Palm Position in Meditation. Up, Down or Folded
Lets talk about your hands. Your hands are beautiful instruments of the body, connecting you to your arms, shoulders, chest, collar bone and the centre of your life force – The Heart. The palms are the inner surface of your hands. They allow you to do so much in your day. With our palms, we do and act in service. Through our hands we also receive. Along with mudras in meditation, hand position in mediation are used with intention– palms facing up, palms facing down or folded. As with all mudras, like sound, these hand gestures are expressive of ‘primal truths” and conducive to the direction of your meditation practice.
Take a moment to come to a seated position and discover this for yourself.
Next, place your hands on your lap or knee. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath and open your palms to face up. Notice how you feel? Notice the depth of your breath. After a few rounds of inhale and exhale, try this exercise with awareness in the same position now with your palms facing down. How does this feel different? What is your level of comfort, how do you show up in the world? Try this once more with your palms folded in a prayer position, placing your palms folded towards one another close to the heart. How is this new position different from the previous?
No matter what type of meditation you are practicing, your palms play a vital role in the practice.
In a guided yoga session, a teacher may invite you to place your hands on your thighs with palms facing upwards or place them on your knees with palms facing downwards. Have you ever been curious as to why this variation is practiced in yoga? Read on.
Palms Up Meditation
Most importantly, this gesture in meditation invites receiving. An opening gesture of the palms welcomes in the sphere of the meditator a new approach, new communication, or new insights. Sometimes what we receive comes to us in a sense like a “download” from our higher wisdom. Not only receiving, but this meditation also allows us to practice, in reciprocity, gratitude for what we receive.
Physically, the palms are connected to the intricate circuit from the dorsal to our arms, shoulders and then chest. As a result, with open palms on our laps or knees, the shoulders rotate outwards, and the collar bone is wider, creating more room for our heart and our lungs to expand. This simple gesture in our practice opens our chest and helps to support the lengthening of the inhale and exhale of the breath.
Palms Down Meditation
When palms are down in a practice of meditation, consequently, this position invites more connection to the ground. As a result, this gesture in meditation has a grounding quality. A more grounding meditation may be needed when a person needs to feel greater control in their day or feel more rooted. Often people may come to meditation feeling like they are pulled in different directions in life, or their mental state may be on the future or the past. A palm down meditation allows the meditation to be energetically moved to the here and now. Through this connection, we go deeper inward and tap into our inner world.
This variation in your meditation can support you when you have a need to feel more present in the moment. Imagine your palms growing deep roots into the ground, holding you where you are. It is a powerful visualization.
As a result, physically the shoulders are rotating inward so there may be a slight slouch in the positioning, Be sure to adjust your shoulders downward energetically.
Palms Folded Meditation
dhyana mudra
The dhyana mudra is often referred to as the “Meditation Gesture”. It is performed with two hands, palms up, resting in the lap. The right hand is on top of the eft. Both thumbs are slightly touching. This hand position acts to create balance, as it holds both sides of energy in your body in a continuous loop. It is a neutral approach. In this gesture, you are likely to feel more balance and a sense of being held, as the energy flows through your body from one palms and meets in the other. This is an ideal starting point for a meditation practice, as you begin to explore the energetic movement in the body during meditation.
Which Palms Position is Best for Meditation?
While taking suggestions and guidance from this article may be useful, the real teacher is You!
Above all, in order to find the answer to this question for yourself you will need to try various positions of your palms in meditation practice.
Ultimately, your learning is experiential. You will find the answer to this question with practice. You can vary this as your needs change with each new time that you practice meditation.
Here are some guiding questions for your journey of exploring your palms in meditation:
- What is your level of physical comfort in any of these palm positions?
- In each position, observe the energy in your hands? Does it feel looped, open or closed?
- Where is the direction of the energy- the outer or inner world?
- Which palm position helps you feel more grounded, calm, balanced, open, supported or grateful?
- How do each of the palm gestures affect you at the end of the meditation? Did you achieve your desired result or was the experience surprising and different?
Meditation is your adventure, you are the pilot, the journey inward is in the palm of your hand.
Are you looking to learn more about starting a meditation practice? Learn about posture, attire, positions, eyes and sound to support your practice. We invite you to read DoCalm’s Article How to Begin a Meditation Practice.
