Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about our relationship with our homes. Have you ever noticed that when you feel fresh and cleansed, you apply that energy to keeping your home clean, but when you feel anxious, clutter tends to collect in your space? Our personal environment often mirrors what is going on within our deeper self. To maintain a positive relationship with your home, you need to take spiritual inventory of your space. By doing this, you can turn the cleansing of your home into a healing tool for the mind.

What you’ll learn in this video + guide:

• Why you need to take spiritual inventory of your home
• How to take spiritual inventory of the home
• Steps to cleansing the space + spirit

Guide to Taking Spiritual Inventory of Your Home

Taking spiritual inventory forces you to look at your home objectively, and notice what feelings surface. This practice combines journaling, mindfulness, energy cleansing work and some good old fashioned cleaning. Ready to begin transforming your home? Here we go!

Step 1: Self-Reflection

Get a notebook and begin listing the different areas within your space. Write down how you feel when you spend time in these areas. Be your own therapist. This exercise allows you to focus on how your space makes you feel, so that when you do a walkthrough later, you can assess where those feelings are coming from.

For example: I keep my room very clean. I prefer my bedroom to be as sparse as possible, so that I can easily transition to an energy of rest and relaxation without distractions. That means that if I have a mess in my room, or a pile in my closet, it’s likely related to an issue going on in my life. When I’m journaling about how I feel in my bedroom, if I realize I’m not spending much time in there, I’ll note it. More likely than not, it’s due to a mess looming in that space.

Step 2: Take Spiritual Inventory

Holding your notebook, walk outside your front door and close it behind you. Turning to face your door, take three deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. Now, open your front door and enter the home. Observe your space. See it with the fresh eyes of an objective viewer. Bring your awareness to the spots that you tend to overlook. Then experience your home using all of your senses.

If you need a bit more guidance, here are 4 Focus Points:

• What does the room LOOK like? Observe this space. Look at all the corners of the room. See what’s on the tables. Take a look at your artwork. If there are plants, are they living? Are they thriving? Or are they dying? Is the room dusty, are there piles of stuff everywhere? Look on the floor. Is the room easy to move around?
• What does the room FEEL like? Does the room feel light and open, or dark and stale? Does it feel tense or stuffy?
• What does the room SMELL like? Does the room smell fresh? Does it smell moldy and wet? Does it smell stale? Does it smell welcoming?
• What is your REACTION to the room? Did you tense up when you walked in? What does your body feel like? What does your mind feel like? Clear or cluttered? Overwhelmed or at ease? Does this space make you feel relaxed? Is there a certain item or area that triggers you within the room?

Continue moving throughout your entire space, noting what you observe.

Step 3: Create An Action Plan

After you’ve finished, use your notes to create an action plan. List the areas you need cleanse and shift in order to feel more spiritually uplifted by your environment.

Step 4: Clean, Shift, Simplify

With your action plan in hand, start making changes. Move things. Clean. Simplify – whatever you feel needs to be done to make your space better for you.

Step 5: Cleanse the Energy of Your Space

After you have physically cleaned your space, it’s time to purify the energy of your home. To do this, you can use Sage, Palo Santo, sound bowls or a combination of all three! Our Energy Clearing Set comes complete with all the tools you need for a thorough cleanse. For instructions on how to cleanse the home, read our blog, How to Remove Negative Energy and Transform Your Space.

There you have it! That’s all it takes to create a home that uplifts your spirit, rather than dwell in one drains your energy. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, begin small. Start with just your entryway. Walk into your home and stop. What’s the first thing you see? How does it make you feel? This space is the first thing you see every time you enter your home so it sets the tone for how you feel. If you find you don’t love how it makes you feel, shift it! I guarantee you, that one change will create a huge change in how experience your home.

Photos by Ashley Streff with Danyelle D’Andrea of Spatial Solutions and Hannah von Meister.