How Does Smudging Work
You know how you can feel the negative energy when you’re in a room with two people who are mad at each other, even if they aren’t obviously angry? You can feel that energy because of your aura.Think of a time when you had a bad feeling or negative outlook that you just couldn’t shake. Maybe negative emotions left over from an upsetting encounter were at play or you went into a new space and immediately felt something was “off.” Whether you credit this to intuition, energy, spirits, or something else entirely, we’ve all had the experience of our sixth sense kicking in. Although these moments are usually fleeting, they can be a real nuisance if they stick around, and you might wonder if there are any ways to turn the feeling around. Enter sage cleansing.
Burning sage, a practice also known as smudging, is said to help clear negative energies. It can be done to clear the energy around a particular person—yourself included—or to remove bad energy from a space.You don’t have to have a spiritual belief system to benefit,Most people understand the idea of a “Vibe”, that feeling or concept can be used to understand sage cleansing, even for people without deep spiritual beliefs.
The vibe is the energy being emitted from a person, place, or thing. After sage cleansing, the vibe will likely feel different, even to people who are skeptical. Still not sold? Consider this. When sage is burned, it is known to change the ionic composition of the air that it comes into contact with—which can have a notable effect on our stress levels.”
When To Smudge
There are no bad times smudge your house, but there are plenty of times when smudging is a good idea! Remember how we were talking about how smudging clears negative energy? Well, there are times when your home might have more negative energy than others.
Usually, you can kind of feel when your house needs its energy cleared, but there are a couple times that are especially good for smudging.
When you should smudge:
- After an argument
- Moving into a new home
- After a sickness
- After having negative guests over
- When you feel stressed or tense
- Before meditation
How To Smudge
Before you begin, open up a window for ventilation.
Light your sage smudge stick or wand with the matches or a lighter, and then gently blow out the flame, allowing the material to smolder. Focus your energy on the smoke, its aroma and purpose. If a true flame appears, shake the bundle carefully, or blow on it until it turns to embers and smoke. You may need to re-light the bundle a few times during the smudging process.
Once the smoke appears circle the bundle or wand or use a feather to direct the smoke over your body, moving from your feet all the way up to your head and back again, staying connected to your breathing throughout the session. You may use this ritual on another person as well. This is considered to be a sacred sage ceremony that allows you to shift to a cleansed, positive state. You always begin the cleanse with yourself and those around you before you begin smudging your space.
Move around your house/space, starting at your main entrance. Gently wave the smoke around, focusing especially on the corners of each room, as they’re said to accumulate the most stagnant energy. The entire time, envision the smoke clearing negative energy, waving the smudge bundle up and down as the smoke fills the area.
Move through your space as many rooms as possible and pass the wand over the edges of each window and door as you continue through each room of the house or workspace. In order for the smudging ceremony to be most effective, the smoke needs to cover every room, closet, door, vent, and window.
Ideally you are effectively directing and dissolving all the negative energy out of your space.
Don’t forget about spaces you do not normally use, like closets, cabinets, attics, basements – be sure to smudge all rooms. Once you’ve smudged your whole house, allow the herb bundle to burn out.