It’s become almost trendy to spiritually cleanse yourself, and even physical cleansing has had a huge rise with social media becoming obsessed with shower routines, everything showers, body care, and keeping our spaces spotless, and honestly, with good reason! There’s something incredibly refreshing about feeling clean and having your environment feel clean too, but we’re also aware that too much of something isn’t always a good thing.
Take water for example. We quite literally need it to survive, but drinking an excessive amount can also become dangerous. So what about the spiritual? Is there even such a thing as over cleansing? My take?
YES!
Over cleansing isn’t always a sign of good spiritual hygiene. Becoming obsessed with constantly having “pure” energy around you can actually start creating an unhealthy relationship with your practice. If every uncomfortable feeling makes you reach for a cleansing ritual, every bad day makes you think you picked something up, or every weird interaction has you convinced that someone left negative energy on you, cleansing can slowly stop being something that makes you feel empowered and start becoming something you feel like you have to do, and that’s where I think we need to be careful.
Constantly worrying about unwanted energy can create a sense of spiritual paranoia. In my personal practice, I also don’t want to continuously feed the idea that everything around me has the ability to interfere with my energy, manifestations, or spiritual work. Sometimes you didn’t pick anything up, sometimes you’re just tired, or you’re irritated, maybe your room is messy, maybe you’ve been online for six hours, or you simply had a bad day! The point here is, not every uncomfortable energy requires an exorcism, guppies. 😭
So How Often Should You Cleanse?
A good rule of thumb I personally like is to spiritually cleanse my space whenever I give it a deeper physical cleaning. Clean your room, open the windows, change your sheets, wipe everything down, take out the trash, and then give the space an energetic refresh. Light some incense, use sound, prayer, smoke, a cleansing spray, or whatever method belongs to your practice.
The same idea can apply to your body. If you shower every day, that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to perform an elaborate spiritual cleanse every single day. Instead, try incorporating your deeper cleansing practices into your everything shower or another designated self care day. Give your spiritual practices some breathing room instead of constantly trying to scrub away energy that may not even need removing.
Obviously, there are moments when you might personally feel a stronger cleanse is appropriate. Maybe you’ve been in an emotionally heavy environment, finished intense spiritual work, experienced something that left you feeling unsettled, or feel that your normal routine isn’t cutting it. The point isn’t to avoid cleansing. It’s learning to recognize when you actually feel called to cleanse instead of cleansing out of fear.
Cleanse, Then Protect!
This is something I think gets forgotten constantly. If your entire spiritual hygiene routine is cleanse, cleanse, cleanse, cleanse… what are you doing afterward? Pair a good cleanse with protective energy!
Protection can look a variety of ways depending on your beliefs and practice, like for example, affirmations, prayer, crystals, shells, spells, jewelry, protective charms, oils, wards, the list goes on. Think about cleansing as sweeping away what you no longer want around you and protection as establishing what you do want around you.
Personally, I prefer that balance. Rather than obsessively removing energy over and over again, cleanse when necessary, establish your protection, and then trust your protection enough to live your life. Otherwise, what’s the point of protecting yourself if you’re still walking around convinced that absolutely everything can get through?
Maybe You Don’t Need a Cleanse, Maybe You Need a Reset.
This is probably one of the biggest distinctions I’ve learned to make. There’s a difference between performing a full spiritual cleanse and simply refreshing the energy around you. Life gets messy. Energy can feel messy too. That doesn’t automatically mean whatever you’re feeling is permanent or spiritually significant. Sometimes I don’t need to pull everything out and perform an entire cleansing ritual. I need to clean my room, crack open a window, put on some music, light a little incense, take a shower, and get some fresh air. That’s what I consider more of an environmental energetic reset.
Think of it like maintaining your house. You probably sweep more frequently than you deep clean your entire home. Your spiritual routine can have different levels of maintenance too. Before immediately reaching for your strongest cleansing method, ask yourself
“What actually happened that makes me feel like I need to cleanse?”
“Do I genuinely feel spiritually uncomfortable?”
“ Is my environment simply overstimulating me?”
“Have I been around emotionally draining situations?”
“Am I physically exhausted?”
“Have I been neglecting my space?”
Or
“ have I become so accustomed to cleansing that not cleansing makes me anxious?”
That last question is an important one. Your spiritual practice should give you tools to navigate life, not make you afraid of participating in it. Cleanse when you need to. Reset when things simply feel a little stale. Protect yourself afterward and most importantly, learn to trust the spiritual practices you’ve already put into place! You don’t need to be spiritually spotless 24/7.
Remember, Life gets messy & Energy can too & Sometimes all you need is a quick little sweep. 🧹✨
🫂♥️