An Indian Art

Next to acupuncture, acupressure is the best-known Chinese healing method in the Western countries. Instead of using needles, the meridians are stimulated with the fingers. In the following two illustrations you can see the corresponding points. The non expert can simply press them lightly with the thumb for several minutes to achieve a positive effect.

If you have high blood pressure, massage the middle finger from the root to the tip. To counteract low blood pressure, massage the middle finger from the tip to the root. Do the same with the index finger if you have diarrhea or constipation.

The classification of the chakras with the fingers is not the same in all schools of yoga. The most prevalent classification is shown on the hand illustrated here. But there are also yoga masters who classify the little finger with the root chakra, the ring finger with the sacral chakra, the middle finger with the solar plexus chakra, the index finger with the heart chakra, and the thumb with the throat chakra. It should be noted that only the five chakras found along the spinal column are assigned to the individual fingers.

A Little Yoga Exercise

While inhaling, hold your hands in front of your chest with fingers spread. Hold your breath and stretch out your arms horizontally at your side. Now exhale and vigorously make a fist with each hand.
Then breathe normally, open the fists, and lower your arms. Repeat three times.

This little exercise expands the bronchial tubes, opens the lungs, strengthens the heart, and refreshes the mind. Asthmatic patients often cough during this exercise because it loosens the mucus in the bronchial tubes, and heart patients feel an intensified awareness of the heart. Use Middendorf, a leading expert in the field of respiratory therapy, has proved that a direct relationship can be established between the individual fingers and the corresponding areas of the lungs. The index fingers and thumbs influence breathing in the upper area of the lungs, the middle finger in the middle area, and the little finger in the lower lung region. You can confirm this statement yourself by placing the tips of the ring finger and little finger on top of each other. Where do you feel the respiratory impulse in particular? Sometimes this test works the first time you try it otherwise, it usually works after the first few attempts. Furthermore, the ends of the nerve paths of the hands, as well as the feet, occupy a particularly large area in the brain. This area is much larger than that of the arms and legs. Cerebral activity is activated and trained by touching and feeling, especially with the fingertips. For example, finger games are employed to remedy children's learning difficulties. These games stimulate the corresponding connections in the brain and activate the brain waves. When mudras are practiced consciously, which means that we focus on our fingers and whatever they are resting on, they activate large areas of the brain.

Isn't it wonderful that a mudra can have so many positive effects? Not only can we use mudras to influence all of our body regions and functions, but every act of touching and every movement of the hands has its special effect. Doing handicrafts, playing an instrument, washing the hands, or massaging—all of these acts have long-lasting effects.

• Particularly when you wash your hands, you can squeeze them vigorously and massage them at the same time: Press the four fingers of one hand together with the other hand and turn the fingers you are holding to both sides. Then make fists, open the hands again, and spread the fingers. Or vigorously rub both palms together.
• Or cross your fingers with each other, turn the palms outward, and stretch your arms. This will refresh you, improve your breathing, and strengthen your heart
• If you sit at a desk for a longer period of time and your neck becomes tense or painful, use the thumb and index finger (with the thumb touching the inside of the hand) to grasp each one of the eight finger-webs at the root of the fingers. Massage the point beneath it and pull the web to the front at least 6 times. When you do this, be sure to be in an upright and relaxed posture.
• If you place the index finger, middle finger, and ring finger of one hand on the longitudinal grooves of the back of the other hand and gently massage back and forth, this will have a regulating effect on the blood pressure.
• A pleasant game to improve your mood, refresh you in a holistic way, and stimulate every bodily function is hand tapping (it is hard to stay serious when you do this, and children can't seem to get enough of it). Clap or tap your hands at least eight times in rhythm. At first, clap in the usual way. Then let the hands hang down and clap the backs of the hands together, then the backs of the fingers, the fingertips, the outer side of
  the hand, the inner side of the hand, the wrists, the knuckles, etc. The only limit is your imagination. Now you will notice that depending on what you are tapping or how you are clapping, a different tone is created. Use your hands to play your own drum concert. Drumming has been used since time immemorial to initiate healing processes. Today, people are using it for this same purpose again.

With a bit of imagination, you can put together your own program of hand exercises. You can't do anything wrong here if you carry out every movement slowly and consciously. The following illustrations will show you various traditions that work with hand energy. This isn't meant to confuse you, but to show you how tremendously diverse this system is. If you take an exact look at it, you will even come across logical inconsistencies. These occur because the individual
systems engage various levels, connected like threads that get lost in mysterious unfathomableness—and probably interconnect there.

Yoga Mudras and other Hand Therapies

We will never completely comprehend the magnificent correlations of our world. There is an order—on both a large and small scale—a reason for this universe of ours. Relationships and correspondences fill me with awe. For example, can you imagine what it means when scientists claim that the code of the entire body, including character traits, is inherent to the nucleus of each individual cell? Eastern sages and doctors say that the body, mind, and soul are inherent to every fingertip, every finger joint in each individual finger, and naturally also in the entire hand itself. So it is quite likely that we actually have great influence on every area of the body through the fingers and/or hands. The effect of mudras will be expressed on many different levels. The physical level is associated with material energy, but the many subtle levels are far from being completely researched. Each human being is an individual energy field or sphere. (To imagine this, think of various colored swaths of fog that mix together, permeate each other, yet still remain unified within their own color.) There are different opinions as to how many
levels of energy resonate within: some schools speak of five, others of seven, and others of twelve, but there are probably even more.

These energy fields are subject to various vibrations, some of which move more quickly than the others. The physical senses are oriented toward one very specific vibration, and this is why we can only perceive this vibration in particular. However, the ancient yogis could perceive other vibrations, such as those of the chakras (energy transformers) and the naadis, subtle streams of energy. (If you are not yet familiar with chakra theory, see Appendix D.) In Ayurveda, the healing art that originated in India, the fingers have long had the individual organs and elements associated with them. The Chinese researched the system of meridians, the subtle energy streams, creating various treatment approaches as a result. The Gypsies are said to have developed palmistry, and the hands and individual fingers are also associated with the planetary powers in astrology.

Let's look at the very concrete effect that the hands and fingers have on other areas of the body. There is a direct relationship between the hands and the neck since the nerve paths run through the vertebral foramina in the arms, hands, and fingers. The flexibility of the hands always effects the flexibility of the neck. Therefore, hand exercises relieve tensions in the neck. Moreover, spreading the ten fingers creates a reflex that causes the thoracic (chest) vertebrae to spread out. This increases the tidal volume of the lungs. The hands and/or fingers also have an additional direct relationship to the heart and lungs. With increasing age, many people can no longer properly stretch their fingers. This shows tension in the heart area, which often indicates the prelude to heart disease or a tendency toward osteoporosis. This slightly crooked hand position also impedes inhalation. The result is that the optimum amount of air is not drawn into the lungs, especially into the lung borders, which promotes contamination in those areas.