Mala beads, from the sanskrit “mala” meaning garland, are string of beads that are traditionally used for prayer and meditative/mantric practices in and around the Indian subcontinent.
 
Anthropologically speaking beads have been used for many thousands of years in various parts of the world and mala beads are special in that they have primarily been used as a spiritual tool for specific types of mental and spiritual (mantric, meditative) exercises.
 
Aside from the practical meditative application of mala beads, malas are also often used as decoration (meditation shrines/altars) and worn as jewelry around the wrist and neck of yogis and yoga-lovers.
 
The practitioners of yoga oftentimes choose and keep their own mala beads depending on their own special relationship with them. It could be the effects of stones (healing, intention etc.), or simply the colours, energy and vibration they sense radiating from the beads.