To calm and control the mind, we learn that meditation and the practice of positive thinking are highly effective tools to stop the 'monkey mind’ – or the ‘mind chatter'. Developing a steady meditation practice for a short time every day will change your life. Taking charge of a runaway negative mind by replacing negative thoughts with positive ones is a way to retrain the mind to serve us in healthy ways. Without this control, the mind tends to control us, causing anger, fear-based behaviors, depression, anxiety and illness.

The practice of meditation is an organic, holistic, immune system "booster" that provides us with natural ways to reduce the effects of not only physical, but also mental, emotional, and spiritual pollution. Meditation helps us realize that not only the physical toxins that we encounter day to day in our environment affect us, but also by the pollutants to our mind, our spirit, our energy and our divine nature. There are countless studies that show that both yoga and meditation improve immune function in all layers of our being, and it is actually working to benefit us from the genetic level all the way through the spiritual level.

Meditation aids in mental focus, helping to purify the body, mind and spirit. It moves us towards enlightenment and encourages more mindful and healthy behaviors to aid us to a path of wholeness. With a steady and regular meditation practice, we have a much greater sense of inner awareness which enables us to detect sooner when something is not right. By being more in touch with ourselves we're able to administer self care more quickly and efficiently by adjusting our asana or breathing practice to a more gentler one, spending more time in meditation, eating more mindfully, and resting when necessary.

 It is so important to understand how you can redirect your thoughts intentionally, in order to heal yourself and keep yourself balanced and healthy. Whenever you feel like you're coming down with a cold or flu, if you're dealing with a diagnosed illness, or you feel that something is wrong and you don't know what it is- go within, listen, and use your meditation practice to let help you let go of fear and surround yourself with healing light. Only you can heal yourself, and meditation is an effective tool to take back control of your health and well-being!