Mudra and Mantra Practice

Mudra and Mantra, a five-minute practice

 

On my way out the door, I dropped a deck of mudra cards in my tote bag. It was the first day back from Thanksgiving Break and I needed something novel to draw the students’ attention during my after-school yoga program. Children like routine, but they also enjoy small surprises here and there. I hadn’t practiced mudras with this group yet, so I thought it might be just the ticket. 

 

If you’re unfamiliar, Mudras are symbolic hand gestures used in yoga and meditation to direct energy, enhance focus, and promote physical and mental well-being. When combined with mantra, as I intended to do, they are a powerhouse force to be reckoned with. 

 

To keep things fair and help my students connect with their intuition, I shuffled the cards and asked the students to raise their ‘peace fingers’ in the air when they wanted me to stop. Once I saw all of the students’ two fingers raised, I’d stop my shuffling, and that would be our chosen mantra for our practice. 

 

As is wont to happen, the mudra that topped the stack was perfect for me, and I hope for the children as well. I’d been struggling with my morning meditation practice for months. My hour-long chanting around my mala was causing me more anxiety than not. The practice took me about an hour if I started as soon as I awoke. Any interruptions or delays would force me over the allotted time and make getting my child to school on time a race. Chanting the Gayatri Mantra, which was so comforting to me in the summer, just did not work in the fall. 

 

Ganesha Mudra

 

The mudra my students and I collectively chose was the Ganesha Mudra. Ganesha, commonly known as the remover of obstacles both within and without, was exactly who I needed. I felt blocked creatively, emotionally, and in all the other ways. It also seemed that there were so many roadblocks outside of myself and I couldn’t see past them. Remover of obstacles? Sign me up!

 

With some dexterity, the Ganesha Mudra is simple enough. As I instructed my students, palms must come together. Then, the fingers are crossed and folded over the back of the hands. The middle fingers are extended upward, and the pointer fingers then wrap around the outside of the middle fingers. Finally, the thumbs rest side by side touching the base of the middle fingers. 

 

I asked the children to rest their wrists on their belly buttons while relaxing their shoulders and elbows. Those who couldn’t contort their fingers in the prescribed way held their hands in prayer extended out from their abdomen. In yoga philosophy, the abdomen or solar chakra is the seat of a person’s power and will. If we think of the chakras in terms of divine rights, then the solar chakra is our ‘right to create in the world’. 

 

Mudra and Mantra

 

We paired the mudra with an affirmation, declaring five times, “It is safe for me to be creative. I am fully supported”. On the drive home, the Ganesha Mantra played in my mind instead, “Om Gam Ganapatayai Namah”. It was the first mantra I chanted for more than forty days. It was the mantra I credited with moving me from the black and white existence I inhabited ten years ago into the technicolor one where I now found myself. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, this was my “Over the Rainbow”. 

 

That night, while waiting outside my daughter’s ballet class, I jotted down what I believed would be a symbiotic morning practice. I’d set my Insight Timer for five minutes, hold the Ganesha Mudra before me, and sing the elephant god’s song. This would be my practice for forty days. In that time, I could discern whether it was a beneficial practice or not. 

 

Five Minute Meditation Practice

 

It’s only been two days, but I already feel its benefits. From a purely practical standpoint, cutting my practice down from an hour to five minutes removed a bulk of self-induced anxiety. Secondly, the familiarity of the words is like an old friend. With each syllable, I’m asking that my focus be singular like Ganesha’s one tusk. I’m praying that all that is within me and around me that doesn’t allow the divine’s light to be expressed through me be removed.

 

When the timer chimes, I end my practice with a final ‘Om”. Then I pray, being sure to express gratitude for all the prayers that have already been answered. I end my morning ritual by jotting down a few thoughts in my Hobonichi Journal. 

 

Just like the mudra and mantra themselves, the practice is free of anything superfluous. All the elements exist with a singular purpose. Therein lies their power. 

 

 

Like a good yogi scientist, try this mantra and mudra practice for forty days and keep notes. Then, come back here and tell me what you experienced.