Intention Setting.
The practice of naming a clear purpose at the start of a ritual, meditation, or working with a stone.
Intention setting is the quiet first step of most crystal practice. It means naming what the work is for, in plain language, before doing anything else. The intention can be spoken, written, or simply held in mind, but it needs to be specific enough that the practitioner would recognise progress when it arrived.
In practice, an intention is usually a single short sentence. "I am opening to clearer sleep this month." "I am making space to grieve properly." "I am building one steady writing habit." It is not a wish list and it is not a demand. It is a way of telling the rest of the practice what direction to face.
Stones come into this as anchors. Holding a chosen crystal while naming the intention links the felt sense of that intention to a physical object that can later sit on a desk, in a pocket, or by a bed as a reminder. The mechanism is unsurprising: cues in the environment shape behaviour over time. Whether or not anything more is happening, the cue itself does real work.