and shift you into the present moment. This change in perspective will release the emotion and allow you to replace it with gratitude. When you are grateful, you are attuned to an ideal vibration for manifesting wellness.
Manifesting wellness is a combination of Vibration, Intention, Focus and Discipline. Your inner thoughts and outer language must support the goals you would like to see fulfilled. To manifest wellness, speak the goal in positive language and think about the goal in terms of achievement. Imagine yourself as the person you wish to be. Your thoughts and communication are essentially data being processed by the Universe, the flow of energy, and your Subconscious Mind. Thoughts are energy that can form into action, and action leads to outcome.
You may, for example, have a statement that you repeat to yourself with a kind of self-deprecating humor. These statements, however benign you think they are, have an effect on your well-being. Lune knows a beloved soul who used to make a joke when she would forget something. “Blame it on the brain tumor,” she would say. At the time, she had no reason to believe she had an actual brain tumor, but years later, she did in fact develop one and is now a survivor who takes her words and inner dialogue much more seriously. Repeating the statement “Blame it on the brain tumor,” even in jest, seemed to her to have manifested in reality from her Subconscious Mind.
How often do you this? How often do you jokingly call yourself stupid, awkward, or miserable? The Subconscious Mind has no sense of humor. It takes the data you provide it and puts things into motion behind the scenes, but it is also susceptible to bias. It cannot interpret experience on its own, but it will move in whatever direction you let it. The Subconscious Mind is like a machine which can do all the heavy lifting, never gets tired, and is constantly working. The Conscious Mind, by contrast, is driving the heavy machinery.
In happiness philosophy, this is described as the Rider and the Elephant, a concept coined by Jonathan Haidt. The rider is the Conscious Mind, and it can control the direction of the Elephant (or Subconscious Mind) by engaging in an act of willpower. The Subconscious Mind is the lumbering giant that moves based on where it is directed. If you stop directing because you are overcome by emotion or projection, then the Elephant will move in whatever direction it is pushed by the energetic influences that surround you. Setting clear and focused intentions and reminding yourself about them repeatedly, such as with a crystal that you touch daily, is vital to ensuring your Rider is steering the Elephant10.
Tending to your intentions through crystals not unlike tending to a garden. If you maintain it, it will bear fruit. If you neglect it, it will be choked out by weeds and bear nothing fruitful. Consider, for example, the work of Dr. Masaru Emoto, who performed various tests on the influence of thought and projection on water molecules. When his test subjects projected feelings and thoughts of hatred and pain onto water, the molecules of that water took on shapes which appeared disorganized and unbalanced. Conversely, when subject projected thoughts and statements of encouragement and love, the molecules appeared uniform and balanced, like a snowflake or mandala.11 Similar testing has been performed on plants, and the effects are as you would likely expect: plants which received hurtful messages shriveled and died, while plants receiving positive messages thrived. Since we are living beings like plants and comprised of water molecules, just imagine the impact your thoughts have on your body life experience. Imagine the impact that a crystal can have on your experience if you have filled it with encouraging thoughts and intentions and repeated those intentions daily.
Just as water responds to our intentions, so do gemstones, minerals, and crystals. Stones hold the vibration of your intention. Consider the act of praying over food, which has been practiced by many cultures since ancient times. Such prayer incorporates a sacred blessing and a reminder of abundance. This blessing connects a person to the experience of that food and the source of it, which is part of the interconnected web of life. Praying over crystals can have a similar effect.
Setting prayer and intention on natural objects which are connected to the bountiful Earth does not involve new practices and concepts. If you had a highly religious upbringing, you might harbor some resentment or resistance to the notion of prayer. Or, if you are an atheist, you may find that setting an intention for the highest good might conflict with some inner belief that there is no Divine Force in the Universe. At the same time, even the atheist solipsist who believes the only entity in the Universe is the singular mind she possesses must manifest her outcomes through thought and action. Working with the Subconscious Mind applies to everyone. Setting an intention may be like prayer, or it may simply be an act of cause and effect. Find what resonates with you and go from there.
The Importance of Rituals of Relaxation
Rituals are routines infused by intention. They are symbolic actions that we perform in order to manifest an outcome. We’ve already covered in depth how important your thoughts and emotions are to your vibrational energy, as well as how that energy impacts your ability to achieve your goals. By establishing methods to alter your vibration for the better, you will be creating your safety net. When you are pushed or pulled out of comfort, you can return to the ritual—the series of actions you’ve infused with symbolic intention—to create, recreate, or reinforce the foundation for your own growth and progress. Ritual gets you back on your desired path when you find yourself losing your way. In this way, your intention and symbolic energy are the compass, and ritual is the map that you follow back to alignment.
Your personal rituals might change depending on the situation, but you must first impress the importance of your own awareness onto yourself and your Will in order to ensure you manifest your truth. You will need to commit to making changes in your behavior to better navigate your personal path; second only to that in importance, you will also need to develop your awareness of your own state of being. Without these two ingredients, your recipe will be unable to produce change in thought and action. Without awareness, you may be carried away by stress, anxiety, and self-doubt. Rituals with crystals can help you return to the ground.
How do you become aware of your own energy level or personal vibe? As noted, your emotions are certainly powerful signals of your vibrations, but what if you have not yet learned nonattachment? If you feel a wave of anxiety, for example, you might allow it to paint a picture of your present experience as stressful, but if you instead take an active, objective role, you can choose not to experience that stress by instead asking questions about the experience objectively. This is a good time to perform the Crystal Judge. You might also ask yourself these questions. Why am I feeling this way? Am I in true danger? Is this anxious feeling telling me something, or is this a triggered emotion, perhaps from a previously established pattern? What do I choose to do with this feeling? Should I react, or shall I do what I can to move away from this feeling?
Daily Crystal Attunement Exercise
Awareness may sound like a simple achievement, but, for many, awareness will require practice and discipline. Developing a ritual for awareness is a good approach to tending the crystal garden of consciousness. Try this activity to get started. Begin each day by holding a crystal of your choosing. (You might go back to the Intuitive Crystal Drawing Exercise if you need help selecting a stone.) Now, with your gemstone in hand, set an intention to be aware of your emotional state, and acknowledge that your feelings will come up as a means of your Subconscious Mind communicating with your Conscious Mind. Tell yourself that your emotions may not necessarily be “right,” but they are certainly valid. In other words, remind yourself that what you are feeling in a given moment isn’t necessarily you even if it is what you are feeling. Set the intention into the stone that every time you touch it or gaze at it, you will be reminded of your truth. The information provided by either comfortable or uncomfortable feelings moves you closer to or further away from your ideal state of vibrational frequency. Don’t judge
