We all know that meditation is a beneficial practice for both physical and mental health—especially in our increasingly busy and stressful lives. However, while meditation is becoming more and more mainstream, using crystals to enhance your practice is something many of us still don’t know much about. Meditating uses mindfulness to help you center yourself, clear your mind, and focus on your goals—and using a crystal along with your meditation can enhance these benefits. We know diving into a new practice can be a little intimidating, but have no fear! We’re here with a step-by-step guide to get you started on your crystal meditation journey.
Which Crystal Is Right For You?
Before you start meditating with crystals, the first step is to select the right crystals for your desired outcome. Different crystals have different abilities and strengths that you should take into consideration while preparing. Here are the best crystals for meditation and what they can help you with.
Clear Quartz For General Use
Clear quartz is your perfect starter stone. This crystal can be charged with your intention and desire, no matter what it may be. It clears your mind and gives you room to focus on your goals and wants. This crystal’s main strength is healing and clarifying. Additionally, pairing it with another crystal can amplify that crystal’s powers.
Selenite For Cleansing
Think of selenite as a tool to get into your energy and clean it out—like a juice cleanse for your mental state. This crystal can raise your vibration and make your energy cleared of toxicity and open for positivity and peace. Selenite will make you feel lighter and help you achieve equilibrium and heal, ridding you of old, toxic energy and making you fresh and new. You can also use selenite to charge your other crystals.
Hematite For Anxiety Control
Hematite can help calm anxiety. It grounds you in the present moment, drawing focus to what’s happening now and quelling racing thoughts that fuel an anxious mind. Meditating with this crystal will clear out fear and make you feel safe and comfortable in your own skin.
Rose Quartz For Love
Whether you’re going through a breakup, getting back into the dating game, or hoping for the best in your new relationship, rose quartz is the crystal for you. This crystal can help heal your broken heart and invite in new love. It also attracts self-love and self-worth. Meditating with this crystal will open you up to gentleness, compassion, and love for others and yourself.
Citrine For Success
Citrine is the energy-boosting crystal—like a dose of caffeine for your thoughts. Meditate with citrine for a pick-me-up when you’re in a slump or feeling uninspired. Citrine attracts abundance and positivity and will aid you in manifesting your goals and getting motivated.
Getting Started With Your Crystal
Before you’re ready to take the plunge on your crystal meditation, you’ll have to prepare a few things. It’s important to prep your crystal as well as your mind and body.
Set Your Intention
Start by grabbing a writing utensil and a notebook or piece of paper that you’ll use to begin and end your practice. When you’re ready, set an intention for this meditation. What is it that you’re looking for out of your session? What is the outcome you’re hoping to achieve? Take a minute to identify this, and write it down.
Cleanse Your Crystal
Before bringing your crystal along on your meditation journey, it’s important to make sure the crystal is at its peak efficacy. To do this, you’ll need to cleanse the crystal to ensure you don’t bring any stagnant, negative energy into your meditation. There are a few ways to cleanse your crystal. You can smoke cleanse your crystal by burning incense or wood. You can also bathe some crystals in salt water or sunlight. The safest option for all crystals is to buy a selenite charging plate to place your crystals on and leave them to cleanse. There are many ways to cleanse your crystals’ energy, so it might take some trial and error to find the best method for you and your crystal of choice.
Cleanse Yourself
Your crystal isn’t the only thing that needs to go into your meditation fresh and clean—you do too! As with your crystal, there are a few ways to make your energy fresh and open before your meditation practice. Salt baths can cleanse your energy and offer many other health benefits. Just add ¼ cup of sea salt to a warm bath and soak for 10-20 minutes. You’ve probably heard of burning sage to clarify the energy in your space before. This is also known as smoke cleansing, and it’s a great way to cleanse your energy before your meditation. If those options are too advanced, try grounding yourself. The point of grounding yourself is to make a connection with your body and calm your nervous system. There are many different ways to do this, but it can be as simple as becoming aware of your breath or the different parts of your body.
Beginning Your Meditation
Now that your preparation is complete, it’s time to begin your meditation. You’ll have to make some choices to ensure that the practice is tailored to your needs, but don’t be afraid to try different options until you find what works for you.
Choose Your Crystal
The best way to start is by choosing which crystal you’ll be using. You can review the crystals and what they offer to select the right one for your practice. Consider your goals and the intention you set and how these align with the different crystals’ abilities.
Choose Your Crystal Placement
Once you’ve selected your crystal, it’s time to choose where you’re going to place it during your meditation. Keep in mind that there’s no right or wrong location for your crystal, so focus on which place feels best for you. It can be effective to place the crystal somewhere on your body or beside you. You can also hold it in your hands. If you’d prefer, you can make a circle of crystals or a grid of crystals around you. For a more advanced meditation, you can lie on your back with your crystals placed on the chakras that are most in need of opening. If you choose this option, think about which chakras align best with your intention.
Enhance With Scents
Your sense of smell is closely linked with your memory and emotions. Adding scents to your practice can help you to get deeper into your meditation. Incense, oils, or candles are effective ways of using scent to make your meditation deeper and intensify your focus. Lavender, sage, and peppermint essential oils can be great choices for many different meditations.
Clear Your Mind
Focus solely on making your mind a blank slate and clearing all racing thoughts away. Slowly take three deep breaths. While inhaling, pull the energy from the world around you into yourself. Fill yourself with light and openness from the space surrounding you. Attach your body and mind to the present moment and your current space, postponing thoughts of the past or future until your practice is finished.
Get Focused
For ten to fifteen minutes, visualize the goal of your practice. Focus solely on what you want, and direct any wandering thoughts away for the time being. Clearing your mind and staying focused on one thing can be a challenge, but that’s your main goal during your meditation. If you find this particularly challenging, you can use a meditation app like Headspace to help you concentrate on the task at hand and ward away distracting thoughts. As you focus on your intention, envision yourself communicating this intention to your crystal. Be sure to note any sounds, sensations, or communications you receive from your crystal, and always redirect your thoughts back to your intention.
Finishing Your Meditation
Once you’ve completed your meditation, there are a few things to do to finish off your practice the right way. It’s important to do these things while you’re still in your meditating zone and the experience you had is still fresh in your mind.
Add To Your Journal
As soon as you’re finished, take a few minutes to journal about your experience. This is the time to reflect on how you felt during your meditation, how you feel now, and spend a little time in this headspace. You can also use your writing for reference later to help you with your future practices. What were the things you thought about? Did the crystals communicate anything to you? Is there anything you’d like to carry with you from this meditation and focus on as you move forward? Make note of it.
Express Gratitude
Finish by expressing gratitude for all the things you have—the little things and the big things. We all have something to be thankful for and rounding out your meditation with a focus on abundance and what you have is key to completing the practice and ending on a high note. Finally, thank your crystal for guiding you through this experience. Yes, communicating telepathically with your crystal might seem weird at first, but trusting the crystal you meditate with is a vital part of your practice. Soon, this will be second nature.
When it comes to meditating, practice makes progress; don’t strive for perfection. It will get easier with time, and knowing which crystals and strategies work best for you will become second nature. Happy meditating!