Since the dawning of civilization, stones and crystals have long been recognized for their beauty, healing, and spiritual powers. With the recent shift toward alternative and holistic medicines, people are turning to crystals for their purported healing properties, to maintain optimum health and to help restore balance to stressful lives.

Whether or not you believe in the power of crystal therapy, the importance of crystals in modern times cannot be denied. Crystals are found in most of your household items, including your flatscreen, smartphone, and laptop, and because they’re composed of silicon and compressed oxygen, crystals are capable of oscillating electricity. The idea behind our interaction with crystals is based on their electric nature and the electrical signals and vibrations that our bodies naturally produce.

Crystals and Their Metaphysical Benefits

Many believe that certain types of crystals emit frequencies that can help bring balance to focal points, or chakras, of the body. With that in mind, let’s look at a few crystals, their properties, and how they might help provide some balance or healing in your life.

Rose Quartz & the Heart Chakra

Rose Quartz is well known for a multitude of positive effects, including calming and reassuring effects, self-love, romantic love, and family love. Its varied soft colors of pink or light purple have a very cleansing and calming energy.

Amethyst & the Crown Chakra

Amethyst is known both for its physical and emotional healing properties. Amethyst is perhaps the most useful all-purpose healing crystals and is one of the more common crystals used in Reiki. Amethyst is an excellent stone to use with meditation as it quietens the mind and allows finer perceptions to become clear.

Orange Carnelian & the Sacral Chakra

Carnelian is one of the most popular orange stones, characterized by its energizing and warming effects. Itis known for stimulating the body's emotional needs and has long been regarded for its ability to inspire confidence in the user. It helps to center our inner conflicts, allowing goals to seem more focused and our frustrations limited.

Aquamarine & the Brow Chakra

While aquamarine crystals are frequently associated with the color blue in popular culture, they come in many colors, and their energies vary depending upon the color stone. They bring focus to the user, making them perfect for amplifying your creative outlets and releasing the flow of communication.

Cleansing Your Crystals

Cleansing your crystals requires more than merely soap and water. Crystals retain energies, so when they come into your possession, it’s beneficial to cleanse them of lingering energies so that they’re in prime condition for your intended uses. During these cleansing rituals, focus on energies and emotions you want to release while cleansing, as well as charging them with new, focused intentions.

Salt and Water Crystal Cleansing

For a simple, quick cleanse, place crystals in a glass bowl filled with water, free of chemicals, and let them soak for anywhere from an hour to a full day. If a crystal needs a deeper cleansing, it can soak for up to a week. You can place sea salt or a cooking salt into the bowl for a more thorough cleanse, but make sure not to soak gemstones that are porous or have a high metal or water content. Cleansing the wrong stone in salt or water could run the risk of changing its appearance and properties.

Light of the Full Moon Ritual Cleansing and Charging

For a good, ritual cleanse under the light of a full moon, begin by washing your crystals under the faucet or at a nearby stream. Place them out after sunset on the ground or on a windowsill. Leave your crystals out overnight and bring them back in just after sunrise, giving them a burst of energy from the sun. Once your crystals are back indoors, reflect on them and charge them with your intentions. They are not only charged by your energy but by that of the moon and sun.

Sound Cleansing

Because crystals emit frequencies and energies, they resonate with different frequencies of sound. An excellent way to cleanse your crystals is to use Tibetan singing bowls, as they emit a consistent frequency. To use a singing bowl to cleanse your crystal, place your crystal and bowl on a solid surface opposite of one another. Strike the bowl three times with your mallet and let it ring out. After a fourth strike, begin rotating you mallet clockwise around the bowl to make it sing. As your bowl sings, focus on the intention of cleansing your crystal.

Charging Your Crystals

Both moonlight and sunlight can charge your crystals, the difference being that the sun offers a more intense and robust charge. Sunlight can cause stones to lose their color and potentially change the properties of the crystal, so be wary of too much sun. Another excellent way to cleanse your crystals is to put them in a mesh bag and submerge them in a slow flowing river. The benefit of cleansing with running water is that it simultaneously washes and charges your crystals.

Physical contact and thought energy were believed by the Native Americans to be enough to charge crystals. They felt that the human body’s natural energy field and vibrations could transfer energy to crystals by simply handling them. When in contact with crystals, meditate, focus on emotion or an intention, or envision a bright light to instill your energy within the stone and program it to help you.

The BEingWELL Team