I love cooking, and I diligently devote time every day to it. It’s my creative outlet and my pratyahara, or “gaining mastery over external influences,” practice. 

In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the ancient and most revered sourcebook for yoga practice, there are eight limbs that form the complete system for inner growth and transformation. Pratyahara is the fifth limb, and, it seems to me, the most enigmatic one. In Sanskrit, ahara means “food” or “nourishment”; prati means “away.” The most prevalent translation of pratyahara is “withdrawal from the senses.” Since there isn’t much written about it, it makes it invitingly open to interpretation. As with any other aspect of yoga – and life in general, it is an opportunity to tailor it to ourselves. So, my daily practice starts with a reflection on the ahara (what I am nourishing myself with physically, mentally, emotionally, and energetically) and the prati (what I am trying to get away from, limit, or hide from). My understanding of pratyahara is withdrawal, only from the grasping part of what I want to see, feel, hear, touch, and smell. My daily cooking as my pratyahara practice is lovingly surrendering to the senses and allowing my being to be nourished. 

I prepare every bite from scratch, touching, savoring, and enjoying each ingredient. I don’t measure, and I don’t follow recipes. Since I can’t cook the same meal twice, that, of course, makes every dish unique. Here it is: the practice of non-grasping and embracing the changes! 

For me, a recipe is just an idea, an invitation for a new creation. If a recipe attracts my attention, I’ll read it once and then make my own version of it. I do believe that it’s the path to follow in many other aspects of life, including my yoga practice. Embracing our uniqueness while accumulating knowledge and experience with the intention of ultimately making our own distinct creation, is (in my opinion) one of the life-sustaining approaches to personal growth and transformation.