Every time you’ve brought your hands together in prayer at the beginning, middle, or end of class, you’ve taken a mudra. If you’ve rested your hands on your knees during your meditation, you’ve taken a mudra. If you’ve so much as given the Peace Fingers to anyone in your daily life, you’ve taken a mudra. There’s even a Gesture of Middle Finger mudra, should it ever apply.

While yoga is often associated with movement, mudras remind us that sometimes the smallest gestures carry the greatest intention.

When people begin practicing yoga, many focus on Asana, or poses, and the physical aspects of the practice. However, they may find that their practices feel stale and disconnected at some point. They adhere to every cue, find picture-perfect posture in every pose, and come to their mat, at least in some sense, every day. But something still feels missing. And sometimes, that’s a different relationship with themselves.

Enter the Niyamas, the second branch of Patanjali’s Eight Limbs of Yoga.

Most people discover yoga through movement. That's why many people are surprised to learn that, according to the traditional Eight Limbs of Yoga, the physical practice isn't where yoga actually begins. Before yoga asks us to move our bodies, it asks us to consider how we move through the world.

Those first teachings are known as the Yamas.