Pratyahara

Pratyahara  means to turn the senses toward within oneself.
Prati- counter/away/against (and can also mean TOWARD or to OBSERVE)
Ahara- food or anything taken into ourselves.

I would also like to extract the word "hara" from "Pratyahara", to make an interesting point...

Hara - Energetic center, also associated with what we refer to as "the second chakra", called Swadisthana [sweetness] (womb -- can still be symbolic in males as that very source of self residing within us all.)
Hara also refers to Shiva, who represents the essential embodiment of pure consciousness, and is also translated as destroyer/remover/seizer.

Now, pure consciousness sounds great, but how is this also seen as 'destroyer/remover/seizer', why would we be turning toward removal and what are we removing?  Often spiritual practitioners turn to the mantra of HARA so that anarthas (impurities) are removed.  Impurities commonly addressed are those such as emotionally corrupt judgment, false ego, ignorance, hatred, pride, greed etc.. However there are two poles to everything that are always both useful to consider.   There is useful destruction, to create room for the act of creation in the name of growth and new understandings and there is harmful destruction that brings disease, frustration, strife, and grief, there is constructive seizure and there is destructive seizure. This critical examination actually brings us to the insidious heart of greed, so that it jumps out and says "HELLO!".  Sometimes the cause of those very impurities that bring our downfall is the uncontrolled impulse within us all to seize objects of sensual pleasure (be it taste, smell, feeling, or even sound and sight). Often we do not construe this as "greed", so it goes largely unchecked and written off as "taking care" of oneself.
Hara/Swadisthana, is the very seat of our essential selves. It is our primal core.  When left unwatched {unbalanced} it is like a naughty little thief, constantly sneaking to take what it can how ever it can, and it will fight tooth and nail to defend the neglected or otherwise suffering sense of self.  Such an unwatched chakra is dangerous, as this is the swirling vortex of life we are talking about, which governs not only our own creative forces, but our outflows, our tendencies to feel free to "merge with" be it via food or sex.  Cravings can easily get out of control when this chakra is not properly cared for.   Don't knock pratyahara.  Aside from simple meditation, this practice is also necessarily acknowledged as we act and move in the world.  The times we are in action is when our subconscious mind can most readily run wild, leading us down a path of sufferings of not only self deception but causing others to suffer feelings of exploitation (that you do not really care about them) and ultimately, this behavior brings one's own being to a state of disease.

The vivid colors, sensations, and emotions of this experience keep us bound  to distraction from the elegant simplicity and vital nourishment of pratyahara (withdrawing senses inward).
If you have the luxury to do nothing, try turning away from these things
that bring you your phony "happiness".  That is to say, ALL EXTERNALS.

Return to ground zero and become your own hero.
Take this introspection with you wherever you go.


Emotions, sense enjoyment, and pleasure are all good,

However, when the experience itself begins to pull your strings,

Remember who should be running the show.

That is YOU and no God can be an excuse

for your own lack of resourceful or otherwise skillful means.