Friday, August 21, 2015

Pigeon practices Pratyahara

15aug15-16aug15

I went camping. Solo camping to be exact.  And it was great.

But what pray tell is Pratyahara 

Pratyahara (Devanāgarī प्रत्याहार, Tibetan སོ་སོར་སྡུད་པ་, Wylie so sor sdud pa) or the 'withdrawal of the senses' is the fifth element among the Eight stages of Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga,[1]  -wiki page

And why would this send me screaming into the woods? Because it's very natural. Everyone weather they choose to pay attention probably has a voice in their head at some point telling them that it's time to reset and renew solo. It's important because how are you ever going to hear what your soul is saying if you don't essentially slow down and shut up.  

So I did. Granted, it was only for one night but I did. And it felt good. I left my phone in the car and ventured into the woods with a flash light, a book and a lot of matches. 

The breakdown was relatively uneventful with only one night but here is some highlights, and learning. 

- You can get a lesson on how to pack from REI but don't try to go on Saturday afternoon
- one of those wood packs from the grocery store is really only enough for 1 night. 
- not bringing chemical fire starters was intentional, but hard to use natural kindling when it rains buckets for 45 min right after you set up the tent 
- your tent is sturdy enough to stay up in a rain storm, even if you set it up wrong. 
- not having something to sit in at the fire is a drag
- sleeping in the woods alone isn't as scary as you think
- rainstorms help you sleep
- you can do it and enjoy the quite with fire and a book 
- it is possible and fun to hike into a site in 1 trip...(and this was packed very poorly) 

So the moral of the story is I want to do it again. And next time I will truly hike in.. Since this time it was 0.6 miles... So still counts, sort of