Listen to My Story Here... I get asked by people all the time, "How did Love and Light School get started?" "How is it that you do what you do?" Because I think it's still pretty surprising to a lot of people that you can have a job as a crystal healer. So today I wanted to share the story of how I went from just being a crystal lover to an international crystal teacher and best selling crystal author. If you had asked me 15 years ago if I thought being an international crystal teacher was possible for me, I don't think I could have even imagined it. I think a lot of people find themselves in this same situation. There is something that they feel called to do, but they just don't see the way ahead. When you can't see the path it doesn't feel like something is possible. It doesn't feel like it could be real because you can't see how to get there. So today I'll be talking about my journey towards becoming a crystal healer. I get asked so often how I did it, so I thought it would be really helpful to dedicate an entire podcast episode to my story. My hope for you is that if you listen to the story and feel like you're on a similar path in your life right now, or you'd like to be, that you realize that it is possible and that you can make it happen. It's not just some fluky thing that happened for me -  it can happen for you too with the right steps. So I guess we'll go back to the beginning...  If you've listened to interviews with me before at all, you know that I really got started with crystals because of my grandparents. My grandfather was really into crystals and minerals and anything in the natural world. He was a scientist. He loved learning about animals and plants and minerals and he shared that love and passion with me from a young age. I have him to thank for my interest and curiosity about crystals. However, he wasn't so much looking at them from an esoteric perspective. He wasn't looking at healing qualities or the metaphysics of minerals at all. Despite this, he did instil that deep love and appreciation within me. I think my own curiosity for all things metaphysical influenced the way that I approached my relationship with crystals. Like a lot of people, I started out on my journey with a lot of self study. This was even going back to my teenage years. I would read so many books about the metaphysical properties of crystals. My very first book that I ever got was Melody's 'Love Is In The Earth'. I actually found it at a library sale for 25 cents or 50 cents and I couldn't believe it. I was so excited and I bought it for myself. Straight away I read it cover to cover which, if you've read Melody's book, you'd know is no small feat. It's pretty intense. She has so much wisdom and knowledge to share. That was a big eye-opener for me about just how deep you could go in the world of crystals. There are minerals in that book that to this day I've probably still never seen in person. There are minerals that I had never even heard of the first time I went through and read that book. But it was so exciting at that time because it was a whole new world for me, and that instilled this deeper curiosity. I just wanted to know more and more. I'm one of those people whose thirst for knowledge is never really quenched. I am always wanting to learn something new. So although that was my first deep foray into this kind of self study in the realm of crystals, I started to buy books by lots of other people - authors that I have a great deal of respect and admiration for, such as Judy Hall, Naisha Asiyan, and Katrina Rafael. I started to learn a lot about the different perspectives and viewpoints that exist in the crystal healing world and just how many possibilities there were out there for how to work with stones. At the same time, I also felt a little confused and overwhelmed. As much as there were things that many people agreed upon, there were also things that they disagreed on.