The Yoga of Darkness Written by Return Yoga

Read on ... Find your honesty ...

The Yoga of Darkness

By Return Yoga on Monday March 7th, 2016

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By allowing our fears to arise we create an opportunity for healing

Emotion is the chief source of all becoming-conscious. There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion. – Carl Jung

I once had a student who started to drift away and began to look sheepishly apologetic when she did come to class. She avoided my eyes and had an invisible wall around her mat. She used to ask questions or chat after class; now she was the first out of the room and gone from the studio by the time I’d left my mat. Eventually, though, we did talk a little. She told me things were busy. She talked about her kids. Then she looked somewhere into the middle distance and said she didn’t know, really; yoga just wasn’t working any more.

Sometimes, she said, all I feel in child’s pose is anger and disappointment.

Sometimes we feel anger and disappointment during our practice

Negativity is part of the path

Yoga has a corner market on feel good words. I recently had a massage therapist tell me we were both in the ‘feel good industry’. The promise of ‘enlightenment’ tends to make us think we will be more spiritual, and this somehow means we’ll be a little less freakish about time, our kids, our money. There is truth to this. Yoga can show us how good it feels to be alive.

But yoga will also show us exactly how badly we feel. Usually, when honest emotion starts to come up, students leave. They skip class or decide yoga wasn’t what they wanted. They say ‘it’s not working any longer’. The emotion itself keeps them away; they’re ‘not in the mood’, ‘too busy’, or ‘too depressed to move’. They will – trust me, this is real – feel guilty for feeling so crummy when others are just trying to get their savasana on.

This doesn’t indicate that the yoga isn’t working, but that it IS. The end isn’t this negativity, this disappointment. But negativity is part of the path, and it has to be gone through if you want to understand it, to understand yourself, at all. If you don’t, you’ll be shutting down half of your experience of life, and probably the best strengths you’ll ever find. If you don’t, you’ll continue to skip, overcompensate, repeat, and lull. You’ll segue irritation into nicety, stuff it, and it will erupt later as rage toward an intimate or yourself.

Many students give up on class when honest emotions arise

Yoga is about honesty, not bliss

Most of us have spent the majority of our lives stuffing and repressing our feelings, rationalizing them, avoiding them, or sublimating them into exercise, food, cigarettes, television, shallow relationships. Women are taught not to feel anger because it’s not nice, not feminine (or too feminine and bitchy, emotional, hormonal and out of control). Men are supposed to feel competence, all the time. In our efforts to feel better, many of us start shutting it off, wholesale, in favor of pop psychology or easy spirituality. It’s called spiritual bypass. It’s an attempt to avoid painful feelings, unresolved issues, or truthful developmental needs with such words as ‘Everything happens for a reason’, ‘God’s ways are not our ways’, or ‘Choose happiness’.

There will be a yoga class, someday, online or at your local studio, where your teacher will start singing. She’ll say ‘exhale’ as if there’s something orgasmic about it. She might allude to the goodness of your heart, your hamstrings, or the light inside.

If you are like me, this may make you clench your bandhas like a fist. There may come a day you lower down into child’s pose, “sweet, receptive, safe” child’s pose and feel nothing but boredom, irritability, and dis-ease. You keep lifting your head off the mat, looking at the clock. There may come a day your brain starts swearing at the lovely yoga teacher saying something vapid about love in your newly blossomed chakra.

Yoga is about honesty not bliss

Here is the thing. Yoga is not about bliss, but about honesty. Spirituality is not certainty, but the longing of the heart. Enlightenment is not ‘letting go’ of bad feelings, but understanding them, what they’re doing to us, and how they are expressed in the body. Non-harming and forgiveness are not about feeling generous or big enough (bigger than and condescending), but knowing the difficulty of right actions and assuming responsibility for the difficult. Forgiveness often comes directly out of acknowledging how bloody bitter we are. Love is not joy, all the time. Sometimes, love hurts. Love is raw.

Yoga is a love story. Not the fluffy, romanticized love story, but the real one. The kind that leaves you changed.

Emotions are doorways, ways in. The goal is not to exist without shadows, to become so spiritual we no longer feel fat, bored, envious, or impatient. The goal is to swallow hard as we take on willingness to go into the dark.

Being brave enough to walk through the darkness to get to the light

Passing through the shadows

Because yoga asks you to work with both your body and your mind, the inevitable result is going to be messy. There will be times the body itself will start in on anger, hot and fast, trembly, without the reasoning mind having a clue what is going on. There will be days the boredom or loneliness seem so sharp they may actually wound. There will be five thousand ways your mind will tell you it isn’t worth it, it won’t work, that love is not real.

Yet, yoga has probably already given you a clue to this. You’ve probably already felt how love – whether it be romantic or ethical, compassion, right living, making a solidity of your name – is the only thing that is real. The highest and best in human beings is subtle, mysterious, and tied directly to the shadows. Life is both unbearably cruel and devastatingly sweet, often at the same time.

The shadows will show up. Go there. Apathy, acedia, what Christian mystics called desolation, existentials call despair, moves when we move toward it. It isn’t the passage of time that heals us, but the passing through experiences.

Pushing through the fears and giving yourself a chance to release

Watching things fall away

There are hundreds of things telling us to ‘get over it’, to ‘think positively’, or to ‘let it go’. Be wary of these as the roadside distractions that they are.

Yoga is the love story where in things fall apart. God moves away, often at the same time he takes away the ground. First goes this, then goes that. Gone are the thrill of the first months of yoga class, the ease of learning something new every time you walked in the door. Gone is the schedule that allowed you class three times a week. Gone is the strength in your shoulders, the ability to keep on a diet. Gone is the confidence of conversion.

And then a small movement in the heart. And then two
.

Good Vibe TRIBE

Photo from Google Images

I never realized the immense importance of TRIBE until I moved half way across the country from my home town; where I lived and formed my TRIBE for 45 years.  It's not that I took my tribe for granted, it's more that I never knew what it felt like NOT to have physical contact with them whenever the opportunity presented itself.  If I had time, I could call any one of my tribe and ask if they were available for coffee, a walk, a run, a bike ride or simply to hang out.  That contact has become asking when they have time for a phone call or Skype video chat.  Even though I've lived away from home the last 1.5 years, not a day goes by that I don't think about my beautiful TRIBE back in my Manitoba home.  I continue to make great efforts to stay connected because I value them all so greatly.

Even though my husband and I moved to our dream province, British Columbia, it didn't feel the way I thought it would.  It was compounded by the fact that we moved to a very small town, and were surrounded by many people who already had a tribe of their own.

I so enjoyed being immersed in everything that the nature of British Columbia was providing; all the things we took a chance and journeyed here for: hikes, biking, downhill and cross country skiing, kayaking, river floats; in climates that were enjoyable no matter the time of year.  But I missed my TRIBE.  I had made some friends in my new home but there's never a comparison to the people who you call FAMILY, even if they aren't related by blood.  I didn't expect it to feel the same, but it was more different than I anticipated.

My Gorgeous Manitoba TRIBE

My Gorgeous Manitoba TRIBE

I'm a person who NEEDS a tribe.  Some people are happy to fly solo but I am not one of those people.  I almost feel as though I relate to who I am through my tribe.  They say you are who you surround yourself with.  I felt the sting of a sadness so great that during the quiet times, even surrounded by beauty and my best friend, my husband, made life less enjoyable.  It was compounded by the fact that I felt I had started to make enough friends that I shouldn't have felt so lonely . . . why did they not seem as meaningful?  And even though I had made some friends, my husband and I weren't receiving invitations to evening gatherings or outdoor activities.  It was hard not to question why those invitations weren't coming when I felt like we were developing meaningful relationships.

I spent some time feeling sorry for myself and even shed some tears and then I decided I could either waste time wallowing in self pity or I could create opportunities for those relationships to become meaningful, or even better, create opportunity to put myself out there and make those moments happen.

I took ski lessons, started teaching at the local yoga studio, and continued to put out invites as a means of nurturing the relationships we were already building.  I also cut myself and the people I met some slack; Rome was not created in a day and relationships don't just happen, they are massaged and built over time, and if they are genuine and mutual, they will blossom.  My tribe in Manitoba occurred over my lifetime and grew to the beauty they are today over time, moments and life shared.  I decided to stop wondering what was missing and put my energy into being happy and grateful for what I already had.

I got an idea from social media to start a gratitude journal.  The intention of this journal was to become more present in my day-to-day life, in the moments I shared with each person, each day, and to find gratitude for something every single day, no matter how big or small, so that at the end of my 2nd year of life in my new home, I could look back and realize just how incredible it had been.  Real happiness is not a place, a person or a thing, it's the journey to get there . . . it's the journey in nurturing the relationships with other human beings.  We all have unique qualities that make us who we are.

I've learned more about myself in this last year and a half than I have over my lifetime.  Some of those things were difficult to swallow.  I honestly believe the reason it took moving here to find my true, authentic self was because I didn't have the "distraction" of TRIBE.  What I had was a lot of quiet, spare time, while exploring the beauty that surrounded me, missing my tribe, to look into the window of my life.  Who am I really?  I also had to reinvent the way I responded and nurtured some of my longest relationships, including how to parent from a distance.

The most valuable thing I've learned in this last year and a half is acceptance; acceptance that my relationships with my Manitoba TRIBE will continue to grow and be meaningful because I love and cherish them, and the feeling is mutual; acceptance that I am a great mom and my children are the most important thing in my life, and moving away doesn't change that; acceptance in realizing that life involves constant change and learning how to roll with those changes, including how we relate the people in our tribe (especially our children who are now adults); acceptance that I cannot control the outcomes of other people's lives and that I am not responsible for their choices or outcomes; acceptance that I have the rest of my life to continue growing my TRIBE and that distance and time does not equate the value of any of the members of my TRIBE; and most importantly . . . GRATITUDE . . .  that I have life and health to enjoy my TRIBE.

Since finding this acceptance and gratitude for the woman I am discovering, I have come to see that I am RICH.  When I look back at the past 144 days so far of my 365 days of gratitude journal, I see so clearly that I haven't "left behind" anyone, and the new relationships I've formed in the last 1.5 years are immense blessings.  I have realized just how fortunate I am that I had the courage to put myself out there, make it important, and have been blessed with others who were willing to open themselves and their hearts up to my husband and I.

My Beautiful Kootenay TRIBE

Life is a journey and throughout that journey we grow our TRIBE . . . and mine is a GOOD VIBE TRIBE.  I love you all :)

Self Love Tips

I love reading great articles by great Yogis/Yoginis.  Every day I read something about the topic that I'm most passionate about . . . The PRACTICE of Yoga.  I love being so inspired by someone else's words and then being able to share those words with my readers.  Here's a great one from the YogiTimes written by Anne Soffer . . . Enjoy!

by anne soffer

Be Spiritual | Self Development

we could see a yoga class as therapy, and we could see the breath as our therapist

Last week I did some ground work on the state of my relationship with my partner. And thanks to the internet, I got overcharged with all kinds of characteristics my relationship had to cover, in order for it to be a healthy one.
Some of those signs were a bit awkward. Some even surprising. But most of them were quite the cliche. I made a small selection of these significant signs:
You are playful together.You see your partner as trustworthy.You enjoy the way your partner has changed and grown.You view your partner a little bit more positively than most others do.You kiss every day.
You have fun together.
When practicing yoga, we are not practicing to dive into the depths of our relationship--at least, not those that include someone else. When practicing yoga, we are diving into the depths of the relationship we have with our own self, our own physical, mental, and emotional bodies. I noticed that the so-called signs of having a healthy relationship with our partners were also good pointers for a healthy relationship with ourselves:
Are you playful?Do you see your body as trustworthy?Do you enjoy the way your body has changed and grown?Do you view your body a bit more positively than most others would?Do you have fun together?Do you kiss every day?
We could see a yoga class as therapy. In a yoga class we create movement, shape-changing movements. And by creating those movements we try to connect to our bodies on a deeper level, therefore we invest in a healthy body and mind. We could see the breath as our therapist, as our breath deals with tension. Tension created by those movements, or tension that we were unaware of before practicing. We are trying to listen, really listen, to what our body is trying to tell us.
I made a small self inquiry using those hints as my guide. So for a moment don’t worry about your partner (and all of the questions that run through your mind: does he or she still love me? Does he or she still find me attractive? Does his or her best memory include me? Do we bring the average of how many times couples have sex on a weekly basis up? (oh please yes!) Do we bring it down? (oh please no!)). Worry about you! Consider yourself as the one. You will be "together" until death do you part.
Are you playful?
Most likely you’ve seen a kitten play. Kittens have these crazy fifteen minutes every day, mostly when twilight comes. They just go crazy!
They jump up and down, they climb into the curtains, they run from one side of the room to the other--it’s not even running, it’s blasting!
Kittens do this in order to release energy. Be like a kitten, every day, for at least fifteen minutes. Bounce, jump, sing, scream, dance, boogie...Go crazy, and not a little bit. Go crazy a lot! Release tension, laugh, cry, do whatever needs to be done in order to discharge and recharge.
Do you see your body as trustworthy?
You should! Our bodies are beautifully constructed pieces of art, and
nature's result to the issue of sthira and sukha. Sthira means stability, solidness, and steadiness, that which gives us solidness. Sukha means permeability, softness, and ease, that which allows us to move. If you take a close look at one cell from our body, you will find that it is semi-permeable. It takes in what it needs and it gets rid of what is harmful; a very clever system.
If you look at the spine you will find a beautiful and dependable structure. 
The anterior column (the front of our spine) is mostly solid, as it deals with weight bearing. The posterior column (the back of our spine) is shaped with bows, leaving more spaces and allowing us to move.
It's OK to have some confidence and trust in our bodies. It has been--and still is--serving us in the best possible way since the day we were born.
Do you enjoy the way your body has grown and changed?
Most of us don’t, I guess. We all want to be young, “good” looking, and “fresh." But each and every one of us will have to deal with aging, as everybody is dealing with time.
I think time is an Ishvara Pranidhana thing, Ishvara Pranidhana meaning surrender. We have to surrender to time. Have to, implies of course that indeed we have to “do” something. Surrendering to something can still be an act of will.
If we can surrender to time, if we can surrender to the reality of becoming older and grayer and wrinklier and less flexible, we will most likely suffer less. We might even find beauty in this proces, enriching our lives and broadening our view.
Do you view your body a bit more positively than others would
I sometimes spot people who are deeply in love with their own body:
Honoring it, enjoying it, embracing it. For me it is so inspiring to look at those people. There is this deep contentment inside of them.
I even think that it is one of the most attractive qualities one can have.
For some of us, me included, this is a difficult thing to feel; seeing yourself more positively than others would.
On some days I’m OK with myself, on other days far from it. Maybe we can embrace this. This movement, moving from OK to far from OK.
How could we experience appreciation if it was all there was?
Take time for our bodies. Practice yoga. Give yourself a massage every once in a while. You know what you like most. Try to relate with attention to yourself. Remember, the grass is greener where you water it.
Do you have fun together?
As said, our body is a beautiful vehicle. Allowing us to move, taste, feel, see, hear, and smell. We can have so much fun with those senses! We can listen to music. We can smell the aroma of fresh herbs. We can see the sunlight show. We can taste the full body of a beautiful glass of wine. We can move. And we can feel, feel ourselves, feel our loved ones. Do we need more privileges to enjoy ourselves?
Do you kiss every day?
Don’t forget to kiss! Kiss whatever you can kiss. Practicing yoga will most probably enable you to kiss more and more parts of your body, which is a nice side effect.
And after doing this little self inquiry, you might notice that your relationship with your partner is even better than the one you have with you!

Mantras Have Meanings . . . There's Meaning to Mantras

Many classes use mantras and prayers as a means to tune in to our higher selves and "increase our level of energy or prana.  Vibrations create the world we live in.  Many of these mantras were channeled by the ancient sages while they were in deep states of meditation and are a direct link to the divine". You do not have to be Hindu or even religious in any way, to receive the powerful benefits of the vibrations these chants produce. When you say these prayers you can concentrate on your God or guru, the light within you, Mother Nature, the Universe, or simply the sounds and vibrations they produce within your body and the atmosphere around you.

Mantras in meditation and in Kirtan (singing) are repeated over and over such to invoke their intention and cultivate their calling into your reality; putting out to the universe what it is you want to call into your life (gratitude, peace, a new job, balance, health, clarity of a path, just to name a few).  In meditation, repeating mantras will also invoke their intention into your life but simultaneously will give you something to focus your attention AND intention on in the process.

Bhakti Yoga; the yoga practice of love and devotion, uses mantras in the form of song (Kirtan) to cultivate love and divine energy of spirit between self and the universe.  It is a beautiful manner in which to connect to your authentic self and cultivate immense joy.

The first time you attend a Kirtan you may feel a little strange or self conscious; worried that you're not saying the words "right".  It doesn't matter that you and reciting the Sanskrit perfectly; once you just "let go", your spirit will be singing and your heart will be full and you won't care at all exactly what you're saying because you will be connected energetically to all around you.

Have you ever been to a full yoga class where every single body in the room recites OM?  It is powerful and beautiful.  It is a moment where every cell of each person's body is united as one. 

These are some of the prayers and mantras you're likely to hear in classes . . . enjoy some sound clips as well:

.

OM: Pronounced Auh, Oooooo, Mmmmmmmm, the supreme seed mantra symbolic of the beginning, the duration and the end. Meditation on Om is said to satisfy every need and leads to liberation. Scientific studies have shown the vibrations of om help to calm the mind, lowering blood pressure and increasing your ability to concentrate. Listening to the mantra om is recommended for insomnia and chronic diseases caused by stress.

On another note,  "the chakras are the intersections of energy lines, and there are said to be a total of 108 energy lines converging to form the heart chakra. One of them, sushumna leads to the crown chakra, and is said to be the path to Self-realization.

So anything if repeated 108 times, has a transformational effect. Thats the law of nature. Its like magic.

♡OM Chanting and its vibrations when repeated for 108, becomes significantly more powerful, and can help open the Crown Chakra and thus your path to Self-Realization."

Try this OM meditation:

 The Ganesh Mantra:  Its a meditation mantra dedicated to Lord Ganesha, and we chant it before starting any new venture. We chant it when inner or outer obstacles are holding us back to get to our true self and fully realizing our potential.

OM GAM GANAPATAYE NAMAHA

Meaning:

OM - The Sound, the Vibration of the Universe, The Primordial Sound
GAM - The Seed Sound, or bija sound of Lord Ganesha
GANAPATAYE - Another name of Lord Ganesh, the one who overcomes of obstacles.
NAMAHA - I offer you my salutations, I bow to you.

Try this one:

 

 The Mahamrityunjaya mantra:  For increasing self healing quality of Body and Mind, protecting from negativities of death and pain.

Om tryambakam yajamahe 

sugandhim pushti vardhanam 

Urvar ukamiva bandhanat 

mrityor mukshi ya mamritat 

The Gayatri mantra: For increasing creative energy for Body and Mind, increasing pranic energy.

Om bhur bhuvah swah  

Tat savitur varenyam 

bhargo devasya dhimahi 

Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat

Rob and Melissa (Acoustic Kirtan)
https://youtu.be/2De4Q3aIhwA

Hari Om Tat Sat:  For increasing peace, good energy and strength.

Meaning:
The Supreme, Absolute Truth . . . quite literally, All that Is.

Medicine Buddha Mantra: Meant to heal and heal others

Teyate Om
Bekunze Bekunze
Maha Bekunze
Ratza Samu Gade
Sohum 

Meaning: 
Eliminating the pain of true suffering; not just of disease but of all problems.  Eliminating the cause (karma) of the suffering.   

Durga Namavali: For protection from downfall and ensuring constant evolution.

Durga  Durgartishamani  DurgaPadminivarani 

Durgamachhedini  Durgasadhani  Durganashini 

Durgatoddharini  Durganihantri  Durgamapahaa 

Durgamadnyanada  DurgadaityaLokaDavanala  

Durgama  Durgamaloka  Durgamatmaswaroopini 

Durgamargaprada  Durgamavidya  Durgamashrita 

DurgamaDnyanaSansthana  Durgamadhyanabhasini 

Durgamoho  Durgamaga  Durgamarthaswaroopini 

DurgamaSuraSanhantri  DurgamaYudhdharini 

Durgamangi  Durgamatha  Durgamya  Durgameshwari 

DurgaBhima  DurgaBhama  Durgabha  Durgadarini 

Shanti Mantra - Asatoma Ma Sadgamaya: Peace Mantra

asato ma sadgamaya

tamaso ma jyotirgamaya

mrtyorma amrtam gamaya

Meaning:

Lead me from the asat to the sat. 

Lead me from darkness to light. 

Lead me from death to immortality.

Watch Freya from Kranti Yoga in Goa India where I did my Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training perform a melody of the Shanti Mantra she created . . .

Sarveshaam Mantra : Peace Mantra

OM sarveshaam svastir bhavatu

sarveshaam shaantir bhavatu

sarveshaam poornam bhavatu 

sarveshaam mangalam bhavatu

sarve bhavantu sukhinah

sarve santu niraamayaah

sarve bhadraani pashyantu

maa kashchidh dukh bhaag-bhavet

Meaning:

Let it be so ordained (-bhavatu), that all the people (-sarveshaam), experience well-being (-svastir) ; let all the people experience peace or tranquility (-shaantir). Let all the people experience wholeness and completeness (-poornam) ; let them experience prosperity and auspiciousness (-mangalam).

Loka Samasta Sukino Bhavantu: Peace Mantra

Loka Samasta Sukino Bhavantu

Loka Samasta Sukino Bhavantu

Loka Samasta Sukino Bhavantu

OM Shan'ti Shan'ti Shan'ti

Meaning:

May the Lord bless the whole world with eternal peace and goodwill.

May the Lord bless the whole world with eternal peace and goodwill.

May the Lord bless the whole world with eternal peace and goodwill.

Peace peace peace

In short: May all beings be happy and free :)

Guru Brahmaa Guru Vishnu: For invoking the inner teacher & honoring the inner light

Guru Brahmaa Guru Vishnu 

Guru Devo Maheswara

Guru Saaksaat Param Brahma

Tasmai Shri Guruve Namaha

Meaning:

Guru Is Brahmaa (Who plants the qualities of goodness)

Guru Is Vishnu (Who nurtures and fosters the qualities of goodness)

Guru Is Maheswara (Who weeds out the bad quality)

Guru Is Supreme Brahman Itself

Prostration Unto That Guru

Om Namo Bhagavate:

Om namo bhagavate vasu devaya

Meaning:

The twelve lettered mantra - Oh infinite Lord, indweller in the heart of all beings, unto you I turn my consciousness to see the God within everyone and everything. 

Surya Namaskara Mantras:

OM Ram Mitraya Namaha

OM Rhim Ravaye Namaha

OM Rhum Suryaya Namaha

OM Raim Bhanave Namaha

OM Rhaum Kagaya Namah

OM Rhap Pushne Namaha

OM Ram Hiranya Garbhaya Namaha

OM Rhim Marichaye Namaha

OM Rhum Aditaya Namaha

OM Raim Savitre Namaha

OM Rhaum Arkaya Namah

OM Rhap Baskaraeya Namaha

OM Ram Rhim Rhum Raim Rhaum Rhap Mitra Ravye Surya Bhanu Kaga Pushne Hiranya Garbhaya Mariche Aditya Savitre Arkaya Baskarayo Namo Namaha

Ram (inh), Rhim (FF), Rhum (R foot back), Raim (DD) Rhaum (plank) Raha (chataranga) Ram (up dog)  Rhim (DD) Rhum (R foot fwd) Raim (gaze fwd) Rhaum (rise) Raha (hands to heart center)

OM Shanti:

OM Shanti Shanti Shanti

OM Shanti Shanti Shanti

OM Shanti Shanti Shanti

Meaning:

Peace of the Lord be with you

Talk to the Hamsa

What the Hamsa?

 

The Hamsa is one of the most sacred symbols in Indian culture.  Indians call Hamsa, "Humsa Hand" and is a culturally adored symbol.  

 

The five fingers in the hand of Hinduism represent the five elements of nature and the five energy centers of the body (chakra centers).  

 

The Hamsa, in Hinduism, is one of the common Mudras.  These energies flow continually up and down throughout the body.  Mudras are considered an "energetic seal of authenticity".

 

MUDRAS AND HAMSA 

 In Hinduism, hands are considered a great source of healing.  Movement of the hands in mudra is a symbolic language.  It is believed that many diseases or illness (from your basic cold to cancer) have their roots in stress and sadness; and these diseases are rooted in our subconscious minds.  

In the practice of Yoga or the spiritual realm, incorporating a meditation practice with use of Mudras can alter your mood and spirit, potentially preventing disease and illness.  This can be especially effective when combined with the practice of Pranayama (breathing exercises) and are generally done in a comfortable seated position, but can also be done while laying down. 

Mudras are performed with hands and fingers and are usually combined with movements; they sometimes can involve the entire body.  They are often used in ceremonies and with dance.  Mudras act to stimulate different parts of the body involved in breathing and are meant to affect the flow of energy and alter your emotional state.  Mudras help manipulate the mind-body connection as each part of the hand corresponds to a specific area of the body or mind.  

Each finger is said to represent a different energy and element:

1.  Thumb (Agni Tattava) is the Fire element, located in the Solar Plexus (Manipura) Chakra 
     (space under the breastbone to the belly button).

2.  Forefinger, index/pointer finger (Vaayu Tattava) is the Air element, located in the Heart
      (Anahata) Chakra.

3.  Middle Finger (Akasa Tattava) are the Ethereal elements, located in the Throat
      (Vishudda) Chakra.

4.  Ring Finger (Prithivi Tattava) is the Land element, located in the Root
      (Muladhara) Chakra (the space between the anus and genitals - perineum)

5.  Pinkie Finger (Apas Tattava) is the Water element, located in the Sacral (Svadhisthana) 
     Chakra (the abdominal region)
 
 Mudras act as "locks" to guide the flow of energy to certain parts of the body.  From a more spiritual perspective, using particular mudras can be a means of outwardly representing your inward intentions.  It is possible that meditating on a specific mudra can assist in manifesting certain energies, visions or devotions into your life.  They can assist us in seeing our truth.  When you bring your hands into a mudra you are creating a physical connection with something you desire.  

There are many very simple mudras.  

How to Start

1.  Either sit in a comfortable, cross-legged position, or in lotus (padmasana) or in a chair, 
     sitting upright.

2.  Rub the palms of your hands together vigorously for about 5 seconds and then place your 
      hands over your Sacral Chakra (abdominal region) to bring about the flow of energy to 
      your hands.

3.  Exert sufficient pressure to feel the flow of energy but not so much that your fingertips 

      whiten.  

 

4.  Hold each mudra for at least a couple minutes, but 10-15 minutes is more effective.  It is 

      beneficial to meditate as a means of starting your day and closing your day; allowing you 

      space to create loving intentions for how you would like your day to present itself, and 

      then before bed for how you wish your body to rest. 

 

Yoga Mudra:   Sitting in a comfortable seated position, backs of your hands resting on your knees, palms facing up.  Lightly touch the thumb and index finger together, keeping your other fingers long and together.  Sitting up tall from the base of your spine, rooting your sit bones into the mat, growing tall from the crown of your head.  Lightly tucking your chin towards your chest, keeping your gaze soft towards the tip of your nose.  Focus on your breath.  Envision your intention cultivating into your day or night; cultivating it in your life.

 

Dhyani Mudra:  Sitting as above, placing your left hand in your right, palms facing up, bringing your two thumb tips to touch.  

 

Atmanjali Mudra:  Placing your palms together in "Namaste" where the hands are placed at your heart center, palms touching.   

There are many mudras and their meanings on-line.  Find your special mudra, couple a mantra . . . even simple phrases such as "I am peace" - Inhale "I am", Exhale "Peace", and use your breath as a tool to keep you focused on your intention or mantra to cultivate whatever it is that you are wanting to bring more centered in your life.  

 

Om Namah Shivaya 

 

~Jen