Ashley's Journey to Crystals & Clarity™️!

Learn More About Ashley, Co-Founder of Crystals & Clarity™️!

My name is Ashley and I’m the co-founder of Crystals and Clarity.

What an amazing opportunity it was to start out as a pop-up crystal shop in Nashville, to share our love of crystals, and to now be here, with a new website.  

Where the Seeds were Laid!

Lets chat about where it started and how I became a crystal girly. 

I feel like a newbie to crystals, but ironically I am learning that I’ve had them around me for many more years than I realized.

Growing up in rural northern California people openly spoke of their use of crystals, but I thought it was just “a hippie thing” and I didn’t know much more than this.

I was lucky enough to regularly visit Agate Beach as a kid and always collected rocks there.

Shortly after high school I worked for a high end jewelry store and was IN LOVE with gemstones and learning all about them.

So much so that I even started down the path to become a GIA Certified Gemologist. 

As life would have it, my path was re-routed in another direction and my gem knowledge was filed away. 

Over the years in my international travels, I seemed to always find a rock or two that would make its way home to find a place on my bookshelf to commemorate my travels and memories. 

When It All Started To Click!

Fast forward 15+ years, I had left Corporate America, gone through Breast Cancer and then a divorce.

This was the start of my chapter: spiritual awakening edition.

I was breaking out of the box that I neatly shoved myself into year after year. 

While I’ve always been a sensitive and intuitive person, over the years I blocked or limited many of my own gifts and no longer trusted my intuition, due to limiting beliefs and toxic patterns. 

Everything that I didn’t know, had judgements and assumptions of, required  deconstruction, leaving me with a What Else Is Possible mindset.

It wasn’t until my deep healing started that my openness expanded and I began to see the world differently…..insert where I began learning about crystals. 

The What Else Is Possible Chapter

Thanks to Kate, we ventured out into Nashville to my first crystal shop! And she bought me my first crystal, a Rose Quartz Bracelet.

Who knew that Kate would become the person who makes majority of my crystal bracelets now!

To learn more about her handmade crystal bracelets, visit custom crystal bracelets!

I learned from Kate and by witnessing her own experience, that people can feel and experience the energy of the crystals.

I'm talking literally feeling the energy the crystals are emitting! That blew my mind in 2020! 

My analytical mind wanted to know the science behind crystals, so google was my friend to teach me about energy. 

On another visit to a crystal store in Nashville, the woman running a shop encouraged me to buy Moldavite (I had NO idea what was about to happen), saying, “You’re going to have a career in the wellness world very soon!”

I said Ok! and laughed cuz I was still very corporate and couldn’t wrap my head around this!

I had NO idea as to the changes that were to speed up and unfold in my life in the timeframe of using Moldavite, but that woman was right!

The Crystal Bust

In June of 2021, I traveled back to California to visit my family and the crystal shop in San Diego they wanted to share with me (because my parents had both started getting into crystals at this point). 

While walking through this California crystal shop, I remembered that I had a bust cast of me a year prior to commemorate my final breast reconstruction surgery as a breast cancer survivor.

It had been suggested to turn it into art, but I had been unable to come up with an idea at the time because “I’m not an artist”. (Insert another limiting belief I’d later rip to shreds!)

I envisioned this bust covered in crystals.

While in the crystal shop I began to google and go to Pinterest for the meaning of the stones that were standing out to me!

This was a pivotal moment in my crystal journey. 

I traveled back to Nashville with 10 pounds of crystal chips and would spend the next 6-months covering my bust with crystals to evoke a type of warrior shield to commemorate my breast cancer journey. 

I used a combination of Pyrite, Prehnite, Rose Quartz, and Amethyst to curate a crystal piece of art that holds many layers of intention and meaning to it.  

 

Expanding Awareness

Kate and I kept going back to crystal shops throughout Nashville.

On this day I didn’t feel comfortable being in the crystal store because my heart was racing and I felt dizzy.  

Kate being the excited and supportive friend, explained that I was being affected by the energy of the crystals and the energy of the space.

My awareness was continuing to expand.

But rarely could I feel anything when I held a crystal, so my limiting beliefs were certainly tested at this time. 

Launching Crystals & Clarity™️

Kate and I had always played with ideas of launching a business because we had worked together in other businesses and have a magical synergy together. 

In a series of synchronicities that idea for Crystals & Clarity™️ came to life.

When discussing how Crystals & Clarity would be different, for me specifically I needed the educational piece.

I could live on Pinterest with information about crystals and screen shots, but if I didn’t have it in my hand, it was as simple as out of sight, out of mind. 

This is why our Crystal Clarity™️ Cards are such an important piece because we've been there (and still need reminders of crystals we know).

I’m grateful (among many things) to have had Kate's help in understanding the energy and being aligned in the intentionality of creating Crystals & Clarity. 

While the first year of launching Crystals & Clarity was a beautiful experience learning about the pop-up world and growing as individuals, friends, and business owners, I’m most in awe of how my crystal experience changed and continues to grow. 

Plot Twist

In an expected twist of events, just before launching Crystals & Clarity, I became debilitatingly ill from Breast Implant Illness, and it affected how I could show up in the business until March of this year!

While our first year in business was a notable success, I would have days and weeks when I couldn't work, breathe, or function with no answers for what was going on. 

While I didn't initially know it was Breast Implant Illness until 2023, in an act of desperation to find relief, I surrounded myself and my home with healing crystals like Amethyst, Citrine, Rose Quartz, Black Obsidian, Smoky Quartz, Selenite, Kyanite and Pyrite. 

I will share more about my journey with crystals and healing from Breast Implant Illness in future blogs, but suffice it to say this experience forever changed how I see and experience crystals. 

I found temporary relief and support from my crystals in ways I didn't know was possible. 

I became so sensitive to the benefits of crystals that after determining it was Breast Implant Illness and having my explant surgery and 2nd mastectomy (more for another blog), I intentionally used crystals as a supportive tool in my surgical recovery. 

Final Thoughts

I've learned over the last two years I have to slow down in order to feel the energy of crystals. 

When I say slow down I mean stop talking, have a specific place and way I hold the crystals, take deep breaths and quiet my mind.

Once I’m still I can feel the energy of the crystals reverberate in different parts of my body. Usually I feel energy in the area that the crystal is known to offer support in. 

I’m still learning and growing on my crystal journey, both from my personal experience AND from y’all. 

When you come into our booth, we have some of the most profound and vulnerable conversations. 

It's an honor and privilege to get to witness your journeys, growth, expansion and changes through your own use of crystals. 

Whether it’s online or in person, your curiosity is key to your own growth journey and we are here cheering you on. 

If you ever have questions, we are here to support and empower you on your path!

Welcome to Crystals & Clarity.

Thank you for choosing us as a trusted resource for expanding your love of crystals. 

 

~Ashley

#BABNAD