Spiritual Hygiene
Good morning! This is my first posting here so please let me know if it is incorrectly done or in the wrong place.
I wanted to ask about spiritual hygiene. The question came to me today out of the curiosity of how our hygiene affects our spirits, since they know us by our smell. But in thinking about it I realize that I'm not even necessarily clear on what exactly spiritual hygiene entails. What kind of practices are recommended, and at what frequency? Is it individual or does everyone have similar needs? How should we help our children with their spiritual hygiene? Any guidance would be so appreciated!
Spiritual Hygiene is something so misunderstood and simple at the same time. The truth is many people use the term and have no idea what theyre actually talking about. Spiritual Hygiene is really just the routine in which one cares for their spirituality, what that looks like may be wildly different for people or traditions and there is no universally right way of doing it.
You mentioned spirits knowing us by our smell, thats a specific Nkisi Malongo/Palo Mayombe thing. It is worthy of noting that theyre not smelling your perfume. Theyre smelling the deepest layer they possibly can of you. Your spirits will know you by the scent of your blood and soul, not a perfume. A spirit that has no connection to you that has been sent to you could have been sent with a dirty sock, they would know the scent of your sweat. This is why cleansing with perfumes and incense can throw off random spirits but not yours. They know you more intimately.
When most people think of this subject what theyre actually thinking of is cleansings. Just do xyz cleansings routinely. Yes but theres more involved than that. Part of your routine could include regular prayers, maybe house cleaning (yes like normally cleaning the house), devotional services like Misas etc. In terms of the actual schedule, it varies by person and tradition but in general you wanna have at least something happening once a month and my personal recommendation is once a week. Keep in mind, none of these things are supposed to be big bank breaking things, its not supposed to be about going to someone and spending a ton of money having them do whatever on you. Its supposed to be self-care thats routine and simple.
Knowing the above, you simply guide children on what routines and practices would be best for them. That is of course if its something they already expressed interest in. Forcing someone into these kinds of practices is exactly the kind of thing that cancels out these practices. You cant liberate someone by force, you are just taking them from one force to another.
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Thanks a lot Tata, I've been thinking about this post a lot and have been bringing kind of a spiritual consciousness to my regular cleaning tasks since thinking about things this way. It seems to make me less resistant to mundane tasks which is a definite bonus, and I'm feeling more sensitive to energies and how I feel before and after completing those tasks. I'm noticing how some of the benefit is found in just mindfully tending to cleaning tasks with a joyful spirit rather than resenting them, and how much that resentment was bleeding into everything in my home. Appreciate you taking the time to respond!