First of all, I don’t believe there’s anything magical about mudras, so the title of this post is misleading. However, I learned a long time ago that my understanding of our experience of the spiritual world is limited. I try to remember that and stay open to new experiences. So, if at some point my sinuses magically clear when I hold my fingers a certain way when I have a cold, I won’t discount it.

Right now I think of mudras as an expansion of the familiar praying hands. I’m attracted to mudras because I like the idea of paying attention to my body’s posture when I meditate, and my mind is terrible about wondering or filling up with items from a never-ending to-do list. The position of my hands and fingers helps bring me back to my intention for meditating.

Unfortunately, I’m running into two issues with this renewed effort. One is working with a timer. I found a great app that mimics the sound a singing bell makes. A couple of times I’ve missed the sound even after the timer expired due to the settings on my phone. Either the bluetooth settings were sending the chime to a peripheral device, or I had the sound muted by mistake. These failures have conditioned me to peek at the timer’s countdown, pretty much negating its purpose. Other times I’ve had too many sound options turned on and notifications from other apps, texts, or calls interrupted my meditation.

Another distraction comes from my ignorance about mudras themselves. There have been mornings where I’ve spent as much time researching and reading about them in an effort to “find the right one” as I have spent actually meditating. When I finally settle in, the idea that I’ve wasted precious morning time and that I’ll probably be late for work creeps into my practice, making the discipline less than it could be.

The good news is I have noticed improvement from where I started. This tells me that what I’ve experienced so far is most likely all part of it. I will continue to make adjustments and stick with it.