Your heart chakra is the connection between your upper chakras of mind and spirit (throat, third eye, crown) and your lower chakras of body and emotion (root, sacral, solar plexus). 

It is in the heart that we confront issues of forgiveness of self and others, unconditional love, compassion, and kindness. When we experience grief, it originates in our heart chakra, and through the power of unconditional love we can turn it into forgiveness, compassion, and empowerment.

In our heart chakra, our physical meets our spiritual, and it all mixes into this beautiful whole we call our embodied selves. It is into our heart chakras we can venture when we slip out of balance. 

Try this. Close your eyes. Place your hands over your heart chakra and breathe deeply into it. Think of someone or something that makes you feel deep love. Now, visualize that love spreading throughout your entire body, traveling with your heartbeat through your veins into your extremities and organs, traveling through your lungs and breathing out into the universe. Breath in the unconditional love the universe has for you and breathe out all the love you feel so it fills the world around you with its vibration. Do this when you are hurt, angry, worried, scared, sad, grieving, judgmental, stressed, unfocused, or experiencing any other negative emotion. Allow yourself to move into your heart chakra and feel the love that resides there. This is the basis of who you are. It is the underlying structure of the entire universe. Love waits peacefully there inside of you, ready for you to remember it and accept it as your true state of being.

Image by Bkrmadtya Karki from Pixabay ​

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Image by David Mark from Pixabay ​

I get pretty excited about crystals, and no wonder. They are beautiful, have great energy, and they're just a little bit addictive. However, as much as I talk about crystals and recommend various gems and minerals, I think it's really important to discuss safety, as well.

While I don't want you to panic and think your crystals are going to kill you, it's important you use good safety practices when working with, storing, and handling your rocks. That's because crystals can and do contain toxic substances like lead, antimony, strontium, copper, aluminum, arsenic, and others. 

It's one of the reasons you seldom see me talk about crystal elixirs - because I am concerned without the proper safety measures in place, someone is going to pop a toxic crystal into a glass of water and drink it. I'm actually covering the topic of making and using safe crystal elixirs in my upcoming book and crystals class in Portland (Feb. 25, 2018), and I may make a video for this blog at some point, as well. However, in the meantime, if you do make crystal elixirs, PLEASE look up the safety information for the crystal you are planning on using before you do so. 

Some other common sense safety tips for using crystals:

• Always wash your hands after handling any of your crystals. 
• If you are crystal shopping and holding lots of crystals, wash your hands before you eat anything (or put anything in your mouth).
• Don't get your crystals wet (or feed them after midnight) unless you know how they hold up to water. Getting certain crystals wet can cause them to leak toxic materials.
• Store crystals well away from children and pets. Some crystals look like candy to kids, and you don't want them to eat them. And some pets will eat anything.
• If you know a crystal is particularly toxic (like chalcanthite, which contains copper and sulfur or vanadinite, which contains vanadium - I have both of them, by the way), you may want to consider wearing gloves to handle it and placing it somewhere that you are more likely to look but not touch. 
• If you are particularly sensitive to substances, look up a crystal before buying it to ensure it doesn't contain anything that might be toxic. In fact, when in doubt, look it up. My book Crystals for Beginners offers a basic list of potentially toxic crystals, and I'll have a much more comprehensive list in my upcoming book.
• If you work with crystals to shape them, make jewelry, perform lapidary, etc. be sure you use proper safety equipment, including goggles, gloves, and eye protection.
• If you accidentally shatter a crystal by dropping it, be sure you vacuum the area so pets don't sniff or eat the shards.
• Avoid dropping heavy crystals on any body parts, like your foot or your head (ask me how I know).

So, in summary...don't be afraid of your crystals unless the super sharp or heavy ones are in the hands of a violent killer who is coming after you and using them as a weapon. However, do use caution when working with them because they may contain toxic substances. Wash your hands, don't eat or drink them, and be smart. If you have questions about a specific crystal, please feel free to contact me (my FB Author Karen Frazier page is your best bet), as well.

Image by Gabby Conde from Pixabay ​

Even when you think you'll remember, there's a darn good chance you'll get your crystal specimens home and think, "Now what the heck was this again?" That's why I like to snap a photo of the crystal with its name/description on my phone while I'm in the store. Then, I keep a file of crystal photos organized by color on my computer, and whenever I want to remember what something, I can look it up quickly. 

Try this. Trust me - it'll help you remember what you bought, and if the store has good descriptions of crystals, it will also help you remember its properties. 

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At 11 pounds, it's Monkey sized (she weighs just under 6 pounds).