By Sharon Oliver, Founder and Lead Designer of Sharon Oliver Interior Design
An important aspect of interior design, often the most overlooked, is cleansing your space physically, energetically and spiritually. This is essentially the most crucial step to decorating a home or revitalizing a space. The design isn’t just about arranging attractive pieces of furniture together or choosing complementary paint colors to match. Of course, that is one aspect. But the design is so much more. Real design goes to the root, back to the fundamentals and basics. It goes beyond what you visually can see, and extends to what you can feel when you walk into a space. And on the contrary, also what you cannot feel when you walk into a space.
Energy is something that is felt, not seen. And spaces carry negative or positive energies, heavy or stagnant energies, transformative, calming or cleansing energies. These negative or heavy energies have a tendency to build up over time. Not only do they build up, but they can transfer energy onto you and you can transfer energy onto it. Your environment, in particularly the space you call home is a reflection of you. We often hear people say, your friends/ partner/ children are either a reflection or extension of you. But your environment isn’t just the people that surround you, it’s also the physical space in which you keep yourself as well.
There are layers to design. Design is energy and design is a spiritual experience. Have you ever walked into a room in your home and felt a cloud of heaviness follow you? You can’t quite put your finger on why, but you know there’s a heavy attachment to your aura you can feel but can’t quite explain. If the answer is yes, cleansing and clearing your home may be where you should start to shift this energy. Declutter, re-organize, and dust your room or entire home from top to bottom. Throw out items you have held onto for years but no longer have a real use for. We often have a greater attachment to the material that we may realize, start to re-evaluate what you really need versus what you have. As you are cleaning, do not just perform the act, but really focus on the healing powers of cleansing and purifying. Smudge your space with your favorite resin, herb or incense. Some great items for cleansing and smudging your space are copal, frankincense and myrrh, sage, sandalwood, and Palo Santo. When you smudge a space, the smoke that emits cleanses the air of stagnant energies. Be sure to open your windows during this process to allow the smoke to leave your home, along with the energies it will carry away. You can set intention while you are cleaning by chanting out loud (or in your head) of all the things you want to get rid of in the space and all that you want to invite in.
Know that by clearing your space of unwanted energies, you are also cleansing yourself, your own inner aura. Cleaning your space is a part of energetically cleansing your life. Spiritual and energetic cleansings aren’t just cleansing your mind, but your physical spaces too. You can’t paint over a crack in a wall and expect the crack to still not show. The same concept goes for interior design. You can’t place attractive pieces of furniture in a room and expect the negative energy in the room to magically disappear. Design is as much a spiritual experience as it is a physical one. The next time you feel a negative aura, check your home, check your space and the environment you keep. It could be sending you a message. A clean home is a happy home. Happy cleansing!
