What Is Energetic Hygiene & Why Is It Important?

The day that I’m writing this blog post, is following May’s Super Full Moon Lunar Eclipse bonanza. Last night at 1:11AM in Hawaii, the Moon went red and it was as magical as you could imagine. With the energy of this supercharged moon, and planets stationing retrograde one after another, the energy has been intense. All of the energy at play right now is calling us to lighten our load. To rest and renew as well as let go of all of the things that are no longer serving us. Full Moons illuminate things. This full moon was supercharged so things definitely should have come to a head. That’s where energetic hygiene comes in.

I’ve intuitively felt called to amp up my energetic hygiene to clear out space within my physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies. I think when there is such heavy energy like this, it’s almost as if you can’t bare to have anything that is not necessary. This is a time to clear out space so that we can be ready for what has yet to come in. It’s a time to purify, cleanse, and reprioritize. The energy of the cosmos is extremely supportive of these practices; but energetic hygiene is a good practice to keep up within on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to make sure you’re running your best.

What is Energetic Hygiene?

For me, energetic hygiene consists of simply practices that keep my energetic space clear. This included my physical world (my home, phone, body, etc.) as well as the mental realms. Think of it like cleaning out the cobwebs of our beings. Energetic hygiene looks like this for me but it may look differently for you – find what works and what you feel you need. This is a practice to cleanse, simplify, and get rid of all the unnecessary junk piling up in our lives.

The Practices

Your Space

Cleanse your space by tidying up, going through your closet, getting rid of the little things that have been piling up around your home. Physically cleaning a space does wonders to cleanse the energy. If you want to add a layer of cleansing, you can burn incense or use a bell or clapping to energetically cleanse the space. A clearing incense like cedar, sandalwood, and palo santo are create to clear the space. Be sure to keep a window open while you burn it so the energy doesn’t get stuck in the room.

Your Devices

Go through your texts, photos, apps and organize and/or delete to free up space on your phone. Get intentional and honest with yourself about the apps you do and don’t use and the unnecessary screenshots taking up space in your camera roll. Unsubscribe from email lists you always delete, go through your bank statements to see what subscriptions you don’t need anymore, organize your desktop. Most of us spend a lot of time on our devices and we often don’t think about how draining they can be–this is a way to tidy up and make screen time not feel so exhausting.

Your Social Media

Social media is its own category because if you’re anything like me, social media can consume you. I have a few blog posts about my relationship with social media and how I use it intentionally but I’ll mention some quick tips that help me spruce up my social media space. Every couple of months, I go through and clean up my feed. I unfollow and mute accounts that don’t light me up or inspire me. Because I spend so much time on Instagram, I am extremely intentionally with my feed. I curate it to reflect back inspiration, expansion, and all the other things I am calling in. In addition to your feed, I love going through my own posts and archiving ones that no longer resonate with who I am. 

Your Body

Did you know that emotions and energy can get stuck in your body? Practices like breathwork, running, yoga, dancing, shaking meditation can move this stuck energy and release it from your body. In addition to the internal, simply cleansing your body can be extremely healing. Taking a salt bath or using a salt scrub can physically and energetically cleanse your body. Here’s one of my favorite cleansing rituals.

Your Mind

How do you mentally declutter? You know your mind better than I do so I’ll share what I do. I love brain dumps. My mind can get a bit messy sometimes because I have a tendency to live up there so at least once a week (usually Mondays) I make a master to do list and write down literally everything I have been thinking about. Any random ideas or thoughts I have go on this document and then I go through and organize and figure out what to do with it all. I find once that junk is out of my head, it creates space to think more clearly. I also have a daily journaling practice that helps me to sift through my inner world and keep it feeling clear and organized.

All of these tools are tools that I use daily, weekly, monthly. I create a constant habit of keeping up with my energetic hygiene because just as physical hygiene is important, so is energetic. Just like you can get dirt on your legs when you go hiking, you can pick up energy that is not yours but it keeping you feeling drained and exhausted. One of the quickest and easiest ways to practice a quick energetic cleanse is simply to close your eyes, place your hands somewhere on your body, and repeat to yourself “I call all of my energy back to me. I release anything that is no longer serving me.” Sometimes all it takes is a little intention and slowing down to shift your energetic being.