Meet Crystal Arthur | Reiki Master & Intuitive Healer

Believe it or not, I did NOT want any part of starting and being responsible for running a business. I tried to avoid it, possibly to my own detriment. Until I realized having the formal foundation of a business organization could actually allow me a way to create boundaries that supported helping others while continuing my own personal growth.

I thought “having a business” would be solely focused on the aspects of my previous corporate world I didn’t enjoy like accounting, regulations and rules. I just wanted to have fun helping people. After finally took the time to make the initial investment in setting everything up structurally, it actually freed me to craft a life around what I enjoy on my own schedule.

What’s one piece of conventional advice you disagree with?

That “you have to choose a sensible career that is safe, provides financial security and necessary benefits”. For example telling a child to be a doctor or lawyer because they have higher salaries and not to pursue artistic endeavors that won’t bring in enough income to survive.

When I was playing by the rules, had the career & financial security I was taught was important, I had no inner peace and never felt secure. The peace I have obtained in pursuing passion has actually felt more safe than the six-figure salaries and five-figure bonuses.

Risk Taking: How do you think about risk? What role has risk taking played in your life career?

I truly believe there is no reward without risk. For me, nothing worth having or the things I’ve found truly enjoyable have not come without significant risk.

One of my favorite haikus I penned many years ago says:

“Love is a gamble
Blackjack has better odds but
Love’s gain is unmatched”

The more I’ve learned to trust my intuition and metaphorically jump, even when I’m afraid, the more wins I’ve experienced. You can’t win if you’re not playing the game. Staying safe is stagnant and boring.

What habits do you feel helped you succeed?

Consistency, discipline and learning to trust my intuition have helped me define my personal success. It’s not just making a decision or choosing a path that will get you to your goal. You have to commit to doing the mundane, boring, hard things over and over if that’s what it takes to reach the finish line.

I’m a CrossFit junkie that sees the correlation between the consistency and discipline required to strengthen and care for our bodies translates into every other endeavor in life. After life knocked me down repeatedly with years of surgeries and hospitalizations, I had to start over rebuilding my physical strength. Now being able to do things doctors said I would never be able to do again in this life reiterated my life’s mantra: If you don’t quit you win!

For me, success is getting up over and over again no matter how many times you get knocked down. Finding the things that support putting yourself back together and committing to doing whatever is necessary to get back up is an infalible formula for success and duplicating it various ways.

What is the most important factor behind your success/success of brand?

Love. God is Love and created us in His image out of a desire to have a love relationship. Everything we do in life can be root-cause-analized back to love. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs even outlines all of our physiological and physical needs have to be met in order to achieve self actualization. We fight to stay alive to purpose connection and relationship with others.

The only thing God requires of us is to Love one another as ourselves. To me this means when you see me, you should ‘C. Love’. For me success is when I have operated from a place of love and helped someone else heal or do things they thought impossible making it possible for them to receive and give more love.

What is the most important lesson your business/career has taught you?

The greatest lesson this career has taught me is that you can find a way to fulfill purpose and chase your passion in such a way your work is actually something you enjoy and don’t loathe.

Work life balance: How has your balance changed over time? What do you think about balance?

In my opinion, balance in all things is a necessary aspect of alignment. The more I learned about being in alignment and creating balance between the physical, mental and spiritual parts of myself, the more my views on work-life-balance shifted.

Instead of working to balance my life through time management strategies, I shifted into trying to maintain my own inner balance. This meant taking care of my body, getting enough rest, exercising, reading and continuing to acquire more knowledge became more important to me than the traditional corporate focused mindset I’d previously adopted.

Balance changed my definition of success and brought peace I didn’t know was possible by fiercely protecting my personal balance over the external demands on my time. I now put my phone on Do Not Disturb (DND) before my night time routine and don’t touch my phone in the mornings until AFTER I have prayed, meditated, moved my body and fed my brain something. Most days I don’t take my phone off of DND until after 9am when I get up at 6. Before I lived on my phone and checked it all night. Now I don’t engage with others or respond until I’ve grounded and filled myself in order to have something to pour out.

If I am a vessel, what’s in the cup is for me. Once I am full to overflowing, the outpouring is for others. The more I ensure I am aligned and filled up the more I have to give and serve others. We can’t make a difference and impact others if we aren’t balanced.

Why did you pursue an artistic or creative career?

I don’t feel like I chose this path, rather this life chose me. I’d played by and followed all of the rules, obtained the degrees and certifications and was well on my way to corporate career success. Then suddenly, when my body failed, I realized I was not as ‘in control’ as I’d always thought and strived to be.

I came to a point in life where I questioned everything I believed in. As I was striving to heal myself physically I learned it was all connected to healing myself spiritually and emotionally. In an effort to distract myself from the pain and chaos happening in and around me, I began to educate myself on holistic ways of transforming my reality and find things that fueled passions. I looked up and found myself deeply immersed in a space where theology, metaphysics, astrology the physical sciences meet.

Experiencing my own personal transformation and realizing I’ve always been a conduit for others to experience their own catharsis was so freeing and captivating I couldn’t deny the call to continue its pursuit.

What are you inspired by?

I am inspired by the Divine, supernatural, synchronicities that are difficult to articulate but deeply transformative. It’s the moments when you help someone heal a deep wound that had been preventing them from being free to be themselves and enjoy moving forward with life; especially when the person was on the verge of giving up.

Witnessing the power of humans to reinvent, transform and transmute trauma provides an intangible, intrinsic reward that I’ve never experienced prior to choosing this path. Helping others heal hurt not only inspires my soul, it motivates me to keep pushing through weariness and obstacles along the way. It’s a fulfilling inspiration that actually provides me with rejuvenation.

Those are the spiritual connections that played a major part in my shift but I would never discount the value of the lessons learned from my parents, Robert & Ava Arthur, my aunt & uncle that served as bonus parents, Alice & George Johnson as well as my daughter Cierra Arthur. The support, love, prayers and simply showing up of my ‘Soul Family’.