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Using Crystals for Shopping and other Anxiety Inducing Experiences
Here we are at the busiest shopping time of the year once again, Xmas and I am soooo grateful for the ability to shop online. I don’t think I’ve ever liked going out shopping much, I think that’s partly because my Mum loves shopping but can never make her mind up, meaning as children my brother and I would be eternally waiting outside cubicles whilst she tried clothes on only to take them back the next day and start the cycle again, this in the days before mobile phones, Nintendo’s DS or even Gameboys. It was boredom in the extreme and we got up to mischief, which got me into trouble because I was the eldest.
If this were the only reason I disliked shopping I’d be able to summon up enough enthusiasm for Xmas shopping and all the festive cheer which I love. But, after a car accident 20 years ago, I’ve never been able to go in larger shops without triggering anxiety and sometimes panic. Why a car accident would trigger this reaction, I don’t know. But with the onset of my ME any anxiety around shopping that was subsiding, was triggered again. Now the ME has been with me for years it doesn’t just trigger a panic when shopping (shopping I can avoid, thanks to e-commerce ) I find social events even more of a struggle. I mean, perhaps panicking around people you don’t know might be seen as understandable, but who panics around people they know? The answer is me and for no good reason and I’ve become aware I’m far from alone.
When I’m faced with one of these anxiety inducing occasions, for which this joyous season is full of, what do I do to try to ward off the worst attacks? I take out some trusty crystals friends with me, at least one anxiety reducing crystal and one confidence building crystal. Anxiety reducing crystals for me include Amethyst, Kunzite, Lapis Lazuli, Lithium Quartz, Pink or Watermelon Tourmaline, Smoky Quartz and Rose Quartz and Confidence building crystals for me include Citrine, Tigers Eye, Amethyst, Clear Quartz and Turquoise. This list doesn’t completely tally with the ones on Google as the best known anxiety and confidence crystals but for me crystals resonate in a personal way and if you too feel yourself pulled to a particular crystal but it’s not on one of those lists, trust your gut feeling. As important as the crystal and it’s healing properties are is physical action of holding them, sometimes a crystal just feels good to hold. The act of turning one around in my hand or being able to touch it in my pocket is a great comfort. I don’t just take one, I might have a little collection in my handbag and a couple on my person, my bra being used if I’ve no pockets (how men cope when they have no pockets I don’t know). When I feel the wave of anxiety coming over me, the feeling of becoming really hot, the tight chest and for me, the overwhelming urge to run away, I can hold one discreetly in my hand whilst trying to direct any stray energies back towards the crystal, I direct my thought pattern back to my breathing and try to imagine calm.
All too well do I recognise the person who can’t go out because of crippling social anxiety. I know that prison of one’s own making, there’s been times it’s been me and sometimes it’s felt insurmountable. But I’m also the person that many, even some family members think as as very calm and unflappable, that amazes me sometimes. It’s fierce determination that makes me participate in something that raises my anxiety. It will then only be because I don’t want to let someone I really love down.
My crystals are like talismans to remind me to breathe deeply, stay calm, to realise I’m not trapped, I can leave at any time and also remind myself that I might feel like I stand out like a sore thumb but the reality is no one else has noticed.
Crystals help us to know and appreciate our strengths and utilise them to their fullest whilst teaching us to be tolerant towards our weaknesses, just as we would towards weaknesses in others, it’s what makes each of us human. Crystals help us to celebrate and love ourselves and not give a hoot what anyone else thinks.
Be happy, happiness is contagious. Xx
Alison
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