Editor’s Advice: Lessons Learned at a Satya Jewelry Mala Workshop

By Tammy Mastroberte, Founder, Elevated Existence

NOTE: Listen to my recent radio interview on Conscious Inquiry with Alexis Brooks here!

PHOTO: (Left to Right) Satya Scainetti and Tammy Mastroberte

Sometimes the most amazing lessons can be found in a simple creative task. This happened to me recently while attending a Mala & Meditation Workshop for Healing given by Satya Scainetti, the founder of Satya Jewelry at Golden Bridge Yoga in New York, where all of the participants learned to create a mala by hand.

The workshop started with Satya explaining how she began her company after a dream one night. She completed 30 days of yoga teacher training, and had been given her spiritual name Satya, which meant “truth.” The dream showed her she needed to start making jewelry to reflect all truths, and donate money to help children around the world. She woke up, immediately called her best friend, and they started the company. Today it has more than 50 employees, and has donated millions of dollars through the Satya Foundation.

Leading the group through an intention-setting meditation, Satya explained how each gemstone represents a different energy and healing quality, and we could choose the one we wanted to work with that day. I chose Angelite because I’ve always loved the stone. It facilitates contact with one’s angels and guides, as well as the higher self. It also works with the throat, third eye and crown chakras.

With Kundalini yoga music in the background, we all listened to instructions from Satya on how to create the knots between each bead – making sure they sit right on top of the bead so there is no movement. She also explained how creating a mala can reflect life experiences – it can be challenging and frustrating, and sometimes you get a knot (or hit a bump in the road) that needs to be worked out, smoothed over and redone. But if done with calmness, mindfulness and focus, the task is much easier.

I’ll admit, I was a bit worried I would never get the hang of it, and still be there hours after the workshop trying to finish the necklace! But once we all started, the process just seemed to flow. We chatted with one another at my table as we weaved our necklaces together, and the four-hour workshop flew by. Before I knew it, I had a completed Angelite mala infused with my intentions, and I felt a huge sense of accomplishment.

The experience was challenging, but relaxing at the same time, and it brings you into the present moment because you are concentrating only on each knot and each bead. If we could approach every day life this way – in the present moment, calmly removing the knots we encounter and starting again – the results would be amazing. And my Angelite mala necklace is proof!