Miranda Kerr is wearing a crystal someplace in this photo. Photo: Courtesy of Kora

Miranda Kerr was into wellness before it became an epidemic. She grows sugar snap peas in alkaline soil and her favorite apps help her record her gratitude and dispense self-affirmations as a headache cure. Believing in the power of positive thinking, she once told this magazine that she doesn’t worry about inadequacy: “Because a rose can never be a sunflower, and a sunflower can never be a rose.”

The founder of the beauty line Kora Organics, Kerr recently launched a superfoods supplement powder that contains of-the-moment matcha and noni, an antioxidant super-fruit found mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. The Cut talked to the model about why she loves crystals so much, baking apple pie, and how even a normally happy person like herself dealt with depression.

I’ve read that all of your beauty products are filtered through a crystal. True or false?
True. It’s filtered through rose quartz, which is my all-time favorite crystal. I really notice the difference when I’m holding it. I keep one in my handbag. I have a small heart-shaped one I put in my bra. It’s known to encourage love (like self-love) in your life and open the heart chakra. It’s supposed to have healing and protecting powers. We have a filtration system set up, and the rose quartz is energized, cleansed, and put back in to filter once again.

There are so many different ways out there we can have magic in our lives, and this is one way I saw that I could incorporate it into my line. The back of each Kora product says a positive word like bliss, love, or joy because I believe in the power of intention and attention. Having been around crystals for so long, they just really work for me and I wanted to share that with everyone.

How did you get into crystals?
My grandfather used to give them to my grandmother and she really treasured them. He used to find big geodes and he would give them to her. She and I loved them. He ended up bringing her so many that in the back of their house, they had this weeping willow tree and at the base was a collection of crystals that he had gotten for her. I used to climb that tree every day when I was a child and thought, they’re magic. It was without even knowing that different crystals had different energies. I was just drawn to them.

I haven’t discovered crystals yet. What would be your advice to a crystal skeptic?
It depends on the individual. It’s like exercise, you have to find what works for you. I personally have found such a benefit from incorporating it. Whether or not if it’s really doing something, it has been around for so long. I believe they have a little magic, and I like having that magic in my life. If a crystal is speaking to you for whatever reason, and you go to a crystal store and naturally just gravitate towards it, you can read up about that stone.

When we were living in NYC, Flynn was maybe 3 and went to FAO Schwartz with my cousin. He said, “Mummy, can I buy something when I go there?” I said, “You can buy one thing.” He comes back with this little rose quartz. Out of all the whole store that was what he picked out and said, “This is for you.” That blew me away. I didn’t know if he ever heard me talking about it. They do say children are very in tune. It was so thoughtful. And he does really love crystals. He has a little one that he carries.

So you really carry a rose quartz with you every day in your bra?Pretty much. It’s a tiny little one in the shape of a heart. It’s been buffed a little. One day I was carrying it and then, I thought I really should just put it on my bra on my left side, near my heart. And that felt good.

I know it sounds crazy. But I feel as human beings, that we either come from love or fear. If we have something like that little reminder, like rose quartz, to always come from love and not from fear, it’s a much more expansive place to come from.

What is your morning routine?
A recent thing I’ve been doing is doing hot water with apple cider vinegar. It gets the digestive juices going and it’s a good way to flush out your system. About 20 minutes later, I’ll have my smoothie. I mix it up. Sometimes it will be kale, blueberries, spinach, papaya, avocado, with a base of almond milk we make at home. Other times, it will be a coconut water with a fresh coconut which is hydrating. Then I’ll add in the Kora skinfood supplement because it has noni, acai, blueberry, and matcha green tea. Other times, I’ll put a little protein rice powder and maybe a little almond butter.

In the past, I used to start the day with hot water with lemon. What I realized is that it’s very alkalizing and that’s great. But when you need to digest food, you need to have the digestive juices stimulated. A teaspoon of apple cider vinegar is good at doing it. It just feels cleansing.

Wellness has been such a buzzword. As someone who has believed in it for so long, even before it was “trendy,” how do you think about it?
It’s making sure you make balanced, conscious choices. But at the same time, having the little indulgence. Even now, I’m like 80 percent healthy, 20 percent indulgent. My grandma does too. She loves to bake cakes. For me, it’s super important not to be super strict with myself. If I choose something to eat, I think, If I have this to eat, how am I going to feel? It’s not about calories. It’s more about whether it’s going to help me feel energized or if I will feel sluggish after I eat it. What kind of nutrients am I getting from my food?

I think about wellness from the mind perspective. I make a conscious choice to choose my thoughts in a positive or neutral way, as opposed to a negative way. There’s always two sides to everything. You could think, Ugh, it’s raining today. But you could think, I’m so appreciative, the rain is so cozy. Wellness is trying to see things in that way. I’ve learned to grow and evolve. It’s inevitable being human to have experiences which are challenging. The way that we look at things can change our mind-set and well being.

And even then — how do you make sure you are taking care of your spirit using what exercise you enjoy doing? How do you de-stress? What makes you feel good? Having that balance between work, life, friends, family, is super important for wellness. It’s important we make time to do those things, fill up our cups, and give back.

You’ve talked about depression. What was your personal experience with it — and how did you try to cope with it?
It was very interesting. I was born a very happy, very lighthearted person. My natural essence is quite happy and positive. When I went through that period when I was really depressed, I was like Wow, I really understand what people mean. It’s a serious thing. It’s like a chemical imbalance in your brain. It’s so important to have support from your friends and family, and to find ways to support yourself. Do things — even if you feel like you don’t want to do them.

I had to push myself to exercise so I got that endorphin release, even though it was the last thing I wanted to do. It’s important to be able to talk about it, and not feel ashamed of it. I just started with appreciating little things. If I saw a beautiful flower, I would try to appreciate the simplicity of the flower and the beauty of that. I would try to be grateful that I have a roof over my head and have a healthy son.

Aromatherapy was really helpful for me, and so were the crystals. Don’t be so hard on yourself about it. For me, I needed to ride that wave and that moment in my life and realize this intensity will pass. But until that happened, I thought, I’ve got these supportive tools in my life to get me through that.

What have you been into, endorphin and workout-wise?
I got into doing kundalini yoga. Kundalini helps your nervous system and energize and open the chakras in your body. I enjoy the philosophy. If you’re consistent with it, it’s a powerful practice. Apart from that, I have a Pilates reformer.

I love to go swimming with Flynn. We also like jumping on the trampoline together; it’s fun. Sometimes we’ll even turn on the music and dance around the house. It’s really fun, he loves it. We also got a little soccer net with the soccer ball so we kick the ball around quite a bit. My motto is to keep active, keep moving and try to find moves to incorporate exercise that you enjoy and have fun with.

You say you practice 80/20. What is in your 20, your indulgence?It depends. My husband [Evan Spiegel] makes really delicious burgers. It’s one of his specialties. I also really enjoy — and he and Flynn love it — when I make homemade apple pie. I only started making it when I moved to the States. I never made it in Australia. We make pavlova, cakes, and cookies there, but never pie. It’s actually a lot of hard work. It takes time. It’s worth it in the end to see other people really enjoying something you made. I get a real kick out of that.

Allure magazine said that they’re banning the phrase “anti-aging.” As the founder of a beauty company, what do you think of that?
That’s interesting. I hadn’t read anything on that, but I should to find out what their spin on it is. But it’s important to embrace aging. That’s why I believe in using products on my skin that help detoxify it and fill it with nutrients.

Skin is the largest organ in your body. It’s so important to fill it with the nutrients it needs so that it has that vitality and life force. In the world we are living in, there is so much pollution. But I’m not super strict with everything. I obviously wear makeup and it’s not always organic. I always put on my Noni Glow Face Oil. It’s sinking in and allowing the nutrients to get in there first. Healthy skin is beautiful skin regardless of your age.

This interview has been condensed and edited.