6 Ways to Cleanse Your Home Of Negative Energy & Usher In Good Vibes
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Whether you’ve had a bad day, recently broken up with a toxic ex (or friend), or simply want to reset your space after you hosted last night’s rager, learning how to cleanse your house of negative energy can be a powerful tool. There’s no better way to be proactive about resetting your intentions and ushering in good vibes than physically steering bad energy out of your space. Once you get the hang of the general process, you’ll find yourself reaching for your Palo Santo and lighter more than ever.
A new moon presents the perfect lunar event to align with your abode aura cleanse, and we are mere days away from the first new moon of the astrological new year, which occurs in Aries during the wee hours of April 1. To seize this cosmically-aligned cleansing opp, STYLECASTER spoke to Neelou Malekpour, author of The Art of Sacred Smoke and founder of SMUDGED for a soothing ritual anyone can do. If you want to find other ways to cleanse and more rituals for manifestation, energy, and more, you can find it all in her book, available now.
The Art of Sacred Smoke
How to Cleanse Your Home From Bad Energy
1. Open Up Your Space
Malekpour refers to it as “opening sacred space,” which can be adjusted to anyone’s personal preferences. “When you open sacred space, you go into a meditative state,” Malekpour explains. “It’s a shift from rational thinking, and thinking about everything on my to-do list to a quieter space.”
You can do this by taking a few deep breaths and putting your hand on your heart, or by calling in your guides. “I always call in my angels, allies, and ancestors of 100 percent light, and I always call in my grandmother,” says Malekpour. “Opening your sacred space is very personal, so do whatever that means to you.”
2. Set an Intention
“The intention allows the energy to go in a specific direction,” says Malekpour. So whether you just want to cleanse your home from tracked-in negative energy after a bad day or want to reset after you had a lot of people over, you can replace the neutral energy with positive energy.
You can match your intention to whatever you’re feeling at the moment. Malekpour recommends saying, “my intention is to cleanse my space, feel better, or release what isn’t serving me right now.”
3. Open a Window
“The only hard rule of cleansing is to open windows or have proper ventilation,” says Malekpour. “Smoke inhalation is not a good thing, but also the stagnant or negative energy needs a place to go. If there are no windows open, it’s not going anywhere.”
4. Light Your Herb of Choice
First, Malekpour suggests thanking the element of fire and the herb you’re using, such as sage or Palo Santo. If you’re using Palo Santo, Malekpour shakes out the flame versus blowing it out to keep the smoke flow going.
5. Begin Your Cleanse
Once your herb is lit, you can walk around every corner of your space, but there are a few spots Malekpour says you should never overlook. “Under your arms, there’s always stagnant energy. Walk around your home in the corners, go near your cell phone and your computer. Corners are really important, any place where the energy can get stuck.” she explains.
Walk around and try to keep your mind clear or perhaps just keep repeating your intention over and over as you move.
6. Call In Something Good
Malekpour calls this the most important step of your cleansing ritual. “Once you cleanse your space, you have a clean slate. You want to call in something good: either health, happiness, or good luck,” she says. After you cleanse the space of negative energy, you have a neutral space. “When you have neutral, you want to set what you want,” she says. “Otherwise anything can come in.”
If you’re having trouble with any part of the above steps, Malekpour says that you should always feel free to tailor your cleansing ritual to you and make it personal. Some people struggle with entering the pre-cleanse meditative state or don’t like using herbs that burn. If this is the case for you, Malekpour says you can replace smoke with a room spray. Sprays like Palo Santo Smudge Spray or Cleanse + Protect spray can help you focus and relax, and the latter has been used in shaman ceremonies in Peru for hundreds of years.
You can even cleanse with sound if that feels right for you.
Bottom line: do whatever feels good and eventually you’ll come into a practice that feels second nature. You can cleanse your home as often as you’d like, or once a week if you need a starting point. Just make sure to relax, have fun, and set a positive intention to usher in good vibes and kick out the old ones.
