Welcome to the 6th Limb in our 8 Limbs of Yoga series - Dharana. Dharana, with its most basic translation, means "concentration". This concentration could be on a specific object or a specific idea. Dharana can be seen as the foundation to the meditative practice.
Photo by Sven Brandsma on Unsplash
As the 8 Limbs of Yoga build on each other, Pratyahara (5th Limb) could be viewed as teaching one to withdrawal focus from the external and into the internal, and then, Dharana teaches one to zoom in that internal focus to just one thought, object, idea, or place.
This can be quite difficult, even in the most ideal of scenarios, so trying to focus on just one thing amongst a life of work, family, stressors, health concerns, friends, and more, may seem impossible.
What is impossible, is emptying the mind completely. So Dharana, instead, brings the focus to one sole thing, and then you work on becoming so absorbed with that one thing, that you lose sense of everything else.
This has probably happened to you at least once unintentionally. Think of a time you were working on something, maybe reading or writing, and then suddenly it is three hours later and you have no idea how that happened. Dharana is doing this, but on purpose!
If you are interested in working towards the practice of Dharana, you should start in shorter time increments, and then work your way up. Find a calm, safe place and take a comfortable seat. If you are focusing on an external object, your eyes should remain open, and fix your vision on said object. If your focus is on an internal process, such as a chakra or mantra, eyes should be softly closed. Steady your breathing, and then send intentional focus to your object. I would suggest about 10 minutes for your first few sessions, and then, once you are able to consistently lose yourself for those 10 minutes, increase your time.
It would be helpful to make a short list of items you could focus on before finding your calm, safe place, and then pick one for that session. This way, once you come to your seat, you can get right to it.
See you next week for our seventh limb - Dhyana.
-Charlene 🧡
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