Hello all,
So my book Practically Posh was just released and is already sweeping the nation, or at least my office, literally.
Yesterday, Marissa, a co-producer on the station, was buzzing around her desk happily organizing away, when she sang out to me "Robyn, I'm cleaning my desk!" "Great!" I replied, barely looking up from my own embarrassingly messy area.
"Not just CLEANING," she said, "Like SPRITUALLY CLEANING, and getting all the bad energy out,"
"Good idea" I muttered, 'til I realized "Hey! That's from my book!" Yay! The first time someone used one of my ideas from the book, and a brilliant one at that!
In my "nesting" or "home" chapter I write about period a couple of years ago, when I went through a particularly rough patch in my life where I lost a boyfriend and a job within two months. After lying around my home in sweats for a month, buried under a mountain of self-help books, a good friend suggested I give my house a "cleansing." I responded with an indignant, "Hey, lady, all I've been doing is cleaning my house." She explained what she meant was a spiritual cleansing of my house: Kick out bad energy and invite happiness in. Happiness, eh? That was enough incentive to tear me away from the pages of Stand Up For Your Life! for a couple of hours. I looked up home cleansing rituals on the Internet and found most of them involved sage, cedar, or frankincense. I walked to a local botanica (a Latino herbal store) and picked up some sage tablets, cedar incense sticks, and a candle for Santa Clara, the patron saint of clarity. I then opened all my windows, dropped the sage tablets in glasses of water and placed them in the corners of each room. Then, beginning at the front door, I lit a cedar stick and began walking room to room waving the stick like a sparkler and shouting, "Out, damned bad energy, out!" I finished by saying a prayer in front of old St. Clara.
This was my interpretation of a cleansing ritual, but you could choose to ask a pastor, priest, rabbi, or even your friends to bless your house. Your spiritual tidying may be as simple as throwing away negative items from your past (like photos of evil ex-boyfriends or betraying best friends), trashing old work files, or cutting up your work I.D. and dancing around in your underwear to "I Will Survive." Sometimes you need a busload of faith to get by, as Lou Reed once sang, so ladies, whatever it takes for you to feel good, go for it.
For our office "cleansing" Marissa, our editor Ashley (AKA Swatch-She's Swiss) and I held hands and read a blessing Marissa wrote about removing blocked energy, disorganization, insecurity, and office gossip and bickery, and inviting in harmony, creativity, teamwork, and focus
We then grabbed a broom and swept all the bad energy out the door!
I think its worked well so far, we've had some great shows, and everyone seems to be getting on well
I vote you give it a try!
Love, xxoooo
Robyn
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Comments: 35
It reminds me of a saying that a friend and I had in college. It sounds kind of silly, but when down, we would go underwear shopping and then proudly yell, "New Underwear, New Attitude!" (we waited until we got home to yell that) It helped us.
I may have to try something like this in my house.....too much bad hoodoo around here. (or maybe it is just the step daughter's smelly shoes!)
Now as a mom of four, I laugh thinking back to those days, but recently after an argument with one of my teenagers, with a charged atmosphere in our home, I discreetly clipped some Basil(from our garden)and did the cleansing(Aplogizing profusely to the saints for having to use regular tap water). I was pretty desperate, and guess what, things quited down immediately.
I can't wait to read your book!
One place I have just now started on de-toxifying is my email. If I receive something that makes me feel less than great, DELETE. It's out of there, I don't ever want to see it again. Congrats on your book it looks amazing!!
that's really cool, I didn't know basil worked as a "cleanser". My mom and I went to Oaxaca, Mexico two years ago, and did a "temescal" treatment where we essentially went into a "sweatlodge" and a women "brushed" us with big sage leaves starting from our heads and sweeping down our bodies saying a "prayer" the entire time. I have to say it felt really good phsysically and spiritually.
LOVE The email ideas, my mom always gets hateful political emails and not only replies to the rubbish, but then forwards it to me! Such a waste of energy!! ERASE I say!!
I'm looking forward to reading your book soon!
Also I worked with someone who was Jewish (I was raised Catholic, so all this was very foreign to me) and right before a particular holiday (can't remember which one), she would clean everything out of her kitchen and start from scratch. With the way I cook, this might be a good idea sometimes...lol.
All my best,