Yoga to heal through the hands

The hands are a sign of identity of the human being. They constitute the part of the body, after the face, that we use the most in daily life.

From lifting the sheets to get out of bed, taking the morning shower, preparing breakfast, buttoning our shirts, tying our shoelaces, to opening the door -to name the moments after waking up-, everything needs hands.

Life shines through in the hands. Seen up close, they are a unique landscape with its mountains, its great central depression, its river valleys, furrowed with incidents and ornaments, or pure and fine lines like writing.

A look at the hands reveals us the furrows of daily chores. These traces can be read as a vital memory or of some more distant genetic heritage.

From healing to liberating the back, including relaxing breathing, the hands hold many secrets of good living.

If we understand them and feel with affection, we will understand our life through them and, in their humility, they will show us an unfolding world full of possibilities and promises.

The circuit of movement: from the pelvis to the tips of the fingers

Although we can apparently isolate the movement of a finger, this is rarely the case: any movement of the hand has its start away from it.

The origin of the information that allows movement is located in the brain. It is the result of the conjugation of an electromagnetic part of the body: the nervous system; and another mechanic: the muscles.

The order starts inside the spinal cord, goes through the neck and vertebraetravels down around and between the shoulder bones and muscles and down the arms and wrists to activate the hands.

Nerves control movement and carry sensory information back and forth to the brain. If the information that reaches the hand is blocked or unbalanced, there will be a blockage or imbalance in any of the paths it takes..

Musicians who, like guitarists, use their fingers with admirable dexterity, know that any movement, no matter how small, passes through the body’s center of gravity. The movement of the fingers physically passes through the pelvis.

The trapezius and dorsal muscles of the back are articulated to the arm, on the one hand, and to the lumbar and sacrum, on the other. If these are not positioned correctly, when working with the hands, pain in the lower back appears in the long run.

To overcome unfavorable positions for the bodyit is best to practice any of the therapeutic gymnastic methods: Feldenkrais, Alexander, Eutonía, cos-art or Pilar Domínguez, among others. Or take a dance class releasewhich allows good coordination without effort, tones the muscles and is also fun, a very important factor after a tiring day at work.

If time is short and we don’t have a nearby school to learn from, we can walk to work and release arms and hands to the rhythm of the feet, pelvis and back. This way of walking, if we synchronize the whole body well, clears the back and frees it.

Release the back through the hands

When we try to grab an object with our hands or perform an action with them, we must relax our shoulders. The contracted shoulder does not free the hand, it constricts the cervicals and the upper posterior space of the lung, modifying the breathing, which, together with the tension that is accumulating, produces pain in the neck or upper part of the back.

A good example of this is the I work on the computer: If what we see on the screen requires a lot of attention and makes us tense, we will type too hard or grip the mouse with more power than we should, which it can cause tendinitis in the forearm and transfer tension to the cervical area. With which we obstruct communication and reduce the ability to work.

By training the fingers and the hand, we open the relationship of the body with the mind, of the upper extremities with their corresponding parts in the brain, and we learn to unblock their ducts.

Any action you need hand in handand they are the majority, if it is free of tensions, activates neurotransmitters producing a mental awakening.

Training the hands is training the brain, providing it with information about our body and about what is related to it: the Universe.

Re-do artisan work such as knitting, crocheting, sewing, gardening or potting on the balcony, cooking, clay modeling or painting They are ideal exercises to recover courage and closeness to the body through the hands and free ourselves from the continuous pressure that is carried out on the mind.

How can you relax the tension in your hands?

To walk do not clench your hands into a fist: fingers should swing free with your arm. If you have to carry weight, distribute it between both hands. Do not hold handles with the last phalanges of your index and little fingers: gather all the fingers around the handle and close them with the thumb. This will make it easier to grip. and you will involve the whole arm in the transport and not just one part.If you walk with an object dangling from your hand, slightly bend the elbow joint and free the wrist so that the whole arm and back participate in the path.If it’s cold, wear gloves: you will not need to shrink or put your hands in your pockets, you will protect your back, you will breathe better, you will facilitate blood circulation and you will feel less cold.

Train the brain through the hands

If we offer the baby a finger, he wraps his tiny hand around it and we feel its unusual strength. Investigate the world through the strength of the hand.

He doesn’t know the skill yet, but he does experiences that an object is apprehensible and from there begins to recognize its heat, the texture, if it is smooth or rough; later he will experience if he has weight or not; whether it is tied to the ground like a tree, has autonomous movement like a cat, or is inert like a piece of furniture.

Both in the baby and in the watchmaker, who with a magnifying glass manipulates the small pieces to form the wonderful clock, Communication between the brain and the rest of the body runs more easily and efficiently in the hands. The reason is that they have trained her more.

A simple exercise to open spaces in the brain through the hands consists of interlock your fingers without thinking. If we do it a couple of times we will see that the thumb that remains in front of us always belongs to the same hand.

Let’s try intertwine them by changing the order: If the right thumb is the one that always remained in front of the body, now we intercross them so that it is the left one. After this trend change, we can leave more and more fingers uncrossed, starting with the little fingers.

Retrain laterality

There is no hand suitable for all abilities, nor another clumsy by the monotonous practice of vulgar jobs. None is better than another.

The left hand, even though it designates the sinister side and thus remains marked as inferior, is capable of training itself to perform the duties of the right. He submits to it in order to make general dexterity possible, he possesses its same aptitudes but renounces them for the benefit of the whole body.

The hands do not constitute a pair of passively identical twin sisters, nor are they distinguished by being one better than the other, like two girls with unequal gifts.

The right without the left would be an orphan. Because on the violin it is the left hand that plays the notes by directly attacking the strings, while the right hand, through the bow, only propagates the melody.

Learn simple everyday movementssuch as brushing our teeth, opening a door, or eating soup with our left hand reconciles us with the hand that we use less and returns its value. Take the time to teach him, no one learns the first day.

Reflex therapies: breathing and energy

In addition to skill, hands have qualities that go beyond the sensesfully enter the energy field, without diminishing their practical value.

The Chinese, in ancient times, energized the body through the hand massage that was performed with two round nuts the size of a file. Both are placed in the palm of the same hand and they move in circles, one around the other, through the circular movement of the fingers. Both clockwise and counterclockwise. were the forerunners of Chinese metal balls that we know

Reflexology, acupressure, the game of Chinese balls, reiki or mudras are techniques that influence the human being from the strength and energy of the hands. They are used as therapies to heal him, prevent diseases and bring him closer to his spirituality.

llse Middendorf, creator of respiratory therapy, says: “Hands reflect our state of mind, we stretch them when breathing in and relax them when breathing out. Through them we can direct the force of breathing towards ourselves or towards others. They are extraordinarily expressive and can stimulate or relax at will”.

Middendorf discovered that:

Squeezing the tips of the thumb and index fingers of the right hand with the pads of the thumb and forefinger of the left, the breath is directed to the chest area.If we press the tips of the two media of each handone against the other, we will feel the breath in the area of ​​the trunk that goes from the waist to the sternum or from the center of the dorsals to the center of the lumbars.And if we press the tips of the ring and little fingers of each handone against the other, the breath will manifest itself in the abdominal and pelvic area, which favors the deep relaxation.

A hand-focused yoga session: 12 mudras

These practices do not significantly differ from those proposed by the mudras: body gestures that allow energy to be channeled throughout the body and facilitate physical and emotional healing. Are used in yoga and in different types of Buddhist meditation.

To exercise them, great skill is not necessary, but practice. Due to its different quality, it is recommended practice them once a day between 3 and 45 minutes.

They are practiced kneeling on the ground, or sitting with legs comfortably crossed.

Gratitude. Bring your palms together gently in front of her chest without touching it. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Hold the gesture until you feel calm, peace and gratitude. She accompanies the gesture by visualizing a sacred place or sending light to a part of the body.Generosity. He loosely clenches his fists and places them in front of his chest. Exhale extending your arm as you raise your index finger and turn your head towards it. Bend your finger, draw your arm in, and return to the starting position, breathing in. Repeat to the other side. Perform the series about six times. This exercise encourages generosity and in yoga it is recommended in case of constipation.Sky and earth. Mara, the god of wishes, tried to convince the Buddha that he did not even have a right to the small piece of land on which he was sitting to meditate. Legend has it that Buddha touched the ground with his hand to affirm his commitment. In this pose, the wrists rest on the knees. His right hand points to the sky like an open flower; while…