The Behavioral Corner 
Hi, and welcome. I'm Steve Martorano. And this is the Behavioral Corner; you're invited to hang with us, as we've discussed the ways we live today, the choices we make, the things we do, and how they affect our health and wellbeing. So you're on the corner, the Behavioral Corner, please hang around a while

Steve Martorano 
Hey, everybody, how are you doing? Welcome again to the Behavioral Corner with me your host and chief hanger outer, Steve Martorano. We're here on the Corner, hoping to run into interesting people. We always do. They're here to tell us their story and the purpose of which is to help as lots of interesting people who hung with us on the behavioral corner. And they've all provided what we hope are great and helpful insights into what we cover here, which is behavioral health. Big, big topic. It covers practically everything. That's what I like to say about the podcast, "It's a podcast about everything" that affects our behavioral health, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically -- the whole thing. So as we enter September, you may not know this, but September is designated every year as National Recovery Month. And that's certainly worth doing every year. I suppose the origins of it were basically in terms of substance abuse issues. And that's certainly the main focus of Recovery Month, but we're broadening it. And I think most people would you include mental health aspects as well, or anything for that matter, that's making your life not as optimal as it should be, and how you might be able to solve that. And we are very familiar with traditional sort of mainstream, I guess, Western medical techniques to handle all of that we know about psychiatry, we know about psychology, we know about substance abuse treatment, and that what we've decided to do in the month of September for Recovery Month, is I guess, traveled down paths that are out there, traveled by many people, but are not in any way considered "the main ways" you might get your behavioral health in better shape. Just to let you know exactly what I mean by that. There's no way to enjoy a Superman movie, unless you enter the theater, believing a man can fly, okay? Now, you know, he can't fly -- and it's called the willing suspension of disbelief. Another way of saying keep your mind open, as we talk about lots of stuff this month, that might not have occurred to you as you try to get to a happier place and a healthier place To that end -- and I thank her for being very patient -- we welcome Lauren Blackford, to the program. Lauren, thanks for sitting through that. And thanks for joining us on the Corner.

Lauren Blackford 
Thank you for having me, Steve, I appreciate it

Steve Martorano 
Lauren is a very interesting person. she's accomplished in many areas, she's a mother, a working woman, and also the founder of a group called Yozenity -- which is just a great name. And you'll tell us the origin of the name and what your Yozenity is all about as we talk to you today. First of all, what is Yozenity?

Lauren Blackford 
So Yozenity is my umbrella brand for all of my holistic practices. So I am a holistic wellness coach. I am a registered yoga teacher. I'm also a certified crystal healer. I do meditation, sound healing, and so use entity is my umbrella for all of those practices. And I came up with the brand years ago. So the "Yo" part is for yoga. The "Zen" part is the meditative mindset piece and the "Ity" is really the practice that we're moving towards your mentality spirituality, any "ity." So I combined them all into one brand Yozenity and that's what I practice under.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, it was clever about that. Not only does it make sense when you break it down that way, but as you know, when you begin googling potential names for anything, you find out that no matter how clever you are, somebody has already gotten there. I bet you didn't have that problem with Yozenity. It's a great name. Well, you know, everything you just said, fits perfectly into what I just said, we're going to take a look at it we could probably use you three or four times during the month of September. But what we're going to focus on are - to my way of thinking -- a few of the really choice esoteric or less traveled paths to wellness, and that is a crystal therapy. You talk about sound healing. I don't have any idea what that is. I want to find out more about it. And when you and I spoke earlier, you also mentioned that you were talking to us about aromatherapy, which I'm also very, very interested in. But let's begin with crystals. So you know, crystal 101. What's the crystal?

Lauren Blackford 
So what's the crystal? Well as you know crystals come from the earth. grow inside, you know, the earth's core. And we mined them for many different things. I mean, emeralds and rubies and sapphires are crystals. So we know them in their common ways of using them for jewelry and diamond is a crystal. But there are healing properties that crystals have, that are used, like you said, not as mainstream but have been used throughout history for healing for both physical, emotional, mental imbalances that people have used. Cleopatra used to use lapis lazuli. She used to grind it up and use it as her eyeshadow, it was called Queen Stone. We use quartz in our technology. So they have properties that have enhanced humankind throughout history. But now it's becoming a little bit more known in the mainstream using crystal healing in day-to-day life. And so that's where I come in because I became certified as a crystal healer because I started using crystals for myself, and I wanted to use their healing properties to help others and it's been a wonderful journey, and seeing people have resulted from using crystals has been really exciting for me because I know my experience has been phenomenal with utilizing them. And so seeing others makes me you know, it's super exciting.

Steve Martorano 
Take a moment and tell us about your experience with crystals, what were you looking to accomplish.

Lauren Blackford 
So, I started working more with crystals after my divorce. I was finding more and more ways to heal myself from that emotional turmoil. That's when I turned to yoga more, it's my turn to crystals more. And I noticed that with, you know, working with crystals, I was able to heal emotionally. I was able to enhance the things that I was doing in my life. Because different crystals have different properties. They're not all designed to just calm and heal and get all zen, some of them are designed to enhance your creativity, to enhance your productivity, to heal physically, in certain ways. And so I started dabbling with them a little bit. And then I kind of got hooked. And then I started training and healing. And now I have you can see behind me a huge array of different crystals and different shapes that I use for myself and for others,

Steve Martorano 
You know, we sorta can see them. Pick one of them put it in front of the camera, so we can really see a typical crystal.

Lauren Blackford 
I have one actually on my desk. So this is one of my favorites. This is a Smoky Quartz. So this is a root chakra crystal. And this helps to transmute negative energy. So I actually have a necklace on that is Smoky Quartz, because that takes any bad vibrations that are coming my way and transmute them into positive energy before they hit me.

Steve Martorano 
So not all crystals are for the same thing?

Lauren Blackford 
No, no.

Steve Martorano 
When you say working with them, will tell me what you mean.

Lauren Blackford 
So when I work with crystals, it's a variety of different ways. And anybody can use them in a variety of ways. I always carry them in my pocket. So I have small tumbles in my pocket. So whatever I'm feeling like I need that day, I pick the crystal that has that property that I'm looking for, and I carry them with me throughout the day. And like I mentioned, I'm wearing a necklace, I wear my crystals as well. Keeping them close to the body is the easiest way to work with them. I will often hold crystals in meditation, so I have a wide variety of spheres. And that shape is wonderful to hold a meditation, I'll always buy them in two and killed one in each hand. As I meditate and whatever I'm searching for that day through my meditation, I'll choose the crystal with that property. And I've had very different results in meditation based on the crystals that I choose. So I have learned that different crystals have different properties for me, and other people may have a different experience with the same crystal.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah. And since this has been around so long, I'm sure there's a wide body of knowledge that already sets you on the path of which crystal you might use in a given situation. You're not out in your backyard, or in some quarry digging these things up. Where do you get these crystals?

Lauren Blackford 
So I have a variety of sources that I get crystals from it. It's important to find a very respectable retailer. There's a lot of local crystal shops that I will go to. You have to live in an area where you can find those but they're popping up more and more. I use some online retailers that I trust actually where I received my crystal healing training is one of my main resources for crystals. She started off...it's SageGoddess.com. She started off as a small Etsy shop 10 years ago, and now she's one of the largest metaphysical retailers in the world. 

Steve Martorano 
When you say certified crystal healer, tell us about that process. First of all, who does this certification?

Lauren Blackford 
So, I'm just certified through Sage Goddess. So I did it last year, she went through certification through, I'm not quite sure who the outfit is. But her course this year is certified through an external source, but I am certified through Sage Goddess who does online training, and has done so for a decade.

Steve Martorano 
When you talk about their therapeutic value you mentioned mentally and physically. Let's take them one at a time. You mentioned a little bit about changing negative energy into positive energy, I can certainly understand that. But what about the physical claims that crystals can help? What kinds of physical ailments have you dealt with?

Lauren Blackford 
So um, I've dealt with some just physical pain, I will get Bloodstone. That is the biggest physical healer stone. It's a Root Chakra stone. So it helps with the physical body. And I will again just keep it near me. And usually, it's like hip pain because I'm a former dancer now a yoga teacher. So there's a lot of hip pain that I deal with and just keeping it in my pocket will help with that pain. And also just in terms of physical needs or interactions, a lot of times people will find that Amethyst helps with addiction. If you're having cravings for, say alcohol, actually green Amethyst is a great one for alcohol addiction and promoting sobriety. So actually, my mom before she passed away, she was a recovering alcoholic as her 60th birthday gift we gave her a green Amethyst necklace to enhance her journey with her sobriety.

Steve Martorano 
On her journey she had stopped at the traditional places, I'm sure.

Lauren Blackford 
Yes, she did.

Steve Martorano 
She was in -- was she in rehab at any point? 

Lauren Blackford 
She was.

Steve Martorano 
And then AA meetings and all of that?

Lauren Blackford 
Yeah, she didn't attend the meetings but she was in rehab. And then you know, she was successfully sober for the rest of her life and used her Amethyst necklace to help with that.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, this would be a good place to pause and make this point and that is that you know, mainstream treatment facilities claim that they are evidence-based and scientific. And I don't know of any sort of mainstream treatment facilities that have crystal techniques. I'm not sure about that. That's my guess, though. So when you say it can help in addiction? In what way? can it help? I mean, people can't wake up one day realize they need help, and go right to crystals to try to kick a serious addiction, can they?

Lauren Blackford 
No, I wouldn't say so. And I wouldn't recommend that. Crystal healing is a complementary therapy. I would never steer anyone away from traditional help or therapy and say, crystals are going to cure all of your things, you know, but I am a huge fan of complementary therapies, including crystal healing and aromatherapy and any other therapy that helps to enhance whatever the person is going through that they want to recover from.

Steve Martorano 
I know when you and I spoke before you came on the corner that you mentioned that you're certainly aware of the resistance from the scientific and medical communities to these things? Because in fact, there probably is not a body of research. Unless you correct me if I'm wrong, that suggests that there is potential here. We don't only think do people even study this stuff in a, you know, in a scientific matter. How do you overcome that? In the mind of someone who's looking for help? How do you break through the, "Come on, that's not gonna work."

Lauren Blackford 
So I like to explain it from a basic scientific view. I like to go back to middle school science when you learn about the makeup of an atom. Right, so you've got the protons and the neutrons that are vibrating in the nucleus, and you have the electrons that are orbiting around. The atom at its core is a vibrational object. It's constantly in motion. So from that sense, you can say that everything has a vibration to it. It's not "woo-woo New Age stuff" it's middle school science. And so there is this process called sympathetic resonance. And that usually is explained in sound healing, but it works in any vibrational sense. And that is when one object begins vibrating, it can cause another object nearby to match or harmonize with that first object's vibration. And the example most used in sympathetic resonance is a tuning fork. You strike a tuning fork, it begins to resonate if there's another tuning fork nearby without striking in that second tuning fork will begin to resonate with the first one that you struck

Steve Martorano 
On the same frequency?

Lauren Blackford 
It depends. We can't predict the exact frequency it will resonate with. But the idea is that something nearby will start to either match that resonance or start to harmonize with it. So we'll start to try to get close to it. 

Steve Martorano 
Yeah. yeah.

Lauren Blackford 
And we see this in everyday life when you're just sitting calmly and somebody comes into your space, and they're angry, and they're yelling, you're gonna get agitated because you're trying to match vibration with energy that just came into your space. And you know, the same thing on the other side. If you listen to guided meditations, you'll notice that the voice is always slow and calm, because it's bringing you into that vibration. It wouldn't work if a guided meditation wasn't allowed booming, fast voice. So we see this matching vibration in our day-to-day lives, we just don't notice that that's happening necessarily. Crystals work the same way in that they have their own vibrational pattern, their own resonance, and when they come in contact with you, which is why you keep them close to your body, your body will start to match that vibration. And that's how the healing works. And again, it's noticeable science, everything has a vibration. 

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, it's great to hear describe like that because folks, you might see the podcast and look at you go, "She doesn't look crazy. And that made sense. It vibrates." There are so many obvious examples here. You talk about a vibration triggering another vibration. That is in fact, the essence of our all sound reaches us because it's inside the ear, that the vibration occurs and that's how you get to hear it. If your ears are working properly. It also explains why some of us have been able to utterly overlook Bob Dylan's voice and just pick up on this sort of vibration because of what he's saying. Not so much how he's saying it.

Lauren Blackford 
Right.

Steve Martorano 
It really does explain a lot of things that affect us positively or negatively, because of this vibration that you very clearly in middle school science have just explained perfectly. So let's move from this crystal motion to this sound healing you talked about? How does that work? What do you employ?

Lauren Blackford 
That's the same notion as the sympathetic resonance of the crystal. So as you explain, you know, we hear the sound it hits our ears. So I actually I use different tools for sound healing, I have crystal singing bowls that I will bang on and move them out around to create a frequency. And there are different frequencies that have different healing properties. And if your listeners want to Google "Solfeggio frequencies." Solfeggio frequencies have been studied, actually, to enhance different aspects of healing. And they relate to the chakras, which I could explain if you like. But basically, it's different frequencies that have different healing properties, just like different crystals have different healing properties. And so when you play a sound that resonates at a certain frequency, it will have certain healing results. I have bowls, I have bells, I have drums -- different things that I use for myself and for others. I've done some YouTube meditations, some sound healing, and people seem to really enjoy it. It seems a bit more tangible system than other healing modalities. We know the power of music. We know the power of sounds. So it's not a huge leap to move into some sound healings and some meditation with some healing frequencies.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, it's interesting to think about sound as a therapeutic modality. It's like fighting fire with fire and the noise in our head - and it's louder now than it's probably ever been -- is what can make us unhappy and unhealthy. And to use more sound, or different sound is kind of an interesting idea. How's a typical session with your work? 

Lauren Blackford 
For the sound healing? 

Steve Martorano 
Well, for, you know, I call you and I say I want to session. My back hurts or I'm on the happy, how does it look, I come in, I want the session or that?

Lauren Blackford 
So I'm doing crystal healing. It's about an hour and I will we'll talk about what's going on with you physically, emotionally, spiritually, energetically, I will do a full-body crystal healing and usually, there is laying of crystals on the body. I'll sometimes crack some sound through them. So I'll take my bells and I'll crack down through them which pushes that frequency that healing into the body. And I will recommend some other ways that they can heal themselves at home -- crystals they can use. I also do wellness coaching. So if somebody is really looking to overhaul their health in a holistic way, that's a little bit more diet, exercise, it's a little bit more holistic. I offer coaching sessions, which I thoroughly enjoy. I have a certification in health coaching. But I moved into a holistic realm because I realized more and more that it really isn't just what's on your plate, or what how you're moving your body, but it's your lifestyle and your relationships and your interactions and the happiness in your job that really affects your health more than anything.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, well, one of the things I've learned from doing many, many years now of beginning with substance abuse issues, the first thing you begin to realize is that getting an addiction under control is not one thing. It's also a long process. That has to do with as you just said, eliminating the immediate problem, which is these cravings and the use, but then changing everything that contributed to that. So holistic techniques make a whole lot of sense. And before we move through some of the other stuff that I wanted to talk to you about. Can you tell me -- give me some examples of specific physical ailments that people you've seen, have had success with? I mean, migraines, arthritis, what sort of physical things do you find crystals help?

Lauren Blackford 
Migraines are a huge one, for any headaches or migraines, you throw an amethyst right on your third eye, and that will take you away.

Steve Martorano 
That's interesting because you say you carry your -- some people carry them, you wear it around your neck, but other times you need to apply it closer to where the problem is. 

Lauren Blackford 
Absolutely, especially if it's a physical element that helps the most. And also, I mentioned chakras before. So there are different energy points in the body that relate to different aspects. You know, I've just mentioned the third eye, it's good for headaches, but it's also good for intuition. That's you that's your pineal gland. That's where your instincts and your wisdom come into play. So if you want to amp that up, you're going to want to put a crystal right on that the middle of the forehead,

Steve Martorano 
Instincts are much abused. Most people are taught from the beginning, "Don't trust your Instincts." You know, it's an old habit we have. And finally, on the mental side of things -- for instance, if someone comes to you and said, I have a paralyzing fear of small spaces or flying, I can't get on an airplane. Can Crystal help somebody in that situation?

Lauren Blackford 
Yes, I believe that they can, I think that if if you try to put...What I try to do is try to pinpoint where the origin of the issue, you know, because it's never about what it's about, right? So in that instance, if there are lots of fears, I would look to their root chakra and grounding and safety and stability, and try to enhance that. So in the root chakra, that's the base of your spine. And that's, that's you, you know, "I need" part and that's where red-colored crystals and black-colored crystals are very good. So in that sense of Smoky Quartz or Tourmaline, or Red Jasper, I would look to that for fear.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, wow, there's, there's a lot to know. Because, you know, you can go into a lot of, I guess jewelry stores or, or high-end knickknacks shops, and find a lot of things that are, you know, that are ornamental, and are made of crystal. You probably don't recommend going to buy something, somebody who started out as an ashtray and think it's gonna think...it's gonna fix anything. There's a lot to know about that. This is really just fascinating. Let's pivot now to aromatherapy. Which when I started thinking about aromatherapy, I went, "Wow, that's really the farthest out one. Nobody can believe any of that stuff." And that occurred to me almost instantly that well, that sense of smell is an enormously powerful sense. And people who would go on with aromatherapy is nonsense, or, you know, voodoo science, aren't noticing that when they smell something there's a huge reaction, right?

Lauren Blackford 
Oh, absolutely. Well, you know, our sense of smell, as you said, I mean, it is our primary safety mechanism. If you think about it, how do you tell if a piece of food has gone rotten? You smell it, and you know, immediately if you want to eat it or not, you know, the thing about our olfactory senses is that they send signals immediately to the parts of the brain that are responsible for emotional response and the stress response. That's why you get such a visceral reaction. When you smell something either good or bad. It's immediate. There's no thinking about it. There's no process. It's just you immediately have a reaction to it. And so aromatherapy is probably one of the most immediate alternative healing techniques that you can utilize. Because it can bring on, you know, the relaxation response instantly just by smelling lavender.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, in an evolutionary sense, you're right, early mankind would find an animal dead already, and go over and go, "Well, here's food," unless it smelled that, right. And they had no other knowledge base, other than it smells bad, it must be bad. So you don't eat it. So it's really easy to understand that. My only experience as I think back now, on anything approaching aromatherapy was thought of as therapy is, you know, back in, you know, my, my glorious hippie days, somebody was always burning incense. Then, at that point, it was more sort of fashion. I mean, this is what you did you burned incense. But that's a kind of therapeutic use of incense, right?

Lauren Blackford 
Oh, absolutely. Well, I think people use aromatherapy all the time, they just don't realize it's therapy. You know, you burn scented candles all the time, based on your mood or the season. Like right now you would not burn a candle that smells like a pine tree, but in a few months, you're going to want to because that's the response that you want. 

Steve Martorano 
Do you know what's interesting about that? Almost everything with regard to that what you just described, is predicated on one thing, and that is eliminating a bad smell. Right? All of the air fresheners scented candles, any of that is like I'm not using it for any other reason, then I want to smell like springtime here. But as you say, you're really wanting to change the way you think. Right?

Lauren Blackford 
Mm-hmm. 

Steve Martorano 
Are you able to treat all sorts of things are you able to treat using aromatherapy?

Lauren Blackford 
You can. And again, it's a complementary technique. It's not something I would say that replaces any traditional therapies. But you can use aromatherapy for a wide variety. I mean, I mentioned if you want, you know, to ease some anxiety or depression, lavender is a perfect thing to use. I have a family member that suffers from vertigo, and he carries around peppermint oil. And whenever he's having a bad episode, that's what...he'll be sitting there just snipping his peppermint oil, and that helps them a lot. Black pepper oil is great for cravings. If if you're trying to kick a bad habit like cigarettes, or you know, certain food cravings, black pepper has been shown to help with that. And again, it's an immediate reaction. And so...

Steve Martorano 
How would you use that in the situation? How would use black pepper? 

Lauren Blackford 
Black pepper oil? Just smelling it. 

Steve Martorano 
Oh, it's oil?

Lauren Blackford 
It's oil. Yeah, you can get black pepper oil, peppermint oil, all those, you know, aromatherapy. When you're talking about it as this therapy technique. It's usually essential oils that are either sniffed directly diffused in a diffuser or sometimes applied topically but you have to be careful to make sure that they can be applied topically, some of them will burn.

Steve Martorano 
And to be clear, with aromatherapy, there's no ingestion of any of these?

Lauren Blackford 
Not usually. Some people will ingest some of these but that's not technically aromatherapy because it has to hit the olfactory senses. That's the main goal. Some people will put essential oils in their food if they're safe. But it's really for the smell factor, getting it straight into the brain. So that's the end result.

Steve Martorano 
Right. Yeah, that's a pretty fast path. By the way. Lauren Blackford is our guest. Lauren is the founder of a wellness coaching organization or group called Yozenity. And, Lauren, it's been really terrific. I could go on and on about the things you do. And you say there are other modalities that are involved. We've talked about yoga in the past may do it again this month. But Yoga is almost mainstream at this point, it doesn't seem as esoteric or off the mainstream as the other stuff you've you've talked to us about. I just want you to respond to this final notion because I know it's out there and people are going to go, "Okay, some people say it works for them. That's good. If it works for them. That's good." But really, all that's happened is that they bought into this. The expression that comes up is mind over matter. Oh, if they believe it, then it works. First of all, is that correct? Do you believe that you're just convincing people that this stuff can help them? Or it actually is? Does it matter at the end of the day?

Lauren Blackford 
That's interesting. Well, I think everybody has their own perspective and experience and if...I don't ever try to convince somebody that this is going to work for them, I just like to talk about it, and then see what their experience is when people ask me what crystals you get: What resonates with you? Find what you like. So whether it's mind over matter or actual physical vibration, it doesn't matter if the end result is good. Again, this is a complementary therapy. Crystals are a tool just like sound just like the aroma. They are just tools to get the end result that you were looking for. So it's really up to the individual if it works for them. That's great. And it doesn't really matter how it gets there, right?

Steve Martorano 
Yep, on that point. And that's going to be the sort of guiding principle this month as we talk about alternative paths to wellness. If it works, and it doesn't hurt anybody else. It's very, very valuable. Lauren Blackford, we will have a link to your site there. If people want more information, they can do that. And we thank you for helping us, you know, traveled down some roads, we might not have paid any attention to come back sometime. We got lots more we can talk about. 

Lauren Blackford 
Great. Thank you so much for having me. This has been great. 

Steve Martorano 
Hey, you guys listening. You know how to follow us on Facebook and all the places we're on every platform where you can get podcasts. We also love to hear from you. And in particular, in this case in this month, going forward if there's anything in any area that you have had success with, you know, along these lines, let us know about because there's I'm sure stuff out there we've never heard of. Lauren Blackford, thanks for joining us. Thank you all for your time and look for us coming up real soon again on the Behavioral Corner. Take care, everybody.

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