Home has been a pretty fluid concept for my partner and I…in the past 9 years we’ve spent about 4 years on and off travelling, a year and a half living interstate and the rest of the time never living at a particular address for more than 2 years!

And now we are “home”…or at least, living in one place in my hometown with no fixed plans on the horizon to go anywhere else. And yet…being such avid travellers, and with my partner being from Sicily and having half our family there, we haven’t really felt completely “committed” to where we are living now.

And it was showing in our house…we’d been here for almost a year and still hadn’t put up our paintings from Nepal or printed any photos from our travels. There was an empty vase I’d been meaning to buy flowers for for ages, and some rooms only semi-furnished. Psychologically, we were so used to having one foot out the door, we weren’t really putting much effort into our space – though this was totally unconscious at the time.

Until our friend Yvette Diaz from White Feather Space offered to do a space clearing for us. I’m familiar with the concept and thought it would be a one-off visit where she sprinkled salt around and burned sage to clear negative energy. It was so much more than that.

In our first consultation, we delved deep into how we really felt about our home in general, and more importantly – how we wanted to feel. My partner and I soon realised how much we had been negelecting our space and also how much that was affecting us in a subtle way emotionally – causing us to feel restless, rootless and uninspired.

We went through every room and tuned in to how we felt in there – positive, negative or neutral? We also clarified specific intentions for each room. Yvette then went home and over the next 2 weeks created a personalised set of meditations, affirmations, essential oils, crystals and other space-clearing items for us.

On our second visit she arrived with a basket full of goodies and created our personalised altar with symbols of all that we wanted to bring into this space. Room by room, she first used her intuition to clear areas of stagnant or discordant energy – with clap-sticks and essential oils and led us in simple meditations and intention-setting to bring in the energy we wanted for that area. 

We immediately felt more connected and grounded to our space – and recognised how important that is, to make feeling “at home” in your home a priority. We were also totally inspired! We finally put up our paintings and got some flowers for that vase, rearranged some furniture and de-cluttered. We felt so good in our home and I wanted to share that feeling with you! I knew this concept would be relevant to my readers, so I asked Yvette to share some of her best tips for you below!

Yvette’s Top Tips for Space-Clearing

First of all it’s important to clear and ground your own energy, to access your intuition clearly. Yvette’s favourite 2 ways of doing this are:

1. Ground in Nature – Spend at least 30 mins walking in nature in your local park, bush or beach. Consciously breathe through your nose (helping you to relax by activating the parasympathetic nervous system*). Let your body relax as much as possible. Give mother nature your pain, challenges, and limiting beliefs. She can help you clear and release these. Clear your mind and direct your attention to your surroundings; trees, water, and sounds. Take in the grounding energy that will help you move forward in life.

2. Cleanse with Sea or Epson Salts – When your energy is flat (when you feel very tired, drained or stuck) take a bath or shower with Epson salt (rinse off with cold water afterwards). Give particular attention to the top of your head, armpits, hands and feet. As an alternative, use sea salt. If you have access to the beach and weather permits, swim in the ocean. Rinsing with salt or swimming in the ocean will clear your energy field and will uplift your energy and mood.

Once you feel cleansed and grounded yourself, it’s time to get a sense of what you need to bring into your home. Start off by:

1. Checking the Energy of Each Room – Relax your body, close your eyes and take a deep breath. Go through the different spaces in your home or office. You can physically walk through your space if you prefer. Ask yourself, does my energy go up, down, or stay neutral? Are there thoughts, feelings or memories that come up? After you have completed your meditation or physical walk-through, write down your reflection. Then connect to your heart and ask yourself – what does this space require to be uplifted and clear?
2. Clear the Space- This can be done with the very ancient practice of burning a sage smudge stick; using sound such as drumming, clap-sticks or even clapping your hands; or grounding music, and clearing away items that you no longer love or use.
3. Uplift the Space – bring in colours to symbolise your intentions, eg a soft, textured,pink cloth in the bedroom can help to bring in love and romance; put up special paintings and photos and light candles to uplift the frequency of a space and help you to connect with the divine.

It’s so simple but it really is powerful – in the comments below I’d LOVE to hear from you…is there a particular space or room in your home that feels stagnant, negative or not as harmonious and positive as it could be? What would you like to bring in to that space?

And for more space-clearing wisdom and inspiration from Yvette – take her 2-hour Clutter-Clearing Challenge here!