HAND MOVEMENT

The movements of our hands affects our very being – how we view the world, our work, friends and acquaintances. Even our religious manifestations show in hand movements. Raised hands, with palms showing outward, indicate salutation, worship or surrender. Civilizations that turned to the heavens for their gods turned their palm upward in supplication. Civilizations that worshipped earth gods represented in trees, stones, water and growth turned palms downward in worship.

Hand movement is a language of its own and one to which we generally pay little attention.

But therapists pay attention to the hands. A marriage and family counselor once told me that people who place their hands between their crossed knees have problems with their sexuality.

During a seminar on “ The Healing Power of Laughter and Play”, which I covered for a newspaper. I learned how body movements, including the hands, affect our moods. Matt Weinstein, health professional and president of Play fair Inc., demonstrated through audience participation how the body can beat odds with the brain when it says it’s depression time.

If you jerk your arms upward and clap your hands while

shouting enthusiastically, “I’m depressed”, you’ll get the giggles and soon the depression will go away.I’ve used this exercise from time to time when I’ve been in the pits. It puts me back on track. At first it’s an effort to raise my drooping, lifeless hands upward, but by the second try, my entire mood has changed.

Some hand movements are not as obvious. But as you become acquainted with these gestures, you’ll automatically make mental notes of the people who use them.The first thing to notice is whether the hands are generally spread open or clenched. If the fingers tend to show spaces between them in a relaxed position, the person is open – minded. When clenched, narrow minded.

When the thumb is tucked into the fist, the person has a guilt complex or is trying to hide some event in their past.When the ring finger ( Apollo) and the little finger ( Mercury ) are bent downward toward the palm, it is a sign of someone who is afraid to speak out at the moment.