Gunas, Gestures, Let's Geek Out

Most people try to “open the heart” by forcing vulnerability, stretching harder, or chasing the feeling of release. This practice does the opposite. Instead of stretching the chest, we shift the quality of energy running through it — using the classical framework of the three guṇas.

The guṇas are the three forces that shape every movement in your mind and body:

• Tamas — heaviness, stagnation, collapse

• Rajas — agitation, restlessness, reactivity

• Sattva — clarity, harmony, steady awareness

When your heart feels heavy, overactive, or numb, it’s not “your emotions.”It’s the ratio of guṇas in your system. Today’s meditation uses three mudras to work with these forces directly:

• lift tamas upward

• channel rajas cleanly

• amplify sattva into potent inner stillness

  
  

Let’s break this down so your practice has intelligence behind it.

What Are the Guṇas?

The guṇas come from Sāṃkhya philosophy and run through every classical yoga text.They describe the movement of consciousness itself:

Tamas

Heavy, downward, slow, dense. You feel it as depression, stagnation, shutdown, emotional weight, chest collapse, or breath that can’t rise. While we don't want it in excess, we do want an anchored foundation. In moderation, it's useful, but in practice its to be cleared because it's easiest to excess.

Rajas

Fast, upward, scattered, stimulated. You feel it as overthinking, agitation, adrenaline, restlessness, looping thoughts, or breath that feels sharp or jumpy. Another not desired in excess, we do want passion to move us in order to stay grounded to our body, life and greater sense of reality.

Sattva

Clear, light, balanced, steady. You feel it as neutrality, clarity, quiet strength, emotional intelligence, and deep presence. This must be built and maintained as it does not happen on its own. While we may be born with a level of neutrality, life amidst the world will put weight on it, so this is the quality we always rise to.

You don’t “fix” guṇas.You redirect them. Today’s mudras do exactly that.

The Three Guṇa Mudras

1. Brahma Mudra (Tamas → Lift It Upward)

Why Tamas Needs Lifting

When the heart feels heavy, the issue isn’t emotion — it’s stagnation. Tamas collapses the ribs, drops the sternum, and traps breath low in the belly. You don’t open the heart by stretching it. You open it by moving the weight upward.

How to Form It

• Soft fists

• Knuckles touch at the center of the chest

• Thumbs rest lightly

• Elbows wide

What It Does

• Lifts dullness and emotional weight

• Reintroduces upward movement through the spine

• Brings breath back into the chest

• Stabilizes without collapsing

2. Shankar Mudra (Rajas → Channel It, Don’t Fight It)

Why Rajas Needs Direction

Rajas isn’t “bad energy.”It’s energy without a channel — scattered, erratic, explosive.

Trying to calm rajas down makes it worse.You organize it instead.

How to Form It

• Wrap the left hand around the right thumb

• Gather the right fingers together like a single column

• Hold at heart height

What It Does

• Organizes racing thoughts

• Reduces emotional reactivity

• Directs upward energy into a single coherent line

• Creates mental steadiness without dulling alertness

3. Yoni Mudra (Sattva → Potent Stillness)

Why Sattva Needs Strength

Sattva isn’t “peace.”It’s clear awareness — steady, bright, intelligent. Stillness isn’t useful if it collapses into tamas. You want stillness that feels alive.

How to Form It

• Index fingers extend and touch

• Thumbs extend and touch

• Other fingers interlace lightly

• Hands rest at the lower abdomen or heart

What It Does

• Creates stable, centered awareness

• Sharpens perception without tension

• Opens the heart space from the inside

• Helps you see through emotion rather than drown in it

How to Use the Practice

You don’t need a yoga mat.You don’t need silence.You don’t even need five minutes to do the whole sequence.

Use these mudras whenever:

• your chest feels heavy (Brahma)

• your mind is scattered (Shankar)

• you need clarity fast (Yoni)

• your breath feels dull, low, or tight

• you feel emotionally “off” without knowing why

These mudras shift your energy faster than stretching, journaling, or “talking it out.”

The hands change the breath.The breath changes the guṇas.The guṇas change the heart.

Practical Benefits for Daily Life

These mudras work especially well:

In the car

• Brahma Mudra (one-handed) to lift chest heaviness

• Yoni Mudra at red lights to regulate breath

Before conversations

• Shankar Mudra to stop emotional reactivity

• Yoni Mudra to stay clear and neutral

After emotional stress

• Brahma Mudra to pull yourself out of collapse

• Shankar Mudra to stabilize adrenaline

Before bed

• Yoni Mudra to settle into clean stillness

During work

• Shankar Mudra to channel energy instead of scattering

They’re short, effective, and immediately felt.

History of Guṇa Work in Yoga

The guṇas come from Sāṃkhya philosophy, which forms the foundation of classical yoga.Mudras appear throughout the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Gheranda Samhita, and various Tantric manuals as energetic seals— ways to redirect prana without force. Combining guṇa theory with mudras is traditional at its core, even if the structure of this meditation is contemporary. It gives you access to the subtle body without mystifying it.