Real Self-Care: Clearing Space

This post is part of a month-long series on Real Self-Care for world-changers. It’s about the experimentation: figuring out what works for you and following your heart. Simple, messy and everything in between. Self-care should be custom, intuitive, feasible and kind – to serve your actual life.

Clearing Space: smudging, burning & other ways to cleanse space

In order to open this month of Real Self-Care, I did a little clearing this morning: of my physical space, of myself and of the energy around me.

I do this regularly: lighting a candle, smudging with plants, such as sage, sweetgrass, or palo santo – even using smudging sprays. Sometimes it’s as simple as throwing open the windows. Just moving the air or smudge around whatever it is I want to cleanse: myself, crystals, a tarot deck, my space.

These are useful tools for cleansing stagnant energy or opening a space for transformation. They freshen stagnant air, clear out old, negative energy, and bring awareness to a new undertaking. This could be before prayer, a yoga practice, at the beginning of a day, or at the start of a new week.

These practices are good to clear the way for positive beginnings.

So this morning, I lit a candle in the dark before meditation, and I smudged with some palo santo, given to me by my friend, Sharon. Palo santo has a less-intense smoke than sage.

These techniques let us release what doesn’t serve us energetically. This ritual is an offering: a way of bringing intention to what we are here to do.

It reminds us of what is sacred.

So my intention for this time is this: to be of service, to bring compassion to my interactions with myself, and to (hopefully) offer new ways for you to bring that compassion to yourself.