KS&L 328 The Power of a Handshake Part 1

Have you ever shaken someone’s hand and had an instant connection? Have you ever shaken a hot, sweaty, beefy hand and almost recoiled? Have you ever shaken someone’s hand who could barely grasp your hand, rather like shaking hands with spaghetti? Then there is the handshake where the person grasps about three fingers of your hand and gives it a bit of a squeeze? There is also the handshake where the grasp is so tremendous that you feel as if your hand is being crushed. Finally, there is the handshake where someone grasps your hand fully, but not in a crushing manner and you can feel the strength in the person, as they also look you squarely in the eye.

Think about the last statement: you can feel the strength in the person, as they look you squarely in the eye. This is the handshake that gets your most positive attention. You know it gets your attention, but why? Why is a handshake so powerful in all its iterations?

Perhaps a bit of history will help to understand how powerful and important this seemingly simple gesture is. Back in the mists of time, people understood that the body had power, especially the hands. The power of someone’s hand literally symbolized the power to hurt or to heal, to welcome or to repel. In esoteric circles, the energy centers of the body were always studied and that included the concept of chakras that exist throughout someone’s entire structure.

Chakra means wheel in Sanskrit and the body is covered with many of these, literal energy ‘wheels’. These chakras or energy wheels help to keep the body balanced and energy correctly flowing throughout all the electrical systems. The body electric is critical for life to function. The spark of life begins when the spark plug that is the heart, starts beating. There are other little sparks throughout the body in the chakra centers, in the feet, hands, and along the central trunk line of the body. We process energy through all of the chakras of the body and the meridian lines that connect them. Eventually these chakras and meridian lines are all connected to the ‘main line’ that is the spine or central nervous system. Literally, chakras go to the core of a person’s bioelectrical, emotional and spiritual body.

So, now that you understand, at a basic level, the importance and the function of a chakra, let us return to why a handshake is so important. The palm chakra is a place where energy emanates. People who do hands-on healing, are using the palm chakra to deliver energy to the affected area of a recipient’s body. When they are doing this, frequently, their hands become very hot because so much energy is being poured out through this chakra. When you shake someone’s hand, you are also unwittingly offering the other person a sample of your own energy. This is why you will have a ‘sense about the person you are shaking hands with’.

In ancient times, a handshake was a mystical act and certain aspects of a handshake are still practiced as mystical acts in many secret societies around the world. How you share your hand/palm chakra energy is considered very important. The energy you emanate when you shake someone’s hand tells a lot about you. For example, can you be trusted, are you ‘firm’ in the strength of your character, are you a weak person, are you likely to follow through on tasks, literally, are you what you appear to be?

Even a person who has practiced his or her handshakes ultimately cannot hide their true nature from a person who knows how to sense the other person and who is paying attention. In these times, not everyone is what they seem too be. Sometimes you need the clues, the silent cues that tell you whether you can trust this person or not.

Someone who will not offer you their hand in friendship, will not spend the extra ‘energy’ on a good handshake because they are too busy, distracted or don’t really care, may not be someone you want to do business with or give your business to. Baring a physical problem with someone’s hand, in normal day-to-day human interaction, a strong, balanced, powerful handshake is critical to establishing a climate of trust, respect and hope between two people. Consider that even a child can tell you how they feel about a person when an adult shakes their ‘little’ hand. Many savvy parents actually teach their teenagers how to offer a ‘good’ handshake.

In Part 2, what constitutes a good handshake!