Healing crystals are seemingly everywhere now. You are just as likely to come across them at your favorite coffee shop as you are at a furniture store or during your next trip to a salon – the soothing, energizing, and natural beauty of crystals has taken a special hold over us. However, if you are like many people who are new to the crystal game, you might be curious about how you can start using them as part of your daily wellness practice but are at a loss of where to start. We know because we’ve been in that place, too! Many years later, we couldn’t be more excited about adding these literal gems to our life and can’t wait to get you started on that journey, too.
In this article, we’ll tell you all you need to know about getting started with Healing Crystals, including background information about Healing Crystals, how to approach a spiritual wellness practice that uses them, and how to select and care for them.
A quick disclaimer: what we share here is based mostly on our personal experiences and the knowledge gained from our years of working and practicing with crystals. At Smudge, we hold strong to the notion that spiritual wellness is an intimately personal endeavor, one that works best when maintaining an open mind, flexibility, and a holistic approach that takes into account your overall life goals.
What are Healing Crystals?
The category that is loosely referred to as “healing crystals” generally refers to natural rocks that are associated throughout history and around the globe for their ability to generate specific energy frequencies and which many believe can aid in the healing or soothing of a variety of ailments, including health challenges, and which often serve as part for a spiritual wellness practice centered on mindfulness or intention.
What are the benefits of using Healing Crystals?
While there is no widely accepted scientific data to support healing crystals as a way to improve health outcomes of either the physical or mental variety, they are nonetheless a longstanding and growing part of a complimentary wellness practice that integrates rituals and guidance in addition or apart from traditional Western medicine. In other words, lots of people use crystals in their daily lives to feel more connected to themselves and the universe around them. We believe that crystals are an ideal counterpart to any effort to add more positive energy to your life while releasing the bad. We feel better having our crystals within close and easy reach and feel more balanced, centered, and focused when we are regularly using them.
Where are Healing Crystals found?
Healing crystals are natural resources found throughout the world, including North America. (While there are man-made gemstones and crystals, the types of crystals used in most spiritual wellness practices focus on those that grow organically and are found in nature.) The distribution of specific kinds of healing crystals vary by region and are most commonly sourced through mining. While many of the crystals used in spiritual wellness are sourced from countries outside the United States and North America, there are healing crystals sourced here as well and for the enterprising or curious collector, you can even participate in the process yourself.
How do I get started with Healing Crystals?
Crystals are best used as part of a larger intention-setting exercise and practice. We recommend sitting down to do a personal spiritual wellness assessment before deciding which crystals are right for you. Because crystals are at their heart about the energy they possess, we suggest framing your personal goals and vision around the specific kind of energies that you need more of in your life. One helpful way to approach this is by giving yourself five minutes to do a visualization exercise during which you imagine yourself at a future point in time: anywhere from one to ten years from now; the idea is to get yourself to picture in a detailed way the life you want to have (spoiler alert: you might surprise yourself to find out that a lot of what you want is already within your reach!). Once you visualize, write down the key elements that you remember: what were you doing? Did you have a different career? What people were you surrounded with? Where did you live? What activities did you engage in? How did you feel?
From there, you can think more concretely about the energy you need in your life to make that visualization a reality. For example, if you visualize yourself surrounded by a close-knit group of friends, you may want to add energy that cultivates communication or positivity. If you visualize yourself in an ambitious dream job, you may want to call on the energies of determination, strength, and perseverance. And if you visualize yourself with a romantic partner who is a true partner, perhaps you want to add to your powers of compassion, love, and passion.
Once you have your energetic shopping list, you are ready to start your collection!
Which healing crystals are the right ones for me?
The best way to determine which crystals are most well-suited for your own wellness practice is to do some homework. (We know, a bit of a bummer!) However, reading about different healing crystals is like engaging with a mystical mirror, providing you with key insights about yourself that can be thought-provoking and hugely informative.
While there are lots of resources available that provide background information on various healing crystals, we created a searchable Crystal Bio library, searchable by energy or specific crystal, that can serve as an easy and accessible starting point for you. One of the trickiest aspects of working with Healing Crystals is getting to know them, so we have found that using nicknames and giving them each a memorable personality helps keep them straight. We recommend using your energetic shopping list and using that to help guide your research, noting which stones align with what you need.
Also, don’t sell your intuition short! Some of our most profound crystal experiences have started not with researching, but with experiencing a specific stone – either by touching it in real life or by coming across a photo and feel called to it. On a personal note, my first interaction with Malachite felt transformational upon the first touch, but it was only afterward in reading about it that I realized its association with healing emotional trauma deeply resonated with me. Crystals are a beautiful, tactile experience, so be sure to tap into that while choosing which stones to add to your collection.
I have my Healing Crystals – now what?
The simplest way to use Healing Crystals is to surround yourself with them. Place them anywhere you interact regularly with the space around you. The theory behind placing them within and around you is that their unique energy will cleanse and infuse it with their power, so placing them near your bed, on your desk, even in your car provides an energetic boost as you move through your day. Here is a guide on some of our favorite places to put your Healing Crystals.
Another way to utilize Healing Crystals is to integrate them into a daily intention-setting ritual. We recommend starting your day thinking about and completing a simple mantra: “Today, I will lead with ______.” If you have, for example, filled in that blank with “self-compassion,” you can pick a Rose Quartz, a Healing Crystal associated with that energy, to engage in a mindful moment while you repeat this mantra aloud. Hold the crystal in your hands as you repeat this affirmation and if it’s travel-friendly, carry it with you during the day as a reminder of this purpose that you set. It may seem like a trivial exercise, but manifestation begins with these small steps. You dare to imagine what is possible, you articulate what you will do, and your action thereafter will shift to align so that little by little, you make a series of decisions that can lead to your mantra becoming your reality.
As you become more experienced with your Healing Crystals, you can start getting curious about the many rituals that exist to help take your spiritual wellness practice to the next level. In the Crystal section of The Dirt, you can find lots of guidance about rituals and ways to use Healing Crystals, including honing your intuition with a crystal pendulum, using them to amplify your relationships, or even adding them to your happy hour cocktail.
What Else Should I Know?
There is a lot of information and questions about caring for your collection of crystals, as well as techniques and guidelines for keeping them cleansed and charged. While there are a multitude of ways to cleanse your crystals, including using natural light, keep in mind that some crystals are water-soluble and shouldn’t be submerged for long periods. Here is a guide on using water with your Healing Crystals and keeping them safe. For charging your favorite crystals, an overnight bath under a full moon coupled with a meditation can’t be beat, although using sunlight or setting them on a Selenite Charging Plate are also excellent ways to keep their energy at their maximum capacity. In addition to these articles, here is a video on cleansing and charging your Healing Crystals.
As for mixing and matching Healing Crystals, we are firmly within the “more, the merrier” camp. While it is true that different crystals embody different energies, they are all working together to create a more positive ecosystem for your wellness. Feel free to use multiple crystals together (available in our mixes) or create your own crystal grid to purposefully galvanize the power of your collection (here is a grid designed for amplifying gratitude).
No matter what is drawing you to the wonderful world of Healing Crystals, whether it be a particular personal obstacle or a general desire to work on your overall wellness, we hope they trigger for you a journey of self-reflection and meaningful action. For more guidance, check out The Dirt for articles, videos, and more to keep your own spiritual wellness healing and thriving.
