Welcome to Mudra Medicine

Namaste. Welcome to Mudra Medicine. First I want to explain a little bit about what a mudra is. The mudra means to seal, to close off. And there are body mudras, there are breathing mudras, and there are hasta mudras. And hasta mudras are the mudras of this season.

So the second part of the title is medicine. We all have a different relationship to the word medicine. But in this case, these mudras affect different aspects of the body, which affect different aspects not only of the body but also of the mind. And that's what we'll be doing in this season. When I was first introduced to mudra, I was only ever taught one mudra for many, many years.

And I really didn't have an interest outside of that. And the mudra was Chan Mudra, which will be in this series. And one of the things about the mudras that are so beautiful, it's lovely to play with all of them, but to really develop a consciousness in the body, a consciousness in the hands with the mudras, you have to pick one and stick with it. And when you do that, you develop a channel that is always there, but you develop it to become very strong, to become very centered in the body. And in a way, to become a medicine that works, it'll seem like it'll work immediately for you.

And that's what happened with me with the Chan Mudra. It was developing a relationship with me, and I didn't even know it. I found it interesting, and I love to use it in my meditation practice, but my meditation practices initially were so short, because it was really hard for me to hold still, that it was one of the things that I gave my mind to actually do, was to focus on the sensation of the fingers touching while I focused on my breathing. And that actually allowed me to be still long enough for me to call what was happening meditation. It took years of practicing both the mudras and sitting before my body settled, settled, settled.

The Asana were, of course, the biggest part of that, to settle my nervous system. So when I was introduced to different mudras after that, I just felt like I had come home. And at first I thought it was some sort of cosmic karmic thing, you know, oh, this is for me. But later, as I studied and learned and worked with people, I came to realize that, no, I had just been doing the mudra for so long that it had developed in my body, so that when I switched to a different mudra, it was recognized. So I invite you with this series, and with this season, to really look at these different mudras.

They're all lovely. Some of them are very practical. Some of them are spiritual. Some of them you will totally love, and some of them you'll be like, oh, I can't stand that mudra. Pick the one that really compels you and stick with it.

Just stick with it for like a half a year. Like a half a year. Have your main mudra that you do. And then you can use some of the other ones if you need them. If you're having a headache, then you can use pran mudra.

If you're having a difficulty in a relationship, you can use chen mudra. So you can use some of the others sort of as extras, but pick one mudra and stick with it. And let that mudra really teach you that it'll invest in you, and it will create a very deep health within you. Now, the fascinating thing about the mudras is, we have mudras that we designate as, oh, this is a physical mudra. This is for the elimination system.

This is the one that you want to do. But guess what? It helps you with the mental aspects as well. So there may be something in the mental part of you or the emotional part of you that needs to be cleansed, that needs an elimination process, right? It needs to have a good poop, right?

So you would actually use that mudra. Even though it's a mudra solely designed for, or solely affecting the physical body, it still is going to affect the others. So this is what makes it so profoundly delicious. And I know that you'll pick that up as you do them. Now, with the mudras, the contact of the hands is very important.

We're not doing a mudra like this. The hands don't know what that is. They're not really sure. It's very light. So with the mudras, it's very light.

It's a very soft feeling. Oftentimes I say, if you had a live butterfly wing in between your fingers, you could let the butterfly go and it wouldn't be damaged. That's how light you want to be with the hands. Finally, you can take these mudras in really anywhere, but your ability to be quiet, to use your mind's focus on what you're working with, and to be able to feel the breath really accelerate it. It amplifies, basically amplifies the medicine.

But that doesn't mean that you're not sitting in your car one day for five minutes doing a mudra, because it can help you no matter where you are. So that's also an important thing to remember. So enjoy this season. I think you're going to find it very beneficial. Many of these mudras are so simple you could even teach your children, and it's such an empowering thing for kids to give them a tool to use like this.

And I know that with a few of my students that are teaching their younger children, their children will fall asleep in their little hand mudras, which is really quite beautiful. So we'll see you on the other side. Peace out. Look at the mudra. Namaste.