If you've read any of my "exploring" posts, you know that this is just my thoughts and opinions at the very early stages of exploring this. Some of my ideas might be a little half baked or not fully formed, and I hope that's ok. I'm writing in pencil and I promise to share as I go, but please, if you feel I need redirection please (kindly) do so in the comments. I'm completely new to this and am sharing my first experiences and early resources in an effort to encourage anyone who might be too nervous to push themselves in that direction.
With that little disclaimer out of the way, I'll start with saying that I feel like I'm growing into a new form of myself. I've always been spiritual, so this curiosity isn't what's new to me; it's the confidence I feel in exploring new, exciting things that makes me feel as though I've shed some sort of past skin. I've been curious about smudging for years, especially in regards of clearing bad energy (instead of spirit), but the roadblocks I put in my own way simply fell away last month, leaving me primed and ready to explore it. It's a good feeling, letting go of past baggage and stepping into new interests.
For the past year my boyfriend and I have talked at length about the energy in our house feeling very weird. We have an unusual layout to our floor plan and we’re both pretty invested in making our house really feel like a home base moving forward. This has involved a lot of moving stuff around, painting, planning and effort. I've explored some introductory Feng Shui and feel that it helps with the flow of the house a lot, even the boyfriend says the house feels like it has "good energy." So, I was browsing The Spruce (linked below with the resources) and I found an introductory article about smudging your home. I'd always thought it was this super complex process, but I found a lot of information in a single blog post! I was hooked, but I didn't want to lose momentum. I set a strict amount of time that I would let myself research before either dropping it altogether or actually dipping my toes and trying it (I don't need more things to fixate on that never amount to action thankyouverymuch) and needless to say, I jumped right in after my deadline. I didn't want to get stuck endlessly researching, I wanted to move forward and see if this would have a noticeable effect on our home!
Here’s some of the research I found that helped me get started. Like I said, I didn't let myself get too caught up in research because I didn't want to get stuck in the process. I left myself enough time to get a good grasp on how to get started, and that was it. While I plan on continuing to learn about it, this is by no means exhaustive research.
https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-smudge-your-house-1274692
https://www.thespruce.com/what-is-smudging-1275274
https://www.yogiapproved.com/life-2/everything-you-need-to-know-about-smudging/
I followed the steps I found online and set aside about 15 minutes to smudge my house. I enjoyed the process, I kept it very quiet and contemplative. I wanted the house to be both clean and cleansed, so I smudged after we cleaned the house really well one Sunday. We were entertaining that week, so we gave some things extra attention that we normally wouldn't. After I cleaned, I slowly and mindfully wafted smoke around my house (every nook and cranny) and that was pretty much it. I have to say, the house felt very fresh afterwards and was really peaceful. We clean with essential oils, so that could have been it, but it was nice enough and easy enough that I'll definitely be doing it again.
Overall, it was a great experience. Since I've only done it once, I can't say for sure if this will be a lifelong practice, but I really enjoyed the quiet contemplative nature of the whole thing and the peaceful feeling we had in our house. In the future, I'd like to see how other people cleanse their home and maybe be smudged myself. I'm very interested in the whole process, though I'm not entirely sure I have all the pieces together yet.
I'll continue to learn and explore them further, but for now it just seems a little out of reach. My email list is the place to be if you want updates, though! And please, if you have any input, please comment below!
