One of the simplest ways to begin to shift your energy towards greater vitality and health is to take advantage of the science of yoga mudras.

What are yoga mudras?

Simply put, yoga mudras are hand positions. Traditionally you hold your fingers and hands in specific positions to connect certain energy flows in your mind-body system.

I have put together a series of videos of 33 yoga mudras that you can learn for FREE at the following link.

How do you yoga mudras work?

Based on my 20 years of teaching and practicing yoga, here is my best explanation:

1. Yoga mudras alter the flow of energy through your acupuncture system. All your acupuncture meridians either begin or end in your hands or feet. When you change the position of your hands and fingers, you literally alter the prana in your body. You can think of this like rewiring the subtle currents.
2. Your thumbs activate your lung meridian.
3. Your pointer fingers activate your large intestine meridian.
4. Your middle fingers activate your circulation sex meridian.
5. Your ring fingers activate your triple warmer meridian.
6. Your little fingers activate both your heart and small intestine meridians.
7. In addition to activating the acupuncture meridians, mudras balance the five elements of fire, air, ether or space, earth and water in your body.
8. Your thumbs activate fire energy.
9. Your pointer fingers activate air.
10. Your middle fingers activate ether or space.
11. Your ring fingers activate earth energy.
12. Your little fingers activate water energy.
13. When you hold your palms up, you call in more prana from the universe.
14. When you turn your palms down, you allow yourself to focus on circulating your own prana.
15. Your energy body, called your pranamayakosha in yoga, literally controls your physical body. We’ve all had the experience of feeling so tired you can hardly move or having so much vitality you seem capable of exceeding your physical boundaries. Your pranamayakosha includes your acupuncture meridians, your chakras and your breath. If you have had the pleasure of practicing my Eight Minutes to Inner Peace breathing exercises, you will notice how your entire being can change dramatically just through the simple practice of directed breath work. As you change the configuration of your hands and fingers, you redirect the flow of energy through your pranamayakosha and thereby transform your entire mind-body experience.
16. Because illness occurs as a result of either over energy or under energy in the pranamayakosha as well as the organs in your body, yoga mudras can be powerful tools for healing. Use these simple, free, drug free natural healing methods when you want to bring your own prana into balance.
17. By bringing your acupuncture meridians and five elements into energetic alignment, you bring your entire mind-body system into balance, thereby energizing your entire being and blessing you with fabulous health. No matter how old or sick you are, you can open yourself to a higher level of prana and heal yourself naturally from the inside out.

Don’t believe me?

Try this simple experiment.

Take a few breaths. Notice the quality of your breath. Make note of your state of mind.

Now place your thumb and pointer finger together on each hand.

Breathe again.

What you’ll notice is that just by bringing your thumb and pointer finger together, your breath will drop from your upper chest down into your ribs and deepen.

Now bring your thumb together with your pointer finger as well as the middle finger of each hand.

Breathe again.

You’ll notice that just by holding this configuration your breath automatically drops deep into your belly and you feel even calmer.

If I am teaching a beginning student how to breathe more deeply, the first thing I will have them do is hold these simple mudras to make the process easier. Stress just begins to melt away.

Each of the videos of yoga mudras I have filmed for you aligns your energy for a different purpose.

In the photograph accompanying this article, I am holding Kapitthaka mudra, a hand position known to activate the feeling of happiness.

How long do you need to hold a mudra?

My expert answer is that it depends on the quality of your current energy. Are you exhausted and depleted? Do you feel anxious and rattled? You would need to hold the mudras long enough to feel the shift.

However, the instant you change the position of your fingers and hands, you begin to alter the flow of energy in your body.

I liken this to plugging the cord of an electrical lamp into a socket.

The longer you hold the mudra, the more your energy can flow in a specific direction.

I recommend holding each mudra while practicing breathing exercises or while sitting quietly in meditation. Make note of your state of mind before and afterwards.

However, as you learn the mudras, you can practice them even when you are not closing your eyes to meditate – you can practice anywhere anytime you need to call on your own inner strength.

I like the natural healing remedies of yoga mudras because often I am working with people who do not have the money for herbs, flower essences, supplements or outside practitioners.

If all you have is yourself, you can learn these simple tools and rest assured you are blessing yourself with powerful medicine.

What is healing?

Healing happens when we take advantage of natural healing remedies like yoga mudras that cost no money, can be performed anytime, anywhere by anybody and need no equipment.