Basketball and crystals

Huh? What’s the connection, you might be asking. Nothing. It’s just two things I got into in an intense way this week. They have no connection with each other... It’s just that if I don’t write about something while it’s hot in my consciousness, the effect is just not the same.

So let me start with the most recent: basketball. The NBA Finals of 2013. Wow! To be honest I am not even aware of all the technicalities of the game. However, I love the spirit of it. And the final series this week was one for the books, especially Game 6. Why do I know all this? Because at the dinner table, my son shares. Then I look it up on YouTube and, wow!

Game 6. My day was full so I just kept asking the staff to update me. I was able to catch glimpses of it on TV while I was waiting during an appointment. I felt, Oh dear, the energy of this is so in the San Antonio Spurs’ favor, but I still kept my hopes up.

Every night while my son would share, I would look up things on the net. I actually really like the coach of the Spurs. He deeply feels for his players. I was very inspired when I read about his relationship with Tim Duncan, one of his star basketball players who is a Hall of Famer.

His philosophy — “Team is everything” — is so resonant with my own belief in terms of development work. In one meeting I heard him say, “They have talent... but you have all of you. Now go for it.” I also like the personalities of most of his team members: really cool guys.

Why am I for the Miami Heat? Because I saw a film on Lebron James’ life. I have a good feel for the man. So I am rooting for him and his team because of what he stands for. As you can very well see I am not a basketball geek. I am a life geek. What I like about basketball is the different nuances of life that the game encompasses.

For example in the final 20 seconds of Game 6, the Heat were five points down, and about 2,000 Miami fans started leaving the stadium. They had given up. Then the Heat caught up. The fans wanted to go back inside the stadium to watch in overtime, but the doors were closed. It’s never say die. Never give up. Keep hope alive. That is a very important lesson, all the way till the end. I am like that. So I like watching games that call for that.

I was so moved in the end when Greg Popovich sincerely went up to Lebron James and Dwayne Wade. I could tell the man was sincere. It was a long hug he gave Lebron. I liked seeing all the children around. Wade, Duncan — all these superstars — macho men holding their daughters. Those things move me.

The subject of crystals

This is a very different topic, but it’s also about life. The other week my meditation teacher suggested that I put crystals in my meditation room. I called Riza Regis who is well known as the “Crystal Queen.” She brought crystals to the Philippines in a big way. I had met her before in a meditation workshop. She very generously brought a set of crystals to my home.

In my experience, crystals have the ability to hold and transmit energy. They can shift the energy in a room but they have to be taken care of. They are transmitters. What I have experienced is that they can “clean” the energy of a room. I have been experimenting these past three weeks. I would like to share with you my experience.

If done well, crystals can create a force field in the home. I have put them in strategic locations in my home; then, after meditation, when I am in a high space, I land high energies on them. If I have the time, I go to each crystal and “pour” my voice into it. It’s like transmitting high crystalline energies into the crystal.

I’ve done that this whole week. I have even positioned crystals around my bed. The effect is that my sleep is more profound and restful. Even if I go to bed tired, I just tune into the energy of the crystals and they “hold” me. Lately my sleep has been very peaceful. I put a white quartz crystal in my bathroom because I spend a lot of time there — and I noticed to my surprise that I am neater! Huh? Meaning I just end up arranging things instead of leaving everything scattered. It is automatic. It’s as if the energy from the crystals have cleaned the space. I also have a crystal in the place where I take a shower... The key is when I go to take a shower, I greet the crystal — meaning, I “tune into” its energy. It has a cleansing, holding quality. So my morning routine becomes a cleansing, not only of my physical body, but a cleansing of my consciousness — very appropriate for meditation. I also put a crystal where I sit and work at home. Because here I tend to surf the net, and to a “more organized” part of me I feel I am just wasting my time. I have found that having a crystal there minimizes the wasting of time. It keeps me high, away from spaces that drain my energy.

This week I found another thing that has worked wonders for me. I put crystals around my office. If there is an important meeting, I find some time where I am alone in the room. I offer the place to the Divine. Do a short meditation, then I pour energies into the crystals. Since I put the crystals where I can see them visually, my experience is that they keep my consciousness high. It’s their frequency level. In the times I have done this, the meetings have been very productive.

There are some crystals I really love. Really gorgeous ones, so special. It’s unreal to me that they came from beneath the earth.

Riza has gifted me with small crystals that I now bring with me everywhere. I find that if I hold one in my hand it activates a nerve in my brain, making me more peaceful. I find that if I put another on a table near me, in my experience, it positively affects the energy of the meeting.

To make it clear, they are not magic. It’s what you put into them that make the difference. You can also buy a crystal and just treat it indifferently; chances are, it won’t do anything for you. But if you can develop some kind of “relationship” with it, my experience is it can have an energetic impact on you and your surroundings. By “relationship” I mean cleaning it, bathing it in salt water (especially if it’s been to a gunky energetic place), continually infusing it with high energies. You try to feel its energy, be aware of it.

Try crystals for sleeping. Put in high energies there, and then sleep feeling its energy. See what happens.

This earth is so beautiful! Breathtakingly beautiful! Not only what we see above the ground, but even the breathtaking splendor below. If we treasure it, the underworlds can facilitate a much better world for our spirits to live in.

Before I end let me tell you about Philippine crystals! I thought crystals were only found in Brazil and Latin American countries. But Riza showed me Philippine crystals! When I complained about the prices of imported crystals, she said, “Well, these are much less expensive… and just as good.” So I now have Philippine crystals in my home. My experience of them is that there is a softness and fluidity to them. I still like the depth and profundity of amethyst and quartz, but these Philippine crystals, like our psyche, have a wonderful heartness to them. Try them.

I have been to other people selling crystals. Riza is by far the best. It’s not just a business for her. It’s a vocation. She loves the crystals under her care. She is very intuitive so she can give you advice. She even does crystal healings. When my son was having a really bad headache for three months and none of the many treatments he underwent seemed to work, Riza gave him a crystal healing and he said it eased the pressure from his brain. She also does body works with high-grade ingestible essential oils. She told me the story of how she got into crystals. She was in a period of depression and one day, in Mt. Banahaw, she met this lady, Andrea Cagan, an American crystal healer who showed her crystals that pulsated on her skin when they touched her face. Thus began a 27-year journey into the magic of crystals. She states emphatically that her life was never the same again. There really is something about crystals and consciousness. She relates to me the story of a lady who fainted at the airport and was diagnosed in the E.R. with toxic stress. She looked up Riza; she has been able to alleviate her condition to the point where she is now holding a position that not only fulfills her, but enables constructive changes in her community.

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Riza lives in Alabang. Call her at 0917-8254333 or 0998-4386447 or use her landline 809-2892. You can e0mail her at riza333@terraregis.net. It’s a good idea to go to her home and see her wide array of crystals.

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I can be reached at regina_lopez@abs-cbn.com.