observation of our own experiences. When you feel something because someone does something awful to you, it’s time to practice nonattachment. For example, let’s say you packed a special lunch of leftovers and put it in the fridge at work labeled with your name. Later in the day, you discover that the sandwich is missing and the wrapper is in the trash. Now you are hungry and hurt that your lunch is gone, and you might also feel violated or betrayed by someone who works with you. It would be natural to feel sad and angry in this moment. Nonattachment, though, can transmute your feelings of sadness or anger by allowing you to observe them rather than become them. To do this, you imagine you have a third-party observer—your perfect judge, wielding their gavel and adorned in their robes. This observer steps back from you and your experience and remains objective. In this case, the observer would tell you that you have a right to feel sad and angry and that there are lots of different reasons why a person might take your lunch—perhaps a member of your office misread the label and thought she brought the sandwich last week. Perhaps the person who took it was overwhelmed and so distracted that he didn’t see the label before he was eating it; or perhaps the person who took it was food insecure and didn’t have enough food to pack her own lunch.
The point is that the objective observer steps away and interprets the vibration of the experience in a safe way for us. We can use crystals to accomplish this practice. You might carry a point of Quartz Crystal in your pocket. When you encounter an emotional moment, pull the crystal out and set it on a tabletop nearby. Take a moment with the crystal to set your intention that it will help you process your emotional state. Take five deep breaths: breathe in through the nostrils for a count of four, pause for four seconds, and then out through the mouth for a count of eight. Now, move your perception into the crystal. That is, use your imagination to see yourself from the “eyes” of the crystal; another way to put it is to imagine that the crystal is a benevolent being that is observing you and your surroundings to offer a new perspective. Ask the crystal what it sees, how it feels, and why it feels that way, and ask how can you consciously disidentify from those feelings and the situation without dishonoring the emotions you are feeling. Take a few minutes with this process. Some people may even choose to talk out loud to the crystal and imagine the responses they receive. Others may have a dialogue in their heads, and still others may experience this entirely as impressions or sensations. There’s no wrong way to do this. You’ll know this crystal exercise has been successful if you feel a sense of relief or calm. Lastly, it bears noting that, most of the time, our Crystal Judge will tell us that the answer to the situation is to practice compassion. This process of moving perception into a crystal often triggers an increased ability to feel and express compassion.
This same practice of compassionate nonattachment with a Crystal Judge can be used for ourselves, though many people find it easier to begin with an external event such as the great office sandwich theft. Take a moment to reflect back on the woman who has internalized her anxiety and is seeing, feeling, and experiencing her anxiety in every environment. What if she were to do this exercise at the first inkling of anxiety? Could it help her reframe and perhaps alter her vibration? Not becoming attached to even the feelings or the beliefs we have about ourselves can help us to vibrate in tune with our greatest good. Ever feel like the world is out to get you no matter how hard you try? In these moments, we tend to squeeze harder when what we may really need to do is loosen our grip. Try this crystal exercise the next time you feel disappointed by an experience. Bring in your objective Crystal Judge, move your perspective, and look at the situation through this alternate lens. What changes? Are you able to feel more compassion for yourself?
Compassion is an emotion and supportive concept that we should exercise as much with ourselves as with other people. It seems we all tend to be hardest on ourselves—we expect more from ourselves than we do from others, and we may forget that this process can also help with our own situations. Remember that you are inclined to pick up or sense the vibration of other people. Remember, too, that other people are inclined to sense your vibration. One of the simplest ways to improve your day and bring joy to others is to remember this inclination and practice compassion as you tend to your vibrational energy. All life is interconnected whether we want it to be or not, and our choices have a cause and effect ripple that is immeasurable. Having a bad day? Snapping at the clerk behind the counter spreads your bad day to him, and then, when he goes home and snaps at his daughter, it spreads it to her. Because we all share experiences, it is critical that we raise our collective vibration by staying in alignment with our personal goals and values as much as possible so that we can resonate in tune with our vibrational energy.
As you go through your day and encounter the stress or joy of other people and situations, these experiences may not be in alignment with your personal desires. Or perhaps more accurately, the way you feel about or respond to these experiences may not be attuned. As a novice vibrational energy worker, it is not practical to think that you will navigate your day to day unfazed by any stressors, obstacles, or others’ energy. In an ideal situation or after many months or years of vibrational practice, you can identify the cause of the stress and transmute it into a lesson or some type of benefit. Often, for example, the Crystal Judge exercise may help you identify a reason for gratitude for your situation as well as compassion. Gratitude helps us to recognize what we are working to transmute from negative to positive through positive psychology and crystal healing. At the same time, even at your most diligent, you are still subject to emotional triggers which have the potential to derail the positive momentum.
Thus far, we’ve been exploring the notion of transmuting or objectively observing so-called “negative” experiences and how crystal meditation can assist, but it is worth mentioning now that the types of language used for discussing energy, vibration, spiritual concepts, and wellness are not exactly unified. The terms “negative” and “positive” reflect the science of magnets, but the terms themselves have a connotation of “bad” and “good,” even though this is not how they are intended here. A negative pole is the side of the magnet that pushes outward while the “positive” pole draws inward. Another way to view the negative and positive poles without judgment is to conceptually align them with the yin and yang concepts of void and substance. Both states are necessary for creation and manifestation. For example, negative is associated with yin energy, receptivity, and intuition. This is the state of possibility. Positive is linked to yang energy, action, and expression, or the state of form. These two forces are at play within us every moment of the day, and they are only “bad” or “good” by virtue of how we choose to interpret and respond to them. Together, they are the inner thought or feeling as well as the outward action or reaction; they are the ability to receive as well as to give. These forces which seem so opposite are in fact simply the movement of energy and vibration along the spectrum of one pole to another, just as the tides ebb and flow or the Moon seems to disappear and be reborn with each rotation of the Earth. It is a dance necessary for movement.
Now apply the same principle to the polarity of our energetic experiences, such as emotions, physical states, or thoughts. Many spiritual and lifestyle teachers agree about the importance of a nonattached view of both positive and negative poles. These poles may seem dualistic at first glance, but they are poles at either end of a spectrum with an infinite number of states in between. With this acknowledgment in mind, you may find it easier to shift from discomfort to comfort or from dissonance to attunement with practices like the Crystal Judge. Practicing these concepts can fortify your trust in your agency, and it can help you transform an uncomfortable situation into one that serves you. Your ability to master your vibrational interpretation of these experiences is the key to ensuring that your experiences, whether they are void or substantive, can help move you toward your highest good.
You might imagine that every situation you experience should be pleasant or just or righteous. Why not? So-called unpleasant experiences cause pain or discomfort. Nonattachment and the Crystal Judge can help you separate from the desire or “need” to control. Engaging in objective observation can help you move your perspective from what is narrowly in front of your face at the moment to the larger picture of what is happening around you or what may occur in the future. Shift your perspective to take in the bigger picture rather than only witnessing the “bad” or “good” of an experience. Then you can
