Eat healthy foods, get enough sleep, drink lots of water, exercise.
Most of us know the basics of good physical health, but we aren’t always as good about taking care of our emotional, mental, and spiritual health.
People have been burning fragrant herbs for purification, enlightenment, and healing for a long time. Incense burners have been dated back as far as 4500 years ago in Egypt’s 5th Dynasty.
Did you know that burning sage comes with a long list of physical and spiritual benefits? When combined with other healing practices such as meditation and massage, it becomes even more powerful.
What is Sage?
Sage is an evergreen shrub in the mint family. It has a long history that can be traced back to ancient times. The Romans used it to improve digestion and treat ulcers, sore throats, and wounds. The French brewed sage into a tea, which became popular in China and exploded a sage trade.
White sage (Salvia apiana), which is the most common type used in smoke cleansing rituals, is native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, and the Native Americans considered it to be a sacred herb.
The practice of burning sage and other medicinal herbs is known as “smudging” among many Native American tribes. There has been increasing pressure for non-Native users to call it “smoke cleansing” to avoid cultural appropriation of a tradition outlawed and practiced in secret until the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act.
What Does Cleansing Energy Mean?
“Energy” comes in many forms. Our bodies are powerhouses that rely on food, drink, and sleep to break down energy in our digestive system and transform it into new, usable sources of energy.
When we talk about positive and negative energies, we’re focusing more on spiritual energy. Everything is in a constant state of vibration, even objects. Some people, like those with empathic traits, are more in tune with this spiritual energy. Other people might just notice that something feels “off” without pinpointing exactly what’s wrong.
Many problems occur when your vibrations aren’t in harmony. For example, your natural energy flow is clouded by personal negativity, such as stress, resentment, anger, frustration, etc. Or you’ve been exposed to a lot of bad energy from the people around you, and it’s affected your energy.
Cleansing energy gives you a reset. It clears away the negative energy affecting your wellbeing and helps realign your chakras so your usual, positive energy can flow again.
Why Would You Burn Sage During Your Massage?
There are different types of massages, such as Swedish massage therapy, Lomi Lomi, hot stone, et cetera.
While each type differs in specific techniques and health goals, massages generally improve circulation, reduce pain, promote relaxation, and boost your mood.
The massage focuses on physically manipulating your body into an optimal state. Of course, this comes with inherent spiritual benefits too, but burning sage simultaneously targets your spiritual energy while the massage therapist works on your body.
Realigning both your physical and spiritual wellbeing is essential to unlocking the benefits of a massage fully.
However, if you’re sensitive to smoke, be sure to communicate this to the massage therapist right away. An alternative method of cleansing energy, such as using crystals or aromatherapy, may be used instead.
Why Do You Want to Cleanse Your Energy?
Accumulating negative energy takes a toll on our mental, emotional, and physical health.
Bad energy can cause stress, impacting your immune system, hormone balance, digestive system, and heart. Your sleep quality is poor, and you find yourself in a constant bad mood, which in turn affects those around you.
Burning sage isn’t an instant cure, but it’s a step in the right direction toward self-care and restoring pure, positive energy into your life.
Benefits of Burning Sage During Your Massage
- Purification: Traditionally, sage has been used to purify people and spaces. Medicinal smokes have antimicrobial and antibacterial properties, and they also repel insects. Burning sage during your massage creates a safe, sacred place for your body and spirit to heal.
- Dispel Negative Energy: Part of the spiritual healing process requires the negative energy to be removed so it can be replaced with positive energy. As sage dispels the bad energy, your massage therapist works on improving your body’s circulation so your normal energy flow can resume.
- Improve Mood: Your emotional health is an important part of massage therapy. While the therapy itself is a treatment to boost your mood, sage can help you get there faster, making massage therapy more effective.
- Reduce Stress: Sage and massage therapy both reduce stress on their own, but together, they make a bigger impact.
- Boost Cognition: More studies need to be done on sage smoke, but the medicinal compounds of sage extract have been shown to improve brain health and memory.
Sage and massage therapy are alike in that they strive to improve your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing.
When combined, they become even more powerful, playing off each other’s strengths. Burning sage creates a safe, purified place and removes the negativity and toxicity you may have brought with you from the outside world.
As the negative energy is alleviated, your body becomes more susceptible to the massage therapist’s efforts to promote health and healing.
Are you ready to experience the benefits of sage smoke cleansing and massage therapy? Contact us to learn more about our services.