How to Smudge Your Living Space

Have you ever walked into a room and felt the vibe was off? Maybe a part of your home is feeling stale, or you’ve experienced some intense emotions lately?

Energetic vibrations around stressful events (similar to trapped emotions) can leave imprints and negative frequencies that linger in our living spaces. You can do a simple practice to encourage clear and positive vibrations, and ONLY those types of vibrations, in your home. It’s just as important to tend to the energetics of your space, as it is to do deep cleanings from time to time.

The process

To “clear” (or “smudge”) your space, you’ll want to choose an herb bundle or wood such as White Sage, Cedar, or Palo Santo. These are available at your local herb shop or health food store.

You’ll also need the following supplies:

Abalone shell or other ash catching receptacle, like a terra cotta plant tray
Lighter or Matches
Feather

Start by centering yourself with a few deep cleansing breaths. With your eyes open or closed, visualize yourself surrounded with golden light and set the intention that only love, peace and good vibrations are associated with this practice.

As you prepare for your energetic cleansing, make sure that you have opened as many windows or doors as possible to let the smoke usher out the negative frequencies. Pay special attention to any rooms that feel “off” as you conduct your initial walkthrough. You may be called to move some items out of a room, or tidy up a corner as part of the process. Just follow your intuition in setting up the space.

When you are ready, light the herb bundle or wood (sometimes referred to as a smudge stick) and get it burning well—you want the flame to be orange and about 1 ½ inches burning. Let it burn for 15-20 seconds, then gently blow it out.

Place the heated tip into the basin of the shell or dish and hold it in your hand. The wood or herbs should be smoking at this point and if the shell or dish is or becomes too hot to hold, you may want to have a hot pad or dish towel at the ready.

As you walk around your home, trace the corners of the rooms and doorways with the smoke, use the feather to drive the smoke into the corners and set the intention to clear out any low frequency residues. State (out loud or in your head) that you are releasing any negative imprints or lingering energies and you are restoring balance and harmony to your home.

There is nothing scary about this practice, you are claiming what is yours and inviting new, positive feelings into your sanctuary.

Make your way through the house—don’t forget any places where you have experienced strong emotions, and certainly tend to the energetics of your bedroom! If you need to relight the bundle at any time to keep a good flow of smoke going, do so.

When you are finished, you can let the smudge stick go out on its own and wait a few minutes before closing the windows and doors. You may want to diffuse some essential oil like Frankincense or Myrrh, or an uplifting citrus such as lemon or wild orange to encourage a cozy and fresh atmosphere.

Wrapping up your cleansing practice, give gratitude for the security and peace that your home provides you.

Consider doing this practice monthly, or with the moon cycles—new moon, new sheets, new energies, yum!—for optimum serenity and contentment in your living space.

Have questions? Or maybe you have additional practices, tools or other cleansing supports you use? I’d love to hear them! Let me know via my contact form.