Crystal Therapy for Anxiety + Panic Attacks
I remember when I had my first anxiety attack:
I was 18 and had just finished my solo in a regional production of "Les Miserables". I felt like I couldn't breathe and that the world was crashing down around me.
Fellow performers carried me off stage, and I had to lie down on the cold, hard floor for about an hour. I couldn't feel my body, I had no real sense of what was going on around me. I just kept thinking or feeling like I was dying.
Going back to that memory, all I can really remember is that cold, hard floor beneath me, which felt solid and soothing, and a voice in my head saying "Why are you doing this? There's nothing wrong with you."
But there WAS something wrong, only it took me years to figure that out, and a few more to find healthy ways of dealing with it.
Anxiety is real. It's not something that people make up in their heads. It's not someone being dramatic or weak or ridiculous. And it's hitting levels of epidemic proportion in human society all over the world.
I told my students last year that they could build a lucrative practice just specializing in anxiety and stress, and that it would be a win-win for everyone.
Here's the key thing in crystal therapy for anxiety + panic attacks: treating it symptomatically is not enough.
In order for true healing + recovery to happen, you must also address the underlying causes.
Case Study #3: Crystal Therapy for Anxiety + Panic Attacks
There can be all kinds of underlying causes for anxiety. Here's a list of just a few:
big changes happening in a person's life, like a move, job loss/promotion, marriage
a chemical or nutritional imbalance
digestive disorders or allergic/inflammatory reactions to certain foods
self-doubt, due to a lack of self-worth, most likely due to childhood trauma
any kind of fear, real or illusory
anticipatory dread
mental health
karmic influences or past life traumas
emotional upheaval
insecurity, stemming from feelings of a lack of control
chakra imbalances
being faced with a big risk or potential conflict
empathic vulnerability (energetically + emotionally)
stress
Everybody's needs, stories, and causes can be different, and will have to be addressed individually if you truly want to be of service them in a crystal healing session.
This is why I say again that "cookie-cutter" crystal layouts do not work.
It's not enough to just know which crystals are good for anxiety. You have to know about healing, people, symptoms + causes, AND, the crystals that can provide the energy needed for all levels of healing to occur.
If that's all you get from these articles, the awareness to look for underlying causes when facing any level of un-wellness, then that's something worthwhile! Because then you have a chance at truly healing.
The client:
For this case study we are revisiting our practice client from case study #1: Crystal Therapy for Systemic Stress.
As mentioned in the first case study, she is experiencing mostly what I described as “positive upheaval”.
She’s moving, she’s been promoted to a new role in her company that will require more work + responsibility, (and happily more pay!), and her children are both the same age and have started pre-school.
While these can all be viewed as “positive” changes in her life, they’re still all fundamental changes in her world.
She says that her house is all chaotic and in boxes. She’s experiencing separation anxiety from her kids. One wants to be at school, the other wants to stay home with mama. This is the cause for tantrums and stress first thing in the morning. There are new routines to establish, which is hard because they’re not settled in their new home yet.
At work, she’s got a big learning curve. She was awarded the promotion instead of two of her colleagues, and there’s resentment, gossip, and negativity in the office as a result. She’s facing this each morning as she goes to work, and is also worried about making mistakes, failing, or proving to not be up to the job (even though deep down she knows she’s ready and has earned this promotion).
She wakes up in the middle of the night and her mind is so racing with thoughts, worries, what if’s, and OMG’s, that she has difficulty falling back asleep for a couple of hours.
As she sits here relating all of this to me, she begins to hyperventilate, shake, and become quite upset.
My assessment:
She’s clearly suffering from anxiety brought on by a lot of upheaval and fundamental life change.
As such, there is a likely a root chakra imbalance, as home life, family, work/provision, and moving all affect the balance and governance of the root chakra.
The client is sensitive, both emotionally and energetically, and is likely an empath. This means that she will require energy clearing as well as healing.
She needs grounding to help her manage, stress relief, and emotional stabilizing to handle all of the changes.
She’s experiencing the start of a panic attack, so she needs energy to rapidly bring that back down to balance.
There is anticipatory anxiety, as well as fear and self-doubt, but this seems to be based more on fear-based thought-forms and systems of belief than emotional issues.
The more her energy and awareness is centered in her body, down out of the mind, the better she’ll move through this period of transition and the more empowered she will feel, which will help to resolve the anxiety at its source.
Chakra balance assessment: root deficient, sacral excessive, solar plexus excessive, throat deficient, third eye excessive.
Crystal layout:
1 - Smoky quartz at the feet to help draw stress + negative energy down and out of the body.
2 - Smoky quartz point at the root, pointing down, to help ground the client and send stress/lower energy down through the body to the crystals at the feet.
Smoky quartz also helps to balance a deficient root chakra.
3 - Bloodstone at the sacral chakra to help bring it back into balance, provide additional grounding + stabilizing energy to the emotional body.
4 - Honey calcite at the solar plexus chakra helps to clear any emotional energy or debris that the client may have empathically absorbed at her work place. It also helps people find greater ease through transition, and feel more secure within themselves.
5 - Lithium quartz at the heart chakra helps to reduce and resolve feelings of anxiety, and works quickly when in panic attack mode. It also expands the heart chakra, helping the client to feel greater self-worth, overall calm, and self-love.
6 - Blue calcite at the throat chakra helps to clear blockage and balance energy deficiency in that chakra. It also helps to soothe feelings of anticipatory dread and anxiety, and supports the client in speaking up for herself and acknowledging her feelings.
7 - Amethyst (left) and celestite (right) helps the client to become more self-aware when she’s caught up in a negative mental thought pattern or self-belief. It sends healing energy to the root of those thoughts in the psyche, and empowers her to make more positive choices and form more affirming thought patterns. It also helps to reduce feelings or thoughts of anxiety and anger.
8 - Angelite is a crystal antidote to anxiety, excessive thoughts and “monkey mind”. It helps to quiet the mind and supports greater feelings of awareness, peace, tranquility, and holistic perspective.
Additional notes: It’s always crucial to provide energy clearing during any crystal therapy session, and particularly when you are working on an empath, someone who is suffering from stress, anxiety, or depression, and/or potential psychic attack or toxic situations.
Lower, harmful, or stagnant energy can sit in the aura, impeding the energy healing process, and contributing to negative thoughts and emotions, and fatigue.
An easy, beginner technique to help clear the aura is to simply pass sacred smoke (smudging with sage, palo santo, etc.) through the aura.
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