Imagine: it’s a humid summer Saturday and you’re scouring the hallowed aisles of T.J. Maxx for suitcases and that one taco-printed blanket you saw last week. Finding neither, you start to make your way to the door only to have the sale table in the jewelry section catch your eye. (It happens more often than you think.) Glancing over the discounted offerings of oversized wrist watches and sets of sparkling earrings, you notice a purple box displaying a dainty necklace. “It’s just a rock attached to a chain,” you think. “But it’s cute.” But upon closer inspection of the cute purple box, you see a description: “Moonstone – Enhances balance, clarity, and eases stress.” Hyperfocusing on the “easing stress” part, you promptly wait 20 minutes in line to obtain possibly the best impulse buy you have ever purchased. You leave the store smiling, box in hand.
That was me this summer.
All was well and good until I got home and thought, “Would it really work? Can this necklace from the sale section at T.J. Maxx really suck up all my stress?” So I consulted my best friend Google to see if this little necklace could keep all the promises of Zen and clarity it had made to me.
Let me just say, once I started looking up the uses of a Moonstone, things got a little wild. Hundreds of results emerged, from intriguing sites such as “thesecretofthetarot.com” and other magical-yet-sketchy sounding domains. According to Energy Muse, Moonstones are a gemstone that “act as a guide to help you do what’s necessary to become more balanced, healthy and in sync.” They also apparently need to be charged. Who knew?
After soaking in all this new information, I decided that I would give this mysterious Moonstone a good ol’ college try (get it? Because we’re in college…). Here’s my (edited, organized and reflected) account of seeing how life-changing wearing a Moonstone would be.
Day One: Tuesday, July 2
So, I forgot that I was going to start this on Monday. But I clipped the Moonstone on this morning and ever since I have been chilling. Like, I felt as if I were shrouded in a blanket of balance and life-is-good vibes the whole day. Was it the placebo effect? High key, it probably was. But was I feeling like a Bohemian VSCO girl with my Moonstone around my neck while I grabbed frozen corn and BBQ from H-E-B? Heck yeah I was.
Day Two: Wednesday, July 3
The chill vibes were not present on this day. Today was a bit (a lot) stressful for a variety of reasons, and my stone was not soaking all of that negative energy up. Maybe I should’ve charged it in the moonlight last night. Maybe I needed a bigger stone. Maybe the placebo effect wore off after one gloriously stress-free day. The world may never know. Either way, today the all-powerful Moonstone was more of a cute accessory than a talisman of Zen. Hopefully tomorrow will yield better results.
Day Three: Thursday, July 4
Aaannndddd I have regained my chill. Probably because it was a holiday and there were fireworks and pizza and all the things ™, but still. I would like to at least attribute part of my balance and lack of stress to the Moonstone. After all, it added a nice bit of pizazz to my outfit.
Days Four and Five: Friday, July 5 and Saturday, July 6
Ok, I know it’s just the placebo effect. The stone did not regain its first-day magic.
Final Thoughts: Could I have probably worn it for a few days to see if it would actually make a difference? Sure. Did I think it would make a difference? No. In the end, it was easy to see that managing stress is not as easy as throwing on a necklace in the morning – no matter how much I hoped it was true. Managing stress and finding balance is probably best fixed by long term habits such as journaling, exercise, yoga or meditation, and building a solid daily schedule or routine. For those looking to invest in gemstone jewelry, I 10/10 recommend investing for the aesthetic, but don’t take their healing properties to heart.
Unless they really work for you. Then let me know if they really need to be charged or not.
If you want to try and see if gemstones work for you (idk maybe *I’m* the problem), here is a list of common stones and their healing properties:
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