Mudras for Modern Life: Boost your health, re-energize your life, enhance your yoga and deepen your meditation

by Swami Saradananda

Discover how to integrate more than 60 mudras into your daily life for increased vitality and inner peace Mudras are an ancient and often overlooked Eastern practice that involves making established hand gestures which direct subtle energy to boost health and wellbeing. This definitive, fully illustrated guide to the art of mudras provides a highly practical and inspirational overview of how to use these subtle and beautiful gestures to revitalize every aspect of your life, not just in your yoga or meditation practice. The introduction lays the foundation for mudra practice with chapters showing why and how to do the mudras themselves. Chapters are also dedicated to different parts of the hand and their corresponding elements, illustrating holistic benefits, like boosting inner strength, relieving stress, enhancing creativity, and increasing concentration. Each mudra entry includes an accompanying chant, meditation, pranayama, asana, or visualization. Mudras for Modern Life also provides a series of highly useful mudra routines for a range of both physical and emotional health issues from anxiety and chronic fatigue to arthritis and headaches.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Reference

161 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 19, 2015

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Swami Saradananda is an internationally –renowned yoga/meditation teacher and author.
She inspires people to want to practice and has a gift in explaining yoga philosophy in a way that is easy to understand.

I have two of her other books..."The Power of Breath", and "Chakra Meditation" ... (having done weekend meditation retreats - yoga retreats- and once a 10-day partial silent retreat which was called....
"Inner Peace in this Crazy Busy World". ....
But this new books: "Mudras For Modern Life"... I knew nothing about.
The only hand gesture that I was familiar with, that most of us are familiar with, is
*Namaste*, which translates as my essence meet your essence.
This book is all about Mudras: hand gestures to strengthen and purify in mind, body,
and psyche by ensuring the free flow of natural healing energy, or prana, around your body to bring about radiant health and inner peace.

The hand photos (gestures), middle finger to thumb.. or two fingers together like a closed
peace sign, or 'both' hands intertwined together with finger combinations, and dozens and
dozens more ...with clear instructions can be practice anywhere. You don't need to go to
a class to do these. The benefits are varied from boosting mental acuity and concentration,
ease symptoms of common ailments, overcome emotional difficulties from anger to grief,
purge negativity, develop regular meditation practice, and encourage inner peace and a
sense of oneness with the universe.

Anyone who is tried 'The Tapping Solution', or often called "EFT", for Emotional Freedom Therapy", .... it seems to me that this "HAND THERAPY" technique... (Mudras), could be a nice
fit together. Once again... A little mix of East and West.

So, I tried a few of these Mudras on my husband last night...( not sure that's the idea,
for me to do HIM),... but we were having fun trying to get his 'injured' fingers into the most
advance finger positions. I'm afraid his fingers failed. lol. Ok..
Well, many of my friends know, he is still waiting for his 2nd hand surgery ... and 'then' he might
be able to do the exercises. However... he could still get benefits now! ( as soon as he
stops laughing)...
but hey... "We were Laughing"... and that's gotta be healthy!!!

This book is LOVELY!!! I LIKE IT!!! SWAMI SARADANANDA is such a beautiful human
being... I don't think she would mind that Paul and I, ( married old farts for 36 years),
were acting like children last night with her book.

Its a gorgeous book....(colorful illustrations). A great gift to your yoga/meditation
friends...or look at other books by Swami. "The Power of Breath", is a great book for somebody just starting out with meditation.

Thank You to Watkins Publishing Co, Netgalley, and *Swami Sarandananda*... for this great gift!

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mudras for Modern Life is a beautiful and informative book on the use of mudras (hand gestures) for physical, mental and emotional benefits. The book starts by explaining very well how each finger relates to one of the major elements (fire, air, ether, earth & water), and to one of the chakras (energy power centers of the body) with the associated physical and emotional benefits.

It then goes into chapters of the mudras associated with each of the various elements. Each mudra is clearly explained with the author giving the name of the pose (hand gesture), a picture of the pose, and paragraphs on what it is for, how to practice the pose (detailed instructions on how to duplicate the pose), how it works, and suggested accompanying visualizations, meditations, chants, or personal experience notes.

The book closes with suggested mudra routines for various physical conditions/mental states. I found the index a very helpful reference tool as it pairs a large number of specific physical, mental & emotional issues with the mudra(s) most helpful for it.

This is a thoroughly impressive book on the topic because the author makes it so easy to understand and follow. It would suit beginners and advanced practitioners alike.

I was given an ARC of this book by NetGalley & Watkins Publishing in exchange for an honest opinion.

[Lili · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Netgalley for a review:

I picked this book to read from Netgalley for two reasons, first one, I have always found Mudras fascinating, the beautiful and symbolic hand movements that show up in Bollywood dance routines, yoga, Naruto...seriously, it gets around! I have wanted to learn more about them for a while. Secondly, this book and Mudras in general are fantastic for hand health. As someone who has arthritis and tendon problems in their hands and at times looses mobility, this was something I felt I needed to try out. I am a painter, gamer, writer, and origami artist...pretty much everything I do involves my hands, so I need to take care of them.

The book has wonderful art and color pictures, clear explanations of the practices, and it is colorful. I love that this book chooses bold colors. This is a style of yoga that I like, it is great for small practicing spaces, and it is lower impact than some schools of yoga.

I plan on buying this book when it comes out, and putting the techniques into practice. With any luck my hands will be very thankful!

[Janis Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would like to thank Watkins for providing me with and ARC of this book in exchange for an open and honest review.

An uplifting book. I’d never really heard of Mudras before, except for a few positions I was taught with basic yoga poses. But what has amazed me is how many Mudras poses I actually already use – by instinct – for the reasons shown in this book. As in calming, focussing my mind, etc.

I know some people will think I am into all sorts of weird and hippy fru fruisms, but Mudras is NOT one of them! There is far too much evidence out there showing these positions benefit people as they say they do. I tried some out in between reading and I was amazed at home something that seemed so simple could do such amazing things to how I felt.

To the technical side of things: the formatting of ‘Mudras for Modern Life’ is clear, precise and filled with many helpful images and corresponding text that uses simple – but not condescending – instructions to help you find the right pose to aide you. I loved the colourful pictures that broke the book into the different elements too.

The ‘Daily Routines of well-being’ and glossary at the end of the book were also exceedingly helpful and allow the reader to quickly refer to areas of importance to them without having to flip through the whole book.

Would I recommend this book to others? Yes I would, though I am afraid they would need to have an open mind and be ready to try something that isn’t “main stream”. Thankfully most people I know are lovely and open minded about such things and so would benefit from this book. I feel they may find doing the Mudras shown an easier option than full yoga poses, and still get the same sorts of benefits from them.

Would I buy this book for myself? I would. In fact, it will probably be on my Amazon wish list by the time you read this review. I found it an energising, stimulating and educational book. As said, I was amazed at exactly how many poses I already do instinctively to gain the benefits they give. I really clicked with ‘Mudras for Modern Life’ and love it a lot.

In summary: If you’re looking at more natural alternatives to help with stress, concentration, sleep and a myriad of other issues – this book is for you. Don’t ignore it because it’s not “main stream” as it is an ancient and proven remedy to many different problems. Try it, really open you mind and try it – you will thank me later. ;-)

[Judith A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

This book is one that you have to be in the right mind frame to read. I’ve had it for quite a while. I bought it 2021. I’ve scanned it various times and read small parts. I’ve looked up specific mudras and glanced at the suggested mudras for specific ailments on occasion, but that was it.

A few days ago, I decided to look at it again. For some reason, the book really resonated with me this time. I read the entire book for the first time. I tried doing the mudras. I highlighted explanations of what a lot of the mudras were supposed to do. I found myself thinking about mudras that might help me and my friends and family members. I even ordered the cards for easier reference.

The explanations of the purpose of the mudras and how to do them is excellent. I liked that she gave explanations of why each mudra worked. The photos were extremely helpful.

One of the things that bothered me the most was that the author calls herself Swami Saradananda. She is not a swami. She is definitely not Swami Saradananda. (Look him up. He’s easy to Google.)

Any attempts to find her on the internet were unsuccessful. I couldn’t even find her by trying “author who uses pseudonym ‘Swami Saradananda’”. Her resources at the end of the book are all outdated, so she can’t even be located by using the website she shows.

So, why would I think it important to be able to find her? Personally, I like to verify the authenticity of authors who claim to be experts. I like to verify their background. With yoga authors, I also like to be able to see if and where they are currently teaching. I can’t do that in this case.

I feel the book was helpful. I would recommend that anyone who does purchase it keeps it for awhile, even if you originally find yourself wondering why you bought it. However, don’t expect to be able to find the author to see if she has any classes and don’t expect to verify her background.

[Natasha 4E · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very happy to find this book. Most yoga books talk about mudra's only briefly, and I had wished to know more about them for some time. This book has lots of mudra's, neatly organised and with clear describtions on how and why to do them, and ideas on how to combine them with asana's, pranayama or meditation. The explanations on the energetic workings of mudra's were overall pretty clear, and pleasantly written. The only parts I had difficulty following were the parts referring to the Ayurveda, mostly because that does not interest me very much.

[Matthew Samuels · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely and practical guide to the mudras; hand poses and gestures that accomplish a variety of things. Broken down into the fire, air, earth, ether and mind mudras, the book gives a short introduction to each kind, before talking you through a variety of useful mudras for a wide range of applications, from stress relief to better digestion.

There are helpful pictures, and I love the gorgeous illustrations that accompany each section break. I’m looking forward to putting this into practice more.

[Nastya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book very useful both for my personal practice, and also for the classes I teach. Actually, I have a Kindle and printed copies of it.
Well organized, good photos, good print, clear instructions.
Pay attention to the restrictions, that some of mudras and/or practices have.

[Nguyen Nhung · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-organized book with helpful, clear instructions & pictures.

[Angela Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mudras for Modern Life by Swami Saradananda


This book was very easy to read and navigate through. The introduction was very clear and informative about energy flows (prana) and how to get your body ready for practicing yoga and the hand exercises. There were pictures for every position with a full explanation for how to position your hand and what each mudra is good for. The illustrations on the cover and first page of every chapter are beautiful and colorful. I like how the book encourages the reader to try the positions and is written for everyone even those who have never been to a yoga class.


I received a complimentary copy for my honest opinion.

[Tameeka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! Please create more books like this! Mudras for modern life has clear photos of the different hand gestures so you can see finger positioning. The illustrations are beautiful! I wanted to rip the pages out of the book and tape it to my wall. Each mudra has one page dedicated to why we practice this mudra, how to practice, how it works for us, and visualizations. We're also taught how to use certain mudras in a yoga pose. A wonderful reference for the yoga teacher or passionate yogi.

[SALLY WHITE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Goodreads for sending me this book. The book describes subtle hand gestures to boost health and wellbeing. The instructions are easy to follow and easy to do. No difficult yoga positions so anyone can try mudras. The background information is also very interesting.

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stuff in here. Finally, a readable mudra book with great pictures, great info, a must for my teaching and practice.