How to use crystals for healing

The practise of using crystals for healing is known as passive meditation, which means you give over completely to the healing properties of the stone. There’s no need to focus on breathing – it’s all about being receptive to the crystal’s energies.

Many people report feeling things like energy waves or heat after coming into contact with the crystals, and describe feeling light, more aligned and peaceful but energized. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Here how it works: it’s all about vibrations. According to certified crystal healers, placing the stones on various parts of the body helps balance these frequencies.

Crystal healer Jona Genova explains exactly what crystal healing is.

“It’s actually very scientific, even though there’s something magical about how it all comes together. Everything is a vibration. Vibrations respond to one another. Crystals vibrate at a fairly stable frequency – when these stable crystals are placed near the unstable frequencies of our bodies, they bring them into balance. That means that just by being near crystals, they’re going to heal us.”

But where exactly do you start when you want to use crystals for healing? Suze Yalof Schwartz, founder and CEO of LA-based meditation studio Unplug Meditation, has compiled a handy guide how to use crystals even if you’re new to their healing properties.

Here, chakras come into play – chakras are energy points on your body, and there are seven in total, from the first (found at the base of your spine) and the seventh (found at the crown of your head) – and various points in between, which is explained below.

1. Choose a crystal you’re drawn to intuitively – touch it and feel it.

2. Once you’ve chosen it, find out about the properties it contains.

3. Lie down and place the crystal on the part of your body that you feel needs it most.

4. Relax, breathe and tune into the crystal. You don’t need to do anything other than absorb its vibrations.

5. Breathe in and out, noticing which chakras you feel the most. Try this for between 10 and 30 minutes.

After doing this a few times, you build up a relationship with your crystal. Try out other crystals too, and you’ll soon build up a collection of your favourites.

The easiest way to balance chakras is to choose a stone which colour matches the chakra colour – the order of the chakras matches those of the colours of the rainbow, so they’re easy to remember which crystals for healing corresponds to which body part.

1st chakra 

Where is it?

Base of the spine

Colour: Red

Try: Hematite, black tourmaline, red jasper

2nd chakra 

Where is it? Between the navel and pubic bone

Colour: Orange

Try: Orange Calcite (gentle), carnelian (potent)

3rd chakra 

Where is it? Midsection

Energy: Personal power, abundance

Colour: Yellow

Try: Citrine

4th chakra

Where is it? Centre of the chest

Energy: Love, trust

Colour: Green

Try: Rose quartz, green adventurine, green serpentine

5th chakra 

Where is it? Throat area

Energy: Communication, self-expression

Colour: Blue

Try: Blue lace agate, sodalitem chrysocolla, lapis pazuli

6th chakra

Where is it? Between the eyebrows

Energy: Intuition, ideas, thoughts, dreams

Colour: Indigo

Try: Amethyst

7th chakra

Where is it? Crown of the head or slightly above it.

Energy: Enlightenment, higher consciousness

Colour: Violet

Try: Clear quartz, amethyst