Mini Cleansings as Self-Care

​Most of us are familiar with what space clearing is, and have likely done it once or twice. Usually, we think of lighting sticks of sage and/or other herbs, and going room to room, through the entire house, clearing out the negative energies that have built up over time. Some people also follow up with something like sweetgrass to draw in positive energies. Before the actual cleansing, one can use sound to break up the stagnant, or accumulated energies first. Drums, singing bowls, tuning forks, and tingshas are very helpful for this, though simply clapping also works. If you are allergic to smoke or can’t stand the smell of sage or palo santo, there are alternatives like cleansing sprays. My friend, Rowan Goddess, makes a fabulous Cleanse and Rejuvenate spray that not only smells amazing, but works amazing as well. How often you do this is completely up to you.  
While these large cleansing sessions are important, I would like to talk about the smaller, and probably more frequent ones we may not give as much credit to. These are the ones we do before meditation/journeying, before spell work, after a long day surrounded by unwanted/uncomfortable vibes (aka a bad day), etc.. There are many ways we can accomplish this. We can take a shower, visualizing all the “ick” being washed off us and down the drain. We can light some incense like White Sage, Nag Champa, or Sandalwood (to name a few), and waft the smoke over us. Candles are another good cleansing resource. Whether they are rolled in cleansing herbs, or infused with oils/oil blends (like Cleanse & Rejuvenate), or just calling on the element of fire to help cleanse you (fire is an excellent cleanser, but you should limit yourself to a good visualization for this purpose) is your preference. Using a spray (spraying above yourself and letting it fall onto you, or spraying in front of you and walking into the mist are common methods). Visualizations are also popular, and easily done by those with allergies or sensitivities, and in public places. Visualizing whatever colour of light you feel represents “cleansing” surrounding you and removing the undesirable energies. That light can come from within (usually heart center) or from without (the earth or the universe) is up to you.
These are all popular methods. There are plenty more that include crystals, tea drinking, rain, earthing, swimming, salt, and so on. It isn’t so much what you do, as how it makes you feel when you do it. With all of life’s stresses, the amount we have to “people” every day, and how disconnected people seem to feel from one another (which shows in how we treat people, and how we are treated by them), I think cleansing is very important. None of these methods needs to take very long, but that little time one takes for that small, but important, bit of self-care, can make a big difference in one’s day/life. Do you have a cleansing self-care ritual or daily practice? If you don’t, do you think you should/would start one?