Clear your Energy with Palo Santo

Burning Palo Santo is an ancient practice in which you burn sacred plants, such as palo santo or sage, to allow the smoke to clear the energy around you and your space. The benefits are steeped in science—when burned, these sacred plants release negative ions, which research has linked to a more positive mood.
If you’re feeling stuck, negative, sluggish, or even depressed, it may be due to some stagnant energy in your field. Your field includes your physical body, emotional, mental, spiritual fields. You are also affected by energy in your environment—whether it’s your home, office, or other physical space. Stagnant or negative energy can have extremely detrimental effects on your mental, emotional and physical sate and create as well as attract more pain and negativity. Smudging can help combat this negativity to clear the energy in your field or home.
You can find sage and palo santo online and at some health stores.

Here is how to use to clear your energy:

• Before you begin, open a window
• Have a clay bowl or dish on hand to put the burning palo santo in after
• Light the wood with a match or lighter
• Then gently blow out the flame, letting the wood continue to smolder
• Waft that smoke around your body and space. Breath it in and let it clear and relax you
• Move the smoke in slow circles around your body. Feathers are also used to fan the smoke around you or the space
• Once finished, you can palo santo or sage in the clay bowl and let it burn, filling the room with fragrant smoke
• Treat any leftover ashes with intention. A proper way to dispose of them is to take them outdoors and leave them on the ground in some sand.

Good times to burn palo santo:

• If you feel sluggish, down or depressed
• When have moved into a new place or had guests over that brought in some negative energy
• If you have had an argument in your home
• If you have never done it and want to feel the difference!

Try to make this a practice that you do often– you will start to see the shift it can have on your energy and emotions. I do this every day at least once and it is always calming and clearing.