Mudras

I love mudras. Forming my fingers into different mudras is like creating pictures. Forming a lotus in bloom makes me imagine the flower as well as notice the shape of the fingers forming it.  Or when I create flower bowls--pushpaputta--with my hands upturned at the heart center, I imagine welcoming someone with petals in my hands. Our fingers can represent the elements and bring them right into our very being. Water, fire, earth--they are all at our finger tips!
I am now entertaining myself by creating my own mudras. Crossing, binding, intertwining, locking and stretching my fingers into interesting shapes and ascribing meaning to each shape. Dancers do it all the time; not only do they use the set mudras, but they invent newer ones to fit stories in newer contexts.
So, if you are into the aesthetics of mudras, then you will have fun practicing traditional mudras used in yoga and in classical dance as well as creating your own.