Certified expert Nicole Mahabir teaches you the importance of meditation and finding balance.

CITY LIFE: How would you define your work?
NICOLE MAHABIR: My life’s work is about restoring health, longevity, inspiration and well-being to humanity. The fundamental view is to recognize that health encompasses not just the absence of disease, but the overall harmony and balance of the mind, body, emotions and senses. Restoring vitality and harmony to these four human aspects can create a more positive and harmonious experience of life. When our mind, body, emotions and senses are in balance, we feel a sense of inner peace and harmony. If we were all to feel this sense of balance and peace, our world would reflect that harmony
and peace.

CL: What is your No. 1 tip for wellness to start the year off right?
NM: Make time for yourself and spend quality time with yourself alone. We have lost the connection to ourselves and we seek that connection outside of us through various distractions. If you take time to reconnect to yourself, rediscover your personal values and your authenticity, you will experience a different feeling of fulfillment. There is nothing external from you that can create fulfillment for you. Happiness is fleeting, moods change and relationships change. Fulfillment and contentment come from within. Taking time to reconnect to yourself can create the connection that most of us are seeking.

CL: What advice can you give to someone who wants to make a change In his or her life?
NM: Change happens when we are emotionally and mentally prepared to commit to a new way of experiencing life. Whether it’s about health, love or career, to create lasting change you must be ready to commit to a new future and let go of the old patterns that no longer serve you. If you are sincerely ready to let go of the old you and order up the newer, better version of who you are, then you will need to be prepared to put your desire for change into a daily regimen of practice. Lasting change happens when our actions are able to realize and sustain the change that we want. Here are some steps that can help:

• Become clear about what you want
• Set the intention for change
• Make decisive action with certainty to make the change that you want with achievable steps toward your goal
• Commit to the change that you want to experience with tenacity and strength
• Focus your mind and align your emotional drive and steadfast determination with your goal
• Be consistent with your actions every day toward your goal
• When you feel like you cannot continue, re-evaluate and follow through

CL: Why is meditation important to you?
NM: The practice of meditation is about self-realization. It is about coming to understand who you are and the meaning of why you are here. Meditation cultivates deep love, gratitude and peace. It eradicates the illusion of fear and separateness. It dissolves the negative self-talk and pain that we bear and helps us to see reality as it is. This brings profound insight, clarity and wholeness to the total being of life. From this place we can create, inspire and live in total fulfillment and health.

“Meditation is our natural state, it is not something that we need to measure or achieve, it is innate within us”

CL: What meditation tip can you give to someone who is just starting out?
NM: Meditation is our natural state, it is not something that we need to measure or achieve, it is innate within us. When a baby is ready to crawl, or an infant is ready to walk, it happens naturally. In the same way, meditation occurs spontaneously when we create the right conditions for it to happen. Release your mind from trying to meditate. Sit with yourself and effortlessly breathe. When your mind wanders, simply witness it and bring your mind back to the breath. Remove the expectation of an outcome and it will happen naturally.

CL: Any meditation tips for someone who is experienced?
NM: Once we have experienced meditation, we remember the innate intelligence and wisdom of nature. We become our own guide, and the guidance for what is required comes from within. So, meditation is a practice of autonomy and freedom. It empowers the body to remember its innate ability to heal. Therefore, we generally do not require meditation guidance from another person once we remember our natural state of being.

CL: Do you have success stories? How do they make you feel?
NM: Living a life that is healthy and fulfilled brings great contentment. Success and challenge is simply part of our experience of life and it is important to remember that success and failure do not define the nature of our being. Our successes and our challenges are all part of the discovery of who we are, leading us toward deeper truths that are unveiled to us as we move throughout life. We are all human and my hope is that all sentient beings feel love, respect, health, peace and fulfillment. From a broad perspective, that is success.

Nicole Mahabir

Nicole Mahabir | Founding Director

Nicole Mahabir is the founding director of Jai Wellness, a platform for health education, mindful living and well-being. For the past 15 years, Nicole has led professional certified programs, teaching Nutrition, meditation, Ayurveda, yoga therapy and natural anti-aging beauty regimes.

www.jaiwellness.com