One of the most common questions I get asked is "what's a mala bead"? In the Buddhist tradition, mala beads are prayer beads used for meditation. Traditional malas have 108 strung beads. The number 108 is said to represent the number of days the Buddha sat under the Bodhi Tree before he became enlightened.
I haven't become enlightened since I have been beading (!), but it certainly is form of relaxation for me. As a college professor who teaches courses on Stress, I know how important it is for people to find something that helps them to reduce stress. Besides, Mala is my first name so "Mala Beads" was a perfect name for my business.
Photo taken by Lisa Brisson (Simsbury Life); Sept., 2008
About the Owner and Designer
- Mala L. Matacin, Ph.D.
- West Hartford, Connecticut, United States
- I am an Associate Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies at the University of Hartford. I also currently am the co-chair of the Department of Psychology. My Ph.D. is in Social Psychology from The University of Cincinnati and I did a post-doctoral fellowship in Behavioral and Preventive Medicine at Brown University School of Medicine (The Miriam Hospital). In 2008, I founded a campus organization called "Women for Change" whose mission is dedicated to issues of women's body image issues, sexuality, and feminism. Two of my courses related to these issues are: "Beauty, Body Image, and Feminism" and "Women, Weight, and Worry".