Mudras are gestures or postures that are performed with the hands, face, or other areas of the body. My explorations primarily focus on hand mudras. In Sanskrit, mudra means gesture or seal, referring to ‘locking in’ a specific feeling, mind state, or energy to create a particular experience.
Mudras are a bridge for awakening the body as a sacred temple of the divine, and the hands are the key to unlock the door to the temple.
Each mudra has a specific function for the systems of the body to bring that system back into health and balance. For example, Jala Water Mudra helps all the water systems of the body revitalize such as kidney, bladder, and as an aid to any digestive difficulty, including feeling a sense of flow in life.
Mudras can be practiced anytime, anywhere, as a potent tool to both become aware of how you are feeling and to help shift. For example, if you are feeling upset, you could practice Bhu Mudra to feel more grounded and centered. Because Mudras are so easy to practice and only require the hands, they are a practical tool, always in your back pocket, and as close as your own two hands! This makes mudras an easy and accessible way to come back into balance presence again. Like a ‘time-out’ that helps you breath and feel poise again.
Mudras shift the breath, open energy channels, and can bring one into a calm, quiet and meditative state.
My knowledge of mudras comes from Joseph and Lilian LePage, founders of Integrative Yoga Therapy, whom I have learned from and taught with. I am greatly indebted to them for their years and hours of exploration, practice and research on mudras, as well as their generosity to share their findings. They are the authors of the book I also helped to edit: Mudras for Healing and Transformation.
How mudras work
- Each finger is related to one of the five elements according to yoga and Ayurveda. The various combinations of finger positions allow us to access and affect the five elements within ourselves to bring balance and health directly.
- Fingers have an extensive network of sensory and motor nerve endings as well as energy channels; thus mudras are a powerful vehicle for communicating and transferring information to the brain and energy centers.
- The fingers act as antennae for attuning to channels of universal energy such as abundance, love, and peace. We can connect to these frequencies with mudras and thus harmonize them within ourselves.
- Mudras are powerful vehicles for awakening every level of being: physical, energetic, mental-emotional, and spiritual (the five koshas).
- Mudras have been passed down through tradition and reflect the experiences of great spiritual masters, revealed in deep states of practice.
