Crystal Wisdom Unveiled with Guest Lauren Josenhans

In this episode of Curious Mystics, we dive deep into the magic and mystery of crystals with special guest Lauren Josenhans, owner of Stella Luna, LLC. Together, we explore how crystals connect us to the energy of the Earth, amplify intuition, and support spiritual healing. Lauren shares her personal journey into the world of crystal work, the stories behind some of her favorite stones, and how to choose, cleanse, and connect with crystals that align with your soul’s energy.

Whether you’re new to crystal healing or have been collecting them for years, this episode will help you see these sacred stones in a whole new light. Tune in for a grounded yet mystical conversation about energy, intention, and the deep wisdom that crystals hold.

Lauren Josenhans is the owner of StellaLuna in Southington CT and holds advanced certifications from the Love & Light School of Crystal Therapy and Hibiscus Moon Crystal Academy.  A Reiki Master of the Usui Tradition and Witch for nearly four decades, Lauren crafts a variety of items sold in her Shop, where she also offers private Crystal Healing Sessions.  She can be found on social media at @stellalunallc  

Want to learn more about crystals? Here are some links that Lauren recommends:

Ashley Leavy (Owner of the Love and Light School of Crystal Therapy) - website: loveandlightschool.com

Nicholas Pearson (Author) website: theluminouspearl.com  

Stella Luna, LLC in Southington, CT: https://stellalunallc.com

Follow us on:
instagram @curious_mystics_podcast
Facebook - Curious Mystics Podcast 

Work with Aericka Khongdy : https://www.holistichealingwithaericka.com/

Transcript

Aericka Khongdy (00:01.08)
Good morning, it's Erica from Curious Mystics podcast.

Kimaira Bernardini (00:03.22)
and Kim.

Kimaira Bernardini (00:07.436)
Thank you for being here with us.

Aericka Khongdy (00:09.794)
We have a special guest that we're super excited to have with us today. Her name is Lauren Jo Zunhans, and she's the owner of Stella Luna in Southington, Connecticut, and holds an advanced certifications from the Love and Light School of Crystal Therapy and Hibiscus Moon Crystal Academy. She's a Reiki master of the Usi tradition and witch for nearly four decades.

Kimaira Bernardini (00:14.419)
Yes!

Aericka Khongdy (00:37.594)
And Lauren crafts a variety of items sold in her shop where she also offers private crystal healing sessions and she can be found on social media at Stellaluna LLC. Welcome.

Lauren (00:50.065)
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Kimaira Bernardini (00:50.272)
Welcome Lauren.

Aericka Khongdy (00:54.946)
We are too-

Kimaira Bernardini (00:55.126)
We're excited to have you. I don't know if you and Erica have had this part of this conversation, but your shop is definitely one of our favorites. Yes.

Aericka Khongdy (01:05.237)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (01:05.393)
Oh, thank you so much. means a lot to me. I appreciate that.

Aericka Khongdy (01:10.208)
Yeah, it definitely is. And we've been to a number of shops in the area in Connecticut, and there are no shops that I feel the amount of energy that I feel when I go into your shop.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:22.476)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (01:24.901)
thank you, thank you. That is the whole reason I opened the shop, truly. Gosh, I used to work in a shop very similar to mine back in the early 2000s. Dating myself here, but we've already gotten that part anyway, but here and there. And I loved going in there. I loved being in there and just surrounded by all those spiritual things.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:38.792)
Hehehehe

Aericka Khongdy (01:41.774)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (01:52.465)
And I have all those things at home, but it just wasn't quite the same feeling as walking into a place. So I really wanted to cultivate that. I missed that. So when people come in and tell me they can feel that energy, just shivers down my spine because that truly is the reason that I opened the store in the first place is to have to be able to share that experience with other people and have them feel that like,

This feels so good to be here, so thank you.

Aericka Khongdy (02:23.648)
it does, I'm literally there like every other week and every time I go in there I'm just like covered in goosebumps and just like warm and tingly.

Kimaira Bernardini (02:30.635)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (02:34.153)
I think we might have mentioned that before on a different episode and maybe we didn't specifically say this was the shop, but yes, you've done a fantastic job with that, Lauren. it's definitely something that I don't have the same type of experience as Erica with like the physical energy and like vibration.

but I definitely feel a shift when I go in there and it's like, this is exactly what you want it to be. So I very much appreciate that.

Lauren (03:03.045)
Thank you. Yeah, I often say it's the first time when I walk in the door, it's the first time in the whole day that I can take a breath. You know, do have a day job in addition to this job. it's overwhelming sometimes, but this is my happy place for sure.

Aericka Khongdy (03:11.47)
Mm.

Kimaira Bernardini (03:11.923)
Yes.

Aericka Khongdy (03:23.628)
What first drew you to crystals?

Lauren (03:27.297)
I have always, always loved crystals from as far back as I can remember. grew up

and like towards the shoreline. So we would take recess at the beach. I was always playing with the pebbles and my father would take us to museums and I would be like in the crystal section of like all the natural museums. Those little pencils with the chips. I don't know if maybe really taking myself here, but I loved those and I would just play with them for hours. And yes, I've just always been drawn to

Kimaira Bernardini (03:38.687)
Mm.

Kimaira Bernardini (03:50.004)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Aericka Khongdy (03:54.091)
yeah.

Lauren (04:02.831)
the way that they look, the way they feel, I just love them.

Kimaira Bernardini (04:08.897)
That's pretty cool. I think when you find that there's something that you've been drawn to throughout your life, and it just flows so naturally. It's like, yes, this makes sense. This is where I need to be or how I need to incorporate this in my life, which is always, it's a great experience, find, to have that.

Kimaira Bernardini (04:30.496)
Do you remember the first crystal that you ever received and what it meant for you?

Lauren (04:39.149)
I've been thinking about this the very first crystal. it actually wasn't a crystal at all, it turns out, but I held on to it and I think it was worn down from how often I would just hold it and rub it. But it was actually like a little piece of like fossilized coral that I had found on the beach. And I didn't know it at the time. There's a lot of things that we refer to as crystals that aren't technically speaking a crystal, but.

Kimaira Bernardini (04:47.134)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (04:55.934)
Yeah.

Kimaira Bernardini (05:06.24)
Mm.

Lauren (05:07.089)
as a general population we consider it a crystal. So things like obsidian, for example, not technically a crystal, but we all put it in with the crystals. So, but yeah.

Kimaira Bernardini (05:13.087)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (05:17.437)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (05:17.518)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (05:20.307)
How do you think that came to be? What is the difference between the things that are crystals and not, and how they can sometimes be covered under the same umbrella?

Lauren (05:32.753)
So they have a lot of this, they do still carry the energetic properties. They're of mineral loids, technically, things like amber, obsidian, things that had a biological...

Kimaira Bernardini (05:41.138)
Okay.

Lauren (05:49.23)
I the word I'm looking for, but like the origin, thank you, a biological origin. So what defines a crystal is its perfect geometric patterns. And when we see things like obsidian, which is lava that's cooled very quickly, it's technically a glass. It doesn't have that perfect crystal structure. It will not always fracture the same way or.

Kimaira Bernardini (05:53.863)
Okay.

Kimaira Bernardini (06:01.011)
Okay.

Aericka Khongdy (06:11.502)
you

Lauren (06:18.481)
I can't find the words but there are very subtle differences but because they are processed the same way where people will tumble them and they I'm sorry

Kimaira Bernardini (06:19.987)
That's very interesting.

Aericka Khongdy (06:33.922)
That's okay. That's okay. Take your time. Breathe. No, it's okay.

Kimaira Bernardini (06:33.949)
That's okay. We can. So.

Lauren (06:39.377)
My long bars. I got too much rolling around and it just can't come out fast enough.

Kimaira Bernardini (06:46.843)
I do that all the time. And then I stumble over my words or I forget a word that I should know or I make up a word and I'm like, I don't even know if that's real, but I'm just gonna say it. Yeah.

Aericka Khongdy (06:48.022)
Hahaha!

Lauren (06:55.611)
Yeah, for sure. Yes. Like, how do you spell the number four? F-U-R? That doesn't look right. Is it four?

Aericka Khongdy (06:55.938)
Yeah, my brain just stops. It just stops, so it's okay.

Kimaira Bernardini (07:02.321)
Yeah. Right, and then it stops feeling like it's even real. We've all been there. So there's differences in some of the properties of what's a crystal versus what's not, but sometimes they all get under the same umbrella because they all have those like energetic properties.

Lauren (07:08.145)
Exactly.

Aericka Khongdy (07:10.946)
Totally.

Lauren (07:26.073)
I think that's part of it. think collectively as a society, we've kind of decided like, we're going to call this a crystal. It's going to be lumped in as a crystal, which linguistically is fine. Scientifically, maybe not, but you know, really at the end of the day doesn't impact it as much.

Kimaira Bernardini (07:27.602)
Okay.

Kimaira Bernardini (07:37.118)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (07:42.28)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (07:49.883)
Yeah.

Lauren (07:50.994)
There are people who are extreme purists that don't even like tumbled crystals. They only want to work with raw crystals. And of course, that's fine. That's their prerogative.

Kimaira Bernardini (07:58.171)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Lauren (08:03.618)
I think it's a matter of.

Kimaira Bernardini (08:04.198)
Yeah, I think it would, I mean it seems like it just makes it a little bit easier to have everything to be easily classified that way. You know if you're using it for this type of purpose then it might fall under the same umbrella, so that makes sense.

Lauren (08:14.981)
Yes.

Kimaira Bernardini (08:23.71)
Is there a difference in how you acquire the crystals? And like, I don't know, I hear people talking about like you have to be very mindful of like where you're getting your crystals from. So for you as a shop owner, is there something that you're looking for specifically and when you're getting your crystals in your shop?

Lauren (08:49.233)
Well, a lot of the vendors that I work with to acquire the crystals I've worked with for decades, I think it's important to have dealers that you trust and that

Kimaira Bernardini (08:57.533)
Mm.

Lauren (09:02.481)
It's obvious when people are in it just for the money and people are in it for the love of crystals or minerals or, you know, however you want to classify what they do, you can tell when they like and appreciate it. That being said, there are many levels.

Kimaira Bernardini (09:10.983)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (09:24.489)
on down the line from where a crystal lives in the earth, there are many stages along which it gets touched. So the ethics of crystals and mining come up a lot. And I think that there's a lot more destruction involved in the kinds of crystals that are in our cell phone, in our homes. We are surrounded by crystals all the time. So

Kimaira Bernardini (09:31.07)
Mm.

Aericka Khongdy (09:36.749)
Hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (09:45.346)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (09:46.737)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (09:49.134)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (09:51.546)
I think ultimately what it comes down to is that if you can trust your vendors and you know what you're looking for, there's a lot of glass fakes on the market. There are a lot of lab grown crystals. And at the end of the day, if you really are connecting with a crystal, I'll take Citrine as an example. There are people that are like,

I only work with natural citrine. don't work with citrine that you find more readily available, which is heat treated amethyst. So when amethyst becomes, amethyst gets heated, it becomes a citrine, a citrine. A natural citrine is heated by mother earth. So there are slight differences in that. You have that influence of the manmade process involved.

Aericka Khongdy (10:27.16)
Mmm.

Lauren (10:45.945)
Some people don't, it doesn't affect their practice at all. And some people prefer not to work with crystals that have been so influenced by mechanical means. However,

Aericka Khongdy (10:59.864)
Hmm, that makes sense,

Kimaira Bernardini (10:59.984)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (11:01.359)
I mean, if you think about it, unless you're the one out there chipping away and digging at that crystal yourself, even then you're cutting a little piece of a much bigger hole. So you can really go down the rabbit hole in terms of purity, so to speak. I don't know if that's the best word, but I think ultimately if you have a connection and you vibe with it.

Kimaira Bernardini (11:12.422)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (11:13.154)
right.

Kimaira Bernardini (11:29.658)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (11:33.422)
Do you have any like tips or tricks that you would recommend if you do go into a shop or into an area to kind of know whether that, cause like you said, you don't want like a plastic or a glass one. Cause I've been into some shops and I'm like, yeah, I like this is, I wouldn't buy anything here, you know? So do you have any like tips or tricks on how to kind of differentiate that or how to, you know?

Kimaira Bernardini (11:33.542)
Yeah.

Lauren (11:59.01)
If you are in a place and it is clearly indicated heat treated, it's a train, or if the shop owner or whoever you're working with is transparent about, you know, where it came from, if they know, and that's not to say if they don't know that it's just automatically bad, but there are certain crystals that are frequently copied or

manufactured, I'll say things like obolite. Obolite is glass and it's beautiful, but it doesn't have any of like earth energy into it. Although if you really want to get technical, glass comes from sand, sand is quartz. So it can be a very roundabout way.

There are like agate, agate slices. I'm sure they're pretty common and ubiquitous. If they come in colors that do not exist in nature, hot pink, bright blue, you can usually see if a crystal has been dyed, you'll see the dye that kind of pools and the cracks and crevices of it. There are treatments that go over crystals like the titanium or the aura plating it's known as. I personally love, love those crystals because

Aericka Khongdy (13:11.95)
Mmm.

Lauren (13:23.683)
I just love that little added rainbow. But I don't often work with them in my practice per se. I will enjoy their beauty and that also produces a result that we want, right, is joy and happiness. So those are some of the things I would look for is

Aericka Khongdy (13:30.19)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (13:39.074)
Right.

Kimaira Bernardini (13:43.939)
Yeah, I think that brings up a really good point too in that

know, Erica and I are often talking about how sometimes you just have to work with what you have and it has a lot to do with what your intention is, what your purpose is, how you're putting your energy into it. So if you can differentiate, okay, maybe this isn't like this crystal in its purest form. However, this is my energy that I'm pouring into it, my intention for it, then it can be just as effective and for whatever the purpose or outcome that you're looking for.

Lauren (14:17.719)
absolutely. think that I lost my thought. think that when when we try to be too prescriptive, you know, with a crystal like, okay, I, I need a crystal for protection. Okay, I can recommend several.

crystals for protection. But I think the important thing is how it resonates with you personally. We are all made up of energy and the properties that are associated with crystals are accurate for most people, but not for all people. Not everybody responds to crystals the same way. So it's more important to work with what you feel drawn to work with than it is to come in with a list of I need this, I need this because

Aericka Khongdy (14:57.294)
All right.

Lauren (15:09.107)
And the example that I use often is we can say, gosh, I've got a headache. I need some aspirin. And that aspirin might work for that headache, but it'll come back in two hours if the real reason is because you're dehydrated and what you really needed was water. So.

Aericka Khongdy (15:21.742)
Mm.

Aericka Khongdy (15:26.22)
There you go.

Lauren (15:27.793)
That's kind of how I like to approach crystals and working with them. And one of the biggest pieces of advice I think I give to people when they are looking for specific crystals is kind of, what do you feel drawn to? Because usually if there's something out of balance, the crystal that can help balance it will stand out almost waving at you like, me, pick me, you know? And more often than that, it's exactly what you needed.

Aericka Khongdy (15:50.872)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (15:57.582)
I have definitely experienced that with, so when I do like shamanic work or shamanic journeys, I've been picking, just like looking at my little group of crystals and being like, okay, who wants to work with me today? And definitely have been seeing a difference in how that has increased my abilities. It's kind of a different one each day, so.

Lauren (16:25.701)
Yes, I say the same thing when I look at my jewelry. Who wants to work with me today?

Aericka Khongdy (16:31.202)
Yeah, yeah, definitely. What are some misconceptions? I guess this kind of goes along with this. Are there any misconceptions that you hear often about crystals?

Lauren (16:42.101)
I think more often than not, the biggest one is that there are some crystals that don't need to be cleansed or even cleansing crystals per se. I don't think that we can impact a crystal's energy as much as they can impact our energy. That being said, they can pick things up over time energetically and it's, it's almost like dusting a shelf or all the knick-knacks that we have.

Aericka Khongdy (17:00.814)
Hmm.

Lauren (17:11.557)
that energy can build up like dust, that dust doesn't belong to that crystal and that crystal would still work with the dust, but maybe not as well. So when I'm thinking about cleansing a crystal, I'm not aware of any crystals that don't need to be cleansed because they never collect negative energy.

And I don't even like to use the term negative energy. There's negative and positive. I mean, it is just all energy. So there's energy that, you know, doesn't feel right. And there's energy that feels like, this will work. So I think working with the crystals that feel right to you and keeping them

physically clean and also kind of energetically clean by doing things like I personally love sound cleansing the energy or the vibrations from the noise of the sound whether it's a singing bowl, a chime, even some beautiful music, doesn't have to be too fancy, a bell. Those work almost like ultrasonic cleansers do for your jewelry.

off anything that doesn't need to be there. Crystals energies are very solid and steady. are around for millions of years. We're here for maybe a hundred if we're lucky. we're not as impacted or we are more impacted than the crystals are. Their energy isn't shifting as much.

Aericka Khongdy (18:48.174)
That's cool to know.

Lauren (18:48.197)
we can have a bad hair day and that's the whole of the day, right?

Kimaira Bernardini (18:48.45)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. think, you know, I hear like people talk about, okay, you need to make sure that you're very regimented with it and do it every, every week or every month or things like that. But understanding that they might have more stability than what we're giving them credit for or what we're, you know, imposing on them. That's an important piece of it. What about when you're

Aericka Khongdy (18:51.687)
That's the whole day.

Kimaira Bernardini (19:21.24)
maybe using them frequently and find that there is some like natural wear and tear or that they break or anything like that. What would you recommend in those cases?

Lauren (19:32.812)
Usually, so I guess it depends on the circumstance, of course. And yes, the more that you work with a crystal, the more frequently you would need to, you know, just kind of give it an energetic refresh. We'll call it that. Broken crystals, if you love it, if the tip is broken off or there's a little chip in it.

it won't work exactly the same, but it's still going to do what it needs to do. It's not its only energy output through the tip of that. So I guess it depends on how hung up you are by it. If every time you pick it up, all you're focusing on is that chip and that broken thing and it breaks your heart, I wouldn't necessarily continue to work with that. I might stick it in my favorite plant or just put it in more of a display crystal than a use crystal area. But yeah, if you love it so much, like,

I dropped one of my towers one time and I was like, no, it didn't break the whole thing, but it put this beautiful kind of rainbow crack in it. And I thought, all right, well, that's supposed to happen. And it kind of, you know, reminded me of our own selves. You know, none of us are perfect. If you've been married for a long time, your partner more than likely doesn't look the same as they did when you first married them because we grow, we age.

Aericka Khongdy (20:49.806)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (20:54.835)
but we still are at our core who we are. So I think it depends. But you can look at it as an adding character to the crystal. I never say it's totally ruined, but.

Aericka Khongdy (21:07.67)
love that. That was beautiful. It's beautiful analogy or metaphor or I don't know. it analogy, right? Sure. Whatever it was, beautiful.

Lauren (21:10.041)
thanks.

Kimaira Bernardini (21:18.443)
Sure. It was beautiful. That's it. Yeah. Do you think that there are certain things that you would consider to be like the hardest or the best part of working with crystals?

Lauren (21:34.354)
The hardest part is not having enough space to have all the or money to have all the crystals that I want. Yeah. I mean, and the best part, honestly, for me, the best part is when I have a client who comes in who is just, I mean, you're both practitioners, you're aware, like you have these people that come in and you can just tell they're going through it.

Aericka Khongdy (21:38.542)
Heard that, heard that.

Kimaira Bernardini (21:39.127)
Yeah.

Lauren (21:59.25)
And when they leave with a smile, like I can't even talk about it, it's choking me up. That to me is the chef's guess of working with crystals is being able to see someone's whole affect turn around just because they were able to kind of connect with a bit of earth energy. yeah, to me, there's nothing better than that. I think that's my favorite part of working with crystals.

Aericka Khongdy (22:02.121)
Aww.

Kimaira Bernardini (22:06.614)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (22:12.937)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (22:26.988)
Yeah, that's, as like you said, both practitioners and have multiple different things and, you know, definitely have had that feeling and understand that feeling. And that's why I do what I do. assume Kim's the same.

Kimaira Bernardini (22:41.579)
Yeah, I know that we've definitely talked about that before, but I think the connection of it, like being able to see that connection be made or be part of that connection or helping somebody make that connection, yeah, I can see why that would be super significant.

Lauren (22:54.384)
yeah.

It's an honor to me and that goes even just in the shop outside of the Crystal Healing, just being here when people feel comfortable enough and trust me enough and even care enough about what I think about our situation to be able to help somebody. mean, it's just this place, my shop, it brings with it a lot of opportunity to help people in ways outside of a transactional.

Kimaira Bernardini (23:26.656)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (23:28.283)
day so that to me is always like...

Kimaira Bernardini (23:29.599)
Yeah.

Lauren (23:33.197)
on the right path when I when I get that like confirmation like someone left with a smile that's freaking awesome.

Kimaira Bernardini (23:36.863)
Yeah.

Aericka Khongdy (23:41.954)
Yeah.

Kimaira Bernardini (23:42.719)
Definitely.

Aericka Khongdy (23:45.39)
What are some different ways that people can start to learn about crystals when there's like so much out there like you go there's internet there's AI there's Walmart there, you know what mean? is there what do you obviously not let's not do one What? Where would you say be a good place to start or you know?

Lauren (24:02.02)
Yeah.

Lauren (24:08.977)
Well, I have two wonderful friends who are in the crystal healing arena who are amazing. Absolutely love them both. Ashley Levy, she's the owner of the Love and Light School and she has a ton, a ton, a ton of resources. There's a lot of free work resources out on her site. She's been doing this for a long time and...

Yeah, she is a wonderful resource that I trust and she's very open and a great teacher in terms of, you know, I can show it to you visually, I can show it to you through text, know, however you learn best. She's a wonderful teacher and she has this knack for helping you see that.

Another one of the folks that I always recommend, his name is Nicholas Pearson. He's an author. He is brilliant and has been doing this forever as well. They are both wonderful resources. But I think at the end of the day, there's really no better teacher than experience. there's not a lot.

that you can do wrong when working with crystals. One caveat, if you're working with crystals and making an elixir, when in doubt, leave it out. That's a whole nother topic, but that's maybe the only way you could hurt yourself with crystals. But.

Try it out, see what works for you. Because the same thing won't work for every person. And another huge piece of advice that I give almost daily is trust your gut, trust your instincts. Don't doubt them. If you feel like, I don't even understand why I'm drawn to this, follow it anyway.

Aericka Khongdy (26:01.646)
Well, your website also for your store has an amazing like list of what the crystals are and what they do and how you can use them. So I would definitely, I'd recommend going there too. And we'll put everybody, we'll put everybody at the show notes too, like with it, people that you suggested, but yeah.

Lauren (26:12.722)
yes. Well thank you.

Kimaira Bernardini (26:15.814)
You

Lauren (26:21.389)
Excellent. I can't take credit for that part of the website. My daughter, is the manager at the shop, Tessa, she put that all together because, you know, a lot of people want the little tags to go with the papers and we just logistically haven't been able to figure out how to make that affordable and still keep everything else affordable. So we have the list on the website. We have the QR codes all over the place. And we also have a lot of great books.

Aericka Khongdy (26:39.67)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kimaira Bernardini (26:41.299)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (26:47.085)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah.

Kimaira Bernardini (26:51.668)
No, I think that's a great resource too, because I know anytime I have a question, I'm like, oh, wait, I can't remember what this one was. And I go straight to your website and like, look it up. Because I don't see that in other places. So that's it's just an easy reference point.

Aericka Khongdy (27:00.558)
I do too.

Lauren (27:01.438)
Lauren (27:07.726)
that's awesome.

Kimaira Bernardini (27:12.148)
Do you wanna go, Erica? I was just wondering, because you had mentioned about if you're using crystals in making elixirs and stuff. From a, what's the word that I'm looking for? From a novice perspective.

The first thing I think of when I think of using crystals is like to use them in some sort of like chakra healing or meditation work or you know something like that. What are some other uses that people can or other ways that people can incorporate crystals in their practice or their daily life?

Lauren (27:46.538)
that's so awesome. I love it. So I call them elixirs. Technically, they're essences. It's when you have the crystal in or around water. And water is amazing. It imprints on everything. But

A lot of crystals are not safe in water. you know, malachite, for example, there's a lot of copper and malachite, fluorite. So those are crystals you wouldn't necessarily want to put directly into water. But if you put them into a glass and then put that glass into water, you're going to be able to get the same energetic imprint into that water. And then that water can be used for so much. You can drink it. mean,

Kimaira Bernardini (28:10.298)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (28:20.968)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (28:32.468)
interesting.

Aericka Khongdy (28:33.358)
Yeah, that's cool.

Kimaira Bernardini (28:36.839)
Yeah.

Lauren (28:38.161)
trying to think of some other ways. I always have one in my car. I will say to another...

Kimaira Bernardini (28:42.195)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (28:47.131)
point of caution for most people. And this kind of ties back a little bit to the cleansing and I'm thinking about it because of my car. But if you have a quartz crystal in direct sunlight, be very, very careful. It's like a candle. Don't leave it unattended because sunlight passing through that at just the right angle can set your curtains or your carpet on fire.

Kimaira Bernardini (29:01.395)
Mm.

Aericka Khongdy (29:01.814)
Aericka Khongdy (29:08.782)
Good to know.

Kimaira Bernardini (29:11.261)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (29:11.417)
Yes, not to say that know sunlight isn't a great option for clearing crystals, but I would make it a short period of time and

be right around it. There are also crystals that will be negatively affected by sitting in sunlight the whole day. So I wouldn't necessarily put an amethyst cluster on my dashboard because that will eventually turn into the heat treated citrine. Or at the very least, it fades to this brownish color when it should be this vibrant purple. But things like tiger's eye, I always keep a tiger's eye in my car. It's like a safety for travel.

Kimaira Bernardini (29:37.169)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (29:50.958)
I do like putting certain crystals in my bathtub when I'm taking a bath. I usually will use quartz-based crystals for that. Anything with a hardness of say seven or higher, or maybe five, I might even go as low as five. Those will not be as negatively impacted by water. So I'll put a rose quartz in if I'm taking like a self-loathe bath or.

Kimaira Bernardini (30:16.37)
Mmm.

Lauren (30:17.147)
things of that nature.

Kimaira Bernardini (30:21.54)
Okay.

Lauren (30:23.025)
Yeah, off the top of my head, I can't think of a lot of different, I mean, I'm surrounded by them all the time. Making crystal grids in your space, keeping a piece on your desk. Some people even have those little shungite tiles that you can attach to the back of your phone or put near your computer. yeah, just surround yourself with them, I guess.

Aericka Khongdy (30:29.39)
you

Kimaira Bernardini (30:30.257)
Yeah.

Kimaira Bernardini (30:44.754)
Mmm.

Aericka Khongdy (30:50.264)
them in your bra.

Kimaira Bernardini (30:52.645)
Yeah.

Lauren (30:53.113)
Yes, if you remember that they're in there, because I cannot tell you how many crystals I have broken by like you get home and you're like, thank God, and then ting ting ting ting ting, like no, I'm so sorry. Yes, or I'll pick it up like bounced really well. A big human tycoon bounce like that.

Aericka Khongdy (31:01.486)
That would be me probably.

Kimaira Bernardini (31:08.46)
I've definitely done that.

Aericka Khongdy (31:11.31)
You

Kimaira Bernardini (31:15.055)
Yeah, definitely been there.

Aericka Khongdy (31:18.028)
Yeah.

Kimaira Bernardini (31:21.201)
Mm.

Lauren (31:21.713)
My advice with crystals when you're working with them, and I say surround yourself with them, I'm kind of joking, but a lot of people will ask me about combining crystals, know, like, I put these together? You can store them together, of course, but working with them, I feel like my main and only...

piece of advice with that is to work with crystals and combine if you want to combine crystals don't combine crystals that have opposing energies generally speaking so you wouldn't want to combine a nice you know healing or calming crystal like blue lace agate with an energizing uplifting creative crystal like carnelian

Aericka Khongdy (31:53.55)
Mmm.

Lauren (32:08.667)
There may be random situations where, of course, that would be what you need, but I feel like they kind of cancel each other out generally. My personal experience of working with crystal combinations before I quote unquote knew better. But I mean, again, experience is the best teacher. Try it out. What works for me may not work for you and vice versa.

Kimaira Bernardini (32:16.827)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (32:30.501)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (32:30.862)
you

Kimaira Bernardini (32:35.067)
Just keeping that in mind though, so that you know that if you're intending to have a certain effect and it's not maybe coming to fruition, that may be something to look at. Is it because you have things that are canceling each other out and so it's not the same effect that you want.

Lauren (32:49.52)
Yeah.

Aericka Khongdy (32:53.09)
Yeah, that segues into, are there any combinations or specific crystals that you would use when you're working for meditation, affirmations, protection, those type of things.

Lauren (33:07.241)
yes, I mean, there's a lot of different combinations. Some of my go-to's specifically for like meditation would be blue kainite, semantite, blue lace agate. just, I really love that it's got this kind of...

feeling to it to me. And selenite I always call the stress stone because every time I'm stressed, I'm like just clearing with my energy with some selenite. It's like, okay, I feel reset. Protection hands down favorite is black tourmaline. I find it to be super powerful, very grounding to. Hematite, another favorite.

Aericka Khongdy (33:34.638)
Mmm.

Lauren (33:53.356)
I know a lot of people like to work with obsidian for protection and I think it can be very powerful protection but because of its origin it's volcanic glass. you think about if you're trying to protect yourself from explosive anger situations it may not be the best crystal to work with.

Aericka Khongdy (34:12.706)
Yeah, because I might be too fiery, unquote.

Lauren (34:15.669)
Exactly. Things may erupt. but maybe that's what you need, right? Maybe you just need to get that scream out or, you know, obviously don't hurt anyone else. and yeah, I think for me personally, if I'm working, like if I'm studying something or I really need to focus, I love fluorite for that.

I love carnelian for that as well. makes me feel like productive at the same time.

Yeah, I think there's a lot of different ways that you can combine crystals as long as they are kind of all willing to work with you in the same vein instead of like, well, I need you to help me, you know, excited or uplifted and I need you to help me go to sleep. You can work with them both the same day, but I wouldn't do it at the same time.

Aericka Khongdy (35:16.792)
That sense.

Kimaira Bernardini (35:21.424)
That kind of, you're like kind of sprinkling in here like how you would use some of the crystals. Is there anything else that you don't mind sharing about like what your practice looks like with crystals on a day-to-day basis?

Lauren (35:34.322)
Yes, this is kind of like a little eee, but might be a little cringy. I have a bowl, it's a clear quartz bowl and I keep water in it when I'm feeling like I really need to just...

have a good cry, I guess. You you're just feeling overwhelmed. You can't really place it. And I will use that water. You know, I dip my fingers in it and I'll just like put it on my chakras, my third eye, my throat, whatever one is really needing to be unstuck. I definitely work with crystals on my chakras as often as possible. I wear them in jewelry a lot.

Kimaira Bernardini (35:55.332)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (36:13.231)
Mm.

Lauren (36:22.063)
I use my crystal elixirs. I mean, I put them in everything. Again, it's not technically an elixir. It's an essence. But I just, find the romance of the word elixir to be too tempting not to use. I do, put them in my car. I put them near my bed. So to help me sleep, to help me feel grounded.

Kimaira Bernardini (36:30.381)
No.

Aericka Khongdy (36:38.025)
Right? I love it.

Kimaira Bernardini (36:38.607)
Yeah.

Lauren (36:50.949)
I have some tourmaline and hematite gritting my house to keep my house protected. So I think that's leaning a little bit more into the witchcraft side of it. But yeah.

Aericka Khongdy (37:03.672)
But they go kind of hand in hand, right? Yeah.

Lauren (37:07.077)
For me, yes. I mean, I wouldn't say you have to be a witch to work with crystals. And a lot of witches don't work with crystals too. you don't, it's whatever works for you. It's not a two or mutually exclusive, but overlap a lot for me.

Kimaira Bernardini (37:11.759)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (37:14.871)
Hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (37:19.703)
I don't know.

Aericka Khongdy (37:23.704)
Yeah.

Kimaira Bernardini (37:25.859)
Are there other things that you find that you're incorporating in your practice or other things that you would suggest someone might want to explore if they're looking for additional support in addition to the crystals?

Lauren (37:41.232)
Yeah, so it depends, I suppose, on the situation and what you're trying to accomplish. The most important thing from my perspective is to journal. It gives you a guidepost. It helps you to recognize patterns. And it shows your growth. And it can help you look back where things initially didn't feel like they didn't work out, but ultimately they didn't work out. And then you can go back and say, OK, what did I

Kimaira Bernardini (37:58.212)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (38:11.185)
do there that I need to try differently next time or you know however that pans out I feel like definitely journal whatever it is journal journal journal I say that one a lot too and to recognize that there are physical things we can do and then there's mental things and energetic things that we can do to make our

ourselves, I hate to use the word clean or clear, but to try and keep what we are projecting out coming from a place of sincerity, pureness, authenticity, however that is defined for you.

Aericka Khongdy (38:52.942)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (38:57.241)
A friend of mine described it perfectly. He's a tattoo artist and he was talking about tattooing over scars. And he said, it's kind of like a fishbowl. You you can still see the image, but it's a little distorted. And I have had that image ingrained in my head ever since. And I think when we...

Don't take care of ourselves physically or we are pushing ourselves too much and we're all guilty of that. I know I certainly am. Our energetic outputs are kind of going through that fishbowl. So the most important thing I think you can do is take care of your physical and mental self. If you're struggling with things, don't be afraid to reach out. There's a lot of different ways to get help.

Aericka Khongdy (39:23.502)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (39:41.56)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (39:45.906)
whether it's physical, emotional, but it will give you a better output for and a lot more clarity for what you're trying to learn, how you're working. Read as much as possible, know, absorb it all.

think the more you familiarize yourself with the concepts of things and practice, practice, practice, don't worry about perfection. The more you familiarize yourself, the easier it'll be to differentiate between the things that sound too good to be true or not your vibe.

Aericka Khongdy (40:24.024)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (40:26.865)
That's probably how I would start and then community. Right now, the month of October, there is a Connecticut witch crawl. And I think it's just CT witch crawl. We're part of it. I'm so excited about it. But there are so, so many. I think there's close to 50 shops participating. So.

Kimaira Bernardini (40:33.015)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (40:38.86)
Yeah, I saw that.

Kimaira Bernardini (40:39.712)
I saw that.

Lauren (40:51.225)
You know, go to where you feel comfortable. Go to where you feel welcome. There's a lot of different energies and a lot of different personalities and you know, everybody jives with who they jive with. And I think that if you try to force yourself into a space where you don't really feel like you belong, you're not going to have the best outcomes for yourself personally or for anyone else you might be working with or for. So find your tribe.

Kimaira Bernardini (40:55.981)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (41:01.783)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (41:14.414)
you

Kimaira Bernardini (41:18.657)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (41:19.342)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (41:21.249)
Yeah, there's a couple of things of what you just said that really stuck with me. One is the, like needing to tend to yourself, to tend to those scars so that they don't remain scars. And I think oftentimes I see people.

trying to gloss over that. Like, I need to be the best version of myself at all times. So if I'm struggling, I can't let that struggle, you know, be, or I can't explore it or release it. I have to cover it up. And that can be such a huge challenge.

to overcome. So yeah, sometimes it doesn't look perfect and sometimes it's uncomfortable, but releasing some of that or acknowledging it, addressing it can be really helpful. So I love that you kind of mentioned that. And then the community piece, which is something we talk about often. The connection with community is so big and

I saw that the witch crawl was happening and I'm like, that's so exciting. It's something that like sometimes personally, I can feel a little like shy to put myself out there. So something like that is like, yeah, everybody that's going to be doing it wants to be doing it. We're all in the same kind of head space. And so it's an easy in to find community and connection.

Aericka Khongdy (42:25.934)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (42:50.254)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Lauren (42:51.729)
Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, we do a community circle here at the shop and we actually just did one on Sunday and it was about shadow work. So I think it's fresh in my mind, yeah, are so many, there's Connecticut, the CWPN, there's the Church of Eternal Light in Bristol, Connecticut. There are plenty of ways to connect with like-minded people and you know.

Kimaira Bernardini (43:01.1)
Mm.

Aericka Khongdy (43:03.222)
Yeah, definitely.

Kimaira Bernardini (43:16.511)
Yeah. Yeah.

Lauren (43:17.039)
Find your tribe. I love that. That whole vibe with your tribe. Your vibe attracts your tribe. And I think your tribe influences your vibe too. I will say that some of the best friends that I have in the world now, I've met through my shop. There's like an extra level of connection when there's a spiritual aspect to it, in my opinion.

Kimaira Bernardini (43:22.41)
Yeah.

Aericka Khongdy (43:22.486)
It does, it does.

Aericka Khongdy (43:33.07)
Mmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (43:40.115)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree.

Aericka Khongdy (43:40.898)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Definitely. Let's see. A little bit of a weird segue, but for someone on a budget, what would you say was the top three must have crystals?

Lauren (44:00.916)
this one was tough. let's see. Definitely clear courts and I was going to just dead stop there clear courts because clear courts to me. I mean, I've seen crystal practitioners that use nothing but clear courts. It's abundant and it's very.

Aericka Khongdy (44:02.731)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (44:23.249)
programmable, I will say, to kind of help you do what you need to do with it. Also, black tourmaline, I think we can all use some grounding and protection and even protection from our own thoughts when we get in our head sometimes.

I want to say like three or four. So labradorite is another huge favorite of mine and fluorite. Those are my, some of my favorites. It's like picking a favorite child really, those are tend to be the ones I work with the most. So I'm going to say that. Yeah. Fluorite has this very, it's weird kind of, it's very structured, you know, focus, but at the same time, it's very like, I'm going to take you out to here.

Aericka Khongdy (44:46.254)
Go for it.

Lauren (45:13.039)
I mean that could just be how it affects me but I just I find myself often working with it. I guess the one that you feel drawn with the most but if you can only afford one crystal make it a clear quartz. We actually purchased some

Aericka Khongdy (45:13.538)
Yeah.

Lauren (45:34.598)
man-made quartz. So that would be things like your watches, your phones, just to show people the difference of how it looks and feels. We did the same thing with Moldavite when that was hugely popular. Like you can, it's very easy to tell the difference when you see them next to one another. So.

Yeah, if anybody wants to come and check out our fake quartz, you can see that too. Not that it doesn't work. I mean, it will work obviously the same way that in natural quartz does. It's just a different, I wouldn't say it will work. It will work in terms of the way it's, yeah, it performs the same, but not the same. I don't know if that's.

Aericka Khongdy (45:56.856)
Yeah.

Aericka Khongdy (46:08.77)
different use.

Aericka Khongdy (46:14.488)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Lauren (46:17.801)
clarifying it at all but I do love a good quartz too. yeah, quartz.

Aericka Khongdy (46:23.096)
I feel like that's a good, everybody knows what quartz is. I feel like that's the go-to, it's everybody's little gateway. Gateway crystal is the clear quartz, or even the rose quartz, those two, I feel like.

Lauren (46:32.145)
Yeah.

Lauren (46:36.871)
yes, Rose Quartz. Yes, she's very popular and I love her, I do. do. But yes, I think that she may not always be the best choice for certain things, but you know.

Kimaira Bernardini (46:51.549)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (46:53.733)
That's any crystal really. But yes, clear quartz, rose quartz, amethyst, they're all quartz. They are just different flavors of quartz based on their mineral makeup that give them the colors that it does.

Aericka Khongdy (46:55.544)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (47:08.435)
Mm-hmm.

What would you say to people who might be a little bit skeptical of crystals or what they can do, the healing properties and all of that?

Lauren (47:21.169)
Well, there's two types of skeptics, I think, right? There's the skeptics that just want to make you look foolish and say, okay, uh-huh, prove it. And they're not going to accept whatever you tell them anyway. My mother's one of those. Just gonna leave that there.

Aericka Khongdy (47:36.91)
Thank you.

Kimaira Bernardini (47:36.969)
Mmm. Yeah.

Lauren (47:40.326)
But there are skeptics who are genuinely just curious and really want to know, but may not have had that experience themselves. And to which I say, try it. And if they still are like, no, that doesn't work, well, it's fine. I'm not here to prove to you that they work. But if you try them and don't get the benefit out of them, I

Kimaira Bernardini (48:03.337)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (48:10.331)
I just, maybe you're just not willing to see it. Maybe, I don't know. I think that if you're skeptical but curious and still want to learn and it's not a matter of proving it per se with logic or reasoning or scientific basis. It's a matter of proving it by how it affects you.

Aericka Khongdy (48:14.99)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (48:30.759)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (48:31.896)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (48:35.761)
And then sometimes things I compare it to like homeopathic medicine, right? It's not going to work immediately the way a prescription would But it may work better over a longer period of time and be less harmful as damaging on other parts of your body to go the natural route so

Kimaira Bernardini (48:36.041)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (48:41.742)
What are you

Right.

Lauren (48:57.391)
being opposed to working with crystals or opposed to accepting that energy can impact your ability to receive it. So I don't really encounter too many skeptics. And those that want to remain skeptic, they can just enjoy their crystal free life.

Aericka Khongdy (49:19.18)
Yeah, they can just move on. Well, you know, I when I first started this, I was I was a skeptic. I was like, OK, crystals. OK, everybody talks about crystals like, my God. Someone's talking about crystals again. But honestly, it was when I went into your shop that I like and was just like picking up the crystals like, holy crap. There's like I could just feel it. I was like, wow. I was like, OK, there's there's energy here. This is there is something to this. And then when we did the research.

Kimaira Bernardini (49:19.759)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (49:39.241)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (49:43.462)
Thanks.

Aericka Khongdy (49:48.697)
you know, for the episode, it was kind of like, okay, you got me. Now I got the whole, I'm wearing them. I got the whole thing on my altar. got it. So.

Kimaira Bernardini (49:58.482)
Yeah.

Lauren (49:59.57)
I mean, yes, but like, I don't know, I just feel like that is it builds upon itself, right? It's almost an addiction. You're like, oh, this works. This felt great. I love it. Let me get some more. So yeah, it's

Aericka Khongdy (50:08.298)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (50:12.91)
You

Lauren (50:15.767)
It's not really anything I feel like I have to be compelled to convince anybody. Try it for yourself. And it may not still work for you, and that's fine too. know, there are certainly nobody forcing you to use crystals.

Kimaira Bernardini (50:21.416)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (50:31.985)
I'm not as well versed on the, you know, scientific aspects. I've learned it. I don't remember it. Because, you know, I am a certain age and my memory is gone. but I, you know, I have had the logical, yeah, that makes sense moments and then the ethereal like, Whoa, that was intense moments. So

Kimaira Bernardini (50:40.633)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (50:59.726)
you

Kimaira Bernardini (50:59.974)
I think that those pieces might be more important when you're having the experiential piece of it and you know what you have gone through. I also, I don't know, I feel like if a person is skeptical, asking questions, I wanna learn more, okay.

that's a little different than a person just like straight out being maybe more cynical and like no that I there's no way that that could be true that's a different experience and those people don't need to be you know shown any sort of proof or evidence because they're not going to change their mind anyway yeah yeah yeah

Lauren (51:38.937)
Right, they're not part of the tribe.

Aericka Khongdy (51:41.794)
Right, now seriously. Definitely.

Lauren (51:44.389)
But there's a place for everybody. have their own tribe, you know.

Kimaira Bernardini (51:47.943)
Mm hmm. And I also think that maybe

Maybe to some extent, there can be, kind of like when I'm talking to clients in my day job, we talk about coping skills and not every skill is gonna work every time and not every skill is gonna work for everyone. And so you may find that you can gravitate more towards using crystals under certain situations or at certain times, or maybe you do better with other tools or resources when you're working on your spiritual journey.

Lauren (52:21.107)
absolutely, absolutely. And just because, you know, Rose Quartz is known to be a self-love stone and a calming, relaxing, you know, good vibe feeling, you might pick that up and be like, no, that one's not for me. That's totally fine because to your point, not everything is going to work for everybody. But, you know, you might pick up.

Aericka Khongdy (52:33.25)
Yeah.

Kimaira Bernardini (52:33.531)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Lauren (52:42.459)
I know, a piece of amber and be like, I like the way this one feels. So that can be your self-love stone. I think it's more about, it's like personalities, know, crystals have energetic personalities. We have energetic personalities and sometimes they jive and sometimes they don't. You know, you, I'm sure I've encountered people that you meet and you're just like right away, I don't like that person or I don't trust that person. I don't want to be around that person, you know.

Kimaira Bernardini (52:54.16)
Yeah.

Kimaira Bernardini (53:00.187)
Yeah.

Kimaira Bernardini (53:06.395)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (53:10.492)
Yep.

Lauren (53:13.233)
unfortunately having to count too many of those in my life.

Aericka Khongdy (53:15.438)
That's good.

Kimaira Bernardini (53:15.654)
Yeah, exactly.

Aericka Khongdy (53:27.276)
What are some of the biggest takeaways you learn from running your business? And if you could do it again, would you do anything different?

Lauren (53:36.434)
Let's see takeaways. I think, so I would love to say that yes, I would do all these things differently and I would have a business plan and I would be, because I really just kind of.

wanted to open my shop and I was gonna do it. I did not do a lot of the back-end business stuff. I consulted with friends of mine who own their own businesses briefly and I just stubbornly jumped in. But I think if I researched it too much I may have been too afraid to even start. So

Aericka Khongdy (53:54.03)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (54:06.934)
you

Aericka Khongdy (54:12.214)
Yeah, probably.

Lauren (54:14.543)
Yeah, I don't think I would do anything different. My takeaways are that, you know, I say it almost every day, but I really feel like I am fortunate enough to have some of the best customers and I learn from them as much as they learn from me. So.

Being open and being willing to have new experiences, to admit that you don't know everything. think one of the things I've encountered as a shop owner is that people assume since you own a shop, you must be the expert at everything. And I'm definitely far from that. And anybody that tells you they are is definitely not either. you know, you're always learning, always gaining more knowledge and turning it into wisdom with experience. So...

Aericka Khongdy (54:48.824)
you

Lauren (55:03.375)
I think, you know, being open and being willing to be open to other people's experiences and their interpretations of what spirituality is for them without judgment is important. But yeah, I think, you know, we have a tendency as a society to be very cynical, judgmental, and, you know, part of it is a natural thing we do and a big part of it is driven by our society and unfortunately the

climate of our world today. But there are still really good people out there and they want connection and, you know, be willing and open to accept that. Don't, you know, don't get taken advantage of. But, you know, I think being willing to hear other people's side of other people's points of view and all that stuff has been

Aericka Khongdy (55:42.689)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (55:59.876)
It's been a privilege for me, you know, not that I've been closed minded before opening my shop, but I think it provided me a lot more opportunity to see a lot more different practices.

Aericka Khongdy (56:13.314)
Yeah, being exposed to more.

Kimaira Bernardini (56:16.853)
I love that too because it is a reminder that for me it's a reminder that people can have very different experiences and I could not ever go to anybody I can't go to you or to Erica and be like no you didn't experience that like you experienced what you experienced so remembering that everybody can have their own points of view their own experiences their own definitions of like spirituality or practices or what's important to them

Aericka Khongdy (56:34.222)
you

Kimaira Bernardini (56:46.886)
and that's okay and me being open to that can give me a chance to have more experiences to grow my understanding or to shift in my own personal journey.

Aericka Khongdy (57:02.168)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (57:03.113)
definitely. I've had huge shifts in my spiritual journey since starting this shop. This, actually this October is our 10 year anniversary. So, you, thank you. Yeah, we've got so much going on. I'm so excited about it. But yeah, I've definitely seen seismic shifts in my practice, just primarily because I was practicing alone and now I have this like...

Aericka Khongdy (57:12.046)
congrats!

Kimaira Bernardini (57:12.856)
Congratulations!

Kimaira Bernardini (57:28.643)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (57:29.275)
community just willing to like want to work with me. It's like great. Let's do it, you know? Support each other and I don't know. I'm just so very grateful for this community that we have and that we've built here. It means the world to me.

Aericka Khongdy (57:34.648)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (57:35.298)
That's awesome.

Kimaira Bernardini (57:50.008)
That's great. I think it seems very evident, at least in the way that you speak about it and for anybody who has visited your shop, it's very evident in the care that you take and what it means, the importance and the significance of it.

Lauren (58:05.233)
Thank you. Every time we leave for the night and when we're walking out the door, we're like, good night, Choff. We love you. We'll see you tomorrow.

Kimaira Bernardini (58:11.619)
Yeah.

Aericka Khongdy (58:13.838)
I love it. I love it.

Kimaira Bernardini (58:15.03)
I love that. I wonder if that contributes to like the positive energy that's in there when people walk in.

Lauren (58:19.683)
I hope so. It definitely has been giving back for sure, you know, but it is. just, baby, my other baby.

Aericka Khongdy (58:20.106)
It has to.

Kimaira Bernardini (58:25.54)
Yeah.

Aericka Khongdy (58:30.83)
Yeah, I think the fact that you love it so much comes like just kind of radiates into the whole shop. And then, you know, I don't know anyway, they can't walk in there or not feel at least even something, you know I mean? Even the smallest bit of like

Kimaira Bernardini (58:43.448)
something. Yeah, yeah.

Aericka Khongdy (58:49.484)
good vibration of some sort. Yeah. And the people that work with you, there's their joy, their joy too. So.

Kimaira Bernardini (58:51.235)
Yeah.

Lauren (58:51.556)
that's awesome. love that. Thank you.

Lauren (59:00.155)
Thank you. They're like family, literally and metaphorically.

Kimaira Bernardini (59:01.368)
Definitely.

Kimaira Bernardini (59:10.128)
Do you feel like there is anything that we haven't touched on today, anything that you think is important for people to know or to leave them with?

Lauren (59:25.967)
Reserve judgment, reserve judgment, reserve judgment. Everybody is so quick to poo poo everything and anything without even really having their own firsthand experience with it. And I think that, you know, there's really not, I say this a lot too, there's not a whole lot you can do to really screw things up.

Kimaira Bernardini (59:31.075)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Lauren (59:48.816)
You know, if you're not even, even if you're not sure, try it anyway. And then, you know, if it didn't work out, try it again. and if it's not for you, try something else, you know, just, I think that sometimes our hesitation to be in the woo woo sector, so to speak, you know,

Kimaira Bernardini (59:48.994)
Mm.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:00:01.004)
Yeah.

Lauren (01:00:11.771)
comes from not wanting to do it wrong. And there's really not a lot you can do wrong. I always say, unless you're hurting children or animals, know, suppose that's up for debate as well as anything could be. But for me personally, I feel like...

Kimaira Bernardini (01:00:14.775)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (01:00:20.578)
Yeah, let's not do that. Yeah.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:00:20.897)
Mm-hmm. Don't. Mm-hmm. Don't do that.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:00:31.627)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (01:00:34.299)
There's really not a lot you can do wrong to just trust your gut, trust your instincts and give everything a try. If you feel drawn to this path, you're drawn to it for a reason, whatever the path looks like for you.

Aericka Khongdy (01:00:50.368)
You are, you are, and it'll always, and if you ignore it, it'll come back around and knock on the door harder.

Lauren (01:00:58.091)
It certainly will. It'll keep, it'll keep, you know, ringing that bell until you answer the door.

Aericka Khongdy (01:01:05.086)
Not that I've experienced that or anything.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:01:07.905)
Yeah, right.

Aericka Khongdy (01:01:09.728)
I don't know.

Lauren (01:01:10.833)
Who does that?

I mean that and like, you know, too, like, I don't want to say lower your expectations, but don't expect your practice to look like it does in the movies, I think is the other big thing. You know, I always clarify things with not the Hollywood version, but XYZ. So I think there's just because it didn't explode like it does in the movie doesn't mean that you didn't send out some very powerful magic and careful what you wish for.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:01:24.215)
Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (01:01:24.398)
Mmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:01:30.093)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:01:40.8)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Aericka Khongdy (01:01:40.953)
Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. I work with a shamanic group and they often will be like, well, you see things whenever you journey. I don't see anything. So therefore, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, no, no, no, no, Everybody's different. Like, I just happen to be very visual in my journeys, but you feel things and smell things and hear things that I don't. So it's all how you, how you,

what your practice looks like for you. This is different.

Lauren (01:02:13.175)
Exactly and that doesn't make your practice better than their practice or vice versa. It's your practice.

Aericka Khongdy (01:02:17.742)
No, no. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:02:24.107)
Awesome.

Lauren (01:02:26.297)
It has been so fun chatting with you. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much.

Aericka Khongdy (01:02:32.942)
We're so happy to have you. I'd literally like the first time, like when we first started this podcast, I was, and we went into your shop, I like, have to find the owner and I have to have her on the shop, on the show. Yeah. And I just happened to run into you the one day you were there. So it was nice.

Lauren (01:02:41.847)
thank you. I'm so glad we connected. was a lot of fun.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:02:41.888)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Lauren (01:02:50.929)
Yeah, I was like, whose card is this? I hear it's that's mine. It's like, yeah, I definitely got this like, I want to talk to her some more kind of vibe for sure. So thank you for this. This has been fun.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:02:51.042)
It was meant to be.

Aericka Khongdy (01:02:53.326)
Fine!

Aericka Khongdy (01:03:02.414)
Me too, me too. Yeah.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:03:06.85)
Thank you for coming on the podcast, for giving us all this great insight information. I think it's, I mean, obviously our goal here is always to get some more information for people who are looking for it and want maybe a direction to start in. So I think that was definitely accomplished today, but also, what was it gonna sound? Whatever.

Lauren (01:03:33.753)
No judgment.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:03:34.674)
a sense of like reassurance, I feel like I've gotten, like a sense of reassurance, of validation, of encouragement. So I appreciate that.

Aericka Khongdy (01:03:37.592)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (01:03:42.322)
Thank you for making this easy on me. I am an anxious person so I'm like, Can't tell the difference between excitement and nervousness but we're just gonna go with it anyways. Whatever it is, it's been great.

Aericka Khongdy (01:03:50.968)
He

Aericka Khongdy (01:03:54.431)
No, no.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:03:55.073)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Aericka Khongdy (01:04:01.967)
Yeah, so you want to tell anybody how to how to reach you or how to see you? And if you're on the CT witches crawl, like how how can they see you?

Lauren (01:04:09.945)
Yes, well.

We are part of the CT Witch Crawl and that website is ctwitchcrawl.com. You can find that our store along with like

dozens of other stores and definitely check them all out. Everybody's got their own special thing and ultimately we're all part of this community. So let's support local businesses. Let's support each other. We can be found at stillalunalllc.com is our website. You can book a crystal healing session with me through that website. Kim to your point, can find the list of our crystals. Thank you.

Aericka Khongdy (01:04:34.35)
you

Aericka Khongdy (01:04:52.28)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren (01:04:54.571)
Excuse me, we can be found on our socials at Stella Luna LLC.com as well or just Stella Luna LLC I suppose on things like Instagram. I did put the LLC in there. I wasn't aware of the book Stella Luna until after my store was originally called Stella Ornamenta.

Aericka Khongdy (01:05:11.027)
Lauren (01:05:19.331)
And I have since changed, obviously, to Stella Luna. So a little bit of a story behind that if you have a quick minute for that. I know we're wrapping it up.

Aericka Khongdy (01:05:23.278)
you

yeah, go for it.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:05:26.994)
Yeah, definitely.

Lauren (01:05:29.231)
just to make this even more longer. So yes, when I first opened my doors, I wasn't a physical location. I was making jewelry. My daughter was very young and I said, I'm going to make jewelry that's going to be worn on the red carpet by the stars. So I called it Stella Luna, or Stella Ornamenta, which is jewels of the stars. The metaphysical shop that I used to work at after that was called Blue Moon. And that has since...

Aericka Khongdy (01:05:44.919)
you

Aericka Khongdy (01:05:50.488)
Mmm.

Aericka Khongdy (01:05:56.302)
Mm.

Lauren (01:05:58.726)
don't think they're open any longer in all locations. They had a few, but I really missed that. So I took the Luna from the moon and dropped it. They weren't a mental. So Stella Luna was born and then I opened my doors, physical doors, and so many people were like, is this like the best story? And I was like, the what? And then people started giving me books of those stories. Stella Luna, the children's story. So I have some books of Stella Luna, but not the same one.

Aericka Khongdy (01:06:27.772)
that's funny.

Lauren (01:06:28.659)
you

Kimaira Bernardini (01:06:29.724)
Interesting.

Aericka Khongdy (01:06:30.922)
I love it. That's a cool name. wondered how it got here the name.

Lauren (01:06:35.729)
My delusions are grandeur and homage as always.

Aericka Khongdy (01:06:40.16)
It works. It works. For sure. All right. Well, it was so great meeting you. So great talking to you and you know, hopefully we can have you on again.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:06:41.875)
Yes, it's working for you, so...

Lauren (01:06:45.777)
Thank you.

Lauren (01:06:55.041)
awesome, I would love that. Thank you for having me and thank you both for what you do. This podcast has been like sitting down and chatting with old friends and I love that. Just listening to you guys talk. There has been so many times where I'm like, me too. my gosh, yes. You know?

Aericka Khongdy (01:06:57.772)
Yeah, and then.

Aericka Khongdy (01:07:06.286)
No.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:07:10.323)
Good.

Aericka Khongdy (01:07:13.102)
Well, thank you. We love that. That's what we want.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:07:15.303)
Yes, we appreciate that. I think that's always what we're trying to strive for. It's like, Erica and I are having these conversations and we're like, maybe other people are having these conversations, so.

Aericka Khongdy (01:07:25.272)
Yeah.

Lauren (01:07:25.317)
Definitely. I'm like, I want to call them up right now and be like, yes. So I'm glad I found you and it's been a pleasure listening to your episodes and your shows has been informative. And, you know, it reminds me too that like we are all part of this community where, you know, we don't know everything about everything. And it's always all about the journey of discovery. So thanks for being a guide post there.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:07:30.013)
Yeah.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:07:45.023)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:07:48.98)
Yeah.

Aericka Khongdy (01:07:49.496)
Mm-hmm.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:07:53.289)
Thank you for being part of that.

Aericka Khongdy (01:07:56.91)
All right, well, until next time.

Kimaira Bernardini (01:07:59.461)
stay. Bye!

Aericka Khongdy (01:08:00.558)
curious.

Lauren (01:08:03.026)
Thank you.