Meditators are often seen pairing this mudra with their practice. The intention of the Gyan mudra is to improve your concentration and sharpen your memory. This is a great mudra to use when seeking to gain knowledge. Try holding this mudra while meditating for insight into your life or a specific issue. Method: This mudra is performed by touching your index fingertip to the tip of your thumb, while holding your other three fingers straight.
This mudra is used for mental clarity. You perform this gesture when you need to understand intuitive messages from your subconscious i. One of the most powerful benefits of this mudra can be found in the improvement of communication, such as improving internal and external dialogue. Method: This mudra is performed by touching your thumb to your pinky finger, while holding your other three fingers straight.
This gesture is used to improve intuition, alertness, and sensory powers. It also purifies your emotions and thoughts. Method: This mudra is performed by touching the tip of the middle finger to the thumb tip, while keeping the other three fingers straight and relaxed. The Prana mudra is said to be one of the most important mudras due to its ability to activate dormant energy in your body. Prana is the vital life force within all living things. This mudra will help awaken and enliven your personal prana, and put you more in tune with the prana around you.
Method : Perform this mudra by touching your ring and pinky fingers to the tip of your thumb, while keeping the other two fingers straight. The Dhyana mudra is shared across several eastern meditation disciplines. The Buddha is often pictured doing this gesture. The significance of this mudra is to bring you into deeper, more profound concentration.
This gesture can also help bring you tranquility and inner peace. Method : To do the Dhyana mudra, simply sit with your hands facing upward, right hand resting on top of your left palm. The right hand, representing enlightenment and higher spiritual faculties, rests over the left hand, representing the world of maya, or illusion.
It is also useful in reducing heaviness in the body and to help ward off colds, since it increases core body temperature. Stretch your other three fingers straight without stressing the hand. The Apana mudra is good for mental or physical digestion and for eliminating waste material from the body. Method : To do this posture, bring your second and third fingers to your thumb. The way you position your fingers may differ depending on the discipline you are learning from.
Some say that you should rest the two fingers just slightly behind the tip of the thumb, but in many depictions, this mudra is demonstrated by bringing the middle and ring finger to the tip of the thumb.
The Ganesha mudra is widely used and is named after the Hindu Ganesh. Ganesha is said to be a remover of obstacles. Similarly, this mudra is great for relieving yourself of all types of obstructions in your life; it can help you regain positivity and courage when dealing with hard times. By performing this mudra, you bring your attention and energy into the heart center, opening up your lungs and heart to the subject of your meditation.
Aside from the mental and spiritual benefits on your heart chakra, the pulling motion is also beneficial to your cardiac muscles and good for tension in this area of the body. Method : Place your left hand in front of your chest with your palm facing outward and left thumb down. Chin Mudra is often confused with Jjana Mudra as they look so similar the but direction of the palms downwards signify a different meaning. This more introspective gesture is said to have a grounding effect, encouraging our attention and focus to move inwards.
Anjali mudra is also used during the physical part of yoga practice Asana — for example in Tadanasa , Vrksasana and as part of the Surya Namaskar sequence. To do it, bring the palms together, and place the thumbs lightly on sternum with the fingers pointing upwards. Press the palms evenly together, noticing whether the pressure is more intense in the dominant hand.
Bow your chin towards the thumbs whilst bringing the back of the head slightly back. Try and lift the sternum up towards the chin, rather than dropping the full weight of the head. Joining the palms together is said to unite the right and left hemispheres of the brain, symbolising our connection to ourselves and to others.
Articles Practice. Share article. She's previously worked in publishing, graphic design and legal recruitment. The element of Fire is the connection to our energetic and passionate self. Use this mudra to reconnect with the soul fire flame that lives inside you and to ignite your life with purpose and power. Use the transformative force of Fire to bring you there. The finger related to the element of Air is the index finger. Seal the thumb and the index finger together for Vayu Mudra.
Rest the hands on the knees and let the palms face up as an action of openness and connection to the infinite. For the yogi, Air may be the most important element because we cannot survive without air. We can only go for a few minutes without breath.
This is why breath is synonymous with the element of Air. The breath never tires of nourishing and energizing us and establishes the relationship between the inner and outer world. You can think of Air as the power of our thoughts, our mind, and inspiration. The middle finger is connected to the element of Space. The relevant gesture is called Akasha Mudra and is done by sealing the middle finger with the thumb of each hand.
Space is the all-encompassing mother of the five elements and contains all the other elements. It determines how we communicate and express our authentic truth to the world. You can practice this mudra when you have to speak and need to use your voice , for example before an important speech or conversation. This will help you purify your mind and your thoughts and to come into your highest alignment and integrity to allow the words to flow out. A study published in the International Journal of Yoga used an electrophotonic imaging EPI instrument to capture discharges at the fingertips induced by a pulsed electrical signal to investigate the immediate effect of mudras just after one day of application and also on the third day of mudra practice.
The study subjects were divided into a mudra group and a control group. In the first part of the study, the mudra group practiced prana mudra in a sitting position for five minutes. The control group followed the same procedure but did not practice the mudra.
Instead, they sat quietly with closed eyes for five minutes in a similar sitting posture. In the second part of the study, varying durations of the yoga mudra practice were examined : 10 minutes on the first day, 15 minutes on the second day, and 20 minutes on the third day. Applying a mudra and sitting quietly with eyes closed for 5 minutes did not have a big impact on the EPI parameters. However, when the mudra was practiced for a longer time, a significant change in the EPI parameters became apparent.
Consequently, a yoga mudra must be practiced for more than 20 minutes in order to be able to observe a detectable change in the EPI parameters.
Change in this variable is an indication of possible energy manipulation within the human body. An analogy may help you better understand the potential effect yoga mudra can have on the human body. Imagine the body as an electric circuit in which energy flows through wires, i. The nerves, in turn, connect the different body organs just like wires connect the different units of an electrical circuit. This circuit begins and ends in the hands and feet.
Pressing the fingers together in a particular hand gesture, i. The brain then receives a signal to change the energy pattern within the body. This is done by regulating the flow of energy, or Prana.
Here are a few explanations of how the application of mudra in yoga could affect your body and mind:. Both the motor and sensory cortexes i. This means that attention on the hands may affect large percentages of this area of the brain. An upright position and awareness of the upper extremities can improve postural control, breathing patterns and, as a result, autonomic nervous system activity.
Subtle perceivable changes in breathing rate, muscle activity, chest and belly movements during mudra practice might indicate a relationship between observable physical behavior and subjective experiences of mudra practice such as an impact on the Chakras or the Five Elements within the body.
Bringing awareness to a certain region of the body or a certain sensation, such as the position of the hands and fingers during yoga mudra, can ease the experience of pain, isolation and other negative sensations and can, thus, contribute to a sense of well-being.
Drawing your attention to your breathing as well as physical and emotional experiences can modify genetic expression and produce a relaxation response. Yoga mudra practice is said to generate similar epigenetic responses both when practiced alone or in combination with other mindful practices such as yoga and Pranayama.
Yoga mudra is a subtle and often neglected part of yoga. In some yoga traditions, mudras are not practiced until the other areas, i. A regular yoga mudra practice may also help you channel the internal energy and, thus, balance the Chakras and awaken the Five Elements in your body. This is a five-week workshop that works on each of the elements and also provides a mudra practice for each of the Five Elements. Header picture by Yongsubi. Nov 1, Teaching. One of the most delicate aspects of teaching yoga is physically assisting your students by giving them hands-on yoga adjustments.
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