Tag Archives: stress

Crystal of the Day: Green Moonstone

Green Moonstone isn’t a special breed of moonstone; it’s just a green moonstone. Moonstone comes in shades of white, grey, pink, and yellow, sometimes blue, and it has a milky, opaque hue. The colored varieties (due to deposits of certain minerals that give the stone its hue) are usually swirled with white. One day browsing at one of my favorite crystal shops, I found the green variety and it spoke to me, so I took it home and it is now one of my most cherished stones.

Green Moonstone

Moonstone is a feminine stone. It helps to ground and stabilize the emotions, helps regulate a woman’s menstrual cycle and helps ease cramping associated with the moon cycle or pregnancy, is good for fertility (including gardening!), and helps balance the feminine energies within the self. Although moonstone may be a “feminine” stone, it is an ally in self-care, balance, and connection to the intuition, thus it is an important stone for both men and women who are seeking greater integration of the personality and their polarities.

Like with many of my stones, I purchase or acquire a stone and it usually hangs out with my other stones until a need for the stone comes up. Then the stone usually travels with me in my pocket or purse as I work with its energies.

Recently, I have identified how much stress and tension has built up in my body, and have begun seeing a chiropractor. Around this same time, I started working with my green moonstone and quickly developed a bond with it. I find its energy to be very soothing and grounding, and gazing at its milky mint-green color seems to cool me down and remind me to breathe more deeply. I also work with the stone on my abdomen if I am experiencing cramps during my moon cycle and find it to be much more gentle than malachite in this department (Malachite is known as the “midwive’s stone”).

One day, after wearing my green moonstone in my pants pocket, I realized I had lost it! I tried to retrace my movements and I suspected I had lost it inside my house somehow. However, as with all lost objects and especially lost stones, I accepted the loss of the stone as a sign that I had completed my work with it at the time. I believe healing objects, in particular stones, come into our lives when we need them (we are drawn to or attract–in the way of gift or synchronous connection to–the stone we need) and likewise, they leave our lives thru loss or gifting away when we have completed our work with the stone.

Several days later I found the stone and I was so happy! However, I had already grown a lot around the topics green moonstone represents: self-care, emotional balance, feminine balance. While my healing in these areas in not complete, green moonstone helped me a great deal during several recent bouts of stress, over-work, and discomfort during my moon cycle. It has now taken its place with a piece of Angelite on my bedside table, where I look at and touch it every night, my mineral ally in re-balancing myself. Moonstone helps balance the emotions by reminding those who work with it to see the trials in life as cycles. By connecting to the cyclic view of life (moonstone also governs cycles), one is able to stabilize emotions by seeing the big picture, and the need for these emotions and situations within the larger cycle.

Here’s a list of some of green moonstone’s metaphysical properties:

  • stone of the Great Mother Goddess; represents femininity, Earth,
  • helps with balancing the emotions, integrating the emotions, and balancing the feminine aspect of the personality. Moonstone has a reflective, calming energy.
  • soothes stress, anxiety, women’s hormones; enhances intuitive sensitivity via feelings and less overwhelm by personal feelings. Greater flexibility and flow with life.
  • helps all be more comfortable with our feminine/yin receiving side, especially for water signs. Helps one be more conscious of the fact that all things are part of a cycle of constant change. It is a recommended gemstone for farmers and gardeners, artists, dancers and young men.
  • by unblocking the lymphatic system, it can heal and balance the stomach, pancreas, and pituitary gland. It can reduce swelling and excess body fluid. Placed under the pillow it will allow for a more peaceful sleep, and is often used as a cure for insomnia, used along with the amethyst.
  • wear or carry during the menstrual cycle for gentle support from pain and tension; excellent for fertility and childbirth (a birthing chamber would definitely have lots of moonstone in it!)
  • along with moss agate and jade, moonstone is great for gardening and fertility, due to its connections to water, growth, nurturing, cycles, and fertilization. I would guess green moonstone is even more aligned with plants and gardening due to its soft green hue
  • moonstone is a healer’s stone, helping those who feel the need to stuff down their own needs while caring for others take better care of themselves. It is also a stone of compassion, allowing those who care for others to be present and available without becoming burned out. Moonstone supports being emotionally present.
  • Moonstone, because of its connection to the moon, heightens intuition and is a great stone for tarot readers, astrologers, intuitive healers, psychics, etc. Its powers are said to be highest at the full moon. Wear the stone, or place it in the area you conduct intuitive readings.
  • In ancient cultures, used during the waxing of the moon for love charms and during the waning of the moon to foretell the future

Physical:
Women’s hormones/menstrual imbalance, lymph. Regenerates the tissues and organs. Heals reproductive system.

Careers:
Health care:  Doctors, Nurses, Midwives, Doulas, Massage Therapists, and other Health Care workers

Other: Sailors, Coast Guard (for its connection to water; moonstone was often carried as a protective amulet by sailors)

Activities: Gardening, weeding, planting, vacation cruises, swimming, water sports

Magical Properties:
Energy: Receptive
Element: Water
Deities: Diana, Selene, Isis, all lunar goddess
Associated stone: Quartz Crystal
Associated metal: Silver
Powers: Love, divination, sleep, gardening, protection, youth, dieting, psychic abilities.

Zodiac:
Associations: Moon
Mystical Birthstone for the Month of June
Stone of Cancer, Libra and Scorpio
Moonstone has a positive influence on Cancer while a bluish moonstone is more effective for Pisces.

Chakra Classification:
Moonstone is most beneficial on the 2nd, or Sacral/Navel Chakra, for most, but it also connects 2nd, or Sacral/Navel Chakra and 6th, or Third Eye/Brow Chakra for emotional balance and gracefulness.

It is, as well, used to balance the 4th, or Heart Chakra, in helping us discern what we want and what we need…as they do not come from the same place. Moonstone can assist you in absorbing those necessary things in life, while helping you discern what is merely wanted.

Moonstone will help achieve a balance between heart and mind without losing the gentleness and caring needed, yet keep the emotions in check to allow you to function properly.

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Yoga helps manage pain and keeps the nervous system balanced

A new study published today by York University in Toronto, Canada, finds that practicing yoga twice a week diminished pain in women with fibromyalgia. Yoga helps manage the subjective experience of pain by teaching how to observe thoughts and sensations as fleeting things that do not define the self. After practicing twice weekly for eight weeks, subjects reported “catastrophizing” about pain less, felt less helpless, and also reported less pain.

The practice of yoga is absolutely correlated with stimulating the para-sympathetic nervous system, the part of your nervous system responsible for relaxation, lowered blood pressure, and deeper breathing. By contrast, our modern lives can be defined as having a sympathetic nervous system style: rushing, anxiety, pressure, competition, poor food and lifestyle choices, and insufficient sleep keep us in a state of stress hormone overload. The “flight or fight” sympathetic nervous system can get stuck in the “on” position when we are under a barrage of stress, bad food choices, cellular devices, and insufficient sleep.

The regular practice of yoga can help to bring the system into balance, reducing pain, reducing stress, and giving your adrenal glands a chance to rest. When the sympathetic nervous system dominates, the adrenals pump out cortisol all day (which they are not supposed to do; they reach their maximum function about 30-40 minutes after we wake up), leading to a condition known as Adrenal Fatigue.

Practice yoga to keep your nervous system in a state of balance and good health!

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