Published June 29, 2022 by Hannah Tan

Whether you’re about to move into your new apartment in New York or are renting a home in Phoenix, AZ, your space should make you feel welcomed as soon as you step through the door. But if you’re having difficulty relaxing or experiencing an uncomfortable feeling you can’t quite put your finger on, it’s time to show your home a little love. Instead of panicking and creating more stress, look at these signs as a signal that you’re ready to do some serious apartment detoxing to energize and cleanse your space. To help you get started, we reached out to experts to weigh in on the topic. Check out these techniques to banish the bad vibes and invite positive energy into your home. 

Getting started: how to recognize the signs of negative energy

If there are specific rooms or spaces in your home that feel uncomfortable, or bad things always happen (fights, nightmares, accidents, things breaking, etc.) in that space, then there's a substantial chance that negative energy is present and you need to take action. Burn sage in that room while opening all doors and windows and tell the negative energy to leave your home. To protect your space from negative energy coming back, use black tourmaline, as it's considered a powerful blocker of negativity. You can place black tourmaline pyramids in the main rooms at home or hold a tumbled stone in your hand when you feel you need that extra protection. -Bless and Soul

The easiest way to tell if your apartment holds negative energy is to notice how you feel. If you are feeling a lot of negative emotions or having a lot of negative thoughts when you are home, this is a sign that you need to clear out the energy. First, light some sage, set an intention to clear any negative energy from your home, and smudge your entire space, starting from the front door. Then, sit in a meditative seat, close your eyes, and imagine a glittery bubble of protection surrounding your entire apartment. Finally, set an intention that this bubble will protect your apartment from negative or unwanted energy. -Kelly Collins Wellness

What's the most reliable way to detect negative energy in your space? Your intuition! You're probably right when you have that pesky feeling that something is off. Just tune in to sense what's going on and trust your gut. While sage, crystals (think amethyst, selenite, and obsidian), and bells can effectively dispel negative energy in a home, some energetic influences require more. If you hear footsteps that seem to come from nowhere, see movement out of the corner of your eye, experience lights or appliances turning on or off by themselves, or otherwise sense a presence in your home, you may be dealing with a human soul who hasn't fully transitioned. Don't worry: ghosts can't hurt you, and generally, these souls just have something they need to resolve before they move on. But if you think you have a ghost in your apartment, it's time to call an expert, whether a medium, shaman, or other intuitive healers. -Putney Energy Healing

Manifest positive energy by setting the right intentions

Intention is the strongest way to protect your home. Walk through your home and set an intention for every single room of your home. For example, the mudroom or entryway is to shed the worries of the world, including your coat and shoes. The kitchen can be a space for creative expression and nourishing your temple (your body). The bedroom should be the most peaceful room for sleep, restoration, love, and meditation. -Sacramento Reiki Center

Infuse your space with gratitude. You’re the most powerful energy source in your home, and your home has been created by several teams of people who have worked very hard to make it. Stand in each doorway and thoroughly thank them all. When you think about it, so many people have been involved and have done an amazing job. You can also state your intention for your home and what you'll create with this wonderful gift of a home. This practice sends good vibes into the bricks and mortar of your home, activates all that goodwill and integrity already present in the building, and connects it harmoniously with its human community. -All Aligned healing

Setting an intention for a new or existing home is a potent practice as even if it's brand new, each living space has its pre-existing energy and vibe. I recommend using the following sentiment by reading this or even speaking it aloud in your space. "It is my intention to live here in this space peacefully. I invite any energies to co-exist peacefully with this home or be compassionately released. I intend to bring into this home (insert more words of intention, i.e., abundance, love, happiness, healing, etc.) and ask that these energies be present in this home and that blessings abound in this household." Remember to always be respectful and compassionate of existing energies in the space. You can also combine this technique with other spiritual practices (e.x., asking the divine to aid you) as you see fit. -Clarity Reiki

Energy follows thought, so clear a space by intent. Go into each room with a Palo Santo cone, and set an intention that any energy that isn't for your highest good to leave and connect back with the source. Then, go around again and set the intention to fill the space with positive healing energy. -Huntington Beach Reiki

Incorporate natural elements to energize the space

Research shows that nature has the power to heal. Our wellness center uses biophilic design principles to support client healing and well-being, and many of these principles can also be used in residential settings. By engaging multiple senses through including elements in your apartment like plants, fountains, textures like stone, wood, or bamboo, varied lighting throughout the space, diffusing essential oils into the air, having views of nature, or even pictures of nature, we enhance mindfulness. This, in turn, can improve mood, lower pain levels, lessen anxiety and depression, and enhance creativity, focus, and productivity. -The Healing Sanctuary

Share messages of gratitude with your space

Being grateful is the best way to protect and honor your house or apartment. An apartment (and the land beneath) is a living being with consciousness. It welcomes us daily and unconditionally accepts who we are in any condition. When you think of your apartment as your friend, how would you like to show gratitude to them? A few examples can be:

1) Thank the space (the apartment and the land) for welcoming you daily.

2) Clean the clutter of the space to bring fresh air.

3) Place some sea salt, crystals, or plants representing protection and sacredness.

You can think of many other ways to thank your friend. Gratitude has such a powerful vibrational light. It shines through negative energy and transforms darkness into neutral light. It can help balance the energy of the house and your energy body. -Akiko Hoshihara

Create a smooth flow of energy 

Create positive flowing energy in your apartment by first opening the windows. Then, move on to cleaning your entry door inside and outside your apartment, including the doorknobs, hardware, other doors, and cabinets throughout your apartment. Wash or vacuum the floors, and thoroughly clean the kitchen and bathroom. To conclude, start at your entry door and move in a clockwise direction reciting, "May the Universe release any stagnant energy from my home and only allow positive flowing energy in." Continue to recite until you have gone through each room. An added energy touch is to use sage spray (most metaphysical stores carry this product) by spraying around windows, doorways, and rooms in a clockwise motion. Repeat as the seasons change or as you feel it’s needed. -Energy of Serenity

Bright, clean, and organized entryways bring more positive and prosperous energy into your home. Remove worn-out shoes, trash bags, umbrellas, papers, dirty floor mats, or any random items from your entryway. They attract and collect negative energy and block positive energy, life energy, and prosperity energy from coming into your home. Things to remove from your home to increase positive life energy and attract prosperity energy include:

• Broken furniture, mirrors, clocks, or kitchenware
• Rusty metal household objects
• Old and worn-out clothes and shoes
• Fake flowers or dead plants
• Oversized mirror in the living room or front of the entryway
• Random portraits, abstract or geometric paintings

Overgrown plants that are taller than you -Resonant Relationships

Curb the clutter

Clutter is the number one blocker to circulation in a living space because it blocks the clear flow of energy. Think of your apartment like your body's circulation – stagnation blocks the flow of life, so we want to keep things moving. Boost movement by removing clutter and adding living or moving elements to your décor. A plant, a small fountain (as long as you keep it clean), or even a lava lamp can boost movement, allow negativity to leave, and create a peaceful, welcoming living space. Also, remember that your energy fills your space, and the higher vibe it is, the easier it is to repel negativity and create peace. Feeling love and joy is the highest frequency of energy available to us, so use it to your advantage. Spend just one minute per day, preferably while in your apartment, doing something that triggers joy, love, or gratitude in your heart: a gratitude journal, spending quality time with a pet, or focusing on something that creates joy within you. This boosts your energy and will immediately fill your space with high vibe energy, repelling all sorts of negativity and healing your body and mind. -RayZen Energy

Keeping your home sanctified starts with keeping it clean and clear of clutter. You don't have to get too esoteric to keep your space in spiritually tip-top shape. As the old saying goes, "Cleanliness is next to godliness." Everything in your home contains energy, and if you have too many things, it not only clutters your mind, it creates spiritual cobwebs, too. Plus, clutter attracts more clutter, while dirt and grime can be encrusted with old thoughts and emotions. To avoid negative energies in your space, get rid of anything that's run down, broken, or unused. Cleaning and clearing your space also clears your psyche and spirit. Then, add a little meditation and/or prayer to your day, some fresh flowers, or just light a candle to honor the divine. Whatever energy you create permeates your space. Be pure, and your space will be pure, too. -Diane Goldner

Clear out old energy by smudging your home with sage (or other herbs)

Burn palo santo to detox an apartment. Conflict, anger, or illness is absorbed by the Palo Santo smoke and cleansed from the energy field of you and your space, and it can also help those close to you. It has similar properties to sage and is capable of resetting energy that was tainted by negativity or conflict. It can also help to neutralize issues before they even start, attracting sacredness to a space. It cleanses, purifies, and protects our body, mind, spirit, and environment, and it's possible to feel a change in the air immediately. The smoke attaches to the negative energy in the air, dissipates and clears it, then transmutes from negative to positive. -Healing Synergy

Smudging is a great way to purify and protect your home. Open all windows and inside doors, light sage or Palo Santo with fire for 5-10 seconds, and then blow it out. The smoke will plume. Walk clockwise around your home, waiving the smoke in all nooks, crannies, and rooms. Once you've done a thorough job cleansing with the smoke, be sure to keep the windows open to air it out to release the previous owner's or renter's energy. Open the front door and do a thorough smudge around the front door to ensure protection. -Blooming Moon Wellness Spa

Be mindful of the energy you bring and create in your space

99.999 percent of reality is subtle energy and like attracts like. I once lived in an apartment where every time I thought nasty or critical thoughts, boom! An object would topple over, often hitting me. Put a fountain or bowl of water at your doorway and imagine washing out your negative thoughts there before entering. Chase a mean thought away by immediately speaking aloud a blessing to yourself or others and sing to your plants. They'll grow stronger, taller, and greener and cleanse your space. -Cyndi Dale, author of 30 bestselling books on energy healing

We don't often think to leave behind the heavy, dense energies we have come into contact with while out in the world when we enter our homes. Bringing these energies home with us is the top cause of negative energy in our living space. Performing a mini-ritual as you get home is a great way to shift gears internally and set the intention of not dragging all of that negativity in with you. It can be as simple as making a statement on the doorstep: "To keep my home clear and healthy, I leave my day outside the door." Or more involved, like creating a threshold into your home life by committing to turning off all technology for the first 15 minutes you are home. Our home is a reflection of our inner state and these practices will build awareness about what is happening in both spaces. -Healing Sun Energetics

Our thoughts are energy, and where our attention goes, the energy flows. We can foster an attitude of gratitude by creating positive energy within our home by showing appreciation for our simple everyday routines. Thanking the warm water our shower offers as it melts away muscle tension, being grateful for our bed in receiving revitalizing sleep, acknowledging our kitchen for the space to create nutritious meals, and many more occurrences. When we continually offer gratitude in this manner, we usher in harmonious and boundless energy conducive to our wellbeing. -Seattle City Reiki

Visualize a bubble of pure white light around your place that goes beyond your walls whenever you feel negative energy around. Then, flood your place with that white light, releasing any negative thoughts as quickly as possible and replacing them with a mantra of peace and calm. Repeat this in your mind, breathing fully until you relax and can focus on productive projects, or if at bedtime, you fall asleep. When in public, visualize that same white light and tune it to the frequency of peace and calm, and send that energy ahead to where you'll be going. For example, if I'm going into town or to a meeting, I send that light to my destination ahead of time and flood the space with it so that all the negative people leave by the time I get there. They don't like that peace and calm energy, so they tend to go away, and those left are tuned to much nicer energy. You can also do the same before returning home to avoid bringing any lingering energy into your home. -Cindy Myers Animal Listener

When we think of our home as a living space, we become more mindful of what we are feeding it with our words and thoughts. Our home is a container of energy that holds the energetic imprint of past arguments and negative actions, as well as positive ones, that have occurred within it. If the walls of your home could speak, what would they say? Would they share good memories or heavy ones filled with complaints, dissatisfaction, gossip, or confrontation?

Because positive words vibrate at higher frequencies than negative words, you can shift the energy in your home from negative to positive using the power of mantra. Mantras are words or phrases that hold vibrational power when spoken. If you want your home to vibrate peace and happiness, create a mantra that affirms it and speak it to all the walls in your home as a blessing. For example, "This home emanates peace and happiness to all who reside here." Take a moment to feel peace and happiness within you, then stand facing a wall in your home and speak your mantra with intention. Repeat to each wall. You may also choose to have a different mantra for each room in your home. -Aiyana Fraley

Use crystals to brighten up and balance your room’s energy 

Prism crystals hung in a window will constantly clear and renew the energy in your space. It’s also a good idea to place a few selenite crystals around to balance and clear unwanted energies. Adding shungite stone helps to absorb electrical energy, providing some protection from the EMF emitted from electronics and towers. -Energy Matters

Using a cleansing crystal like selenite, sweep counterclockwise in all corners, closets, windows, etc., as you say aloud your intention, "Fill this space with love and light as protection from any negative energies" (or come up with your own). Opening any curtains or windows as you do this will help. After this is complete, place the crystal in any areas that you feel need extra cleansing or protection. -Danielle Mai

Salt lamps are a natural way to beautify any space, casting a warm cozy glow that lifts the mood. Salt crystals also produce negative ions, which help counter electro-smog. They create a positive ambiance and can be used as a focal point in meditation, reducing stress and creating a positive mindset that impacts your life and living space. -Salt Sanctuary of Maryland

Originally published by Redfin