Pratyahara and Yoga Asanas – The Significance of the Fifth Limb of Yoga

Healthy Aging

Our yoga practice offers a path to draw awareness inside and bring attention into the subtle movement in the body and the sound of the vibration of the subtle body. This is also referred to as pratyahara, the fifth limb of yoga.

Pratyahara is the softening of sensory awareness and is foundational to working with the subtle body in yoga practice and the key to meditative states of awareness. How can we develop greater sensitivity to the subtle levels of the body? In this course, Tias discusses how to develop our inner ear to listen and tune in to the subtle body.

The pause between poses is an invaluable gap that invites us to tune in to bodily sensations and reconnect to the listening. In craniosacral theory, the pause is called the still point. As we begin to train in stillness, that stillness can begin to accompany movement as well.

Tias discusses how we can use our asana practice to move beyond the realm of volitional or willful activity and experience the spaciousness and a vast quietude of the fourth dimension beyond conscious experience.

Because the sensory organs, the eyes, ears, tongue, and nostrils, are housed in the skull, pratyahara involves careful positioning and relaxing of the cranial bones and cranial sutures. Due to stress and anxiety it is common that an abundance of tension becomes locked in the neck and skull. Tias will detail how to release stresses that crimp the free flow of prana through the nadis within the neck and around the organ of the brain to facilitate pratyahara in both yoga asana, meditation and Savasana.

This Course Also Includes:

  • Yoga Video Practice: Enjoy a special 30-minute online yoga practice Tias created especially for this course, which illustrates the integration of the principles of Pratyahara discussed in the course.
  • Recordings of Both Sessions: Yours to keep. It’s generally acknowledged that many people only retain 10-20 percent of what they learn in a workshop. You will get the recordings of both sessions (both MP3 – downloadable and MP4 – streaming online), enabling you to go back and listen to the workshop as many times as you like.
  • Transcripts of Both Sessions: Ever wanted to refer to a certain part of a course? Even the best note takers miss a point every so often. With the transcripts of the sessions, you can go back and refer to particularly important passages or clarify sections you were in doubt about.

This course qualifies for 2.5 CEs with Yoga Alliance.

Tias Little synthesizes years of study in classical yoga, Sanskrit, Buddhist studies, anatomy, massage, and trauma healing. Tias began studying the work of B.K.S Iyengar in 1984 and studying with Pattabhi Jois in 1989.

$127/ Lifetime Access

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