The Importance of Spiritual Hygiene
Hands on healing practitioners, students learning energy healing, and even when we’re focused on self-care, we must practice spiritual hygiene.
When I was a student, I didn’t understand the “why” of a lot of what my teacher taught us. Spiritual Hygiene seemed like a silly waste of time to me, even when hearing the vivid example of a seasoned energy healer who wound up with a disease that ate away the muscle tissue of his right arm after facilitating energy healing for hundreds of clients for many years, attributed to his ongoing failure to clear the energy from this hands and arms after every healing session. Over the years this took a toll on his physical health. So we were always instructed to “drain” our hands at the completion of every healing session. Arms down by our sides, palms facing the floor, speaking softly or in our minds, “Anything that is not of me or for me, I return to the earth to be transformed and used again.” I admitted I could feel a subtle reverse charge in my hands when all the energy was released. Maybe there IS something to this!
Spiritual hygiene also refers to practices that help keep a clear space for the practitioner, maintain boundaries with client issues, and promote neutrality and compassion instead of empathy. This is achieved through the practitioner's energy management and following the School of Esoteric Healing’s guidelines during client interactions. Practitioners learn to guide the process and support clients in taking responsibility for their own healing.
Hands of Light
I believe every client should have healing sessions where they are the focus, where the practitioner ensures a clear and positive experience, and real healing happens.
Healers are often empathic, which seems like a key quality, but there’s a significant difference between supporting a client in a session and becoming overly involved in their experiences. When an empathic healer merges with the energy of their clients’ emotions, it’s possible to take on their physical and emotional symptoms, like migraines, back and joint pain, stress, depression, and anxiety. Often seen as a sign of talent, it’s really a sign of weak energy boundaries and no separation. Blending with clients' energies over time can harm the healer's body, emotions, and energy. This can lead to burnout or illness.
Support others with kindness and understanding, helping them let go of energy without getting caught up in their issues. Practice spiritual hygiene before and after each session. The goal is for clients to feel relieved and resolved, while practitioners should end their day feeling balanced and energized, just as they were at the start.
Energy is always in motion, starting when a client arrives and answers, "What would you like to work on today?" As the client shares their story and emotions during the intake process, this emotional energy shifts out of the client's space and into the treatment area. Since the practitioner is present in this space, they can easily absorb this energy. Unless they follow hygiene practices, they may become overwhelmed by the client's energy.
I let my clients know that listening to them and tracking their energy is part of my job. Understanding their problems, relationships, or trauma is essential. After this deep listening and understanding, clients are invited to lie on the massage table and relax as their negative energy is cleared away and released into the Earth.
The final step of Spiritual Hygiene for practitioners is a cleansing bath after every session. This is good for everyone, whether you are a healer or not. It’s a simple tub filled with warm water with one cup of sea salt and one cup of Epsom salt dissolved into the water. Soak for 20 minutes. Candles and soft music, even solfeggio frequencies are real magic for clearing your energy field after a healing session, or even a day at your regular job. This is great for getting the emotions and thought forms out of your energy field.
