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Step 1
Use the most common of all yoga hand gestures, gyana mudra, as a method of accepting or calling out for new teachings. Place the tips of your index finger and thumbs together, extending the other three finger straight out with your palms facing out away from you. Gyana is often used to begin yoga practice in standing meditation.
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Step 2
Transform gyana into its passive form to help center your awareness and knowledge, evoke calm and practice meditation. The hand position is exactly the same, however the palms face up instead of out. With this gesture, the top of the hands usually rest on the thighs or floor.
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Step 3
Find balance with the namaste prayer position, a mudra thought to balance the masculine and feminine energies in the body, to bring teachers of both the past and future to the yogi and to deepen meditation. Namaste is often used as a blessing as well, practiced before meals, before and after yoga practice, or during prayer. Simply turn your hands to facing with all fingertips touching and palms slightly cupped.
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Step 4
Dispel fear about new beginnings, calm the mind and find direction with the closed lotus or mukula madra. Sit in a cross-legged meditation posture and bend your elbows so that your forearms are parallel to your thighs with palms face up above your knees. Draw your fingertips together so that each finger is touching your thumb while pointing to the sky.
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Step 5
Practice one of the most versatile yoga hand gestures anytime in your daily life or yoga practice that you need to find peace of mind. Place your hands together in front of you, level with your heart while holding your elbows up and even with your hands. Place your thumbs together with fingers extended down and tough the tips of your middle fingers together. Curl the remaining three fingers into the palm, placing the second knuckles of your index fingers together.
