011: Using crystals for stress, anxiety and negativity

Hello everyone, how are you all? Thank you so much for joining me on yet another episode of Canny Crystals, the podcast. What have you all been up to this week? I just want to start with an apology because I re-listened to the last few episodes of this podcast just the other day. And as I was listening to them, I noticed that, I don't know, I just didn't sound very happy, if that's the right way of saying it. But yeah, I just sounded a bit miserable and moody when I'm not. But I've noticed that, so I'm going to pick it up today. I do apologize. I mean, I have struggled a bit last week, I'm not gonna lie. I went to one of my wholesalers to stock up, and after getting home and working about 10 hours on this spreadsheet to upload all the new stock and keep track for tax purposes and inventory, I went to save the spreadsheet and it said that the file was corrupt and I had to start the whole thing again. So I did, in tears. But yeah, I did manage to get hold of some moldavite. Yes, finally! It's only taken me bloody 7 months. But if you don't know what moldavite is, you must have been living under a rock, quite literally. So last year, a TikTok video did its rounds of a girl crying her eyes out saying, "Whatever you do, don't buy moldavite. It's ruined my life forever." And this girl was claiming that she'd lost her job and subsequently lost her house since she'd started using moldavite to meditate with, and loads of people fired back in response against what she was claiming, stating that moldavite is a transformational crystal that basically brings about change but in a much more rapid way than we're used to. And it is weird because technically it's not either a crystal, um, it's classed as what we call a tectite. So basically 15 million years ago, a meteor hit the Earth and pieces of which were obviously sent flying into both the ground and the air, and this is what's being mined. And because of that TikTok video going viral, the demand for moldavite went through the roof. I think it was even to the point that the Czech mines where it was found had to increase their workers tenfold, and subsequently, as you can imagine, the price obviously soared. So I remember earlier this year I was in touch with someone from the Czech Republic and I asked him about moldavite and he said he could get me a really good price on some. So I thought, "Hooray, finally!" And this was in the height of the demand as well. And when we got to a price, he said that the minimum order would be 40 grams. 40 grams isn't much. I mean, a packet of crisps is 30 grams. Anyway, 40 grams, and the price was £120 per gram. Like, one gram. So in total, this 40 grams were going to cost me £4,800 plus shipping, plus tax, and I just thought nobody in their right mind will pay those prices, so I left it at that. I've been questioned basically on a daily basis by you lot, "When are you getting moldavite? When is moldavite coming? When are you going to start selling moldavite?" And I've just kept saying, "Look, I'm just not paying those prices. No one in their right mind is going to pay it." Anyway, the Czech mines where it was found has closed down in the summer last year, sorry, this year, and he told me that this was because they felt like they had mined all they could and that they were barely finding any moldavite after spending hours at a time searching. It was like all the moldavite that was going to be found has now been found, and the price of moldavite in the UK soared again. And I remember seeing one of my wholesalers selling a 2cm long piece— that's 20mm for you yanks— for £595 plus tax. People are crazy. So anyway, I got a call from him last week because he knew how desperate I was to be able to stock it. And don't get me wrong, the price was still high, but not as high as it had been. They arrived a few days later, and I thought to myself, come on, Martin, don't be greedy. At the end of the day, just by advertising Moldavite on my site, that'll help direct traffic towards it. So I stuck it on for the price I paid plus tax just to cover myself, and it's been absolutely flying out. It works out at £25 per gram, which still might sound expensive, but the pieces themselves are absolutely stunning. Like, I bought a few moldavite necklace pendants from him as well, and they sold out on my site within 24 hours. I've still got a few moldavite rough pieces left if anyone listening wants one. But about 6 months ago I bought myself one from another crystal seller on Instagram, and I paid £38 for it, and when it came, it weighed less than 1 gram. I got one of my friends to wire wrap it so I could wear it as a necklace pendant. I was just so scared of losing it just because it's so tiny. Um, so yeah, she wire wrapped it just so I could put it on and wear it every single day. And it's mad when I look back at how vastly different my life was 6 months ago to how it is today. Like, my salary has increased massively, I have a successful podcast— thanks for coming— a successful online store, my relationships have all improved, and I just generally feel better about life than I did before starting to use my moldavite. Have things gone 100 miles an hour? Absolutely. But have they worked wonders and happened for a reason? Yes. So the girl that was crying about losing her job and her house has since posted a video in the job of her dreams, now being able to afford an even nicer house than she was in before. It's all about having that faith and that belief that everything happens for a reason, and the Moldavite simply enhances and fast-forwards all of that. It's probably one of the most powerfully energetic crystals that I've ever worked with. For instance, my best friend Nikki came over last Friday night to see me. We just thought, "Oh, we'll have a little night in, get a pizza, have a few gins." And as soon as she walked into the living room, she said that she felt kind of butterflies in her tummy, like just that weird feeling. We thought nothing of it, but she said that every time she passed by the table, it got stronger. So I reached round the back of the picture that I have stood in the middle of the table, and I pulled out the bag of moldavite pieces that I'd been taking photographs of shortly before she turned up, and kind of her face just dropped. And she's really susceptible to crystals and manifesting, like everything she does she's able to manifest within bloody minutes. I'm so jealous, she's so lucky. But yeah, she could feel the energy coming from that moldavite. So just as soon as I showed her the bag, I put a piece of it in her hand and she sat down on the couch, and she said that she could feel warmth inside her tummy and her heart area. And I just think it's really one of the most powerful crystals I've ever known. So yeah, if you'd like to buy any moldavite anyway, head to my website. You can hand select which piece you'd like. All of mine are decent sized pieces ranging from 3 to 6 grams, and don't forget you can always split the cost by selecting Clearpay or Klarna at checkout, totally interest-free. Right, on with the show. So I've had a few messages this week, as per usual, on Instagram. This week it's been mainly around crystals and crystal healing, how to use them, how to store them, and I know I've done an episode on this before. I think it was called Crystal Healing 101, so I don't want to recover old ground, and I have just been pointing everyone towards it. But earlier this week, I was lucky enough to have been sent a PR package from author Kirstie Gallagher Some of you might know Kirstie from watching This Morning. She's usually on there talking about the phases of the moon and crystals and things like that. Or you might have read Luna Living, which is one of her books all about the phases of the moon, what you can get from it, that kind of thing. So she sent me a signed copy of her new book, which is called Crystals for Self-Care, and this was before it was launched. So it's, it's out worldwide now, and I've just finished it this morning. It's taken me 4 days to get through, but I absolutely loved it. So Kirstie has a really good writing style and she gets the message across so, so easily without overcomplicating things. The book itself delves into what crystals are, how to choose a crystal, how to then program them, even down to working with and saying goodbye to your crystals when they break. And then the second half of the book gives it great advice on which crystals work best for each chakra, each zodiac sign, which ones to use during different lunar cycles. It's so in-depth. So with all of this in mind, and like I say, without covering old ground again, I thought it would be interesting this week to discuss which crystals work best for certain situations. And as we all know by now, each crystal has different properties for which they're utilized, and there seems to be a lot of confusion around this, especially in beginners and those just starting in their crystal journeys. A couple of weeks ago— I can't believe I'm going to read this out loud, but I am. A couple of weeks ago, I received a message from a young girl on Instagram stating that she'd been doing her own research— good girl— into crystals, and that she had heard that aquamarine was really good for digestive issues and helping with constipation. Correct. But then on she went asking, 'But how do you eat them?' 'I'm sorry?' And she put, 'Do you grind them down or do you smash them into smaller pieces first?' Naturally, I was confused as hell, and I asked her what she was meaning. And it turns out she thought you had to eat bloody crystals to get them inside of your body to do the healing on your body. And can I just repeat what I told her to everyone listening today? Do not— I repeat, do Do not eat crystals. Jesus Christ. I mean, when I looked on her profile, she was only a bairn. She looked about 16, 17, and I know we all have to start somewhere and we all learn from somewhere, but please never eat stones, rocks, crystals, or anything like that. I think she was pretty embarrassed once I pointed it out to her, but yeah, please don't eat stones. So anyway, I know we all experience stress and anxiety from time to time, so I thought that this would be the best place to start with crystals that can be great companions to us in times when we feel ourselves getting more and more overwhelmed. So you've probably heard me say a million times over that even just sitting there and holding your crystal, taking those 10 deep breaths, can often be enough to ground you and bring you back to the present moment. If you do find yourself in a period where you're mentally stressed or you might be overworked, this would be the perfect opportunity for you to pick up maybe a dark blue crystal and place it over your third eye chakra in the center of your forehead. If it's more of your emotions that need healing, place an orange crystal over your sacral chakra and that should do the job. You could also include red crystals on your root chakra to help ground you when you're feeling stressed or uncertain about a situation. But I find that one of the most one of the best and efficient crystals I find for calming me down in situations like this is sodalite. I'm not afraid to admit it, but running two full-time jobs as well as this podcast, a household, keeping up with the gym, friends, it's stressful as fuck. So from time to time, I'll grab one of my sodalite towers. Sometimes I even just walk around with a sodalite tumble stone in my pocket, or a thumbstone, or a palm stone. And it really helps to calm the mind. And I find that it's especially useful when you find your thoughts starting to spiral out of control. You'll know what I mean if you own any sodalite. It's really comforting. It's really calming. If I know that I'm about to head into a situation or a place that will cause me stress or anxiety, I'll tend to meditate with sodalite beforehand. So I'm preempting the situation. And I'll imagine the energy transferring from the crystal up through my hand, up into my arm, into my body, and up into my mind. And as you feel your head start to fill up with these calming and peaceful vibes, you can then send them down into your heart. And by using those breathing techniques, you learn to slow your heart rate right down until you feel at a place of serenity and calmness. And just to finish off, I I usually visualize a bubble of protection surrounding me so that nothing else can get in and hurt me. Another crystal that I find perfect for stress and anxiety is fluorite. It's an amazing crystal and it will help you with overthinking and over-imaginatory mind. Is over-imaginatory a word? Anyway, if you've got an over-imagination, I can't even speak. If your mind goes 20 to the dozen, So it's a great crystal for organizing and structuring your thoughts, thinking more clearly, and making decisions, especially when you're under pressure. People tend to hold on to fluorite whilst they write everything down that's on their minds, and it's been reported that obviously the energy of fluorite will then help you to take everything back in and see things a lot more clearer when you're reading that back. So if you find yourself covering the same thing in your mind over and over again, worrying over things that probably won't even happen, Amethyst would be an amazing choice for you. So Amethyst helps you to release all negative thoughts from the mind. And like I say, you could lie down, you could place it over your third eye in the center of your forehead, close your eyes, and breathe deeply. You would then visualize that the Amethyst is drawing all unwanted and negative energy out of your mind and negative thoughts, and it's absorbing them. And if you don't have an amethyst, you can use something along the lines of black tourmaline, kyanite, or even good old clear quartz. It'll all work. If you're worried about a certain situation and you can't get it out of your head, maybe you're filled with that dread and worry, then moonstone should be your go-to crystal. It works to balance and calm the emotions. It's great, for instance, if you find yourself overreacting in certain situations, and moonstone will help you to process what's happening as well as heal them, rather than just suppressing your issues until they eventually blow up. And for all you girls listening, I know a couple of my friends use moonstone especially when it's that time of the month, so when your emotions can sometimes be overwhelming. And Moonstone's also a great crystal to meditate with and hold over your heart chakra, which then allows the calming effects of it soak into your body and surround your heart to help calm it down. So along with these, you can also use something like Kunzite or Amazonite, both of which will help to soothe your emotions and bring a sense of balance and peace into your life. If you have some deep-rooted emotions, so in other words emotions that we've suppressed for so long that we have outbursts of uncontrollable reactions. Kyanite can really help in these situations. So kyanite kind of looks like lots of tiny blades, and these blades represent us cutting through our anger and frustration and stress to remove the emotional hooks and attachments. And other crystals that might help you release deeply held emotions, I'd say, would be malachite or smoky quartz. Another powerful way to manage any emotion or stress like anxiety or panic is to ground yourself. And to do this, you can stand with any of the crystals that I've mentioned in each hand, and then close your eyes and just really take a moment to notice how you feel and to check in with yourself. Then you can take long, slow, and deep breaths, focusing on following your breath from the second it enters your body through your nose Following it down the back of your throat and then back up again out of your mouth. Imagine any overwhelming thoughts or emotions or concerns, worries, fears, and doubt all draining from your mind. They're going down through your body, into your legs, and out through the soles of your feet into the earth below you. You should then continue this for as long as needed until that feeling of calm takes over your body. You could always do this seated if you can't stand, but just make sure that your feet are always connected to the earth below you. Smoky Quartz is one of the best, if not the best crystal for helping to ground you and release all negative energy, stress, and anxiety in one go. It has amazing properties for cleaning and detoxifying, which can then also encourage you to release any mental, emotional, or energetic baggage and anything unwanted that you no longer need, gently absorbing them from around you. And it also anchors you to the earth and provides a sense of stability whilst doing so. And just a small reminder here that in times of stress and anxiety that we all face at some point in our lives, we tend to forget about taking care of ourselves. And as this happens, obviously the feelings of anxiety, stress, and overwhelm gets much, much worse. You can always keep some rose quartz nearby to remind yourself to love and take care of you. But in times of anxiety, you can place the rose quartz over your heart and take some long, slow, deep breaths just to remind yourself to nurture and have compassion for yourself as you work through any difficult arising emotions. I'm going to put a link to Kirstie's book Crystals for Self-Care in the show notes for this episode too, so you can check it out for yourself if you want to. It's been a great read for me. It's really helped to solidify what I already knew, as well as learning some new tips and tricks. And then just to end today, I had a message from a listener this morning as I was recording this, and she wants to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. And she said, just bear with this, do do do do, hiya, I'm wondering if I can ask a question for one of your podcasts, please. I listened to The Worst Day of Your Life, and the part about letting someone else affect your vibration really resonated with me. There's someone at work who does this to me constantly. For a grown-ass human, they're very bitchy and nasty, especially if you're new. The negative energy quite literally radiates off them. I know this is a reflection of their own internal dialogue and how they feel about themselves, but the problem is I can't stop seeing— sorry, I can't seem to stop thinking about them and how awful they are and their energy is. Obviously this is starting to affect my own thought and vibration, and I've even noticed that I wake up in a bad mood, and this isn't me at all. Do you have any tips to cut this tie I seem to have created between me and someone I don't even like and protect myself from their vile energy? PS, if you do answer this, could you do it anonymously just in case they listen and twig on? Lol. But yeah, so I think everyone goes through this at some stage in their life. Thank you for your message, by the way. I'll talk through my own personal experience of this, and then I'll also talk about what I did. So about 2 years ago, I was in a role in the NHS whereby I had to work alongside someone who had done the same role previously for many, many years. And at first it was fun and interesting, but the constant negativity sharp got to me. And as my listener mentioned in her message just there, it was a reflection on them and their own internal dialogue, how they felt about themselves. But I got into the exact same mind space, and I couldn't stop thinking about how much they dragged me down. And before I knew it, I was bitching about them to friends, to family, other colleagues. But by doing this, I was totally bringing my own vibe down and shifting my energy into negativity. Things got a lot easier during the start of the pandemic, I remember, because the first lockdown we were all made to work from home. For me, this was absolute bliss because I didn't have to see him daily and I could start work on healing myself and preserving my energy. But daily he would pop up on the group chat and frustrate me. Just to put it into context as well, he acted like a know-it-all because of how long he'd done the role for, but in actual fact he knew very little. He always made the most mistakes but then tried to cover it up by blaming other people. And whenever I myself or other colleagues made suggestions for improvement, we were always just told, 'No, it won't work, we've tried it before,' without even the slightest attempt at a trial of doing things our way. And it was such an awful atmosphere. When we were in the office, he would say "mornin'" to everyone apart from me. When we were working from home, he would say "hi" to everyone in the group chat except for me. It was kind of like I was being bullied and singled out, even though I never mentioned it. But I wasn't the only one that noticed it. It was mentioned by other people on several occasions, but nobody ever challenged him about it, so he just kept doing it more and more and more. And I remember the day that I got offered my new role and I announced it to the team on a video call and everyone said congratulations straight away and that they were so happy for us. Everyone was like jumping around saying well done and stuff. And he sat there with a face only a mother could love, miserable as sin, and couldn't even bring himself to say well done or congratulations or anything. Now that to me is a miserable, horrible, negative energy that I never ever want to deal with ever again. Actually, just being around him made me want to quit my job daily because I just thought anything has to be better than this. Like, I would have even gone back to the fish counter at ASDA like what I did when I was 15 years old and come home smelling of crab every day than do this. Anyway, the more I stayed, the more it got to me. Obviously, I had to work my 2 months notice period afterwards as well, and other people kept saying to me, "Don't let him bother you," or "Why do you let it affect you so much?" So after I left that role, I put everything into perspective, and in my mind, I went back to revisit it all just so I could move on and get it out of my mind. By him treating me like I wasn't there, or ignoring me, or even speaking to me like shit when he did, his energy immediately was rubbing off on mine and dragging me down and so then I was taking out my frustrations on others, so that was probably making him more frustrated in turn and making him take his anger out on me even more. I used to wake up in a bad mood too, thinking, "Oh God, another day at work." I honestly started hating the job so much just because I had to work alongside him. When he was off on leave, the job was an absolute breeze and actually quite enjoyable. But what I have learned is to not feed the beast. And by this I mean try not to raise to their level. It is hard— it is easier said than done, should I say, but in hindsight, when he said something to me that peed me off, I probably should have just taken myself off for 30 seconds, gone and took a few deep breaths, made myself a cup of tea, and came back with a clear head. But instead, I couldn't let it go. I would bicker back and forth to him and feed the situation. Now, something that Cheryl Cole said years ago stuck with me. All this time, and I often refer back to it. She was once asked in an interview how she dealt with stressful situations, and I remember what she said. She said, 'Will this situation matter in a year's time? If no, let it go.' And I think that's a really powerful statement, and like I say, I come back to it all the time. So what I should have done is think, 'Am I going to be worried about him in a year's time? No, because I'm going to be in a different role, so why am I letting it bother us now?' But other ways that you could deal with these type of people, or as I refer to them, mood hoovers, is to challenge their actions in a positive way. So take them to one side, just positively, and just say, not meaning this to be nasty, it's just a chat, but are you aware that your actions are having such a negative impact on others within the team, including myself? And just see what they say. I mean, you've got nothing to lose at the end of the day. If they get worse, you can send them into a disciplinary or go to your line manager and say, like, I've approached so-and-so because of this and it's got worse. The only thing is, obviously, with some people it comes down to having no self-awareness and not being aware of what they radiate out to others. So by bringing it to the forefront of their attention, you might actually get somewhere. Another way, like I did, is to limit the time you spend with those mood hoovers. So Although I appreciate when they're in your team at work, it is quite hard to do so, but you could always have a little word with your line manager on the sly and just explain the situation and ask if you could potentially be slightly removed from any duties with that person that's dragging you down, just so you're not paired up with them in certain situations and making it awkward for you. But I guess the main thing for me was to not get sucked in because it does become your life, and once it gets inside of you, it's like a virus. It's really hard to get those feelings back out of your body. I'd say meditate frequently to release that negativity, and kind of like what I was saying earlier with the sodalite, maybe try carrying some labradorite instead. So this transmutes negative energy into positive. So try on a morning before your shift, maybe meditate, visualize yourself in that protective bubble that I talked about earlier, just knowing that the negative energy can't pierce it and get inside. And if you can, limit all interactions with them. Ultimately, if you have to converse with them, kill them with kindness. This helps to offset their bad energy with your good energy. If they see that you're all happy and chirpy when they're all trying to drag everyone else down, the chances they'll stop trying to make an effort with you anyway because they're on a totally different wavelength to you. And I've done that in the past as well. I've just been nice as pie to someone to the point that I've heard them say to another person, "Never speaking to him again, he's far too happy for this time of the morning." And it works. They never spoke to me again, and I was happy about that. I didn't want to be dragged down first thing in the morning. It sets you up shit for the rest of the day. But yeah, seriously, to you who sent me a message, I'm not going to mention your name, but seriously, good luck. I hope you can get through it all and you can come out the other side without having to switch jobs like I felt the need to. But let me know how you get on as well, because I am keen to know. I've done so well not to mention your name as well, because I keep going to. But if you have any questions for the podcast and you want to send me a message, get in touch. You can reach me @cunnycrystals on TikTok and Instagram, or you can reach me on my personal, which is @marttweedy. All links are in the show notes. And feel free, drop me a message. Let me know what you think about the podcast as well. I'm always up for hearing your thoughts on how I could improve it, what topics and subjects you'd like to hear in the future. And please, if you haven't done already, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast. I do read every single one and I love them all. Thank you so, so much. I've seen all the new ones this week, it's amazing. We're moving up the podcast charts again. Tell all your friends about it and don't forget to visit my website cannycrystals.co.uk. And I'll see you all next week. Bye!