How To Conduct a Simple Feng Shui Space Clearing Ceremony

• moved into a new home or office
  
• changed the color scheme of your space
  
• rearranged your furniture
  
• performed a deep cleaning or thorough decluttering
  
• recently added an addition to your home or office
  
• recently ended an important relationship or a close family member passed away
  
• recently moved in with a partner, married, adopted or had a baby
  
• you or another resident has unexplained difficulty sleeping or feeling relaxed in your home
  
• residents feel an unexplainable uneasiness or distress when in the space
  
• residents are frequently ill
  
• residents of the home or office regularly argue
  
• visitors don't feel comfortable in your home or inexplicably cut visits short

Something to scent the air: Incense, a smudge stick, essential oils, scented candle, or another aromatic item in it's purest form (don't use harsh chemicals such as petroleum-based candles). Using a scent that brings to mind the specific energy in which you want to fill your home is especially helpful. Lavendar, in particular, is often preferred as it helps balance energy.

Music that speaks to you: I find that drumming music gives my home a certain feel that I associate with sacred ceremonies, but play music that speaks directly to you: Native American chanting, Christian Gregorian chant, Klezmer music, folk songs, country, alternative rock, whatever!

Bell or other metal percussion instrument: Bells are easy to use because you can easy use them with one hand while moving but you can also use a chime, gong, triangle, or other tuned metal instrument. Actually, you can use your hands and clap, too, but the noise of striking a specifically-tuned instrument is particularly pretty and helps create a spiritual atmosphere.

Mineral sea salt: (optional) Sea salt was used by ancient Greeks and Romans for purification and restoration. It's used for the same reasons in Space Clearings.

Symbols of the energy you want to attract: Certified practitioners use colorizers, special ribbon-like decorations that symbolize types of energies, to decorate a symbolic alter and ground the energy. You can use other items that symbolize the energy with which you want to fill your space such as colored ribbons or the feng shui items you wish to place in the room. (Feng shui items don't have to be bought from a feng shui store, though that can be a fun and powerful show of intention that I particularly like. They can be any items of specific colors, shape or material, as represented in the feng shui bagua and discussed in my lens Feng Shui for Beginners.

You'll want to perform a feng shui Space Clearing Ceremony after you've thoroughly decluttered and cleaned your space. Meditate and put yourself in a feeling of good. Take a relaxing bath, sit as still as you can and clear your mind, or lay on your back and focus on your breathing.

After your body is in a state of positive and when you have your Space Clearing ceremonial items assembled (as discussed above), the incense lit, and music playing, and the light is neither too dim nor too harsh, find a space in the center of the room to focus your attention. If you have something you've used as an alter for, say, a wedding or other ceremony, here's a good chance to reuse it. Otherwise, a small collapsible table or even a space on the floor (though an elevated space is preferred) may be used. If you have one, drape a table cloth or sheet over the table to intentionally create a symbolic alter and place your items on the alter.

Next, what are your intentions? Develop a clear vision in your mind. Do you want to clear the negative energy and fill it with positive? Imagine a whirlwind of good clearing away the negative chi and re-energizing the room with harmony and happiness. Do you want to cleanse your space of painful or harmful past-actions and memories? Visualize the space crying and those tears of sadness fill and washing away the space's pain and turning into bright, happy rays, especially rays of relationship or wealth luck (or whatever you want to attract). Imagine whatever helps you hold you intention clearly in your mind, but focus on the positive--the positive chi filling the space.

Choose a Mantra, a prayer or blessing, to verbalize your intention. Repeat it nine times, a number auspicious in feng shui, as you clear your space. (Learn more about Mantras and read some suggested Mantras later down the page).

Move through each area of your space as your visualize. Use gentle rings of the bell or clap your hands to scare off bad spirits and break up the negative chi. Wave the smudge stick or incense to help purify the air. If you're using essential oils mix some with water in a small spray bottle and spritz into the air. Sprinkle small bits of sea salt in areas you feel are particularly negative and in need of a lift.

When you're done clearing your space, sit in the center of your newly cleansed space, place your hands in a Mudra position (a prayer position such as palms together, fingers pointing up), and finished reciting your Mantra nine times. Visualize your space full of positive energy and think or speak affirmative statements that match your intentions such as, "I have created a sacred space fit for love and happiness," and, "My space surrounds me with joy and harmony."

Take it all in. Smell the air, hear the music, feel the energy now flowing all around you. I bet you feel more uplifted just reading about Space Clearing.

A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or phrase capable of "creating transformation" such as creating a specific state of mind or spiritualism. They're used in different ways in different cultures and circles, but in Space Clearing a word or phrase verbalizing you intention, like visualization, helps imprint your intention on your subconscious (supplanting previous negative thoughts). Together, positive, preset-tense mantras and visualization help you manifest the energy you desire.

The term is a Sanskrit word that combines the root manas (mind) with tram (protection), or "mind-protection." You might think of a mantra as a short prayer or blessing.

According to the book Modern Mantras, a mantra is a life-affirming way of tapping into the fertile resources of mental energy that every man and woman possesses.

Personally written mantras can be extremely powerful. To write the most effective mantra:

1. Brainstorm. Start by brainstorming words, phrases and quotes that are meaningful to you. What characteristics do you value? To what do you aspire? What do you want to attract to your life?

2. Narrow your focus. Choose and highlight the words and ideas from your list that both speak to you clearly and represent your present intention.

3. Write it short. Use these key words to write a single sentence or phrase (or even a single word) that you feel best represents your intention. Take and break and come back to look at it again and revise. Keep it short.

4. Test it! Try out your mantra. If the words comfort and inspire you as you repeat them you've got the right mantra. If they make you feel uncomfortable, try revising it again, but remember: new things can make you feel uncomfortable too. Do your words make you feel uncomfortable or does the foreign practice of repeating a phrase out out loud to yourself nine times make you feel uncomfortable? If it's the later you can get used to that.

Keep your written mantra near your sacred space. You can even look at the mantra when repeating it to help imprint the mantra's intention in your subconscious.

• Om (Aum)
  Hindu scripture, the Mandukya Upanishad, refers to "Om" as "...this imperishable Word. OM is the universe, and this is the manifestation OM. The past, present and the future, all that was, all that is, all that will be is OM. Likewise all else that may exist beyond the bounds of time, that, too, is OM."
  
• Om Mani Padme Hum
  (believed by Tibetan Buddhists to invoke the compassionate attention and blessings of Chenrezig; click to learn more)
  
• Abundance.
  
• Thy will be done.
  
• Thank you.
  
• I am surrounded by good.
  
• The Universe can only be good, and it surrounds me with good.
  
• Give good, receive good.
  
• May I walk in the Light all the days of my life.
  
• Present moment, wonderful moment.
  
• Just do it.
  
• Keep calm and carry on.
  
• Never, never give up.