Healing is one of the most common ways in which the beneficial powers of crystals are used in our lives. There are many different ways in which you can use crystals for healing and the following will hopefully be an insightful guide to how you can introduce crystals in to your own first aid kit.

You can also use crystals to help heal others, however please make sure that anyone, including yourself, always visits a doctor or professional for any health problems, and that you use crystals in addition to regular medical help. Also do not attempt to heal others until you feel entirely confident in your ability and wherever possible gain professional qualifications or training when healing in this way, especially if you intend to offer your services professionally.

This guide is not meant to replace traditional healing methods, nor does it offer specific guidance on any particular illness.

grounding and centring

Feeling grounded is often all it takes to help relieve feelings of confusion, chaotic emotions and being unfocused. By using a crystal that has grounding properties you can help restore your sense of inner calm, focus and awareness.

Most crystals that help with grounding are the darker colours or red, as this colour is connected to our base chakra, which is related to being grounded.

Try a simple meditation with a grounding crystal to help get your feet back on terra firma; sit with your feet firmly on the ground, holding the crystal in your hands with your hands resting between your legs. As you breath in, feel the energy of the crystal come up through your body from the pelvic area and with each breath out anchor the roots from your feet deeper and deeper in to the ground. Continue this for at least five minutes or until you feel ready to stop, when you bring yourself round make sure you have something to eat or drink to ensure you are truly grounded.

chakras

Chakras are our energy centres, and crystals are commonly used to help balance our chakras, one or all of them, when we feel out of synch or have specific problems that are associated with them.

The chakra section details which colours and crystals are ideally used for chakra balancing.

crystal essences

A crystal essence is simply water that has had the properties of a specific crystal instilled into it.

These essences are believed to work by allowing the energy pattern or vibration of a crystal to be imprinted into the water and thus be taken in by the body either by drinking or rubbing into the skin.

If you intend to drink a crystal essence, make sure you prepare it using safe crystals, that do not dissolve in water or have potentially toxic properties (such as salt), crystals from the quartz family are safe, such as citrine, amethyst, clear quartz, rose quartz or tigers eye.

To make the essence you can try several different ways, the best method is deemed to be with the use of sunlight, by placing the crystal in the water and leaving this out in the sun for several hours. You can also place a crystal in a jug of water overnight by your bedside table to be drunk first thing in the morning as well (remember to remove the crystal before drinking!), or placing the crystal in water and leaving out in moonlight over night.

You do not have to drink the water immediately, but it can be bottled for later use. The essence can also be used for pets, to help them with any problems that require gentle healing (remember to take your pet to the vet for serious problems) either use the essence in their drinking water, or dip your hands in the water and gently brush through their fur onto their skin.

As mentioned above you do not have to imbue the essence for it to work, but can dab it on pulse points or close to the area of imbalance for it to work, or add it to your bath.

In fact there are plenty of uses for crystal essences, and they do not have to be limited to healing purposes only, use crystal essences to help give you clarity, peace of mind, or simply to refresh you.

pain relief

When the body experiences pain it often tenses, causing the pain to remain longer than necessary and prevent the proper flow of healing energy needed to help the body heal itself. By placing a crystal by the point of pain it can help release the blockage and stimulate the body's own healing energies to flow more effectively. It is common to see people wearing copper bracelets for arthritis, for instance, as copper is useful for helping to reduce inflammation, therefore in every day life, without realising they are using the healing powers of crystals, many people are benefiting from them.

stress relief

Stress is the most common cause of illness and disease, as the body reacts to the mind's imbalance and tension. It is also perceived to be one of the hardest ailments to tackle as the symptoms are different for everyone. There are however several methods to reduce stress and crystals can help.

Relaxing with a clear quartz or a rose quartz can help calm and rebalance, amethyst, tiger's eye and citrine are also ideal for this purpose. Try meditating using one or all of these crystals placed around you, or on your body in and around the heart and sacral chakras. Or simply sit quietly, choose your favourite and look deeply into it, allow peaceful images to pass over your mind, breathe in the calming qualities of the crystal knowing that this is helping to reduce your stress levels and helping you cope with every day life.

sleep and dreams

A bad nights sleep, or fitful dreaming and nightmares can severely affect our functioning levels the next day, and contribute to increasing stress levels and affecting our general health.

Placing an amethyst by or under your pillow at night can help calm you, and induce peaceful dreams. Other crystals that help aid restful sleep are rose quartz or citrine. To banish bad dreams, as well as amethyst, try tourmaline, smoky quartz or moss agate.

These are just a few of the ways you can introduce crystals into your daily healing processes, if you need a more in depth healing program there are therapists within the uk that use crystals in their healing programmes, have a look at our links section for more information.

Innermoo will be introducing a section listing common ailments and the crystals suited to helping relieve them soon.