Call upon joy, compassion and love this Valentines’ Day by adding the Lotus Mudra to your practice.

Mudra means ‘seal’, ‘mark’ or ‘gesture’ in Sanskrit. It is a symbolic or ritual gesture preformed with the hands and fingers.

These gestures are mostly used in meditation and pranayama practice because they are believed to affect the flow of prana in the body.

Different areas of the hands are connected with areas of the brain and body. When the hands are placed into mudra’s this creates stimuli in areas of the brain and guides energy flow in the body.

The Lotus Mudra is a hand gesture to open the heart centre or heart chakra. By activating the heart chakra the body is open to joy, compassion and love.

To create the Lotus Mudra bring your hands in front of your heart in the prayer position. Actively press all fingers together and then begin to separate them apart, making space between each set of fingers. Almost as if you’re creating a fan with your hands. Keep the pressure on your pinkie and thumbs, think about pressing the tips of them together, while you begin to separate the rest of your fingers and palms away from each other. Like a lotus flower opening its petals up to the sun. To create a little depth to your lotus flower you can try to make space in-between your palms. Think of a ball glove – that little space in the mitt that assists to catch the ball.

This mudra can be used during meditation as well as seated asanas such as padmasana, virasana, sukhasana and tadasana, or … whenever your heart desires!