The 7 Most Powerful Hand Mudras For Meditation
Seven most powerful hand mudras for meditation
Have you ever heard of hand mudras for meditation? Do you know what they are, how you can use them, and their benefits? I'm excited to share more about this ancient secret from east Asia using meditation mudras to activate abundance. Simple and common mudras can create a positive impact on your physical, emotional, and mental levels.
Since ancient times, rishis, seers, masterminds, and sages have highlighted the importance of the sacred energy map that human beings possess. Various hand gestures formed by combining, interlacing, and touching the palms and fingers hold mystic powers.
We all have them, but you need to activate these powers and energies for the entire body. When mudras are practiced regularly over time, they can guide the flow of energy to your organs and enhance your reflexes to affect your mind, body, and spirit.
Let’s dig deeper and discover more about hand mudras for meditation. Mudras can be a remarkable addition to your personal journey towards enlightenment. These 7 powerful Mudras in Yoga can be used to intensify your meditation practice. Understanding their formation, benefits, and effects and adapting them to your individual needs will create healthier, calmer, faster, and long-lasting results for you.
WHAT IS A MUDRA?
The word ‘Mudra’ has its roots in the Sanskrit language. Mudra means a “seal” or “complete.”
Descriptions of mudras depict them as gestures, attitudes, or symbols expressed through the hands, body, or face. Traditionally, mudra expressions expand the breath, consciousness, and energy systems of the user.
There are hundreds of yoga mudras from the spiritual traditions of India and Tibet. Many of these are mudras for the hands and include gestures of the eyes, face, and body. The mudras formed explicitly with the hands to activate energies are called Hasta Mudras.
Hatha Yoga Pradipika is a 13th century Sanskrit manual that sheds light on the yogic principles that purify the physical body. This Vedic scripture is divided into 5 parts and is the first to thoroughly mention the use of hasta mudras. Hasta means “hand” and Hatha means “force.” As described in Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Hatha Yoga is the path to enlightenment or samadhi.
The union of mind with the divine through the various routes like shatkarma (the six techniques that purify the body), asana, pranayama practice, mudra, bandha, and concentration, as a prelude to Raja Yoga.
Hasta Mudras are safe and straightforward to perform.
MAHABUTAS — THE FIVE ELEMENTS IN YOUR HANDS
According to Ayurvedic healing and yogic philosophy, it is useful to understand how and why specific Mudras work in certain ways. According to these teachings, everything in our inner and outer world comprises five Mahabhutas or elements: fire, water, soil, air, and space/ether. There is a profound connection between these elements and the human hand. This teaching from Vedic wisdom outlines the relationship between the five fingers and the five elements as follows:
- The thumb represents the fire element.
- The index finger represents the air element.
- The middle finger represents the space element.
- The ring finger represents the earth element.
- The pinky finger represents the water element.
There may be disturbance or imbalance in these elements that result in conflicts and uneasiness within you.
Chinese metaphysics and medicine are also rooted in the 5 Elements Theory. However, their order of the five elements is slightly different from the Indian Vedic system. There are also 5 Chakras and Qi (energy) portals along our backbone, the central Sushumna Channel.
Most of the time, your inner blocks hold you back. The traumas, pain, guilt, fear, and shame become your shackles.
You can break free from the old denials and resistance patterns and nourish the body, mind, and soul with love and harmony to manifest abundance. To do so, we need to learn how to awaken our inner guide and activate the energy portals. Without activation, nothing happens. And activation requires the right action at the right time.
One of the easiest ways to get started is with these 7 powerful Mudras. These can become an excellent foundation for your meditation and relaxation - a way to gain mental clarity, increase vital energy in your body, and as a daily reflection ritual/practice.
Yoga mudras using your hands are exceptional in immersing light into your heart and soul, even stimulating your immune system, and reducing anxiety and depression. For this reason, I have put together these different hand mudras for meditation with pictures, instructions, benefits, and applications to guide and support you on your abundance creation journey.
A word of caution: Just like specific exercises, food, herbs, teas, and flower essences, some mudras should not be performed during the first two trimesters of pregnancy. For more information, consult your Energy Medicine Practitioner, an Ayurvedic Vaid, a Functional Medicine Doctor, or an Integrative Healthcare Practitioner.
1. GYAN MUDRA — THE SEAL OF KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM
“Gyan” is a Sanskrit word that means cognition, wisdom, or consciousness. This mudra, also known as the gesture of knowledge, works on the body’s air element. It balances and maintains brain function and also improves concentration.
Gyan Mudra Benefits and Effects:
All of us are guilty of living long periods of mental conflicts. Every emotional pain the mind encounters leaves behind a residue of agony that lives on in you. Pain, suffering, disappointments, abuse, and loss often ending up being logged in the mind that affects the physical body.
Since physical dis-ease or discomfort is a slow-surfacing process or an outcome, we scarcely pay attention to things that truly matter. We generally tend to ignore the root cause of the pain or discomfort.
This mudra’s practice stimulates your individual consciousness to connect with the divine or universal consciousness, but it also activates the Root Chakra.
This mudra can heal the ongoing conflicts of mind and heart. Practicing this mudra regularly allows you to feel grounded and connected to Earth, to cultivate a sense of rootedness in your own life-force energy.
On the physical level, it cures anxiety, arthritis, depression, migraines, and insomnia.
How to form Gyan Mudra:
Hand mudras for meditation let you access your deepest self or your true nature. It is necessary to sit in a peaceful, quiet, and relaxing space. Comfortably sit in a seated posture, with your spine straight.
Now touch your thumb with the tip of the index finger, like an “OK” hand-sign. Keep the other fingers straight, extended out, yet relaxed. Perform this Mudra with both hands. Then relax your shoulders, and rest your hands on your lap with palms facing up. Close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths — in and out.
This mudra can be practiced anytime you want to destress, relax, or deepen your meditation experience.
Please note that the Gyan Mudra is not the Chin Mudra. Many people confuse or treat these two as the same because they look identical. The Chin Mudra is the seal of awareness. To learn more about activating and using mudras for abundance, take the Free 3-day Abundance Challenge using Mudras, Mantras, and Meditation. You will discover various types of mudras for soulful alignment and manifestation.
2.PRITHVI MUDRA — THE SEAL OF STABILITY
“Prithvi” in Sanskrit means “Earth.” Practicing Prithvi Mudra stimulates and balances the earth element in your body. It creates a sense of centeredness. As the seal of absorption and stability, this mudra helps strengthen your digestion and assimilation.
When the earth element in our body is in balance, we are mentally and physically healthy, confident, and stable. Earth is a significant part of the physical body. So this element plays a vital role in your overall health and wellbeing.
Prithvi Mudra Benefits and Effects:
This mudra helps rebuild a thin and frail body. Moreover, it enables you to create a sense of inner groundedness. In addition, Prithvi Mudra is beneficial for your skin, tissues, bones, and hair. As a result, it lets you adjust to any kind of change or disruption to your regular routine.
Spiritually it establishes a sense of effortless joy. Prithvi Mudra makes you strong, enduring, and sturdy — physically and psychologically. Prithvi mudra is ideal in the metabolic chemical reactions and the maintenance of the digestive system. It enhances self-confidence and self-esteem. It also treats unconscious mental-emotional reactive patterns while dispelling of fear from our energy bodies.
Root Mudra one of the hand mudras for meditation are excellent for stability and courage.
How to form Prithvi Mudra:
Sit comfortably in a relaxed area and gently touch your thumb with the ring finger, making a loop, while straightening and relaxing others.
You can practice Prithvi Mudra anytime, anywhere — while walking, standing, sitting, or even lying down. You can even use this mudra before a presentation, an exam, an interview, or when feeling anxious about something.
Practice this mudra for a minimum of 5 to a maximum of 45 minutes.
3. PRANA MUDRA – THE SEAL OF ENERGY AND VITALITY
The word “Prana” has its root in Sanskrit, which means “life-force” or “breath.” As the name suggests, this mudra activates and balances the air element in your body. This mudra energizes the life force energy or the energy of Prana within your body. It gives a boost to all your organs.
Prana Mudra Benefits and Effects:
There is a firm belief in East Asia’s different cultures that every entity in the Universe is connected through an electromagnetic force. Specifically, it is called Prana in Sanskrit, Qi in Chinese, and Ki in Japanese. Practicing Prana Mudra enables you to tap into this sacred energy and stimulate the Root Chakra.
According to yogic philosophy, practicing this mudra strengthens and improves your immune system, eyesight, and digestion. Additionally, it also heals common cold and chronic fatigue and allows efficient blood flow in veins.
How to form Prana Mudra:
To perform this mudra, gently touch the little finger and ring finger at the thumb’s tip and slightly press them while keeping other fingers upright and stretched out. Practice this mudra for a minimum of 5 to a maximum of 45 minutes.
5. SURYA MUDRA – THE SEAL OF TRANSFORMATION
The word “Surya” is a Sanskrit word. In English, it means the ‘Sun.’ This Mudra activates the body’s fire element and is also known as Agni Mudra. The fire element is directly related to body temperature and awakening your intuition.
Surya Mudra Benefits and Effects:
Surya Mudra reduces excess of the earth element in your body. It is also called Agni Vardhak Mudra, which means fire increasing gesture.
This mudra regulates your metabolism and aids in weight-loss and curing obesity. It cleanses and improves liver function. The Mudra of Sun is supreme in alleviating indigestion and lowers your cholesterol in the blood.
How to form Surya Mudra:
To perform this hand mudra, first, bring your ring finger to touch the base of your thumb. Next, lightly press your ring finger with your thumb. The more you press down, the more the fire element is activated. Meanwhile, slightly stretch out the middle, index, and pinky fingers.
Perform this meditation mudra for at least 10 to 15 minutes a day. Ideally, the optimal time to perform this mudra is sunrise. Moreover, you can practice this mudra while standing, sitting, or lying down. Alternatively, you can also do it while walking or taking a break during your work hours.
Additionally, doing this mudra, along with mantras, has a better effect on your body.
5. VAYU MUDRA – THE SEAL OF SERINITY
“Vayu” means ‘air.’ Therefore, this mudra balances the air element in the body. The Mudra of Air tackles health issues caused by the imbalance of the air element.
Vayu Mudra Benefits and Effects:
Hand mudras for meditation are full of benefits. It is beneficial to hold this mudra with both hands. To treat severe health conditions, practice 2 to 3 sessions a day for a minimum of 5 to 15 minutes each.
Once the desired outcomes are achieved, you must discontinue a regular practice of Vayu mudra. It should not be practiced daily if health and wellness goals are accomplished.
Performing this mudra helps in reducing gas, chest pain, and bloating. It also relieves headaches and reduces paralysis, gout, arthritis, sciatica, muscular trembling, knee, neck, and back pain, and improves nervous system-related health conditions.
How to perform Vayu Mudra:
To perform this mudra, you need to gently bend your index finger inside your thumb while stretching other fingers straight lightly. You can gain improved results when this mudra is practiced after Prana Mudra in any given session.
Perform this mudra for at least 10 to 15 minutes a day, followed by Prana and Varuna Mudra, and/or Prithvi Mudra.
6. SHUNYA OR SHOONYA MUDRA – THE SEAL OF EMPTINESS
“Shunya” in Sanskrit means zero or nothingness. In this context, Shunya means the space — the “Great Void” or emptiness. Shunya Mudra (Mudra of Space) balances the space/ether element within the body and deals with all its irregularities.
Benefits of Shunya Mudra:
Practicing Shunya Mudra balances Vata Dosha. Additionally, it helps in balancing hormones and the menstruation cycle. Shunya Mudra, one of the hand mudras for meditation also improves hearing, reduces ringing in the ears (tinnitus), and alleviates earaches. Moreover, it decreases vertigo and improves balance.
In particular, when used in air travel, Shunya Mudra is quite useful. It helps the ears adjust to the changing pressures during take-off and landing. Similarly, during water and land travels, Shunya Mudra helps prevent motion sickness.
How to perform Shunya Mudra:
Fold the middle finger into your palm with its tip resting at the base of your thumb. Then, cover the second phalanx of your folded middle finger with your thumb. Meanwhile, extend the remaining fingers, with palms facing up and your hands resting in your lap. Hold this Mudra for 5 to 30 minutes.
For best results to improve your hearing, you can practice this mudra in 2 to 3 sessions per day. Additionally, this Mudra can be practiced in any position, i.e., while walking, standing, seated, or lying down.
For a more in-depth experience, sit in a comfortable seated posture with your spine straight. Relax your shoulders, chest, and belly, and breathe naturally. Importantly, this Mudra should be performed with both hands.
7. DHYANA MUDRA – THE SEAL OF CONTEMPLATION AND MEDITATION
The Sanskrit word “Dhyaan” means meditation and focus. When you close our eyes and form this Mudra, it activates your inner guide, connecting the two sides of your bodies and brain. This mudra, the gesture of meditation, also affects the Sacral Chakra and heals emotional, relationship traumas. Dhyāna mudrā is also known as “samādhi mudrā” or “yoga mudrā.”
Benefits of Dhyana Mudra:
Dhyāna mudrā facilitates natural diaphragmatic breathing. It also aids in efficient digestion and assimilation of nutrients. It also helps you embody your inner consciousness and gain self-confidence. This Mudra helps release striving patterns and gain detachment.
How to perform Dhyāna Mudrā:
Sit in a comfortable position. Place your left hand in your lap with the palm facing upwards. Rest the back of the right hand into the left palm. Lightly touch the tips of your thumbs together in the shape of a hollow sphere.
Tips to Practice Hand Mudras For Meditation:
Here are some tips on creating a successful daily reflection and relaxation practice using hand mudras for meditation.
- Making time for yourself is the first step. Sit in a comfortable posture, in a peaceful environment. Start with the prayer position.
- Keep a journal, a pen, or a pencil close by to jot down your ideas, messages, and intuitive guidance that you may receive.
- Turn off all technology distractions. Put your cell phone and any notifications on "do not disturb" mode.
- Wear comfortable and light clothing. Excess of anything is terrible, so practice these Mudras as recommended.
- Listen to your body and intuition on how much time you need to hold each Mudra. Feeling discomfort in your fingers and joints due to lack of inflexibility is normal. With time and practice, you will gain flexibility. Finding specific Mudras challenging is expected as well, so do not give up.
- Perform Mudras with closed eyes, facial muscles relaxed while keeping your breathing patterns in mind to access the healing power within.
- Start with performing any of these 7 powerful hand Mudras for meditation, according to your need and preference. For a more profound, more guided, and step-by-step experience, come join me inside the 3-day Abundance Challenge using Mudras, Mantras, and Meditation.
Mudras, Mantras, Meditation, and Manifestation
Human salvation and enlightenment are possible to accomplish with a change in lifestyle. Additionally, healing powers can be activated with practice. After all, we are all magnetic, energetic beings, and manifestation does not happen overnight.
Instead, it is a journey that demands patience, perseverance, passion, and willpower. Moreover, not to miss the importance of seeking, learning, and doing the right activity at the right time! Having a guide or a teacher you can trust on your journey adds value to your growth process.
Mudras, mantras, meditation, and music can create a wonderfully magical space for activation and supercharging the energies for manifestation to occur! Indeed, you've already made a start with hand mudras for meditation.
Learning to relax and calm your mind is often the first step on your sage path. But how do you go from your beta brainwaves to an alpha state? Furthermore, how do you transition from alpha to theta brainwave space and still be in control to make commands for transformation and manifestation?
Your sage path beginning stage is unique to you. However, the process of achieving sage mode is the same for all of us. Ultimately, walking this journey over time and with diligent practice takes you to your sage mode, and that is where manifestation begins, or quantum transformations happen. That quantum space is called the Great Void.
Finally, we all have 7 levels of quantum growth phases we can achieve and energies available for us. The question is, are you willing and ready to get to that space to redefine, realign, and redesign your destiny?
To learn how to create an inside-out shift in your mindset, discover what it takes to manifest your desires and what you most want in life, then start with the free 3-Day Meditation, Mantras, and Mudras For Money and Abundance Challenge.
