PRATYAHARA: “withdrawing your senses inward”

Pratyahara is Sanskrit for “drawing your senses inward”

What this means is simply:
​
👁 closing your eyelids so you can gaze inward to the inner light of your breath, heart, focal points, organs and energy pathways within you.
​
👂 turning your hearing inward, away from the noise of the outer world, and towards the inner sound of your breath, your heartbeat, and your inner wisdom.
​
👄 closing your lips and quieting your outer voice to honor, give reverence to, and pour love into the repetition of the inner mantra.
​
👐🏽 refraining from “reaching out” for stimulus and experiences outside of yourself, to open to experience the flows and landscapes within your physical, emotional and energetic body.
​
🍯 Taking a break from reaching outwardly for foods or substance to satisfy your cravings… and turning inward to savor the sweet nectar of practice, bhakti (love of the divine or diety), dedication, relaxed effort, burning aspiration, humility and simplicity.​

🕸 Please know that your practice is a great service to your deepest wellbeing, and to the wellbeing of all sentient beings visible, non-visible, and beyond 

Your Lung and Large Intestine Meridian

*you can subscribe to my weekly newsletter to receive articles designed to inspire and deepen your yoga practice, directly to your inbox, every Friday.

🌿🫁🫀 🌿

The palpable (surface) portion of your lung meridian begins in the hollow near the front of each shoulder, and runs all the way down to the tip of your thumb. It exists in intimate/dynamic relationship to your large intestine meridian - they are Yang (large intestine) and Yin (Lung) to each other. Emotionally and energetically, they have to do with the emotion of sorrow, and of "releasing" and "letting go" of toxins and stuck grief from our system.
​
What's interesting here is that the Lung meridian actually begins deep in your abdomen >> dives down into your large intestine, then travels upward through your diaphragm >> into both lungs >> up into the base of your throat >> and then divides bi-laterally into the front of each shoulder, where it surfaces and becomes palpable, all the way to the base of your wrist and the tip of your thumb
​
🔹 Take a moment to stretch the inside of your arm all the way to your thumb, and feel into this line of connection in your body.

🔹 Now feel that your abdomen, intestines, lungs, and insides of both arms are connected.

🔹 What might it feel like to embody this connection?
​
🔹 What might it feel like to breathe and move throught the world with awareness of this entire meridian and organ connection?
​
Our body parts are not as separate as they seem!

〰️ 👁 〰️ 
​
🔹 Your entire being and manifest form originates in your center, radiating outwards ➿ and back into your center again ➿ in beautiful intelligent connection.
​
Our bodies are more sentient than we think ✨
​

🧠 Sometimes we feel as if our minds and bodies are a long distance away from each other, as if our being is trapped in thought and we don't quite know how to connect to our animal body.

Learning about the fascia, connective tissue and meridian lines woven throughout ourbody helps us find pathways into these connections and begin to unify the whole that we are.
​
​
🔹 Practice feeling, moving, stretching, sensing and feeling these lines of connection to see what may be revealed through your experience

✨ ✨✨ ✨✨ ✨✨ ✨

 I do offer one-on-one Meridian Yoga Therapy sessions in which I help you connect the dots between your body, breath, organs and emotional experience. Most find this approach to be profoundly empowering and supportive to their healing journey, and to cultivating greater awareness, agency and insight along the way.

You can always email me to set up a free consult or to learn more about this process and see if it's right for you.​
​

✨ ✨✨ ✨✨ ✨✨ ✨
​
🕸 Please know that your practice is a great service to your deepest wellbeing, and to the wellbeing of all sentient beings visible, non-visible, and beyond. 

photos from the book: The Web That Has No Weaver, Understanding Chinese Medicine by Ted J. Kaptchuk

Focal Points in Practice

Focal points are places in your body where your concentrated awareness quiets the mind, deepens your experience of your own embodiment, and releases tension holding patterns along the miyofascial and meridian lines of the body.

There are infinite benefits to moving slow and breathing deep while on your yoga mat ~ one of the biggest ones being the cultivation of Pratyahara (turning your awareness inward) and Dharana (concentration). Working with focal points assists both these qualities of self-cultivation.

Spending a longer time in each posture will allow you to:

𖦹 Find your alignment and feel
𖦹 Soften unnecessary tension in your skin, joints, muscles, mind
𖦹 Take your breath deeper into your body and slooooowww ittttt downnn
𖦹 Bring your mind, breath, and sensory awareness to a specific focal point in the body of your choice and keep it there till there is an inner shift, an opening, an alignment adjust from the inside.

you’re invited back to your mat 🌹

love,
Natasha

Earth Element Practices

Earth Element Practices are about learning to harmonize your individual circuitry with the energy of the land and ground beneath you, that you belong to, and are a part of.

The Earth Element impacts the first and second chakra the most, and the organs of stomach, spleen, pancreas, bladder and kidney. The emotions governed by these organs and element are that of Worry, Fear, Survival, and Shock - and impact our nervous system at large. Damp weather is a particularly accessible time to cultivate and connect to the Earthly Qi.

As we approach the most Yin time of the year (Winter), I'm transitioning the way I teach to reflect the season and times better.

Classes will weave together Qigong-inspired movement, Breath-work, Yin (longer holds) and Yoga Postures of course.​

I want to encourage us to be a little less chatty in the zoom room, and to stay more internal/quiet with our energy.

It's been a big year and there's still some major energetic shifts humanity is yet to move through in the weeks/months ahead. I feel that this way of sharing and holding space is most beneficial to us all.

I've changed the way the Zoom Rooms are managed and the ways I'm accepting payment. Wether you already have a membership with me, or you just want to do a drop-in, please use the registration link in the CLASSES page and follow the instructions. (you will not be prompted for payment). It should give you the option to register for one or multiple recurrences of the class.

The link to join the class will be emailed to you once you complete your registration.

(if you already have a monthly membership or class credits, no need to take this extra step)

As always, if money is an issue, just come, no questions asked.

soooooo much LOVE!!
big squeeze!

Natasha