Mudras And Finger Healing: The Magic In Your Hands

There are many ways to change your life for the better. Mudras and finger healing are certainly one of the best.

On my right shoulder blade I (Jim Arthur), have the Vitarka Mudra in tattoo form that I will carry with me for the rest of my days on this earth.  It was put there by a fine man, and a fine tattoo artist, Nate Siggard, who I am proud to call a friend.

The Vitarka Mudra has been a wonderful help to me in many situations, that’s why I had Nate make it a permanent part of my body.

Here’s an interesting article on mudras and finger healing by Erin Phillips, from Radish Magazine, as excerpted in Utne Magazine.

Mudras And Finger Healing

Our hands are miraculous in design and function, with a unique balance of strength and finesse, but they are more than tools. We recognize the power of a firm handshake to convey trust, the invitation of a soft touch on the shoulder to say “I understand and am here for you,” and the intimacy of walking hand in hand.

In yoga, hand positions called mudras are used to intensify the effect of body postures. Mudras are thought to invoke qualities such as patience or peacefulness. For example, Chin Mudra, bringing index finger to thumb, represents our longing to be one with our cosmic unconsciousness.

Gertrud Hirschi, in her book Mudras: Yoga in Your Hands, writes that “mudras engage certain areas of the brain and/or soul and exercise a corresponding influence on them.” Western medicine, too, reveals a connection between mind and hands. The human brain devotes a great deal of energy to the hands, which are filled with nerve endings originating in the motor and sensory cortex. As the central nervous system branches from the spinal cord to reach the extremities, it is understandable that hand postures may have healing effects all over the body.

East meets West in the mind-body connection represented by an open hand, either palm up (the mudra for giving and receiving) or palm down (the mudra for abiding and calm).

When the palms turn up, the shoulders rotate outward and the chest opens. The cervical spine, in response, raises upward and the eyes are directed forward. When upward palms are used in meditation, they position both the mind and the body in an open posture that enhances listening. Our bodies and our sensory organs are positioned to receive information from the outside world. It is little wonder that Eastern practices call this “the giving and receiving mudra.”

When the palms turn down, the shoulders rotate inward and the chest seems to collapse. The head slopes down and the eyes follow. For meditation, this closes out the world and the noise. It allows inward focus for a time of discernment. This is “the calm-abiding mudra,” believed to quiet the mind.

Get more finger healing meditation techniques with Dr. Kilstein's free email course. You will get a new and different healing mudra meditation every week.

Would you like to learn more about mudras and finger healing?

Dr. Kilstein has an entire FREE course on Finger Healing that delivers dozens of powerful mudras, and how to use them.  Click here for your free finger healing course.

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