With the new year comes goal-setting. People focus on exercise and weight loss, skill building, and personal growth (to name a few). At a snug shop on Ryan Street, spiritual wellness is a priority.

Emily Parker owns Creative Roots, 3204 Ryan St., a local metaphysical one-stop shop focusing on herbalism and holistic healing. The shop sells a large selection of loose herbs and teas, tinctures, body care, crystals, spiritual tools and local art.

Creative Roots got its start on social media. Parker has sold at farmer’s markets for half a decade. Along the way, she met a network of local artists who inspired the concept of a store that would serve as a vessel for creation and collective healing. She said the support “poured out” of the community.

Holistic healing runs deep in the local culture, even if people don’t realize it, she said. Even southern New Year’s traditions are rooted in spiritual practices like manifestation.

“We eat black-eyed peas and cabbage and cornbread for your health and your wealth,” she explained. “We like to eat, we like to cook. Putting intention into your food, into your teas, the things that you’re consuming is really important for the health of your spirit and your body.”

Simply cooking and consuming with intent can bolster spiritual wellness, but Creative Roots offers extensive opportunities to expand one’s spiritual routine.

The shop has one of the largest collections of crystals from Beaumont to New Orleans, she said. Crystals and crystal jewelry can be used as a tangible symbol of goals. Parker said since crystals have meanings attached to them, using them in the day-to-day can help train the brain to act on intentions. This is a popular method in the shop.

“At any time you can ask them what’s in their pocket and someone’s going to pull out a crystal.”

For the new year, she recommends pyrite for abundance and tourmaline for protection and grounding. Year-round, the “master stone,” clear quartz can help with any goal.

“Clear quartz is the only crystal that absorbs your intention or amplifies other intentions.”

Herbs are another effective and simple tool that can be used spiritually. Whether it is through aromatherapy or teas, the fragrant plants can help remind the body, mind and spirit of their purposes.

Parker said drinking herbal tea is a simple way to start integrating spiritual practice into routines.“

Just be there and breathe. Think about your tea because meditation is the hardest thing any of us can do in this busy time, and it’s almost impossible for anyone to sit and still their mind because we’re constantly thinking about something.”

Creative Roots offers a tea bar where customers can select their herbs to take home, or to steep in shop, sip and “enjoy the vibe.”

Cinnamon and clove are good for abundance, lavender for wealth and rosemary for health, she said.

A healthy spirit comes down to habit-building and day-to-day integration of actions and symbols that improve your life. This can be a difficult task, she noted, but it should be approached with self-mercy.

“Self-discipline is the hardest thing that any human can conquer, honestly. Being patient without yourself and realizing that you may forget to do certain things on certain days and that’s okay.”

Another way to keep the spirit healthy is through the act of creation. Parker said art – sculpting, painting, crafting, writing – is a form of therapeutic, mindful meditation.

“When you’re creating something, you are literally living in the now. You’re not thinking about all those other things. You are thinking about the thing you’re creating,” she said. “And that is one of the purest forms of meditation, really. It really reminds you of the present and how to be human and even that you are human. And what you’re capable of, because we’re so afraid to start things.”

Twenty-nine local artisans are featured in Creative Roots. Some of these artists teach classes at Creative Roots. The store hosts 10 to 15 classes a month, running from pottery to herbalism to painting.