Embodying the Blossoming Energy of Spring – Padma (Lotus) Mudra

Spring is finally here, not just on the calendar, but through a real seasonal change that we can steadily feel all around us. I know that aside from the arrival of more and more beautiful days, I really feel like spring has arrived when I can see the cherry blossom tree outside of our window in bloom. I have to say, I spend a fair amount of time fretting as to whether it started to bud and bloom too soon when we are occasionally reminded that we are only just past winter and may experience a cold day or two. I’m happy to report, our cherry blossom tree has persevered, and it reminds me that we are just as resilient. We too can successfully navigate the transition to spring and reemerge from winter’s slumber anew – allowing the seeds of our dreams that we nurtured during the winter to bloom. In the spirit of spring, this season of renewal and rebirth, I offer the following practice to help you harness the energies of this season. 

We use our hands for so many things in life – to nurture, receive, give, create . . . the list goes on and on. Our hands also help us express our inner thoughts outwardly, giving our words additional character, emphasis and verve. They are also, as Nubia Teixeira, author of Yoga and the Art of Mudras, states, “an extension of the heart center, [that] can carry the energies and prayers of our innermost sanctum outward and, in turn, bring into our hearts the energies and prayers that sustain us.”[1] The spring therefore seems like a perfect time to embody the energies and desires of the heart that we wish to blossom during this season and beyond through our hands.

Mudras can be translated as seals, hand gestures, locks, among other things.[2] They are powerful tools to help guide and stimulate the movement of prana in the subtle body and act as circuits to help us access and direct specific energies.[3] Padma (Lotus) Mudra is a perfect mudra to help bring somatic awareness to the energies we want to manifest this spring. With spring, there is renewal all around us. The trees and flowers that lay dormant and seemingly lifeless during winter, slowly reemerge with life, showing the resilience they had to make it through the dark winter. The lotus flower symbolizes this type of journey of growth and resilience. It emerges through the muddy and murky waters to bloom with beauty. Padma, or Lotus Mudra, invites us to connect with this same energy of renewal within ourselves.

Padma Mudra is created by bringing the palms together at the heart, touching the thumbs and little fingers while gently opening the center of the hands like the petals of a flower – or a lotus in full bloom. This mudra is associated with the heart chakra and qualities such as compassion, receptivity, and inner growth, qualities that are regenerative and that can further bloom within us as we meditate on the heart.

Consider practicing a meditation or visualization exercise using Padma Mudra this spring to access what wants to emerge in you and to bring forth the energies of renewal and regeneration into your subtle bodies, physical body, and life. As you hold Padma Mudra, you might imagine a lotus flower slowly unfolding in the center of your heart space. With each breath, visualize the petals opening—softly, naturally, and in their own time. Then notice what wants to emerge within you this season. What new energy is beginning to rise? What part of you is ready to bloom? Don’t rush the process. Have compassion with yourself and allow what wants to unfold to do so in its own time and let yourself be receptive to all the universe wants to give you, just as the lotus flower rises from the muddy waters to unapologetically receive the light.

[1] Teixeira, Nubia, Yoga and the Art of Mudras (Mandala Publishing: San Rafael, CA) at 10.

[2] See id. at 14.

[3] See id.; see also Arora, Indu, Mudra – The Sacred Secret (Yog Sadhna Inc., Minneapolis, MN (2015)) at 2.