• Hold beads while driving, waiting on line, or during idle time. Normally wasted time can be turned into a meditative or prayerful process.
• Sleep with them under your pillow
• Carry them in your pocketbook or in your pocket for easy access to your chosen spiritual practice.
• Assign a prayer to each bead. Read the prayer as you hold the bead until the prayer is memorized. Until then, repeat the first line of the prayer – it will carry the weight of the whole prayer.
• Assign each bead a meaning – for me the metal spacers remind me to breathe.
• Assign each bead an affirmation.
• Assign each bead a different goal.
• Know your different beads by feel – eventually just touching the bead will evoke the desired emotion or reminder.
• Repetition – on sets with patterns, each bead will be a word or phrase (example “maiden, mother, crone.”) Repeat the word that corresponds with the bead as you touch each one.
• Sit with your beads when you are feeling calm and quiet (or while you meditate.) With time you will feel calm each time you touch them.
• Take them out when you write or create. Your mind will begin to associate them with writing/creating. They can then be used to ward off writer’s block.
• Meditate/contemplate/think about a particular concept such as the meaning of each full moon on the Full Moon sets, or the aspects of divinity in sets of three (Father, Son and Holy Spirit or Maiden, Mother, Crone.)
• Contemplate the months/seasons and what you want to bring into your life in each particular month. Use them to set goals, remind yourself of lessons, or allow the beads to tell you what they represent. (My own have reminded me to live in my heart, to pay attention to what is, and to integrate.)
• Grieve with Story-Beads
• Custom make a set with a bead for each member of your family. Pray for or think lovingly of each person when you touch their personal bead.
• Custom made sets can recycle unworn but beloved old jewelry (pendants, earrings and beaded pieces.)
• Give as gifts to loved ones. Even if they never use them they will be a constant reminder that they are loved!
• If nothing else, display your beads in a prominent location so that you look upon them often. Even just seeing them will be a reminder of whatever reason you bought them for, even if it was only to remind you of the beauty in the world.

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