Mudras for Modern Life
Boost Your Health, Enhance Your Yoga and Deepen Your Meditation
Wholesome, healthy hand and finger gestures are made easy to do anytime, anywhere.
In Mudras for Modern Life, Swami Saradananda provides detailed but easy-to-follow instructions on how to incorporate mudras—hand and finger gestures—into meditative practices.
Based on Eastern practices, the hand movements are designed to be cleansing. Categorized by the Ayurveda energy types, or doshas—vata (air), pitta (fire), kapha (earth)—the gestures range from very simple (an open palm, a closed fist) to more intricate, intertwined movements. All gestures are easy to learn and practice. In a reader-friendly format, step-by-step color photos illustrate the gestures and are accompanied by clear written instructions. Several charts summarize details.
The ease of the exercises and the clear instructions are motivating; even beginners will find the techniques accessible. For those who are already familiar with Eastern meditative techniques, this book offers additional, and possibly lesser-known, techniques that can be incorporated into other practices. Substantial background descriptions about why the gestures are effective are educational.
Thorough explanations describe how the poses or gestures are designed to help or heal: they can increase the ability to absorb minerals such as calcium, others can help overcome writer’s block, some enhance cognitive abilities. Swami Saradananda encourages using the mudras collectively, as part of a plan for overall wellness.
Helpful warnings include recommendations that some gestures not be used by women who are pregnant or by people who have high blood pressure. Several options and variations are suggested. Modifications can be made for the more or less experienced, such as using one hand or two; the gestures can also be practiced sitting down, lying down, or in a meditative pose. As a result, practicing the mudras requires very little time commitment. They can also be easily incorporated into daily life and adapted to any lifestyle.
The guide makes the gestures easy to learn, and easy to do—anytime, anywhere.
Reviewed by
Maria Siano
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
