I’ve officially jumped on the crystal train, and for very good reason. The more I’ve learned about their power and how to work with them, the more I notice what a big difference they can truly make.

Now, you can’t just get crystals (aka stones) and expect them to work like magic. You have to tend to your crystals. You have to cleanse them, charge them, and work with them to set your intention and what you want to manifest from them. You’ll find that some crystals have multiple uses, so be sure to choose a crystal that has properties based on what your intention is. Essentially, choose crystals that have the right properties for what you are seeking or trying to manifest.

To cleanse your crystals: You can run the crystal through palo santo or sage smoke. You can leave your crystals out under a full moon. You can pass the stone through a candle flame, being careful not to scorch it. When you do this, you can visualize all the energies from the stone becoming white healing light. There are many ways to cleanse a stone. My personal favorite is through palo santo smoke, but find the method that works best for you.

To charge your crystals: To charge a stone, you’re basically programming it and infusing it with a single intention. You’re visualizing what you want from the stone. There are a number of ways to charge a crystal, but one way is to hold it in your non-dominant hand and imagine a white light surrounding you and the stone. Then, inspire the stone with your desired intention and ask for its help and guidance. Work with this stone often to achieve your desired result. There are also many ways to charge your crystal, so find what feels right for you.

But remember, there is a HUGE difference between cleansing and charging your crystals. Cleansing means removing the crystal of any excess energy it may have absorbed and clearing any energetic impurities. Charging means programming your crystal and telling it what your intentions are and what you seek from it.

Here are some of my favorite crystals for various areas of life:

Love

Rose Quartz: The number one stone for unconditional love. Rose Quartz is known as the stone of love. It opens our heart to love, peace, forgiveness, compassion, and harmony. It can heal a wounded heart and opens the heart to all kinds of love, including teaching us to love ourselves and restoring self-confidence.

Rhodonite: Carries a powerful healing vibration that helps with relationship problems. Promotes emotional healing, forgiveness, compassion, and helps release fear. It teaches you to work with your heart, balances emotions, and soothes the soul. A calming, loving, and healing stone that decreases hasty decision-making while increasing self-esteem and confidence.

Garnet: Promotes love and sparks adoration and devotion from the root of our being. Helps to manifest what you truly want. A fiery stone that speeds up recovery processes, and is a symbol of courage, passion, and energy.

Rhodochrosite: Encourages unconditional love and tenderness. Fosters inner security, self-worth, and emotional stability. Empowers one to face and heal their past and has the ability to heal trauma, especially related to sexual abuse.

Sardonyx: Brings lasting happiness and stability into a marriage. Enhances partnerships by promoting integrity and virtuous behavior.

Sodalite: Helps us say the right thing at the right time to support our partner. Perfect for communication and self-expression. Facilitates rational discussion and the confidence to talk through things.

Moonstone: Brings new energy and aids in the acceptance of the highs and lows that are felt in a relationship. Enhances feminine energy and fertility. It helps calm responses and stress and aids in avoiding overreaction.

Anxiety, Stress, And Depression

Labradorite: Protects you from irrational fears and helps ease worries. Deflects unwanted energies that can drain you by creating a negativity shield. Helps stimulate your intuition and increase confidence. It connects you with the energy of light and clears and opens all of your chakras.

Lepidolite: One of the most effective crystals for anxiety, lepidolite creates a sense of peace and serenity. It naturally contains lithium, which is often used in anti-anxiety medication. A great stone for transformation and assisting with making positive life changes. It relieves worry and overwhelm and balances emotions.

Lapis Lazuli: Clears emotional baggage and gives you mental strength. A great stone for overcoming trauma. Enhances your insight, awareness, and inner truth. Unifies the mind and voice to bring clarity to thought and speech. Teaches compassion and spiritual love. Great for meditation, since it allows us to reflect on and realize what’s important versus what’s unimportant and awakens the third eye chakra.

Selenite: A purifying stone that assists with cleansing the mind and providing clarity of thought. It can absorb negative energy while attracting light and positive energy. Shifts resentment, anger, and grudges while encouraging love and forgiveness. Clears away the darkness one may feel and can release blocked emotions.

Amethyst: Can be used for many things including help with addiction problems, insomnia, and enhancing your intuition. It is mainly used to provide peace and balance and to relieve stress. A perfect stone to have during meditation because amethyst provides you with a strong spiritual connection, sense of calm, and a better understanding of life.

Blue Lace Agate: Calming and soothing stone that brings peace and patience. It is healing and promotes relaxation. It can also help in creating trust and recovering self-confidence.

Shungite: Known as the miracle stone. It brings relief from anxiety and stress, while protecting you from electromagnetic frequencies. It also purifies, heals, and cleanses your aura. It is a protective stone that is great for transformation, boosting your energy level, and good for your overall health. Shungite brings you back down to earth, and can help you transform the dark emotions from your past into light and positivity. Detoxifies and purifies the mind, body, and spirit.

Career And Workplace

Carnelian: Promotes assertion without being too aggressive. Gives you a boost in confidence to help you get tasks done. Great for ambition, energy, and action.

Fluorite: Heightens your mental abilities and promotes creativity. It also helps with organizing and processing new information and clears the mind from distractions.

Tiger’s Eye: Balances your first three chakras to help you stay grounded in overwhelming situations or times of high stress. It increases courage, confidence, strength, and personal power. It helps you overcome fatigue and discouragement. Tiger’s eye makes scattered thoughts, feelings, and information come together in a way that makes sense. A great mood lifter that stimulates you to take action and manifest goals.

Citrine: Gives you a spark of creativity. Also useful in boosting memory, concentration, and confidence. It is a stone for light, happiness, and abundance. It helps you envision and pursue your goals, and is also said to attract wealth. The perfect stone for your desk or office.

Clear Quartz: Amplifies energy and creativity and promotes clarity of the mind. It can also amplify the energy of stones placed near it. Known as the master healer, it is one of the most powerful healing stones and is said to increase spiritual wisdom. With focused concentration, you can program clear quartz to accomplish just about any goal.

Positive Energy And Grounding

Black Tourmaline: One of the most powerful grounding and protective stones. It protects you from any negative energy around you, helps you stay grounded, and disperses tension and stress. Cleanses the emotional body of anxieties and negative thoughts. It also helps shield you from electromagnetic pollution.

Black Onyx: Known for its quieting, calming, and protecting abilities. It not only protects against negative energies, but it can absorb and calm those energies such as diffusing a quick temper or increasing your self-control. Black Onyx can create a distance between yourself and other people’s energy. It can be used to open your root chakra to help you stay grounded and calm.

Smoky Quartz: Can be used for many things, but mainly it blocks negative energies by providing you with a layer of protection, especially around your aura. It shields you from emotional attack and electromagnetic waves. Helps you overcome feelings of depression, anger, jealousy, and fear.

Hematite: Helps to ground you and bring you into yourself again. Aids in self-control and mental clarity. It clears confusion and allows you to feel more balanced, calm, and centered.

Black Obsidian: Reflects negative energy back to where it came from. Continuously cleanses and purifies negative energy that may be lingering in your aura. It offers protection from both self-inflicted and environmentally-induced negativity.

Luck And Prosperity

Jade: Reverses bad fortune and is known for bringing good luck. Helps you to embrace a positive attitude and envision new possibilities for yourself. Creates harmony of the mind, body, and spirit, and is said to be a very lucky stone.

Aventurine: This stone is known to attract luck and money, especially when taking a chance. It also helps with personal growth and intellectual learning and is known as the stone of opportunity.

Citrine: Attracts abundance and brings health, wealth, and happiness. Often known as the stone of money magic.

Lace Agate: Often called the stone of plentitude. Used to boost optimism and abundance so you can manifest good fortune.

Sleep

Rose Quartz: A comforting and calming stone that has healing powers to settle emotions. Regulates the body’s flow to reduce restlessness and reduce feelings of overwhelm. A perfect stone to keep by your bedside.

Howlite: Helps relieve insomnia and aids in remembering dreams and easing anxiety. The ultimate calming stone.

Celestite: Relieves pain, relaxes the muscles, and eases mental issues. Assists in quieting the mind for a deep, rejuvenating sleep. A peaceful and relaxing stone.