Space Clearing Rituals and Techniques
We can all use a little more sacred space, some extra room for clarity and healing, right? One of the fundamental steps of self-care is to create a clearing ritual that works for you. You can choose a clearing technique that feels good in celebration of “owning” your space.
Be a force for good in any environment. In order to do this, you have to know how to affect the room instead of being affected by your external circumstances. Own your space. Weed your emotional garden. Cultivate your energy and give a good gift with your presence.
Our intention determines whether a space or activity is sacred or profane. We have the power to create sacred space anywhere we want!
In this article, we will touch on various ways to clear yourself and your space:
*Grounding/Earthing/Using the Water Element
*Plants: Essential Oils, Elixirs, Essences and Smudge Sticks
*Sound
*Heart Centered Meditation
*Salt Baths
What kind of spaces can you clear?
You can claim any space as sacred and fill it with your energy. Use your space for healing, comfort, prayer, meditation, manifestation, reflection, self care or transformation. Your home, bedroom, bathroom, office, car, work space, yard and PHYSICAL BODY are all sacred space.
Create A Clearing Ritual That Works For You-Make Some Room for Yourself
Let’s start with clearing your most important space: your body and energy field. There are many beneficial cleanses and detoxes you can do for your physical body. Spring and Fall both offer a wonderful opportunity to do some physical “spring cleaning” by eliminating processed foods with chemicals. Seasonal detox programs are a great way to increase mental clarity, energy levels and vitality.
When it comes to physical cleansing, think of it like this: you don’t just need to clean your home, car or office one time. Cleaning is an ongoing job that requires our time and effort constantly. Your body and energy field are no different. My advice to you for physical detoxing and cleansing it to start gradually, do it seasonally, pay attention to your body and honor what works best for your unique ecosystem.
So, how do you clean yourself energetically?
Clearing Your Personal Space
There are so many ways you can clear your own energetic field after a long day at work or interacting with others, the possibilities are endless. What’s really important is to take the time to do some sort of clearing process. It doesn’t matter which method of clearing you choose; the only thing that matters is that you find something to do that feels good and you practice that ritual consistently.
Even though I typically see around 20 clients per week, I am diligent about clearing my energy after each session. This is one of the reasons I still feel so good even though I interact with so many people all day long. Whatever type of work you do, if you are interacting with others in any way, you need a clearing ritual. Try some of the clearing exercises that work for me, no matter what your typical day is like. Daily maintenance of our energy fields is like flossing our teeth. It’s the gradual hygiene practices over long periods of time that make the biggest difference in our health and well-being.
1-Get outside, connect with nature
For clearing during my normal workday, I haven’t found anything that works as good as going outside between each session and placing my hands on the earth. And I do mean dirt or grass, yes, getting your hands right in it. This is like a battery charger for the human body. It’s simple, free and you can do it anytime.
2-Go to the restroom, utilize the water element and the pipes.
If I can’t get outside on a busy day, I’ll go to the bathroom and imagine washing away any excess energy that I’ve taken on, while I’m washing my hands. I make the experience of washing my hands something more than just a quick, mindless routine. If you can at least get to the restroom periodically during the work day and take a moment to hold your hands toward the earth or underneath the stream of running water. Set an intention to release excess energy you’ve taken on throughout the day.
Any part of your day can be a meaningful ritual.
Even though this doesn’t seem like you’re doing much, if you take the time to do this simple ritual during a busy day of interacting with customers, you will be astounded at how different you’ll feel. It’s worth the effort to take that extra couple of minutes in order to feel better. If I feel like I’m having trouble grounding and releasing, I’ll hold on to the pipes under the sink in the bathroom and send excess energy down to Mother Earth to be recycled and cleansed.
The more you focus and practice clearing your own space, the easier it gets. In the meantime, there are plants and sacred objects you can use as tools to harness your intention and help you achieve your desired result. Clearing tools are helpers that work as allies to harness your intention and help you do the work of clearing.
4-Use plants to help you clear yourself and your space.
Essential Oils, Elixirs and Aromatherapy Sprays
The easiest way to use plants to clear your space is to diffuse or spray essential oils in your space or in your energy field. You can purchase space clearing sprays with specially formulated blends or you can make your own.
My favorite spray is the Orange Blossom Rainbow Spray by XO Wellness xowellness.com
You can simply diffuse orange essential oil in a diffuser in your office or home. In ancient Feng Shui practices, orange peels were placed in a room to absorb energy and clear the space. Citrus oils tend to lift spirits and create a happy, social atmosphere while they purify the air. If you are just getting started with clearing your space, I recommend you purchase a bottle of organic orange essential oil and a diffuser or buy a homeopathic clearing spray. This is an easy way to set your intention for clearing. As you get in a habit of clearing yourself and your space, be empowered to clear yourself without the spray when you think about needing to be cleared.
Smudging Techniques
Smudging is an indigenous clearing ritual that uses the smoke of specific plants to clear a room, a house or a person’s individual energy field.
I like to keep a simple leaf of white sage with a lighter in my car for a quick clearing ritual. You can light just one leaf, wave the smoke all around your body. Imagine you are bathing yourself in the smoke of the plant. If you are clearing a large space, plant bundles are recommended so the smoke will last longer. Remember, the plant doesn’t do the clearing work. You do the work. The plant only serves as an ally to support your intention and make your intention work for you. Once you are comfortable with the power of your intention, you no longer need the plant to hold your hand in the process.
At the end of the day, I might smudge my room with cedar, rosemary, sage, mugwort or I might burn copal incense, depending on the intensity of the sessions for that day. Many people use different types of incense for clearing. Incense is just not something I find to be as effective, but you might really love it. For light clearing throughout the day, I use my homeopathic clearing spray between sessions. In some sessions where there is intense emotional releasing, I might burn sage or copal when deep clearing is needed. Make sure that you only use smudging or incense where no one has asthma or allergy issues.
How do you know when your space needs to be cleared?
How do you know if some heavy duty clearing like copal or sage needs to be used in your space? The more you clear your space, the more familiar you will be with how it feels when the energy is light and clean vs. heavy and stagnant from emotions that have been released. Think back to a time when you have walked into a room where some big emotional stuff has been happening such as an argument or grief and sadness. You know that expression you could cut the tension with a knife? Well, it’s true!
The more you pay attention and tune yourself to your environment, the more you can actually feel if a room has a lot of emotional residue that needs to be moved and cleared. If someone has mentally and emotionally brought a lot of other people along into the session with them, I have to call in the big gun plant allies to clear the space. Burning sage and allowing the smoke from the plant to fill up the client’s energetic field (the space within three feet of their body on all sides) is a quick way to shift the energy and help the client get back to feeling like themselves.
There are many different plant bundles you can purchase from health food stores to assist you in the clearing process. It has recently come to my attention that concern is being raised by many indigenous communities in and outside of California about the impact that the increase in the global use of white sage is having on the planet.
White sage is being over-harvested at alarming rates because it’s getting popular and this overuse is putting sage at risk for extinction. I am personally a big fan of using white sage for clearing, so now I am researching how to grow my own or make sure I am purchasing from a sustainable source. You may be someone who loves to smudge with white sage in your clearing rituals or you may be thinking.
No sage? No problem! There’s no need to feel disempowered if you find yourself without your plant oils or sprays or bundles.
This ritual takes mindful presence and practice. You’ve already got everything you need to be a force for good in any space. Use this ritual for clearing without using any tools:
5-Head and Heart Space Clearing Ritual
The most important thing to remember about clearing is this: you don’t have to have any special tools or objects to effectively clear yourself or your space. All you need is your heart and your mind to do the job.
Relax your body and calm your mind. As you breathe and soften your body, get comfortable. Focus on your heart space. Imagine a tiny point of light in the center of your chest. Put your awareness on that little point of light and go into the light in your heart space, like a doorway. Take your time with this and use your imagination.
You are entering the energy field of your heart. When you enter your heart space, it might feel like you are in a room or some sort of space. The more I have done this heart meditation over the years, it has looked many different ways, from a cave with writing on the walls, to a room with stained glass windows to an entire ecosystem/world/planet.
You have entered your heart space. Allow yourself to enjoy being in there and observe what it feels like and looks like to you. As you settle into this space, notice the energy and how it extends out from your chest. Notice how far out you can feel your heart field expand. Focus on something that you enjoy doing or someone that you love. Your focus might be on an animal, a person living or dead or it can be an activity that brings you joy. Choose something that makes you feel creative or spiritually connected. The more you feel the feeling of enjoyment, love, gratitude or spiritual connection, the further out your heart field will expand.
See if you can fill up your space with this love and gratitude feeling. In this way, you begin to feel more of YOU in the room than anything else that was there before. This usually takes me about 20 minutes to clear a room this way and I’ve been doing it a long time. Give yourself plenty of time to experience this type of clearing practice. This clearing method should feel really good to you and your space will feel clean and energized when you are finished. At the end of the exercise, you will “own” the room. The dominant energy in the space will be your love, gratitude and creativity.
6-Utilize the Power of Sound to Clear Yourself and Your Space
You come equipped with some very powerful clearing techniques of your own. You have so much power in the sounds you can make that you may not realize. Not only can you use Tibetan bowls, chimes, gongs and rattles that are created specifically to shift the energy of a space and shake up stagnant chi, you can clap your hands in the corners of your room or make sounds with your own voice that will clear the energy.
Vocal toning is an incredible way to charge your energy field, release emotions and clear your own energy. I can forget how powerful my own sounds are until I use them. I think we are conditioned to be quiet, but if you look at nature think of how the animals use their sounds all the time.
If I find myself in an uncomfortable environment where people are tense or upset, I will hum a song at a very low volume. No one knows I’m doing anything other than humming a song. But what I’m really doing is shifting the energy of the room and treating my own energy field and body at the same time. This is a really easy way to not “take on” the emotions of those around you but rather be the stronger force for good in your own space.
7-Epsom Salt Baths
Salt baths are my go-to remedy for staying well when I’m seeing a full load of clients. When I soak in epsom salts, sea salts or magnesium salts, the benefits go way beyond soothing my tired muscles. I can feel the purification of my energetic field happening while I’m relaxing in the warm water.
I also have a mental ritual that I enjoy during my bath that helps me a lot.
While I’m soaking in my salt bath, I envision an altar of light in front of me. I place each client that I’ve worked with that day on the altar of light, giving them back to our Divine Source, or God. By doing this, I do not carry my clients’ burdens around with me. I purposefully give each precious client back to the Creator, letting go of them with love after being of service. This is a way to stay free and light.
You may resonate with just one of my clearing rituals or you may choose to do them all. There are many different ways of clearing, not just the ones I have described here. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to get in a habit of clearing yourself daily, if you wish to be at the top of your game. It is vital that you stay healthy and clear to help others. Just think of it like this-we don’t have to cleanse our bodies or clean our houses just once. Why on earth would we think our energetic space or energy field is any different? Our healing rooms and our energy bodies need constant care and maintenance just like our cars, homes and everything else we own. You don’t just clear once in a while. Make it a part of your daily routine.
A Review of Clearing Rituals:
-At the very least, have a quick clearing ritual that you can get alone and do during the day. Even if you just take two minutes in the bathroom during the work day, you could do a quick tai chi or martial arts type centering/clearing exercise that becomes second nature. You can also drain your hands to the earth, like I do, If it’s easy for you to get outside.
-Clearing sprays with essential oils and flower essences are easy ways to clear your room or office.
-Sound bowls, bells and chimes are also an easy way. Remember to use the power of sound you can generate in your own body. You don’t have to buy any fancy sound bowls or bells to be effective. You can start with many vowel sounds or humming and your body will experience a total clearing too. I do this in the car so I don’t freak anyone out who happens to be around me.
-Do a deep clearing at the end of the day for your entire space or office. This won’t take long to do once you get in the habit of smudging with sage or copal incense. You can buy loose leaves of sage in a bag and it’s easier than using the large bundles. Large bundles or sage or rosemary or cedar are good for clearing an entire space or home, but they can get too smokey for just a quick clearing of one room. Whole Foods and local health food stores usually have sage bundles for purchase.
-Use salt baths to clear your energy field anytime you have taken on a lot of emotions from others or touched a lot of people. I use 2-3 cups of salts (pink Himalayan, Celtic sea salt, epsom salts or magnesium salt crystals) in a warm bath for a twenty-minute soak. I visualize placing my clients on an altar of light. I give them back to Source (God) at the end of the day, as I place them on the altar of light.
-Practice the heart and mind clearing exercise to empower you to clear anything, anywhere.
The most important part of this is to create a clearing ritual that feels good to you. You will probably find other ways of clearing that suit you better than the ones I use. Make it a part of your daily routine to heighten your awareness of when you or your space need clearing.
Resources:
Sacred Space by, Denise Linn
Want to learn more? Check out my podcast on energy healing
