Mudras to Balance Energy
Are you suffering from anxiety or insomnia? Do you want to sleep more deeply? In my studies in yoga and as someone with ADHD, I found mudras powerful - and these were some of my favorites.
Mudras are powerful tools as pure and proper ways to cure the inner problems in your body. to assist meditation and introspection, they can help control our mind — our thoughts, feelings, and desires. This article will discuss four essential mudras that will balance your body and mind and relieve your anxiety and stress.
What are Mudras?
Mudras are yoga - Gestures that heal the mind and body by balancing energy between the elements. They activate a specific element or energy in the body and can balance energy, heal the mind, and reduce stress, blood pressure, and blood sugar.
The five fingers represent the five elements. The energy activation point lies on the fingertips. When the fingertips are connected, the subtle energy in your body gets activated. The thumb represents the fire element. This element represents agni within the body, and it activates all the other elements.
The index finger represents air, the middle finger ether, the ring finger earth, and the little finger represents the water element.
How Can Mudras Help? When different hand formations, or mudras, are formed, the combination of subtle elements has a powerful effect on the mind and body
There is a spiritual force that mediates our mind-body connection. Ayurveda says that when the elements in our body are balanced, our bodies and minds are healthy.
We can attain balance by activating specific elements using various mudras whenever an imbalance arises. Acupuncture is another method that activates particular points in the body and improves energy flow. Mudras act similarly. The tips of our fingers act like electrical potential points, and when the mudras are formed, they create an electrical circuit that circulates energy throughout the body. As this energy circulates, we feel a healing effect. The most astonishing fact is that our brain uses about 60% of its surface area to process the movements and sensations of the hands.
Give each mudra at least 10 minutes to help you attain a calm, meditative state.
#1: Jnana Mudra
The Jnana mudra activates the air element within the body.
The Jnana mudra can be used in all sitting meditative poses or while practicing walking meditation. Other names for the Jnana mudra include Abhay Jnana mudra, Vayu Vardhak mudra, Purna Jnana mudra, Dhyan mudra.
The Jnana mudra is helpful for:
- Improving concentration
- Meditation practices
- Calming the mind
- Treating depression and lack of enthusiasm
- Finding clarity in your thoughts
- Overcoming addiction
- Treating insomnia
- Enhancing the endocrine system
- Strengthening the muscular system
To do the jnana mudra:
- Touch the tips of the thumb and the index finger together, and gradually adjust until you can feel your pulse in your fingertips.
- Be aware of the outflow and inflow of energy going from and to the heart.
- Practice this mudra for about 15-20 minutes.
- Remember that feeling your pulse while performing this mudra is very important.
#2: Brahmahi Breathing and Shanmukhi Mudra
The Shanmukhi mudra is helpful for the following:
- Relaxing the face and brain
- Relieving headaches
- Reducing depression
- Alleviating stress and tension
Brahmanhi breathing nurtures peace in one's being, resulting in self-healing. Bhramari Pranayama lowers blood pressure, relieving hypertension. It releases cerebral tension. Hence, yoga practice is recommended as a nightly routine for better sleep. It soothes the nerves. Shanmukhi mudra means to have a bright face. It is meant to relieve stress and tension and relax all the facial muscles.
- Take a deep breath in, relax, and breathe out.
- After fully breathing out, close all the openings with your fingers—the ears, eyes, mouth, and finally, the nostrils. Thus, you are holding your breath after breathing out.
- Place the fingers in the following order:
- Two thumbs on the two openings of the ears so that you can close the ears when mudra is performed.
- The index finger on the eyes
- The middle fingers on either side of the nose
- The ring and little fingers on the upper and lower lips.
- Hum like a bee
- Bend your neck forward. Hold as long as you can comfortably. Lift your neck, relax all the fingers, and breathe in. After fully breathing in, slowly breathe out, humming like a bee, and repeat the same procedure.
- Practice this 21 times or 10 - 20 minutes.
The Brahmahi mantra and Shanmukhi mudra relaxes all the facial muscles.
#3: The Hakini Mudra
The Hakini mudra is helpful for the following:
- Improving the memory
- Focusing and calming the mind
- Connecting the two hemispheres of the brain
- Processing heavy emotions and thoughts
- If performed strongly, it can lower blood sugar.
To perform the Hakini Mudra,
- Place the tips of all the fingers together, including the thumbs. This will activate the third eye, memory, and intuition.
- Press together and activate a full-body isometric hug.
- Practice this mudra for 15- 20 minutes.
#4: The Dhyana Mudra
The Dhyana mudra is helpful for:
- Meditating
- Relaxing the mind
- Giving a sense of peace and well-being
- Accelerating healing
- Relieving stress
The Dhyana Mudra is especially effective when sitting. It helps when anxious to recenter and ground yourself.
Place your left hand in your lap and your right one into the cup of the left, then touch the tips of your thumbs. Feel the pulse. Relax your breath. As you feel the pulse, feel the touch of the palms, and experience silence. By experiencing silence, we eliminate all disturbances in the mind and body. Practice the Dhyana Mudra for 10-15 minutes.
Mudras for High Blood Pressure
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a serious health concern that affects millions of people worldwide. With so much to do daily, we get excessively stressed out, resulting in increased adrenaline in the bloodstream, raising the pressure. Hypertension leads to several connecting disorders, which can give you a hard time going on with your day. While there are medicines for blood pressure, they are not suitable for the long run, and it is not a good habit to take too many pills. With the help of a few Yoga mudras, you can control your high blood pressure.
The human heart goes about as a pump because it supplies oxygen-rich blood to different body organs through the veins and pumps the oxygen-poor blood back to the lungs to get energized with new oxygen. Blood pressure is the power applied by the blood when it flows against the walls of the veins. Any blockage in the veins, cholesterol stores, blood clumps, and narrowing of the veins because of solidifying would urge the blood to apply more weight while it flows. This is what leads to the problem of hypertension. Whenever left untreated, this problem would bring about weakened heart muscles and further some of the critical heart problems.
- Aakash Mudra
Join the tip of your middle finger to the tip of the thumb and hold it while exhaling and inhaling for a few minutes. It is believed that a person who practices
The Dhyana mudra is helpful for:
- High blood pressure
- Removing negative emotions
- Connecting with the collective consciousness of God
- Thinking noble thoughts even under challenging situations.
- Meditating
- Relaxing the mind
- Giving a sense of peace and well-being
- Accelerating healing
- Relieving stress
- Vaayan Mudra
Join the tip of your middle finger and index finger to the tip of your thumb finger for the Vaayan Mudra. This helps in reducing blood pressure in the best way possible! Also known as Vatta Katak Mudra, this mudra helps increase the Vatta humor of the body, thereby increasing the force and vital power.
- Apanvayu Mudra
While inhaling and exhaling, place the tip of your pointing finger at the bottom of your thumb. Now, join the tips of your middle finger, ring finger, and thumb tip to form this mudra. This mudra is also very commonly called the mudra of the heart. Not just hypertension, but this mudra is also helpful in
- Breathing difficulties
- Angina pectoris, heart attack, heart failure, etc.
- Everyday practice of this mudra is extremely helpful in preventing all kinds of heart blockages that help regulate blood pressure.
- In addition, this helps oxygenate the blood while repairing any damage that might be done to the heart muscles for better heart health.
- Pran Mudra
Bring together the tip of the little finger, ring finger, and thumb to perform this mudra. This mudra helps immensely awaken the power of prana.
Additionally, it helps with:
- Helps immensely awaken the power of prana
- Prevent and clear eye diseases
- Improves eyesight
- Increases the body's resistance, removes any feelings of tiredness, and reduces hunger pangs.
- Sleeps well.
- Surya Mudra
This mudra is performed by letting the tip of the ring finger touch the base of the thumb while exerting little pressure on the ring finger.
It helps with:- Hypertension with this mudra.
- Increasing body heat
- Weight
- Digestion problems
- Reducing cholesterol and triglycerides
The only precaution to be taken while performing this asana is that weak people should not practice it when it is hot.
- Chinmaya Mudra
To do this mudra, place the thumb and your forefinger to form a ring while the rest of the fingers should be curled in the palm of your hand. This mudra is popular for improving physical and mental health. The problem of hypertension is reduced significantly with this mudra. It also helps stimulate the digestion process.
Doing a mudra takes about 3 to 5 minutes, and you will have a lifelong problem solved. They are easy, quick, and an excellent way to avoid many diseases. Practice them regularly to achieve more excellent stability of all four elements in yourself and achieve physical, mental, and spiritual fitness.
Ideas and insights, Karin C
Helping leaders with strategies for health and purpose-aligned success.
https://linktr.ee/karin_c
