Chakras and The Magic of Mudras

#goodMorningSunshine ?
#morningsAreBeautiful ?
#rituals of #theBeautifulJourney

This week I’ve continued the exploration of chakras and mudras. The introduction to mudras was by Sianna Sherman and the exploration of chakras was by Sandra Anderson.

The notes below are a mix of information from the courses and my own reading on the subjects. It is really a mix of various sources and perspectives and at the moment I am not an expert on this. I’ve put some images together and used the chakra colors as a way to link everything together. I am also repeating some of the information from The 7 Chakras article, so it settles into memory.

Mudra (seal, mark, gesture)

I love mudras! There is something about them that makes me think of dancing, of art, of a certain kind of magic flow and a corresponding feeling follows. There was talk about tiger paws and chasing dragons and wonderful hand gestures.

I was also introduced to the five elements and their distribution in the hand and their meaning.

This reminded me of a technique of massaging a particular finger when experiencing a particular emotion, yet this is not a yogic practice.

The 3 Doshas were also mentioned in passing, with their predominant element and mudra:

• Vata – Air – Mobility – index and middle fingers
  • Prana mudra (Life force)
• Pita – Fire – Digestion – thumb
  • Agni mudra
• Kapha – Earth – Support, Structure – little and ring fingers
  • Prithvi and Varuna mudras

Another 13 mudras were presented and their meaning explored.

Chakras

This course was a nice theory + practice course. It talked through the meaning of the chakras, their connection with various aspects of our body and its functioning, followed by a yoga flow.

It was interesting for me to hear how the imbalance of the chakras manifests in life and the importance of a balanced yoga practice. Too much opening in a chakra can be detrimental, as well as being blocked can be too.

For example:

… Svadihishthana – Sacral chakra

• Blocked – out of touch with our desires, inability to experience pleasure
• Too open – no will, overindulgence, addictions, attachments
• Balanced – desire for pleasure in a way that helps us grow

… Anahata – Hearth chakra

• Blocked – feeling rejected, unable to make connections that are meaningful, narcissism, critical, intolerant, lacking empathy, jealous, clingy

It was nice the two courses I followed this week complemented each other. In this one, the use of mudras was brought up as well. 

For example:

… Anahata – Heart chakra balancing

• Anjali mudra
• using the arms and hands to create a sense of connection
• … this also made me think of Padma mudra (from the Mudras course), which I instantly loved. When I’ve put my hands in Padma mudra and looked at them I felt like that is one of the most beautiful things I have seen. 

Some say that Padma mudra is a mudra to honor your inner beauty and light. 

This course has brought together many practices to consider in the exploration of chakras. For example, to restate and summarize with the new:

• mudras 
• chanting
• pranayama (breathing)
• meditation
• yoga practice
• cleansing techniques

I’ll stop here on these courses.

I must say that since I started this yoga and fitness journey, I feel so much better overall. 
I feel so good, sometimes happy after a few minutes on the mat. Sometimes it is exciting and hard, a challenge, even better. 

Sometimes it is like my mind needs to catch on to the fact that I’m happy, that all is good. The body already knows it, it lives it. 

Is the body the gate to happiness? And the mind will just follow?

…

This has been week #13 of daily exercise started during lockdown.
#theBeautifulJourneyWithiuliana