Malas

How to choose your mala

The dilemma: You've searched through the site and found a dozen or so malas you love. You can't buy them all (yet!), so how do you choose the one that's best for you right now?

What you’re drawn to

Our best advice is to choose colors or specific crystals that you love. Whether or not you're confident in your intuitive abilities, this is using your intuition to choose.

Andrea's note: When I first started making crystal jewelry, all I wanted to work with was pyrite, despite my favorite color being pink. As I began to learn more about pyrite's supportive and healing properties, I realized they were exactly what I needed at the time. (Pyrite is great for new entrepreneurs, but only if you love it.)

If you're familiar with and attracted to certain crystals, we encourage you to use the crystal selector and bring up the pieces using those crystals to see what jumps out at you. Check out the crystal selector page to see what the crystals look like if you aren't familiar with all the names.

So trust that instinct that's leading you to green or yellow or blue. We have a nice color selector if you want to see all the pieces that feature particular colors.

What you need

Crystals (and woods) have different healing/supportive properties associated with them because of their vibrations. This isn't just a woo woo thing. When you think about how everything is made up of energy (remember learning about the atom in your chemistry class?), it makes sense that different materials have energy that vibrates at different frequencies. Some things are hard or soft; others are light or heavy.

When we refer to a crystal's properties, we're drawing on ancient collective wisdom. If this resonates with you, please refer to our mala names and crystal descriptions to help you choose.

Andrea's story: Once I was talking to a coach who kept a bowl of abundance crystals near her when she did coaching sessions. I'd had horrendous lower back pain for a couple of days and could barely sit at my desk for 10 minutes at a time. I hadn't told her this but when I noticed I was sitting there relatively pain-free for over an hour, I mentioned it to her. She was familiar with Louise Hay's work and said that lower back pain is related to financial issues and advised me to carry around the same crystals as in her bowl. So I created a little bag of crystals and put them in my pocket for the next few days and truly felt a difference. And that's when I knew that there was something to this whole crystal thing.

Wood vs. crystal

We have a few all-crystal malas. They feel really good while you're wearing them, but they're longer and a bit heavier than the malas made using rosewood or sandalwood.

Andrea's note: I find both styles comfortable and am tall enough (5'5") to handle longer malas, but personally I'm drawn to malas using the protective grounding nature of the woods.