PBP- Week 24: Laundry

I wrote this topic down a couple weeks ago (I try to brainstorm ahead of time so I'm not scrambling for an idea the day I sit down to write), and then forgot why I had wanted to write about it. When I popped open my file last week, and looked ahead I was a bit flustered. And yet, as I thought about it throughout the week, I remembered why I wanted to talk about laundry.

Laundry is one of those things that most of us do on a regular basis without much thought (besides possibly how much we dislike doing laundry). It is a chore that we often put off as long as we can (and when we pull that last pair of underwear out of the drawer, we groan knowing we have to do it). There is an old saying about not airing our dirty laundry in front of guests, which speaks about all those things we do in private or between family that aren't that pretty (arguments, bad habits, or whatever), and how we try to keep those things private.

If we look at the things we actually wash in the laundry, it is pretty intimate stuff. We of course wash our clothes, but we also wash towels and sheets: all things that we put against our bodies. These things will not only pick up the physical grime that we collect throughout the day (and night) but also energetic resonance.

When we go out, our clothing is exposed to pretty much everything we are exposed to. I think of clothes in two categories: outer and inner. Outer is pretty much anything everyone else is supposed to see, where inner is the things that are not meant to be seen (underclothes). Both pick up different types of grime.

Our outer clothing picks up contact types of dirt. If we sit on a dirty bench, our pants or skirt gets dirty. Likewise, if we hang out with people who are upset or angry, our outer clothes pick up those energies. Inner clothing gets a stronger hit from things we react to. When it is very hot out, our inner clothes tend to get sweatier than our outer clothes. If we end up in a situation that is personally distressing, that energy will cling to our inner clothes more.

Of course, we wash our clothes after we wear them, but we often don't work on cleansing them energetically. We may end up with clothing that builds up a negative aura and we will shy away from wearing it because we pick up on that without really knowing why we no longer like to wear a particular thing. Or worse, we pick clothes in a rush and don't realize we have picked something that makes us uncomfortable until we are already out and about, and then the rest of the day we feel off.

When we wash, we dry ourselves off with a towel. That might be a hand towel in the bathroom, a bath towel after a shower or a kitchen towel as we cook. The process of washing is naturally cleansing, and many of us also add an energy cleanse component to our washing. But consider that anything you release into the water may still be clinging to the water on your hands, then when you try them, bits of that energy are now absorbed by the towel. Those little lingering bits can add up over time (especially if you are like me, and wash dishes when you are upset).

Bedsheets are something we don't think about that often, but I feel play a really important part in our lives. Sleep is the time our body resets. We know how powerful dreams can be. And yet when we have particularly strong dreams, what do we do about it? Anytime someone in my house is sick, once they start to feel better, my first desire is to wash all the sheets and towels: anything that might be holding any lingering germs. With powerful times of stress, fear or anxiety, we may have troubled sleep. As we work on resolving those inner issues, we should make sure to cleanse any lingering energy from the bed and bedclothes as well. Don't forget to cleanse and bless the bed after you take the sheets off too!

So how do you go about doing all of this? As you load up the washer, think about each piece you put in. If there is a particular issue you are aware of, acknowledge it and then thank it for it's lessons and release it. If there is nothing particular about a piece that you know of, then you can still thank the item for it's work in your life (after all, most of us would be pretty uncomfortable without clothes, towels or sheets!) and ask that it release any energy it might be holding onto. Once the washer is loaded up, you can add a sachet (make sure it doesn't include anything that will damage your washer, and is sealed up nice and tight) to further bless or cleanse your things as you desire. In the drier you can make your add your own scent (like tossing in a drier sheet) by taking a piece of cloth and putting a few drops of essential oils on it (put them on the scrap of cloth, not your clothing to avoid stains and over-scenting). You can embroider symbols or wishes onto the scent-cloth to enhance the effect.