How to Use Crystals for Beginners

From the outside looking in, the world of crystal healing, although vibrant and sparkling, can seem enigmatic and fanciful. However, by learning a few fundamental principles and practices, healing crystals can become more meditative than mysterious and comforting than convoluted. Keep reading to discover how to use crystals for beginners!

How Do Crystals Work?

Everyone and everything has its own vibration. For example, you and your best friend have your individual frequencies, and the joy generated when you share a laugh or hug does too. The joy’s vibration can change your own by clearing sadness, amplifying happiness, or regulating your mood. Crystal frequencies influence us in similar ways. They can shield or block, absorb, transmit or channel, balance or align, and amplify or intensify. Many stones serve more than one purpose, and those that do all 5 are known as Master Healers.

It’s important to note, healing crystals haven’t been scientifically proven to cure physical illness, though they have been found to improve wellbeing. How? The people who believed the crystals would make them feel better did! Just as believing you would pass the test, get the job, or manage the pain helped you pull through! In this way, crystals have been shown to improve wellbeing. But even if you aren’t quite sure about them yet, they can still bring many benefits!

The Best Crystals for Beginners

The multi-textured, colored, shaped, and sized world of healing crystals can be a bit overwhelming, making it difficult to know where to begin. The best foundational crystals are the Master Healers: clear quartz, amethyst, green aventurine, rose quartz, citrine, and smoky quartz.

Each of these crystals works to fulfill the 5-principal crystal functions but adds its own unique gifts. Clear quartz purifies negative energy and amplifies positive. Amethyst is profoundly relaxing, clearing the mind. Green aventurine rejuvenates the mind, body, and spirit. Rose quartz is nurturing, all about self-care and compassion. Citrine embodies the sun, inspiring optimism, and smoky quartz protects and strengthens.

If you already know the basics about the primary chakra system, a good rule of thumb is to choose crystals that correspond to a chakra’s light frequency or color. For instance, red stones for the root chakra, yellow and gold for the solar plexus, or purple and blue stones for the third eye. Although, every chakra has exceptions. For example, black tourmaline pairs well with the root chakra, and carnelian, which is orange, works well for the solar plexus.

How to Use Crystals

Just as lavender and yarrow can be used in multiple ways like teas, tinctures, and balms, there are many crystal practices that you can choose from based on your lifestyle and needs. The following methods are great for beginners:

• Bedtime - Under the pillow or on the nightstand, to improve sleep and gently regulate your energy flow to enhance wellbeing during the day.
• Grids, Bowls & Charging plates – Placing your stones in a geometric placement called a grid, in a copper bowl on your desk, or amplified on plates carved from other crystals is a great way to cleanse, uplift, heal and protect the energy of your room and all who are in it.
• Mindfulness & Meditation – You can hold your crystals in your palms while you sit peacefully practicing breathwork or engage in deep meditation, laying down and placing one or more crystals along the midline of your body or in an area where you desire pain relief.
• On the go –Smaller crystals fit great in the purse or pocket, providing energetic protection and balance throughout the day.

Crystal Care

Uprooted from the earth, crystals are removed from their natural energy source. Like our plants or even furry friends, we must ensure they receive the nourishment and support they find in their natural environment. This is why the regular cleansing and charging of crystals is often done with natural resources like moonlight, sunlight, soil, and water.

As a good rule of thumb, crystals should be cleansed when you receive them to release the energy they have absorbed in transit and regularly after that to release any built-up energy they have absorbed from you while offering support. For efficiency, it is best to charge your crystals once you have cleansed them.

You may have heard the word programming and charging used interchangeably. While the practices are not the same, they are very similar. Charging fills a crystal with energy, programming fills it with healing intentions. You can program a crystal while charging it by simply reflecting on how you will best benefit from the stone’s properties or repeating healing affirmations.

Final Thoughts

The best part about working with crystals in the ways we discussed here is there are no side effects or “failures.” Like watching the sunset with a cherished friend, the joy and exhilaration you experience aren’t negated by the wistfulness and nostalgia it inspires in them. Both experiences can be meaningful and spiritually healing.

What matters most when working with crystals is how they make you feel. Whether they offer a soothing diversion or restorative moment, ease chronic pain or alleviate the anxiety, depression, or sleeplessness that can exasperate it, crystals offer empowerment by placing healing power in your hands!

“A warrior must take care that their spirit is never broken.”