Aromatherapy

  • Waning Moon Detox Bath Ritual

    Woman in bath

    Clear your energy with an energy detoxing bath

    The moon is waning, which means it’s getting smaller. When the moon is getting smaller, you can do work on minimizing things, getting rid of things in your life.

    A lot of people talk about manifestation during the new moon. That’s fine and all, but the time leading up to the new moon is really, really powerful for letting go, cutting cords, and getting rid of things like thoughts, habits, ideas, relationships, things that are no longer serving you. This is something that you’ll want to work on between now and the New Moon.

    Letting go of what you don’t need makes space to bring new things into your world.

    If you’re doing big, heavy work in your life you’ll only want to focus on one thing per moon cycle. For example, if you’re going through a bad break-up or a friendship that needs to go or you’re kicking a bad habit, right now is the perfect time to work on that stuff. 

    You might only want to work on kicking that habit or getting rid of that influence or doing that toss-away work right now instead of working on building and growing and manifesting. There’s always time for that.

    Spiritual Detox Bath

    A salt bath is good once a month, or once a week, or whenever you are feeling overwhelmed by life. You can take a salt bath or go into saltwater to detox, if you’re lucky enough to live near the ocean. It really helps to clear out your energy; especially if you set the intention to clear out your aura while you’re running the bath, and also while you’re mindfully gathering supplies.

     

    Smudge Stick

    What you need:

    Sage smudge stick

    1/2 cup of sea salt – I use sea salts that I buy at the supermarket for like 99 cents. You can also get Himalayan Salt (but watch your carbon footprint, either way)

    Cedar Essential Oil – 5 drops – this is a great scent that helps to clear your aura

    Lavendar Essential Oil – 5 drops another scent that helps to clear your aura

    Black candles – to clear negative energy. I’d use a votive size, but you can use whatever size works for you.

    Black crystals, like obsidian, smokey quartz, and onyx can also help with the process. Place them on the edge of your bath, near your candles.

    Set an intention. You can think something like: “I’m not only going to take a salt bath, I’m going to make this a ritual for myself so that I can clear a lot of stagnant, stale, unneeded energy out of my aura, and cut cords and get rid of habits that aren’t serving me and use the energy of the moon to help me with this.”

    Create a sacred space. Creating a sacred space for yourself to use the power of the moon and the elements that you bring into your bathroom is a part of the process. Make sure that the space is clean, so that your energy is not distracted by thoughts of picking up clothes off the bathroom floor or having toy boats strewn around your candles. This is your time and you deserve a space that feels energetically pure.

    You should also take the time to smudge the room. Get into all of the corners, nooks, and crannies of your bathroom with the smoke from your smudge stick.

    If you can’t burn sage in your home, you can make a purifying spray out of rose quartz, salt, water, and sunshine.

    Don’t forget to smudge yourself, too! You can do this after you undress, before you get into the bath. Run the smudge stick from your head to your feet, up and down the sides of your body—including under your arms, and between your legs

    Call your angels, spirit guides and ancestors into the space. Ask your spirit guides to help you release what is no longer serving you and to carry it away with them.

    Run the water and add the oils and salt. I prefer a nice, steamy hot bath so that it works on a physical level as well.

    Inhale purity, exhale gunk. Breathwork is a really helpful add-on to this process. Your lungs can actually store a lot of old air deep down inside them. It’s a good practice to do deep breathing on a regular basis, and it certainly adds a level of clearing to this ritual.

    First, focus on your breathing. I usually breathe in for a slow count of six and out for a count of 8. Do this 3-4 times.

    Then start focusing on inhaling pure, opalescent white light or pure positive energy energy. Then imagine mucky, green or grey or black—whatever color you imagine your negativity being—rising from your spirit when you exhale. 

    Breathe in the white light really deep, as deep as you can. And then exhale all the junk and trash and bad thoughts and everything.

    Do this throughout the entire bath, if you can.

    Black candle with orchid

    Let your mind wander. Sometimes you’re going to make associations, you’re going to get these insights into what’s bothering you. Or, you’re going to get ideas about how to move forward in your life while you’re sitting in this relaxed state, focused on your breathing.

    You can also concentrate on letting go of stress, letting go of pressure, fear, the feeling of overwhelm, resistance, blockages; anything you are holding on to or any energy that stands in front of you, stopping you from moving forward.

    Think about unhealthy habits, unhealthy addictions, unhealthy relationships, unhealthy thought patterns, unhealthy perceptions, unhealthy emotions that you have. Imagine them being incased in bubbles and floating away or seeping out of your body, into the water.

    Tune into your body. While you’re sitting there, working on releasing the negativity from your body, pay attention to which areas in your body you experience discomfort in and shine that glowing, crystalline energy in those places. 

    You want to make sure that you are filling your entire aura, your entire being with bright, calm, pure energy.

    Focus on the areas that are hurting and also imagine the toxins oozing out of your body, out of your light field, out of your energy system.

    Imagine yourself shedding dense layers of energy.  It’s like shedding or cutting off outer dried layers to reveal a glowing energy body underneath.

    Imagine glimmering, bright light with all of the colors of the rainbow shimmering at one time flowing through your system, pushing out anything that is lower-vibration or negative.

    Cut cords. I call Archangel Michael into my clearing meditation and I ask him to cut cords that are no longer serving me.

    You don’t have to worry about this with your children, your partner, friends or family because it’s not actually going to cut cords or dissolve your friendships and make you stand alone. What it will do is it will help you maintain your energetic connections in a positive way.

    Imagine a sword slowly sweeping over your body, cutting away the cords you don’t need, trimming back any that you want to maintain or that are good for you.

    Really take the time to imagine this and really get into the visualization of all of the different energy that’s draining you, that no longer serves you being swept or cut away from you. Imagine these cords or points of contact with you and your energy field being cut away or being trimmed back so you have more energy to yourself.

    Energetic bandaids. If you feel any energy wounds in your energetic field be sure to cover them up with an energy band-aid, which is like a glowing patch of energy that you place over any energetic wounds you feel.

    I have to do that, personally, in my lower back area. It’s one of my chronic energetic wound areas.

    If you feel that your throat chakra is hurting, then put your energy bandaid on the front and back of your neck. If your sacral chakra is hurting—a lot of us get this lower back pain—then you would want to put it on the back and the front of your body.

    Stay in the bathtub as long as you desire to and you can repeat these rituals; the deep breathing, sloughing off the energy, even take a loofa and slough off the dead skin off your body so you have the physical representation of releasing the dead things; the things that are no longer serving you, the things that you don’t need to carry around any longer.

    Stay in the bath as you drain the water. One of the most powerful parts of the process is staying in the bath while the water is draining out. You might actually feel things pulling off your energy body and being sucked down the drain.

    While you’re doing this, set the intention for all the negativity, poor habits, connections that you don’t need, energetic attachments that are unnecessary for you to be cleared from your energy body. Imagine them going down the drain with the water.

    Rinse yourself. This will help to wash away anything that was ‘stuck’ to you.

    Let yourself air dry. Even though you should be pretty squeak clean, you don’t want the water from the bath pushed back into your skin; you want to let it air dry or evaporate into the air so that it’s not staying in your energy field or your energy body.

    Don’t forget to open a window after your bath or keep a window open during your bath if it’s not too cold outside. That way, when you’re burning sage or any kind of clearing incense, it has a way out of your house. 

    Sage yourself again. After you air dry, you can sage yourself once more to seal in your energetic purity.

    Thank your angels, spirit guides, and ancestors for their help.

    Journal. If you feel called to journal after your bath, that’s also a really good thing to do. You might have a surge of new ideas, new thoughts, new connections you made in the bath.

    Would you like to do a Cord Cutting and Energy Retrieval meditation to take this to the next level? Get my Cord Cutting and Energy Retrieval Ceremony.


    CORD CUTTING AND ENERGY RETRIEVAL CEREMONY

    CONTINUE READING

  • Don’t Believe Everything You Hear!

     

    OK – I really feel this has to be said. Personally, I welcome (with open arms) attention and experimentation, scrutiny, double-blind studies, hypotheses, collection of data, comparison…the WHOLE enchilada of scientific study of any and all of what I do, regarding energy work and any other complimentary or alternative medicinal arts (CAM) in general. In my opinion, broadening – and adding legitimacy to –  the field with certifiable, documented research is necessary. I support it 110%.

    Of course, the study of Reiki and other forms of energy work is still in its infancy. Much of the feedback I get about how my clients fare after the sessions and what they feel during the sessions helps to fuel my belief in the benefits of and experiences during energy therapies. Having said this, I understand why people would be a little hesitant to pursue CAM treatments, even though the anecdotal evidence about their success and benefits is so profound and widespread. Without peer reviewed studies with measurable and quantifiable results that have been repeated and thoroughly evaluated, the evidence remains disputed.

    I still love working with energy, though, and I would recommend it for a variety of different reasons. Most people have no negative effects from energy work, but some might have a headache or stomach ache from the detoxification process Reiki can stimulate – I try to warn my clients about that and ask that they take it easy and drink plenty of water to help their systems flush toxins. Prior to working with anyone, I do get a little bit of medical history from them and let them know that the energy can decrease the time that their medications work. I avoid doing Reiki during a surgery so as not to interfere with the surgeon’s job. I am cautious and make sure that my clients are well informed.

    Robert_Hinckley_The_First_Operation_Under_Ether_1881-96

    I have said before and will say again – if there is a scientific study of Reiki or any other energetic healing practice, I am totally willing to volunteer to participate. Please contact me at sueellissaller@gmail.com to discuss the details.

     

    Now, having said that, I would like to move onto a topic that has been scratching at my nerves for a little while: claims that certain products or methods are above scrutiny.

    There is an online forum/group that I was active in that was devoted to advice about using a particular brand of essential oils. One member of the group asked about potential drug interaction with the oils. I responded with a link to a site that described some of the more popular oils and the chemicals that were in them that could potentially interact with other medications (first in my list below). The moderator of the group DELETED my post and then proceeded to post references to research that was conducted by the head of this oil company. The COMPANY sponsored and supported research poo-poo’d any potential for interaction and said that it just isn’t possible. Members of the community voiced their support that interaction just wasn’t possible with the high quality essential oils, ignoring all other evidence to the contrary.

    HOLY FREAKIN’ MOLY! Censorship! Throwing out of contradicting evidence! Lack of morals! Naivete at best; irresponsibility at worst!

    Because there can be issues when the chemicals in essential oils combine with other chemicals in prescription drugs, it is a good idea for anyone selling or recommending oils to get a list of the medications a person is using (and/or diseases or medical issues that person deals with) to check for any danger of harmful interaction PRIOR to recommending a treatment plan. Essential oils can trigger things like seizures in certain patients and it is IMPORTANT to understand what you are recommending to whom.

     

    If a person is putting ANYTHING on or in his or her body, that person should be aware of any KNOWN risks for issues that might result from the product(s) in question.

    There are oils that pregnant women should avoid. There are oils that those with epileptic/seizure disorders should avoid. There are oils that can burn/irritate the skin if not combined with a carrier oil. There are oils that can make a person’s skin more sensitive to the sun. There are oils that should be avoided during chemotherapy. There are oils that thin the blood, and oils that help it to thicken. People who are sharing information about and prescribing oils should know these things and advise accordingly!

    447px-Chinese_meridians

    I don’t dispute the quality of the oils that come from this unnamed brand. I don’t dispute the fact that essential oils can be a very powerful complimentary treatment for a host of different illnesses and issues.

    I use oils for a variety of things, myself and recommend them to friends and family alike.

    What I do take issue with is the blind ignorance of evidence that has been collected through the ages that warns of potential risks. I’d prefer to be cautious when trying to HELP someone.

    If you are working with any complimentary or alternative medicinal practice, please make sure to read ALL of the material available describing potential benefits and side-effects. Don’t ignore warnings because ONE company has said THEIR products fall outside of the norm as far as interactive qualities are concerned. Please be an informed consumer. This is YOUR HEALTH!

     

    Articles outlining potential for interaction/reaction or limited usage:

    http://www.aromaceuticals.com/blog/drug-interactions-with-essential-oils

    http://www.integrativehealthcare.org/mt/archives/2009/09/what_you_need_t.html

     

     

    CONTINUE READING