I’m not going to lie, when I first heard that people were turning to crystals for healing powers, I thought it sounded a bit loony and sacrilegious.  I first heard about them via Snapchat thanks to author Kelly Oxford‘s recent obsession with them.  My initial stream of consciousness went a little like this this: “Those crystals are kinda pretty…but I won’t ever do that hippie stuff… I don’t need any more knick-knacks around my bedroom…wait, could they help me?!”

Curiosity got the best of me, and I decided I at least wanted to learn the basics about healing crystals.  I turned to some of my favorite wellness sites (Hello Glow, The Chalkboard Mag and Well+Good) to see what this craziness was all about.  A little research quickly taught me that healing crystals are simply used tools to help you meditate and channel your focus and energy on improving something in your life.  They can be applied to your diet and nutrition, your beauty routine, your work and even your love life.  You most certainly do not pray to them (#phew), and you pick the crystals you personally feel drawn to.  While I still haven’t decided if I’m going to buy some (it may still just be too willy-nilly for me), I must admit I am intrigued by the thought of this ancient wellness practice. I may just stick to the beauty products infused with ’em for now.  Here’s a list of more than a dozen crystal-infused beauty products.  

So as a COMPLETE newbie to the healing crystals game, I’ve broken it down to five basic things you should know about them in the slideshow above.  And because I’m intrigued to know more, I’d love to hear it: do you use healing crystals??  Cheers, Kat

P.S. If you know someone who would be into it, check out Little Box of Rocks; it’s a great way to gift a few healing crystals to someone based on the occasion (and GP and Cameron Diaz have both apparently endorsed the brand). 

The other day, MKR and I strayed on our morning call to wonder about what it takes to form new habits and what it takes to break the bad ones.  We both agreed that it’s quite a fascinating topic really; the psychology behind what makes us do the things we do, and what it takes to actually change our behavior when we’re on auto-pilot.  We talked about how habits affect our eating behavior, fitness routine, productivity and just about every arena of our day-to-day life…and we wanted to know how to better control them. 

With my interest peaked, I started doing some digging, and I listened to this NPR interview with Charles Duhigg, the author of The Power of Habit.  Duhigg shares some interesting insight about the psychology of the habit loop (there’s always a trigger or cue, as well as the behavior itself and then a final reward).  I especially thought the fact that we’re more likely to break certain habits when we’re on vacation was SO interesting. (One more reason to pack our bags, right?!)

But with vacation over a month away, I also wondered how long it would take to create or break a habit.  Perhaps you too have heard it takes 21 days to form a new habit.  Three weeks to quit smoking, three weeks to stick to a consistent gym routine, three weeks to start making your bed, 3 weeks to apply sunscreen everyday…doesn’t seem so hard to do, right?  Unfortunately, the magical 21 number may actually be just a myth (derived from Psycho-Cybernetics, a book originally published in 1960 by Dr. Maxwell Maltz).  In reality, it probably takes a lot longer than that (looks closer to 66 days even) to form or break a habit, and it’s been widely up for debate with researchers for decades. 

In my quick research, I discovered five ways to help create (or break) a habit.  Click on the image above to read more.  Will you be putting any of these tips to work?  Cheers, Kat