hi everyone!  
my name is Ruby and i'm 18 years old.
i'm just starting to embrace my love of crystals which i've been drawn to all my life but have never understood why or how. thanks to my local crystal healer i'm now embracing the world of crystals and also colour healing.

i haven't had the courage to explain to my family yet (we're atheists) and i can't think of how to explain to them that it's not a spiritual belief i have with crystals but an understanding of how vibrational energies, wavelengths of light etc etc can affect our emotions. i know most people are spiritual about it, but that's just not for me.

any tips on how to explain to my parents would be very helpful. especially from people involved with crystals in a non-spiritual way.

i look forward to many enlightening conversations on here!  

Welcome to the forums, Ruby! Perhaps you can explain to your parents that crystal healing is something you are researching, rather than letting them know that you are fully immersed in it, and see how they react to that.  Generally research can come across as being done from a non-involved, yet interested, perspective, so they can rest assured that you are not spiritually involved in it, merely intrigued by the subject.  
It's a roundabout way to let them in on things, but isn't a dishonest way to put it, from what I understand?

i've put crystals under my dog's sofa for her arthritis and i have lots of crystals in my room and a book about crystal healing under my bed so i think they'll probably start to realise soon i'm just not looking forward to the bombardment of question i'll get when they cotton on!

when that happens i'll do as you suggest.

i leave for uni soon to study vet medicine and i can't wait because then i can get really into it and i can be honest with my fellow students as soon as i get there because they don't know me!

Try to discuss the physical properties of the minerals. For instance it's well know that copper can help arthritis, also that quartz and silicon run our computers. Look at it from that angle and also drop in some history too, how crystals were used for medication and that some crystals can act like antibiotics and dont allow bacteria to grow on them etc. Good Luck

Welcome too

Cassie

thanks that's a great idea.
the book i have has a huge section at the front about how the crystals are formed and how their structure gives them different vibrations and properties.
i'll show them that.
even if they don't get the healing part it's still very interesting!