What if I told you that you could ground and calm your energy, balance your hormones, release stress, reduce anxiety and mitigate symptoms of depression by pressing your index and thumb finger pads together?
With Gyan mudra you can establish roots that will help you to rise!
Gyan mudra, perhaps one of the most iconic mudras in terms of recognition, is deeply powerful and has the potential to transform your physical, emotional and spiritual energy.
Mudras are specific hand positions designed to bring about a particular physical or energetic result. Mudras are often practiced in conjunction with meditation and or yoga, but they can be a practice in and of themselves as well.
Gyan mudra or “wisdom mudra” as it is also called can be practiced by bringing the thumb and index finger to touch creating a circular shape between the two fingers. The touch should be firm enough to feel the fusion of the thumb and index fingers but not so hard that it’s distracting. Extend your middle through pinky fingers and then lengthen your arms, rotating your palms to the sky, settling your knuckles on your knees. Lengthen your spine, anchor your sits bones and invite your muscles to relax.
You can take deep yogic breaths here while practicing Gyan mudra, drawing your internal gaze to the space between your eyebrows (your third eye center), or you can gaze down toward the tip of your nose. Allow your breaths to expand, your muscles to soften and surrender to the present moment.
Gyan mudra, as an independent practice should be held for at least seven minutes. Once you’ve found comfort with a seven minute hold, then you may want to increase that to eleven minutes, twenty-one minutes, thirty-three minutes and up to the recommended 45 minutes.
Gyan mudra works with the root chakra to ground the practitioner so that they are able to draw that energy from the root to the crown chakra in order to open up to and connect with their higher selves- hence the nickname “wisdom mudra.”
“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien