You know how it is when you go to the dentist. The Hygienist always asks “have you been flossing?” And when you go for a routine medical exam, the doctor asks “How is your diet? Are you getting regular exercise?” Why do they ask such personal questions?? Because they are important questions for our physical wellness!
Perhaps during a counseling session, your therapist might ask “how has your stress management been?” Or “how have things been since our last meeting?” (to open you up to expressing yourself. These questions are important to your emotional / mental wellness.
So what about your spiritual / energetic wellness? If you accept the premise that, as humans, we have mind, body and spirit that all must work in balance, then let’s not forget about spiritual hygiene to help keep our energetic vibration high!
Now before I get into my thoughts and guidance on Spiritual Hygiene, I want to acknowledge the value and sense of community that some get by being an active member of a church, temple, synagogue or some other house of worship. And that’s great if you have that sense of community and personal support. But even so, for some the sense of community – whether that’s a church, a support group, or whatever – puts pressure on them to conform, and restricts their sense of free will. They may get that wonderfully supportive sense of belonging, but also feel like they are paying the price of personal freedoms. For these people, I invite you to consider my thoughts in addition to (not in place of) what you are already doing to keep a healthy sense of Spirit.
Everything in balance…
Ok, back to my thoughts on Spiritual Hygiene, and the experiences I have had to support my thoughts and beliefs.
Often when a new client finds me, it is because they are starting to wake up to their spiritual self. Sometimes it has been through what they believe to be an “unbelievable” experience.
“Linda, you might think I’m crazy (or weird, or whatever), but here’s what happened…”.
Or a sense of something deeply missing in life and having that feeling of knowing there is something bigger for them in life, but struggling to find it. Perhaps feeling a calling to help others, or connect more with Divine energies. Sometimes it’s their dreams while sleeping, or precognition while wide awake and alert. Sensing a “contact” from someone or something that is non-physical. And I could go on… Does any of this sound familiar to you??
When someone is starting this awakening journey, I offer them a three-point list for their energetic hygiene:
Protection
Discernment
Clearing
These three points are critical in my humble opinion. I also make sure any of my IET® and Reiki students know these three points, both for themselves and for working with their future clients. These things have been taught to me in different forms, but I like to keep it simple, and there is nothing simpler than a three-point list, right?
Why these three points are important…
What I explain to my clients is when you are open, you are open! Like being out in a big open energetic field full of flowers and bunnies and sunshine… ahhhh.
And at the same time being circled by grizzly bears and wolves, with poisonous nightshades growing side-by-side with sweet wild blueberries… Oh no!!
How do you enjoy the goodness of that setting without risking your demise from the dangers?
You find a means of Protection (Point One),
while exercising a bit of Discernment (Point Two).
And if you have a mis-step – because we all do sometime – then it’s time to Clear ourselves of the damage (Point Three).
So if you are finding yourself becoming more and more open to the non-physical spiritual “world”, you are potentially opening to it at all vibrational levels – the high vibrations of love, joy, and compassion (…ahhh…), along with the low vibrations of fear, judgement, guilt, and sorrow (…oh no!) You might be intentionally opening up through training, coaching, meditation, prayer, and other spiritual practices. You might also be opening up unintentionally, by sensing that “something” is calling to you.
Let’s explore each of these points of Spiritual Hygiene – what each means, why it is important, and how to accomplish it.
POINT ONE: Protection
This simply means establishing protection around you, or your activity, or your location, etc.
A fortress is a means of physical protection around a castle or a village. Our family unit can be a form of active protection around us when we are young, or going through a struggle. Yes even the government and law enforcement is a means of protection for most people in most cultures, by setting some rules / laws of civility and enforcing them. Some institutions protect those who are struggling, physically, emotionally or mentally, to keep them safe and ideally help them to regain strength and independence.
Brushing and flossing out teeth, eating well, staying hydrated, and getting a bit of exercise are all things that we do to protect our own physical presence. It’s the preventative self-care.
Great! So how do we protect our energy? It is much easier than you would expect. You simply ask!!
The (almost*) easiest way to ask is to establish your own personal prayer of protection.
(I’ve included mine below. Feel free to adopt it for yourself, as is, or modified to suit you better.)
Once you have established your prayer of protection, use it. Often. Every day -- multiple times. Perhaps say it first thing when you get up in the morning. Repeat it any time you are going into an unknown or “trying” situation. And for good measure, say it again before you drift off to sleep at night, with the intention of carrying that protection into your dream state.
Here’s my prayer of protection:
I am a being of love and light.
I only accept wisdom and information from Divine sources.
Anything that comes to me that is of darkness I send away, with love and light, to be transmuted, cleansed and cleared.
I like this prayer, because it has three parts:
First, I declare who I am… a being of love and light.
Second, I state what is acceptable to me… only wisdom and information from the Divine. This is my wall of protection.
And third, I state how the other low vibration stuff is to be disposed of… sent away with love and light to be transmuted… I chose that third part because why not demand that the low vibration stuff be healed.
You may wish to write your own prayer. If you do, I invite you to follow this this three-part model,
declaring who you are spiritually,
what your spiritual boundaries are,
and what to do if your boundaries are violated.
*I had said that prayer was almost the easiest way to call in protection. You can simplify it further by setting the intention that a short phrase invokes the full prayer. For example, I simply say “I am a being of love and light”, and I leave it at that. I have set the intention that this invokes my full prayer. You can also establish a hand mudra, setting the intention that the mudra will call in your prayer for you.
The story of Linda’s Prayer of Protection
I will share with you an interesting little true story of how Spirit showed me that this prayer is important and impactful.
I wrote this prayer when I was taking a Spiritual Development course with Dr. Kevin Emery (www.kevinrossemery.com). We had a homework assignment to do automatic writing. The process was to do the following at roughly the same time each day:
(1) say our prayer,
(2) set a timer for 5ish minutes,
(3) begin automatic writing (which is basically writing your stream of consciousness),
(4) stop when the timer goes off.
And then just notice what you notice.
The first few days, I followed instructions dutifully. My writing usually started with the mundane and then drifted to the Divine, along the lines of
“I don’t see the point of this exercise and it’s really nice out but I guess I will stick to…. Oh dear one thank you for reaching out to us and let us show you…”
Yup as crazy as that might seem, my stream of consciousness shifted on its own, despite me believing myself to be quite distracted!
About the third day of this exercise, I remember walking across the room toward the table where I had my notebook and timer, and I could “hear” them already talking! Man I was getting GOOD at this automatic writing stuff (… ahhhh…)! So I sat down and immediately started writing. BUT it was neither mundane nor Divine (… oh no…) – it was something else. It was uncomfortable. My Discernment (Point Two) had thankfully kicked in.
Then I had my forehead-slapping V8 moment. I realized I had not said my Prayer of Protection! (So now I’m in the field exposed to the grizzlies and wolves, about to pop a nightshade berry into my mouth… metaphorically speaking of course.)
So I pushed the writing away, said my prayer, set the time, and began writing...
“wow that was dumb of me but it really is a nice day and I… my dear do not worry – welcome back – and all is well…”
I like to think of it like I was a cartoon character walking along with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. And the devil said “She’s open! I bet I can get her to listen to me”. And the angel said “You go ahead and try. She’s smarter than that!”. And the devil tried, and I listened initially but then recovered. And the angel then said to the devil, “See I told you it would not work.”
A very simple and luckily inconsequential lesson. But nonetheless a reminder that we are all vulnerable.
POINT TWO: Discernment
Discernment is simply trusting yourself to “know” if something does or does not feel right. Leaning into your little spidy senses and trusting your intuition.
I know that some people struggle with this even in the 3D world.
"Am I worrying too much about the situation?" "Is this really ok but I just don’t like it?" "I don’t want to be a complainer."
Look, if you are uncomfortable in a situation, your feelings are valid. No means no, and stop means stop. Walk away from whatever does not feel right to you, and you owe no one an explanation.
Going back to the analogy of your physical well-being, this might be when you wake up with an icky feeling in your tummy, or a funny taste in your mouth, or a certain ache, that tells you that you are facing a physical illness. Or perhaps you are walking down a street and just "feel" that you should take a detour. So you take the actions necessary to deal with the situation, and if necessary enlist the support of a friend or a professional.
How does this translate to spiritual / energetic hygiene? I take most of this point of guidance from my studies of Integrated Energy Therapy® (IET®). There are basically three tests (or three questions) for anything that is coming to you through your psychic senses (your clairvoyance, clairsentience, clairaudience, claircognizance, etc. – and yes you do have them even if you have not discovered them yet).
The three tests are:
Does it feel loving, toward you, toward all living things, and toward our planet? (If it feels unloving in any way, reject it.)
Is it honoring free will? Both honoring YOUR free will, and that of others? (If it is trying to go against free will, or - yours or anyone else's, reject it.)
Is it comfortable? Does it feel “right”? (If it feels uncomfortable to you in any way, reject it. No need to explain why.)
Back to my example of the Automatic Writing exercise, when I forgot to say my Prayer, there was nothing grossly terrible in what was coming through me. But it was uncomfortable – that’s all I need to turn it off, send it away, and reset myself.
Now you might be wondering how you can reject a dark energy. Again it’s simple. You tell it to go away. You say to it “I reject you. You are not welcome here”. You can call in the energies of some of our Angelic protectors, like Archangels Michael and Raphael.
You can also call in the unconditional Divine pure love of Mother Mary – I was told by a dear friend that “Satin loves doing battle with Archangel Michael, but cannot stand up to Mother Mary’s light of her pure unconditional love.” She’s always the first one I call in if I’m feeling darkness… just sayin’.
POINT THREE: Clearing
Clearing, simply put, is getting rid of what you don't want.
No matter what we do to protect ourselves – physically, emotionally, or spiritually – sooner or later something is likely to slip through. We might or might not pick it up with our discernment, but even if we do, sometimes just telling it to “go away” might not be strong enough.
With your physical body, this might be where you “start getting serious” about your diet or physical activity. Perhaps do some sort of a juice cleanse. Take a break from social media for your emotional well-being. Perhaps see a medical professional if you are not able to address the symptoms on your own.
When it comes to spiritual clearing your energy, you have options ranging from self-care to seeking professional help.
If my energy feels “off”, here are some things I might do:
Meditate on it. Allow myself to feel the feels and see what I can let go.
Self-reflection. Give some thought to what might have been the cause of my state of low vibration, and perhaps what I can do to address it myself.
Take a walk. Being out in nature is a nice invitation to Divine energies to join you, through the process of Agape.
Take a salt bath. Salt is wonderful for pulling out energetic “toxins”.
Prayer. Ask for (or even beg for or demand) insight, or relief, or whatever is needed.
Do a self-clearing session. Being a lightworker, I might conduct a healing session on myself, using whatever method seems right in the moment.
“Phone a friend”. Engage the support of friends and community. This could be as simple as calling an intuitive friend and asking if they are sensing anything. Or it could mean contacting a colleague to conduct a full clearing of my energy.
So that’s it.
Here’s your full wellness hygiene checklist:
<> Brush & Floss
<> Diet & Exercise
<> Protection, Discernment & Clearing
All are things that you can do for yourself, or with the help of friends, colleagues, and professionals!
Your turn...
What else do YOU do to support your energetic well-being? I welcome you to sign in and share some tips in the comments.
Commenti