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Prana mudra

Contents

What is Prana?

Prana refers to the vital life force or energy that gives life to all living beings. We receive this prana in our body mostly through the breath, food, and water. We can only live a few minutes without breathing, a few days without water, and a few weeks without eating.

While breath, food, and water are the absolute necessity for life but this Prana can also be extended by taking care of the body, exercising, breathing exercises, having a clean diet, meditating, etc.

What is Prana Vayu?

Vayu/ Vata is one of the Ayurvedic doshas which consists of the air and the space element. This vayu is divided into five types (pancha vayu), Prana vayu is one of the subdivisions, this vayu governs the functioning of the heart and the lungs. An imbalance of Prana vayu can create shallow breathing, inefficient breathing, blood pressure, and heart problems.

Prana vayu gets disrupted by anxiety, panic, fear, stress & tension, etc. Read more about PranaVayu.

What is Prana Mudra and how does it work?

Prana mudra is a hand gesture used to balance the Prana vayu.

Prana resides around the heart and the lungs area. By performing the prana mudra a sensation is created around the heart area. Focusing on this sensation can help you reach a meditative state. It can be used as a support for your heart chakra meditation.

The heart and the lungs area can hold a lot of emotions and negative energy which can weaken the Prana. All those anxiety, panic, and fearful moments tend to tighten the muscles around the heart and the lungs area making the breathing shallower and the heart rate faster. Repeatedly going into those states accumulates these negative energies around these areas.

One way to release these negative energies is to balance the prana with the help of Prana mudra.

How to do Prana mudra?

As mentioned in the article Hasta mudra, each of the five fingers represents one of the five elements. Prana mudra uses the thumb – representing the fire element; the little finger – is water and the ring finger- is earth.

  • To perform prana mudra
  • Choose a comfortable meditative pose to sit in.
  • Keeping your spine straight take a few aware breaths to come into the present moment.
  • Put your hands on the knee with the palm facing up; join the tips of the little finger and ring finger to the tip of the thumb; the other two fingers remain relaxed.
  • Observe the sensation which builds around the heart area ( heart chakra).
  • Try to keep your attention to this sensation (your attention might fly away with the thoughts but whenever you become aware try to bring your attention to this sensation)
  • Gradually try to go deeper into this sensation.
  • Do not control your breath, try to breathe in whatever ways your body wants to breathe naturally (sometimes there might be a pause in between breaths which is alright).
  • Practice this meditation for your desired time and then relax in savasana for about 5 to 10 minutes.

Supportive practices for the prana mudra.

A back bending and heart opening practice can help you to relax the muscles around the chest and the ribcage area. Performing the Prana Mudra meditation after this practice can help you to get deeper into the meditation.