Your Heart's Mudra

Namaste welcome to your heart's mudra. So I want to teach you how to do the heart mudra. Apan Vayu mudra. I want to explain a little bit about it first though. So Apan means the downward energy and Vayu means the wind. This is the idea behind it is that we're bringing spiritual energy down into the heart. It's a really beautiful mudra. It assists your physical heart. It assists the mental heart dialogue, the emotional heart dialogue, even the energetic qualities of the Vayu's and the heart. It's one of my favorite mudras. I use it often. Now if you saw the what is a mudra, then you remember that the thumb is representation of the divine and the index finger is a representation of the soul of man or soul of woman. So in this particular mudra we're gonna take the individual soul. We're gonna lay it at the feet of the divine. So the index finger will come and just rest right into the thumb pad and the thumb is gonna cross over. It's like the blanket of the divine protecting you. The thumb then touches the middle finger and the ring finger and the index the sorry the pinky finger extends. It's very relaxed and the hands are very, there's a sweet quality to it. There's a feeling of receptivity in the hands. Remember no hardness. You don't jam the hands together. They're really put together very nicely. Now sometimes it's hard if your hands are really stiff, if you know A just kind of gotten into your hands or you have an injury you're working with. Sometimes you have to use the lap to sort of hold the mudra and while you're practicing this, you by all means do that if you need to. We're taking this mudra and I'll show you one more time how to go into it and then I'll tell you a little more about it. So open your hands. Index finger rolls in. Rest at the thumb pad. The thumb extends over touching the middle finger and the ring finger and then the pinky fingers extend. There is a hollow in the palm and that places it sort of the sacred space. You could imagine that you had a little robin's egg sitting in the hollow. So even that space feels like it's relaxing and dropping like a nest. So close your eyes for a moment. If you want to rest your hands on your lap feel free to do that and just let your mind examine the sensations of the hand. Sometimes the hands get cranky. Maybe you have something emotional going on with your heart right now or you're having a criticism or a mental dialogue that's hard on your heart or you're having some heart issues physically. These can all create a hardness in the hands when you go into this mudra and it's not to worry because what the mudra does is creates a suppleness in the hands. Guess what that does? It translates to the suppleness of the heart. So once again the mudras are medicine. They're medicine. They're amazing. Let the hands open. We're gonna move into a little flow sequence partly to teach you how to move in and out of the mudra on your own and you'll eventually learn how to move in and out without even looking at the mudra. And once that occurs you'll know the mudra and you can use it anytime you like. So go ahead and release the mudra and let's turn long ways on the mat. Sit on your feet. You won't need your blanket. You can place it off to the side. One more time we're just going to go into and out of the mudra. Index finger folds, thumb wraps, thumb touches the long finger, ring fingertips, little finger extends. Look at the hands. Every time you look at your hands you're getting that imprint of this mudra, of the heart mudra. Open the hands. Let's try it one more time. Index finger in, thumb lays over the protection of the divine, thumb, middle finger, ring finger touching, making a little peek and the pinky finger extending. Oh this should be interesting. Now take your arms up in mudra, reach through the side waist. Are you ready? Open the hands. Now fold the index finger. Fold the thumb in. Thumb, middle finger, ring finger touches, little finger extends. Hold the mudra. Bring it back down. Take a look at it. Did it work? Back up we go. Release the mudra. Index finger folds in, thumb lays over the index finger, thumb touches the middle finger, ring fingertips, little finger extends. Let's make our way all the way forward now. Hold the mudra. Release the mudra. Let's try it again. Now if you're starting to think you're getting confused you get to lift your head and peek at your hands right now because I am a nice teacher.

Okay so you can look at your hands if you need to or just look at the floor. Index finger in, wrap the thumb, thumb tip touches, the long finger and the ring finger and the little finger extends. Take a breath. If you're not sure lift your head. Is that happening? Okay. Now release the mudra. Place the hands on the floor and just bring yourself up to hands and knees and feel a nice long spine. You can bring the chest a little forward. Do a little lift of the head. Flatten the palms out. They've been doing a little bit of work yeah. Let's take the right leg forward. We're gonna stay on our back knee but bring the arms up and start to move into a heart-opening posture. Can you fold into up on Vayu mudra? This is like a amplifier to the divine saying I want divine energy to fill my heart. Straight through the crown chakra into the heart chakra. Float the hands down. You're going to release the mudra. Come back to hands and knees. Lift the head. Arc the back just a little bit. Opposite. Foot comes forward. Are you ready? If you're still feeling confused go ahead and let's go through the mudra one more time. Index finger in, thumb wraps over. Middle finger and ring finger touch. A little finger extends okay. If not bring the hands up. Both palms open and fold into the mudra. Reach the chest. Calling out for support. Filling the heart. Release the mudra. Back to child's pose. Take the mudra. Release the mudra. Take the mudra. Let's do that one more time. Release.

Hop on Vayu. Hold the mudra right into the child's pose. Release the hands and knees. Step the right leg forward. Appan Vayu. Heart mudra. Hands and knees. Opposite leg comes forward. Appan mudra. Hands and knees. Let's take a little stretch through the spine here. Nice inhalation. As you go into child's pose, Appan mudra. Hold the mudra. Sitting all the way back onto your feet. Allow the eyes to open. Allow the hands to open and come back to sitting on your blanket. So that's a nice one to practice. It's one that when it's really hitting the fan, this is a great mudra to come to. It's a neutral mudra so it's not heating or necessarily cooling. It's bringing you to a state of balance. Bringing all the edgy stuff down and bringing all the sticky stuff up right to the even playing field. So, Appan Vayu mudra. Use it like medicine. If you really are loving it and you're getting the idea of moving into asana with it, that's a great way to practice. You can also practice just sitting. Holding the mudra for up to 15 minutes a couple of times a day is great.

Remember that the hands may cramp a little bit. It's just the system working out the kinks. So you want to let go if it's cramping so much it's too uncomfortable, right? Also sometimes it will have an effect that maybe you'll break out into a sweat. Had that happen before. Sometimes my ears will ring when I'm working with a new mudra. So the body is working on so many levels. The energy body is working on so many levels. The bottom line is trust the mudra and then trust your body and listen to your body and be kind with the practice. Be kind with the practice. I'm gonna end with my favorite cultural mudra. Peace out babies. Namaste.