This
removes those junk-foods from the mind and creates inner peace and mental wellbeing.

Prana  
The senses are driven by prana. Therefore, we can gain control of the senses by controlling the
flow of prana.

There are many yogic practices to control prana, the most notable being pranayama (the practice
of controlling prana through specific breathing exercises).

Karma  
Karma Pratyahara yoga involves the practice of Karma Yoga.

Karma Yoga is about surrendering every action to the divine. It is a dedicated practice in which
we act selflessly, our every deed done for the benefit of others and in devotion to the divine.
Mano  
Mano Pratyahara is about withdrawing from that which is impure and unwholesome. This is
done by sensory withdrawal and cultivation of the inward mind.

Now we know everything we need to know about Pratyahara yoga. Time to start practicing some
pratyahara techniques.

 How To Do Pratyahara Techniques–

Introduction
You’ve probably noticed that this is a big subject. It is one of the most complex parts of yoga
(which is one reason many yogis make the mistake of not practising it).

Because it is such a big subject, it involves many different techniques. Some of those techniques
are easy and suitable for novice yogis, and others are more complex and suitable for advanced
yoga practitioners.

This in-depth guide will lead you through a complete system of Pratyahara yoga.

Because this is an in-depth process, I highly recommend that you do each step as you come to
it or make notes for later. Also consider bookmarking this (or saving it on Facebook) so you can
refer to it later.

1. Adopt the lifestyle

The best way to start Pratyahara yoga is to make a few important lifestyle changes.

1. a) Follow the basics of wellness

To start doing Pratyahara, follow the essentials of wellness, such as diet and exercising.

1. b) Check your devices

It seems strange to start such a spiritual practice with so trivial a matter. But today, our devices
are the main source of negative impressions.

Follow these steps to prepare your devices for a healthier lifestyle:

 Go through your social media. Delete all pages that

give negative impressions. Feel free to add pages that
gives genuinely positive impressions (like ours at
Facebook.com/TheDailyMeditation)
  Block any site that is a source of negativity (There are
specific Chrome plugins you can use to prevent
yourself from visiting these sites).
 Make all imagery on your devices positive (wallpaper,
profile pics, etc).
 Remove negative apps (violent games, apps that
distract your, etc.)
 Delete negative people from your contact lists
 Stop unnecessary notifications (like Facebook—you
don’t need those annoying pop-up messages 24/7)
Now your devices are far more positive.

1. c) Distance yourself from negative people

Negative people are one of the main sources of negative impressions. If there are people in your
life who routinely make you feel negative, distance yourself from them.

 Go through Facebook and delete people who make

you feel negative.
 Tell that one major source of negativity that you are
going to be distancing yourself from them.
 Stop going to places rife with negative people (like
that grotty bar you sometimes go to–yes, I’m talking
to myself here).
1. d) Change your entertainment
As a writer and actor, I personally love the stories on TV, and in movies and games. But
they can be a source of negative impressions.

Be selective in your choice of media. It’s difficult to avoid all negativity. Instead, ask yourself
what effect individual games, movies, books, and TV shows are having on you. If something is
too negative, get rid of it.
1. e) Lose your phone
Do you really need your phone with you always? Probably not. And it is a constant source of
sensory information. Get rid of it at least some of the time.

1. f) Love and the antithesis of love

Today, love is both performed and depicted in both positive and negative ways. It’s fairly
obvious which is which. Stick to the positive.

Incidentally, if you are single and have a negative view of relationships, doing this one thing will
change your life—and you wont need dating sites anymore. When you correct your perspective
on love, love will come rushing to you.

1. g) Meditation and mindfulness

Practice a system of meditation and mindfulness. This will replace negative mind impressions
with positive ones.

1. h) Sleep healthily
Healthy sleep is the number one natural form of pratyahara yoga because when we sleep, we stop
the flow of sensory information and allow the mind to restore its inner balance. That’s why it is
essential to get the right amount of healthy sleep each night.

So that’s the basics of removing negative people / negative influences from your life.

While we are removing negative impressions, we can also introduce positive ones. Here’s how.

1. i) Meditate on nature
Mother nature is a constant source of positive impressions. When we meditate on nature, we
boost the positivity of our subconscious mind. Visit a waterfall or other beautiful nature spot and
meditate on it.

1. j) Spend time with positive people

Positive friends and family are a great source of good influences. Spend time with the people
who will boost your mind.

1. k) Practice Karma Yoga

Good work can be a profound source of positive impressions and a great way of improving self
control. When we dedicate our work to others (or to the divine) we produce positive karma; we
stop being controlled by our selfish senses; and we start being motivated by love, kindness,
compassion, and selflessness.

 
 

2. Advancing  
We now have a sound foundation to build on. Time to expand into a more advanced, even
healthier lifestyle. Here’s how.

2. a) Periods of fasting
Fasting is one of the most powerful ways to train the mind to control the senses.

Fasting for just 24 hours requires great focus and willpower. That’s 24 hours in which the senses
are telling the mind to eat. 24 hours in which the mind is learning to withdraw from those senses.
This is a powerful mind-awakening experience.

DISCALIMER: Consult your doctor before trying this.

2. b) Periods of celibacy
Another way our senses scream at us is by demanding sexual gratification. Abstaining from that
gratification is a powerful way of training the mind.

Some monks vow themselves to an entire life of celibacy. This is unenlightened. It is a natural
and healthy urge to make love. However, practicing celibacy for a period of time can have
tremendous benefits.

The benefits of celibacy include:

 Increased self control

 Peace of mind
 Less concern about physical appearance
 Less risk of STDs / STIs
 Decreased lust
 Increased kindness

2. c) Periods of silence
Some Buddhist sanghas (communities) vow themselves to never speak. This is because speech is
often a source of conflict and negative impressions (consider how much speech is violent,
manipulative or otherwise harmful).

Not speaking at all is an impossibility in most modern societies. But periods of silence are
possible.

When we abstain from speaking, we train the mind to not give voice to negative thoughts. By not
speaking we stop ourselves from speaking in harmful or violent ways and we increase self
control because of the willpower required to stay silence.

2. d) Turn off all devices

 Ay Kurumba! This is a big one today, when so much of our lives are lived online. By turning off
all devices you will immediately reduce information consumption by 95%. That’s one big step
for inner peace; one giant leap for Pratyahara.

I challenge you!

All of the above ideas involve giving up one thing for a period of time. So here is a challenge
that will massively boost your Pratyahara. Give up one thing  every day. Maybe you have a no-
sex Sunday; a no-screen Saturday; and a no-talking Tuesday. This will be a challenge. But it will
massively increase your control of your senses!

3. Meditations for Pratyahara

We can take Pratyahara techniques further by incorporating meditating practices.

Any meditation will improve Pratyahara. But some meditations are more effective than others.

Pranayama, for instance, is the conscious control of the breath in the body. This is often
practiced in yoga studios, where we are told to match the breath to the changing of our asanas.
We can take this further by meditating on the breath while we practice yoga. This is a form
of Prana Pratyahra.

We can also use focused awareness techniques. This is a type of meditation where consciousness
is focused on any one individual thing. A good Pratyahara technique is to sit in an area where
there are few external stimuli, and then focus on one thing (such as the breath).

 Try this visualisation

1. Sit somewhere quiet and peaceful.
 2. Focus on your breath. Relax.
3. Bring to mind the most beautiful nature scene you
have ever seen.
4. Focus on the visual elements of the scene. What do
you see? Flowers? The ocean? A forest? Visualise the
scene in detail.
5. Hear the scene. What sounds are there? Birdsong?
Waves? Singing? The rustle of the leaves among the
trees?
6. Continue through each sense. Imagine touching the
scene. Smell it. Taste the air.
7. This peaceful visualisation will produce inner calm and
positive impressions.
3. Experience Pratyahara while doing Savasana (Corpse
Pose)
One of the best ways to practice Pratayahra while doing yoga is to focus on one asana.

1. Take Savasana (lie supine on the ground).

2. Focus on breathing. Take 20 deep breaths.
3. Notice your muscles relaxing and melting into the
ground.
4. Your mind will become distanced and less reactive to
stimuli.
5. Hold your gaze still and focus on the pose (your
physical position)
6. Consciously let go.
 7. Notice how your mind is relaxed and how you have
become less reactive to external stimuli.
8. If your mind does not relax, begin to label the senses
as they come to you (“That is a sound”, “This is a
physical sensation” etc.)
9. Continue for 20 minutes
4. Use This Pratyahara Mudra
The best pratyahara mudra is “Yoni”.

Yoni mudra (Shanmukhi) is a powerful mudra for gaining control of the senses. Here’s how to
do it.

How To DoYoni Mudra

1. Sit comfortably
2. Breathe slowly
3. Bring your palms together with fingers and thumbs
straight
4. Point your thumbs to the sky
5. Turn your pinky, ring, and middle fingers inwards so
the pads are touching.
This is the best pratyahara mudra.

Yoni mudra quiets the mind, calms the nervous system, and heightens control over the senses. In
this position we gain inner awareness.

5. Try Laya Yoga

Laya yoga is a type of yoga created by Sage Gorakshnatha. A more meditative type of yoga,
Laya yoga uses meditations to active the seven chakras. It includes lots of types of Pratyahara
techniques.

Laya yoga uses meditations to move prana through the chakras and to awaken the kundalini
energy at the base of the spine. This creates supreme consciousness and creates a near
superhuman level of control over the senses.

 
6. Develop Mano-Pratyahara
 The most advanced type of Pratyahara is Mano Pratyahara.

ts this stage the mind withdraws from the senses and we develop inward awareness.

The Yoga Sutra states,  “When the senses do not conform with their own objects but imitate the
nature of the mind, that is [mano] pratyahara.”

To perform mano-pratyahara we consciously take our attention away from the senses.  This can
only be achieved at advanced levels.

Conclusion
Pratyahara is a powerful way of gaining complete self control. The pratyahara techniques we
have looked at above are excellent ways to train your mind.

Today, when the average person lives on auto-pilot and is lost in their senses, Pratyahara offers a
valuable aid.

By practicing Pratayahra yoga we can withdraw from the senses, increase self control, and stop
being so reactive to external stimuli.

Imagine living with a psychic shield around you that prevents you from being effected by any
unwanted external stimuli. No more distractions. No more anxiety. No more reactivity to noise
or negativity. That is what Pratayahra offers.