Crystals: How to Use Crystals and Their Energy to Enhance Your Life (Hay House Basics) - Judy Hall 2015

’A remede against every earthly woe’
Crystal Foundations

Powerful, potent and therapeutic, crystals have many uses. They actively engage with us, adapting themselves and revealing new possibilities. At the most basic level, they interact with our energy field and the environment around us. They help us to manage our wellbeing and protect our space, encourage us to relax and de-stress, cut off energy vampires and block out EMFs that may deplete us. They provide healing for us, our environment and the planet. But they do so much more too — they guide us, expand our awareness and facilitate journeying through other dimensions.

There are many ways of accessing crystal energies and it is vital to find the one that works for you. Once you discover how your own energy functions, you can focus on the ways in which crystals can assist you and the world around you.

Your energy picture

Before we look at how crystals may help you personally, we need to establish a picture of how your energy functions. Consider the points below to ascertain whether you need assistance with energy management:

✵ On a scale of 1—10, how much energy do I have?

✵ Do I give away too much of my energy?

✵ Do I detach myself after seeing friends, colleagues or clients?

✵ Do I take on negative energy or emotions from people or places?

✵ Am I allowing another person to have undue influence over me?

✵ Do I forget to take enough time for myself?

If you give yourself below a 7 for question 1 and tick two or more other boxes, you need to consider personal energy protection and enhancement. To get a clearer picture, you may also like to ask yourself:

✵ Do particular places affect me?

✵ Do I get depleted when I travel on public transport?

✵ Do I always sit or sleep in the same place and feel tired?

If so, you are sensitive to environmental energies and need to protect your space. Chapters 13, 14 and 15 will help you.

What about your boundaries?

Some people have very clear boundaries. They know exactly where they end and someone else begins. They can say ’no’. They have created an interface with which to interact with other people. But there are people who don’t really know where they end and someone else begins, which creates problems. If you have loose boundaries and are unable to say ’no’ to people or resist their blandishments, you need crystal protection. Ask yourself:

✵ Am I able to say ’no’?

✵ Do I take on too much for others?

✵ Do people dump their troubles on me?

✵ Does my aura spread way out from my body? (See Chapter 9.)

If so, crystals help you create an interface with which to interact with the outside world. See Chapter 13.

De-stressing and disconnection

Other people’s demands and expectations can add to your stress levels. De-stressing means finding a calm place inside yourself from which to interact with others. It entails creating clear, appropriate boundaries. Disconnection ensures that your energy is used appropriately and is not squandered by someone other than yourself.

To discover if you need to de-stress and disconnect, consider whether the following statements apply to you:

✵ I feel tense and anxious and find it hard to relax.

✵ I suffer from disturbed sleep.

✵ My everyday life is highly pressured.

✵ My working environment is competitive and stressy.

✵ A great deal is expected of me.

✵ I face constant change and uncertainty.

✵ Other people come to me with their troubles.

✵ I feel exhausted and worn down in the presence of specific people.

✵ I feel responsible for others.

✵ I don’t live in the present moment as I worry constantly about the future.

More than three apply to you? Go to chapters 13, 14, 15 and 16 to disconnect and de-stress.

Personal protection

Protection is about keeping your energy high and clear. It creates healthy boundaries and a calm quiet centre. It ensures that other people cannot disturb your equilibrium or draw on your energies. Wearing crystals gives you instant protection, as does placing them in your environment.

Do the following apply to you?

✵ I easily pick up bad vibes.

✵ I work or travel in a crowded environment.

✵ I feel invaded, somehow not myself.

✵ Someone is jealous of me.

✵ I have upset someone recently.

✵ I have invisible feelers out, testing the air around me.

✵ I feel on edge if a friend is angry.

✵ I work in a highly technological or stressed environment.

✵ People gravitate to me with their troubles.

✵ I was born under the zodiac sign of Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces.

If more than half do, personal protection will help. Go to Chapter 13.

Healing — Body

Again, think about whether the following statements are true for you:

✵ I am perpetually tired, listless, drained.

✵ I have a chronic illness.

✵ I get unexplained aches and pains.

✵ I react physically to outside stimuli or pollutants.

You’ll find assistance with all of these in chapters 10 and 13.

Healing — Mind

Think about whether the following statements are true for you:

✵ I’m afraid to relax.

✵ I worry excessively about what is going on in the world.

✵ I am obsessed with thoughts of failure or loss.

✵ Things churn round and round in my mind.

✵ I’ve got my head in the clouds.

✵ I have nightmares and insomnia.

✵ I am anxious, nervy, on edge.

You’ll find assistance in chapters 12 and 13.

Healing — Psyche

Think about whether the following statements are true for you:

✵ I cry easily.

✵ I feel overwhelmed by old emotions or thoughts.

✵ I feel depressed and hopeless.

✵ I can’t take ’me time’without feeling guilty.

✵ I get other people’s baggage dumped on me.

✵ Feeling upset results in physical illness.

You’ll find chapters 11, 12 and 13 of assistance.

Space clearing and environmental healing

Think about whether the following statements are true for you:

✵ Particular places affect me.

✵ I get tired in certain areas.

✵ I am surrounded by technology.

✵ I live in an area of trauma or threat.

✵ There is a history of conflict in my land.

✵ I want to assist the Earth.

If so, space and environmental healing will help you. Go to chapters 14 and 15.

Metaphysical applications

Think about whether the following statements are true for you:

✵ I want to take my crystal experience to a new level.

✵ I’d like to meditate with my crystals.

✵ I’d like to journey with my crystals.

✵ I need guidance on my future.

✵ I want to know about my birthstone.

✵ I want to meet my guardian angel.

You can explore all these in chapters 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20.

Do crystals work for everyone?

Now you have an idea of how crystals can help you, let’s look at how you can interact with them.

Some people are naturally sensitive to crystal energy and feel it the instant they come into contact with their first crystal. For others it takes time and effort to make the connection. Crystal energy, as with all information received intuitively, isn’t always 100 per cent effective. The energy interacts with your own energy field (your aura) and this may sometimes be too closed for the energy to make an impression. It also bumps up against ingrained beliefs or hopes that distort it. Other factors may operate too. Chakras may be blocked, for instance (see Chapter 9). There may also be reasons why healing or divination is not appropriate at a particular time; see my The Book of Why to discover more about this. You also need to experiment to find exactly the right crystals for you. You can improve your hit rate, however, by:

✵ listening to your body and inner knowing

✵ avoiding scepticism and self-doubt

✵ letting go of wishful thinking and staying with what is

✵ clarifying signs and images before jumping to conclusions

✵ honing your abilities

Different ways of sensing

People attune to crystal energy in different ways. Information can be received through the physical body or the intuitive senses.

Modes of sensing

✵ hearing (aural)

✵ seeing (visual)

✵ sensing (kinaesthetic)

✵ feeling (kinaesthetic)

✵ knowing (kinaesthetic)

✵ smelling (kinaesthetic-sensate)

✵ through the muscles or skin (kinaesthetic-sensate)

These modes govern the way in which your sensitivity to crystal energy functions. Most people use a combination of two or more. Paying too much attention to one mode of sensing may overwhelm the subtle signals you would otherwise receive via a different mode. When you are working through the activities in this book, try deliberately switching modes by focusing your attention on the inner eye or ear, your senses or your body. The more modes that are available to you, the more acute your sensitivity becomes.

But first, how does your awareness naturally function?

Which sensing mode do you use?

✵ I’m stimulated by patterns, colour, images, gestures and body language.

✵ I find it easy to visualize.

✵ I think in pictures.

✵ I have vivid Technicolor dreams.

✵ My eyes to go slightly out of focus and I ’see’energy from the corner of my eye.

✵ I use phrases like ’I don’t quite see what you mean.’

If more than half of these apply to you, you routinely use the visual mode to process information. You see, rather than sense, the energy of your crystals and the effect they have. Your crystal experience is enhanced through the use of softly focused eyes, vivid imagery, mandalas or grids and quiet observation.

Seeing is facilitated by drawing crystal energy or feeling a crystal in your palm. Try focusing on a crystal ball or scrying mirror. Use crystal cards or cast the stones.

What about the following statements?

✵ I am powerfully affected by words, sounds and music.

✵ I find myself asking, ’Could you repeat that?’

✵ I say, ’I didn’t quite catch that.’

✵ I close my eyes and listen when I want to concentrate.

✵ I tilt my head to one side with a particular ear forward.

If you agree with them, your mode of sensing is auditory. You hear crystal energy, maybe as a rushing or bubbling sound, or experience a voice in your inner ear guiding you. The ear you point forward is your intuitive ear.

Your crystal experience is enhanced by chanting, mantras, background music, and focused sounds such as a Tibetan bowl or cymbals. Try holding a crystal to your ear.

How about the following?

✵ I am strongly affected by smell, touch, gesture and sensation.

✵ My body feels like a receiver that shivers or quivers.

✵ I get nausea or excitement in my gut in response to places or people.

✵ I make statements like ’I can’t quite get a grip on that.’

✵ I say, ’My gut tells me.’

✵ I say, ’I’m feeling a little blue today.’

If these are you, you use the kinaesthetic/sensate mode to process crystal information.

Your crystal experience is enhanced — or smothered — by incense or strong perfumes. Try tracing symbols and grids, making ritual gestures and body movements. Massage scented oils gently over your third eye. Sandalwood and frankincense have been prized over millennia for their consciousness-enhancing effects.

Smell and crystal awareness

The olfactory sense is often overlooked in crystal work and yet it is a powerful and evocative form of communication. Some crystals have a distinctive smell of their own. As might be expected, Rain Forest Jasper smells of the forest and Ocean Jasper of the sea, but iron-rich stones also have a distinctive aroma. In crystal divination, smells that belong to a certain location alert you to events occurring there, even if you are many miles away. In healing, sour odours point to blockages and dis-ease.

Facilitating crystal sensitivity

Scientific research has shown that altered states of consciousness and deep relaxation help intuitive awareness to function efficiently. The mind needs to be slightly displaced, disengaged from the everyday, to have moved from functional perception to intuitive perception — an older and more natural way of perceiving the world.

Your body might be talking to you right now, but are you listening? Are you trying to figure things out? If so, stop the mind chatter and listen to the still voice from within yourself. Take the time to sit down quietly, contemplate your crystal and ask for guidance (see chapters 2 and 16). Then it’s a case of asking the right kind of questions instead of constantly questioning. After that, trust is the quickest way to get your crystal sensitivity moving.

Getting out of your own way assists awareness. Stand aside placidly, put aside wishful thinking, prejudices, hopes and expectations, and allow your sensitivity to make itself felt in its unique way.

Research has shown that you can improve your metaphysical sensitivity by:

✵ muscle relaxation

✵ reduced sensory input

✵ cortical arousal — that is, remaining attentive

✵ spontaneous mental processes, especially imagery

✵ a goal or a need to communicate

✵ staying present in the moment

✵ sustained emotional wellbeing

✵ a calm, clear-headed and focused approach

It has also been demonstrated that ten crucial factors affect the operation of intuition:

✵ An open mind: An open mind looks at the evidence, assesses it dispassionately and accepts or rejects it on the basis of what is. But if you remain too detached, you won’t access the subliminal perceptions on which crystal sensitivity is based.

✵ Belief: If you believe you sense crystal energy, something magical happens: your inner knowing works on your behalf.

✵ Desire: You must want an outcome, but beware of trying too hard. Emotional investment in the outcome actually inhibits awareness.

✵ Focused intention: Intention focuses the will and sets things in motion.

✵ Expectation: The expectation that you will quickly master an activity or receive an answer allows your inner knowing to flourish.

✵ A positive attitude: Maintaining a positive attitude enhances your awareness.

✵ The ability to move out of everyday awareness: Sensitivity functions best in a state of heightened awareness and low sensory input. This is achieved by withdrawing your awareness from the outside world and focusing your attention on yourself or your crystal.

✵ Trust: You need to trust yourself, the guidance you receive and the process. However, this trust is not a naïve, gullible state. You also need to be able to discriminate.

✵ Common sense: Your common sense helps you to keep your feet on the ground.

✵ Willingness to take risks: Using your crystal sensitivity, certainly in the initial stages, may feel unsettling. The willingness to take a risk is vital if you are to expand your awareness.

Exercise: Exercising your sensory mode

✵ Pick up a cleansed crystal (see Exercise: Cleansing a crystal) and hold it in your hands. Examine it carefully, letting your eye follow its planes and flaws and going deep within if it is translucent. Does it stimulate pictures in your mind?

✵ Now pick up a cleansed crystal and put it to your ear. Do you hear the energy moving?

✵ Pick up a cleansed crystal and sniff it. Does it remind you of anything?

✵ Pick up a cleansed crystal and trace a triangle in the air with it. Sense the energetic shape it leaves behind.

✵ Ask yourself which was easiest for you. Did this accord with the sensing mode you had identified above?

Heal yourself, heal your world

Once you have experienced crystal energy for yourself, you will find that as you heal, the environment around you benefits too. That includes other people. When one person makes an energetic shift, everyone can. However, crystals can be directly applied to the external world to bring healing and balance (see Chapter 15). Programming a Rose Quartz or Eye of the Storm (Judy’s Jasper) sends peace to an area, for instance. We will look at applications of crystals in the next part of this book.

SUMMARY

✵ At the most basic level, crystals interact with your energy field and the environment around you.

✵ Once you discover how your own energy functions, you can focus on the ways in which crystals can assist.

✵ Crystals help you to manage your wellbeing, protect your space, de-stress, cut off energy vampires and block out EMFs.

✵ The best-known crystal application is holistic healing, which balances mind, body and spirit.