One winding autumn drive through Oak Creek Canyon in Northern Arizona brought me to a place that I've been coming back to every year since. I return to a cove with such spectacular reflections that you actually get lost in what's real and what's mirrored. It's the perfect place to reflect within, listen, and watch the patterns glitter in the speckled sun. My mirror pond. 

Mediation has long been practiced across the globe and regarded for its tremendous mental and health benefits. What scientists are discovering now, however, is that meditating in the "here and now" has lasting impact on your brain. Not only do people who meditate have lower blood pressure and longer attention spans, but those with just 8 weeks of practice showed measurable changes in gray-matter density in the brain regions linked to memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress as well as less age-related shrinkage.

Whether you're at home or outside in nature, take a moment each day to be still, be mindful, and reflect. Gather a wordless sense of yourself and the world you are surrounded with. It could change your life in ways you can only imagine.