My 6 Step Saging Ritual: A beautiful way to cleanse the energy of your sacred space

It's time to begin working on cleansing our environments, our inner selves and our sacred spaces. Taking the time to go within to connect to your truth, uplift your energies by letting go of what no longer suits you. It truly is such a beautiful time of year. Be sure to check out my 21 day Soul Alignment workshop, It is the perfect method to reset and raise your vibration for the year ahead. 

CLEANSING RITUALS

Years ago, when I moved into my first apartment in NYC, a friend came over to my home with a beautiful sage stick and did a cleansing ritual to my space. At the time I was a little skeptical but looking back, that apartment always had the best energy and the most incredible things happened for me there. I always felt so safe and protected in that tiny little apartment.

From that moment on, I always loved saging and smudging rituals.  

After you sage a home or a room, the energy absolutely feels lighter and clean. It feels like you are giving love and care to your home with intention and that is very powerful when it comes to living blissfully.

It will help you to feel more connected to your space. Your home should feel like your sanctuary, where you rejuvenate yourself. It is where you preform self love acts like cleansing yourself, relaxing and taking care of your body, healing yourself, making memories with your loved ones, etc. Your sacred space deserves it and so do you! 

Related Reading: The incredible wellness benefits of Palo Santo

My favorite sage bundle ( I like it with lavender to make it smell prettier ) :

In recent years, more and more people have turned to saging, or smudging, as a way to cleanse their homes and create a positive, peaceful environment. But the tradition of smudging actually has deep, ancient roots, and its benefits go far beyond just clearing out negative energy.

Let’s dive into the importance and benefits of saging your home and explore how to incorporate this ritual into your own space.

The History and Cultural Significance of Smudging

Smudging, traditionally involving the burning of sacred herbs like sage, cedar, and sweetgrass, has been practiced for centuries by Indigenous peoples in North America as part of spiritual and healing rituals.

Beyond Indigenous cultures, similar smoke-cleansing practices exist globally, from incense burning in Asia to herbs used in Middle Eastern rituals. Each of these traditions recognizes the purifying and calming effects of smoke, which is used to cleanse people, places, and objects.

Today, many individuals incorporate saging into their personal routines, though it’s important to approach this practice with respect for its origins and the cultures that have nurtured it.

Why Sage Your Home?

Our spaces tend to accumulate energy, both positive and negative, from ourselves and others. Arguments, stress, and even the presence of other people can build up an invisible residue in a room.

Saging is a way to reset that energy, clear stagnant vibes, and create a peaceful, refreshing atmosphere. Here’s why saging is valuable for your home:

• Purifying and Cleansing: Burning sage releases negative ions, which, according to some research, can help improve mood. Many believe this helps dispel any lingering negative energy, which may contribute to mental and emotional tension.

• Setting Intentions: Smudging is more than just waving a bundle of sage around; it’s an intentional practice. Taking time to focus on what you want to release (negative thoughts, stress) and what you want to invite in (peace, calm, creativity) sets a powerful mental and emotional tone for your space.

• Creating a Sacred, Relaxing Space: Smudging encourages you to pause, clear your mind, and focus on creating an environment that feels safe, sacred, and comfortable. Whether you use your space for work, relaxation, or family, smudging helps cultivate an environment where you feel grounded and uplifted.

Benefits of Saging for Your Home and Wellbeing

1. Enhanced Clarity and Focus: Smudging is thought to reduce negative thoughts and mental clutter, which is especially helpful for maintaining focus and clarity, whether you’re working from home or trying to relax.

2. Emotional Resilience and Stress Relief: Sage has been shown to contain compounds that can help reduce anxiety and stress when burned, making it a natural addition to self-care routines.

3. Energy Refresh: Just like decluttering or deep cleaning, saging your home is a way to reset its energy. If you’ve recently had a rough week, experienced an argument, or had visitors, saging can help refresh and uplift the vibe of your space.

4. Improved Air Quality: While sage isn’t a cure-all for air quality, research suggests that burning sage may help remove up to 94% of airborne bacteria in a space. This can be a welcome benefit if you’re looking to reduce pathogens and other irritants in your home.

How to Sage Your Home: MY 6 Step RITUAL PROCESS

1. Set Your Intention: Before you start, decide what you want to achieve with the smudging. It could be clearing out stagnant energy, inviting positivity, or preparing for a new start.

   Journal away any negative or doubtful thoughts. Get it all out on paper so that your mind will have only positive thoughts going on inside of you.

   Journal what you would like to release from your life and what you would like to manifest more of. 

2. Open Windows and Doors: Allow airflow so the smoke (and any negative energy) has a way to escape.

   Set the mood by playing beautiful meditation music or your favorite background sounds. Talk openly to God in prayer that comes from the heart. 

3. Light the Sage: Using a lighter or match, light the tip of the sage bundle until it begins to smolder. Gently blow on it if needed to create a steady stream of smoke.

4. Walk Through Your Space (using Feng Shui): Starting at the entrance, move slowly through each room. When doing a sage cleanse, I like to identify each area of the room according to the Feng Shui bagua. (You can see how to do it in this post).

   When saging each area, I like to say a prayer or affirmation for what I want to either cleanse the area of or receive more of. For example, in the Wealth and Abundance corner, I would say something like "All my needs are taken care of and provided for" or in the Travel area I would say "I can't wait to take my trip to Bali".

   Let the sage smoke fill that area with the energy of your dreams. Wave the smoke gently with a feather or your hand, paying special attention to corners, mirrors, and around doorways, which are thought to hold energy.

5. Visualize and Recite Your Intention: As you move through your home, think about what you’re releasing and what you want to invite into the space. You can say your intentions aloud or internally as you go.

   Light your favorite candles and use the flame from the candle to light the sage. Move around the room or rooms from corner to corner allowing the smoke to move around the space. 

   Feel free to put out your favorite crystals to use with you as you do your Cleansing Ritual. Pyrite and amethyst are my favorite for any sort of cleansing or manifestation. 

6. Let the Sage Burn Out Safely: Place the sage bundle in a fire-safe bowl or dish and allow it to burn out on its own or gently press it into the bowl to extinguish it.

Tips for Mindful Smudging

• Use Ethical, Sustainably Sourced Sage: White sage is often overharvested, so look for responsibly sourced sage, or consider using alternatives like rosemary, cedar, or palo santo.

• Practice Regularly: Smudging can be a beneficial routine done weekly or monthly, especially when you sense heavy energy or need a fresh start.

• Stay Safe: Always smudge with caution, especially if you have pets or young children. Keep a fire-safe dish on hand and never leave smoldering sage unattended.

Final Thoughts

Saging your home is more than just an act of cleansing; it’s a mindful practice that can refresh your environment and reset your mind. By taking a few moments to perform this ritual, you’re inviting peace, clarity, and positive energy into your space. Embrace it as a simple yet powerful way to connect with your surroundings, refresh your energy, and create a home that feels both sacred and serene.

I enjoy the lavender ones and white sage with Eucalyptus. In addition to sage, I also love using Palo Santo, it is a holy smoke with so many incredible benefits and the smell is also very lovely. For me, something about the smell of sage isn’t my favorite but after I sage, I burn Palo Santo to enhance the smell. 

If you enjoyed this post, you may love my workshop, High Vibe Home which gives you my top tips for creating a sanctuary!

Title image via Grimorio bruxa

10 simple and healthy living hacks to get you back on track {Podcast Ep. 271}

This post is all about 10 healthy living hacks that will help get you back on track for a healthy lifestyle from Blissfully Ambitious podcast episode 271.

I hate to admit it but I have NOT been taking care of myself as well as I normally do. Several years ago, I discovered that I had issues with my gut and I’m highly sensitive to so many foods that I actually love. When I learned this about myself, I started eating a more Vegan diet ( not super strict because I absolutely love fish and cheese ). I also tend to stick with a strong gluten-free diet now that there are so many options out there. Banza pasta is my best friend.

With back to school season coming up and my little boy starting kindergarten this year, I am noticing that I’m not feeling so “ready” for my schedule load to get piled up. So, I have been feeling that it is a really good time for me to get back on track with my healthy lifestyle. I thought it would be not only a good idea to document the hacks that I am going to use to help me shift back into a healthy routine but also good for me to share with you so that I can be held accountable, too.

10 health hacks to help get you back on track for a healthy lifestyle

1. Swap alcohol for probiotic mocktails. I personally will be taking a 30-day break from any and all alcohol to give my body a complete overhaul. Alcohol slows down your bodily functions that help keep you in shape and healthy, like your metabolism, digestion, etc. So, if you give yourself a complete alcohol detox, you will reset your bodies natural health abilities.

   However, I totally understand the difficulty of taking an alcohol break when it is completely socially normal to have a glass of rose at a party. So, I like to keep several options in my fridge so I can grab a few whenever I am going to a party or event where alcohol will be present.

   My favorite? The Ginger Lemon Olipop probiotic sparkling water. It’s kind of like keeping a little mocktail at hand. I like to pour this over ice, garish with a lemon and drink it with a straw in my colorful wine glasses or even a to go water bottle. It feels so fabulous.

2. Swap scrolling your phone first thing in the morning for journaling. Did you know that when you first wake up your brain needs time to move from delta ( deep sleep ) to theta & alpha brain wave states and then finally to beta brain ( wide awake ). When you wake up and scroll your phone, you push your brain to move immediately to beta, bypassing your most optimal brain wave states.

Also meaning that you completely bypass your subconscious minds prime state for rewiring. “Big mistake…HUGE” as Vivian Ward said in the movie Pretty Woman.

So, swap it for journaling. I am a big fan of the morning pages. Where you just dump everything out of your brain first thing in the morning. This is super helpful for your mental health and wellbeing. You can also start dream journaling and just record whatever it is you dream about.

These are my absolute favorite notebooks to journal in. Something about the spiral notebook, the size and the lines.

3. Replace scrolling screens with reading books or listening to podcasts. Look, I love a good Real Housewives binge or Tik Tok scrolling session more than anyone. I will also be the first to tell you that I know just how much those very things bring about chaos in your brain. Just one scrolling session for me and I feel like my brain has 39242 tabs open all at once.

What this does is create clutter, confusion, stress, fatigue and overwhelm in your mind. When your mind is stressed, your body is stressed and it is going to hold on to every ounce of fat possible because your body feels that it is in fight or flight.

Drop the scrolling and opt for reading a really good book. Also, when you are reading or even journaling, your mind gets put back into that meditative state which is prime for rewiring your subconscious and manifesting your dreams. If you have a hard time reading a book, you can always download audible or get your self a kindle, too.

Here’s the one I have my eye on: the Kindle Paperwhite in Agave Green

4. Plan your meals daily. So, instead of rushing to grab a last minute bit, when you plan out your meals for every single day before hand, you will save so much time, stress and energy. I like to have a calendar on my fridge where you can plan out a week of meals and know EXACTLY what to buy at the store for each week.

This will also help your mind get out of decision fatigue and just already know exactly what it is going to eat every day of the week. It’s a fabulous brain hack that will also save you so much money at the grocery store.

Grab this magnetic calendar to stick on your fridge. It also comes with a shopping list so you can literally see everyday and start planning what you’re going to have for dinner for the week. You’ll also be able to have a glance at how well you are nourishing your family all month.

5. Schedule your workouts ahead of time. Even if it’s just a 20 minute walk, you need to move your body daily. I have a better time at committing to this daily habit, if I put it in my calendar. I’m big on workout classes.

You can join a membership like ClassPass and take a variety of classes or you can join a gym and take theirs. When you have a habit of sticking to a particular class, you will be more likely to make it a habit. You will also make friends which feels more like a sense of community which is nice.

On the days I don’t go to my classes, I either go for a walk or do workouts at home. Youtube has so many great options for workouts at home. I love to do 20 min pilates bar workouts. I got myself a cute pink pilates bar and I am obsessed, I’ll never miss a day of moving my body.

6. Make your water more fun. I talk about how much I love adding salt / electrolytes to my water in this post here. It is a habit I absolutely swear by, especially for women over the age of 35. There are so many benefits to getting in your nutrients while you are hydrating and half the time those nutrients help you to hydrate faster.

So often, when we think we are hungry, we are just dehydrated and need some water.

Another thing I LOVE to add to my water is Chlorophyl drops. It’s benefits include detoxing the body, clearing up your skin, fixing bad breath, neutralizes toxins, helps weight loss, etc.

7. Use a vitamin planner. I have been using my pink jumbo vitamin planner for years. I absolutely swear by my vitamin regimen and if I don’t plan them out weekly, I completely forget to take them. I have an entire video training on the specific vitamin routine I use for my age and cycle inside my workshop, Goddess Glow Up.

8. Use a planner & a habit tracker. You MUST begin to somewhat get your life organized. I use the calendar on my phone AND a daily planner. I also keep my habit tracker on my desk. If you can get in the habit of scheduling out your healthy living habits, I promise you, you will feel so much more calm and like you have your life together.

I have tried out so many different planners and for some reason, these large blue sky planner layouts are always my favorite and I use them consistently.

9. Greens at every meal. This is my daily rule. I have to add something green to every meal. In the mornings, I love my green smoothies. If I have an iced coffee in the AM, I drink a match in the afternoon. If I order french fries, I also get brussel sprouts. I add spinach to my eggs, etc.

If that’s hard for you, you can also add the daily green powder to any drink, I add this to my smoothies but also, if I haven’t had a vegetable all day, I will drink this at night. It is so so good for you.

10. Get to sleep by 9:30 every night. Or at least try getting to sleep at the same time nightly, preferably before 10. At 9pm, your natural body rhythm produces melatonin. So, if you stay up too much later than you are wasting your natural sleep aids and it will be harder for you to get to sleep.

HOT TIP: put your phone down and screens off by 8:45, 9:00 at the latest. Save that show for the next day. The way that a good night sleep aligned with the natural circadian rhythm will change your life has always had me in a chokehold. Just try it.

I recorded a podcast episode to go along with this blog post and dive in a little deeper into each hack. Take a listen here: