How To Use Affirmation Decks To Recognize & Call Forth Opportunities:

Using Music To Amplify Your Spiritual Practice: Life is objectively more magical the moment you add a soundtrack to it. Whether you’re washing the dishes, making your bed, doing a workout, or hauling a long commute, listening to your favorite playlist can lift the vibration of a situation exponentially. And if it can transform the mundane into something beautiful, imagine what it can do to your spiritual rituals?!

Question: do you feel like you push yourself out of your comfort zone on a pretty regular basis? No, seriously! One of the most rewarding things we can do in life is stretch and expand the boundaries we live within. When we do, we’re rewarded with super amazing...

Set Your Intentions Each month, the moon beams us full of an extra boost of intention-setting energy. Harness that energy by focusing on one or two intentions you’re particularly passionate about!  Make sure to take some time to craft intentions that are clear,...

You’ve read about it on all the blogs you follow. You’ve seen it posted about on Instagram. Your gurus have all talked about it on podcasts. Intention setting. But where do you start? You can set a daily intention, a new moon intention for the next moon cycle, an intention before each yoga practice, an intention when you sit down to create something. There’s so many places intentions can fit into our lives – we’re going to help you narrow it down and start somewhere that’s both effective and simple: morning intention setting.

One of the very best ways to set up your day is around what two things? Hope and joy. Read it again. Hope and joy! When you begin your day with simple intentions for hope and intentions for joy, you’re inviting more of each into your life (and who can ever have enough hope or joy?), recognizing and living these values, raising your emotional energy to match them, and in turn, raising your physical energy. Those are a lot of benefits for a quick daily practice, are we right?

 

Okay, but how do I start?

Good question. The very first thing we want you to do is one of the most important (but also one of the easiest!). Designate a time and place for your intention setting ritual. This can be while you’re still lying in bed when you first wake up, it can be sitting in front of your altar, it can be on a morning walk, or any other time and space that feels good to you. Having a designated time and place will help keep you accountable for your daily morning intention setting and also contribute to creating a habit out of the practice – and that’s what we want! Morning intention setting around hope and joy can create such an energetic shift in your life and wellbeing, when you begin, you won’t want to stop! But just like with anything, it takes practice and repetition to create a habit out of it and integrate it into your day, every day. So put some thought into it and pick your place and time!

 

Center and Focus Yourself

Once you’ve picked your space, go to it each morning and get comfy. This is where the real magic begins! Drop into your body and focus on your breath to begin centering your focus and energy. Intention setting is a quick but specific practice, and the more in your spiritual energy you are when you set your morning intentions, the more they’re going to support you throughout your day. Focus on taking 10 deep breaths, play a song you love that helps you feel grounded, or recite a prayer that gets you centered into yourself.

 

Visualize Hope and Joy

It’s proven that visualization brings the associated emotions into our bodies and hearts, your body and heart don’t know the difference between visualizing and something happening in real life. If you visualize that you just landed your biggest client ever, the same reaction and emotions come over your body and into your heart that would occur if you actually did just land your biggest client ever. Pretty amazing, right? That makes visualization a super powerful tool.

Once you feel grounded, centered, and focused, begin the visualization process. Visualize yourself feeling hopeful, feeling joyful, feeling peaceful. This can look like your heart expanding with warmth and hope as you watch the sunrise and begin a new, fresh day, it can look like a slow walk along a beach listening to the waves and staring out over the ocean, it can look like a night having the kids with a relative or babysitter and getting to be by yourself or with your significant other. 

However you see hope and joy integrate into your life, however you see yourself experiencing hope and joy, visualize and let the emotions swell up in your body and heart. You don’t have to spend more than a minute or two doing this to feel yourself react.

 

Setting Your Intention

Once you’re in the emotions of hope and joy, this is when you actually set your intention for the day. Some people like to write their intention down in a journal or save it somewhere on their phone. Others speak it out loud to themselves, and others keep it in their mind. Choose a method that works for you.

Your hope and joy intention for the day is something you plan on incorporating into your entire day, stopping to remember it when you land in traffic or in a long line at the grocery store. Using it to shift your energy when you have a weekend project dropped on you at work and the stress starts seeping in. Allowing it to be the place you immediately go to when you feel your energy drop or begin dropping.

Your intention can be any set of words that bring you hope and/or joy, and we frame intentions by starting them with I am. Here are a few examples to get the wheels turning and begin setting you up to start thinking about your own intentions.

I am returning to hope and joy whenever I feel stressed or worried today.

I am deserving of hope and joy.

I am surrounded by joyful energy.

I am bringing more hope into my life today with a positive outlook.

I am doing small things today that bring me joy.

I am capable of seeing my life through the lens of hope.

I am raising my frequency to a level where hope and joy come naturally.

Once you’ve set your intention, either on paper, out loud, or in your mind, you’ve brought your intention into your energy field and can turn to it at any point during the day. Allow it to walk gently through your mind when you’re facing a challenge or stressor, and also allow it to walk gently through your mind when you’re feeling great – as a reminder that you’re actively cultivating that joy and hope you’re experiencing.

Morning intention setting is so powerful, and when you add a theme of hope and joy to your intention, it levels up your life in a way that can change your everyday experience. Don’t forget to share your intention setting ideas and your amazing outcomes with us on Instagram @SmudgeWellness, we can’t wait to see you put your intentions into action!

What is it that you’re ready for? What new adventures are you dreaming about? What if I told you all it took was 9 min of your day?

Sometimes we get distracted. You know, from that book we’re reading, from that work project, from, well, life. It can be hard to be on your A game 100% of the time – and at Smudge, we know that and we feel you. Coming up with an action plan to follow can feel like a good idea, but what about when you’re not focused enough to follow through with it? That’s when we suggest adding a ritual or two to your spiritual practice!

There are specific rituals for specific things, like joy, focus, courage, and more. We’re bringing you rituals for focus and action so that you can find the boost you need to kick that distracted mindset and get focused on what’s important in your life. Adding an action ritual or two into your spiritual practice will help motivate you to not only get focused, but to then take action and move forward with the tasks at hand. The action can be the hardest part – but we’ve got your back!

Choose the ritual or rituals below that speak to you and give them a test drive. Find out how they fit into your life and practice and keep what feels good and is right for you. There’s a simple beginner’s ritual, a more committed beginner’s ritual, and a ritual that includes an opportunity to express yourself and create – which we always love! All of them will support you finding focus and action to help move through whatever you have going on in your life – because let’s face it, there’s always something, isn’t there?

Red Jasper Action Ritual. One of the best beginner’s rituals because it only requires one item, the Red Jasper Action Ritual will help you get the ball rolling on that important thing in your life that you just can’t get motivated for. This is a great one to repeat multiple times, gaining momentum and energy each time you practice it!

• You will need:

• a Red Jasper stone

• Step 1: Find a space in your home where you will be uninterrupted and get into a comfortable position.

• Step 2: Place your hands palm sides up, ready to receive energy, with your Red Jasper in your right palm and close your eyes.

• Step 3: Ask yourself: What part of my life do I need to take action in?

• Step 4: Once you have this part in mind, focus on your Red Jasper and ask it to surround you with motivation and help you take action.

• Step 5: Carry your Red Jasper with you in a pocket or purse to have this energy with you all throughout your day.

The 7 Day Action Ritual. This ritual is also a beginner’s ritual, but it requires more of a commitment! This is one you will work on for seven days straight, making a short amount of time available during the day or at night before you go to sleep. 

• You will need:

• 1 orange candle

• a photo or memento from something that motivates you

• Step 1: Find a safe space to light your candle.

• Step 2: Place the photo or memento at the base of your candle so it is in clear line of sight to you.

• Step 3: Recite the following words:

I light this candle to bring action into my life.

I will create my own reality,

Without problems or conflicts.

My actions will be the light showing me the

right journey even on the darkest days.

• Step 3: Repeat this short ritual for seven days in a row, solidifying your call for motivation and action to enter your life and help move you forward.

Vision Board Ritual for Focus. This is a ritual we love, because it’s also a creative activity! Expressing yourself is an amazing form of self-care, so we’re all about it. Have fun with this one and enjoy looking at your vision board any time of the day or night, it’s there to remind you of your ritual and the things you’re working toward in your life!

• You will need:

• a piece of cardboard, the size you want your vision board to be

• various magazines, catalogs, etc.

• scissors

• a glue stick

• incense

• a white candle

• Step 1: Create your vision board by cutting out images that resonate with what you need to focus on and your future and gluing them onto your cardboard

• Step 2: When your vision board is completed, hang it on a wall or lean it against a wall and set up your incense and white candle in front of it

• Step 3: Light your candle and incense

• Step 4: Spend 5-10 minutes looking at your vision board and imagining what your life will look like once you’ve completed the tasks you’ve been focused on

• Step 5: Every full moon, repeat this ritual until your focus has come full circle and you’ve accomplished the items on your vision board

A ritual for action or focus can be just the uplift you need to get to work on what’s on your plate – whatever that may be! It’s important to identify when action needs to be taken in your life, otherwise we can feel low and misaligned with our life and our purpose. The Red Jasper Action Ritual is perfect for exactly that, and the rituals can continue supporting you once you’ve recognized where you need to take action and put your focus. Use them all in tandem, in an order that makes sense for you, or just one that speaks to you. We’re behind you and can already see you making strides forward!

What is your Superpower? Spiritual wellness is deeply personal and one-of-a-kind — the only practice that works is the one that works for you. Read More.

Water appears in many of the cards across the tarot landscape. When I think about water… fragile, ‘in flow' , extremely powerful, and transformative, a few terms come to mind. It can be soft and gentle, like how waves can glide against a quiet sandy shore, or a...

When Crystals Don’t Cut It – Asking for Help: Sometimes we need a little direction on how to get the help we need.  Here are some ways to get support.

At Smudge, we’ve had something special in the works! The Smudge Zen Spirit Shower Spell is something we believe in. We partnered with PopSugar and Skintimate to bring sweepstakes winners something we created exclusively to help them transform a daily must-do habit into a ritual infused with zen and spiritual empowerment! We are so excited to now share what we’ve been working on with you.

THE ELEMENT WATER AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU, In order to better connect with the element of water, there are many things you can do. READ MORE.

4 WAYS THIS ECLIPSE MAY AFFECT YOU
Here are four concise ways to experience the energy of the eclipse, but as far as spiritual homework assignments go, try not to do any rituals; in fact, try not to do much of anything! With such an influx of energy, the skin shedding, cut ties // new characters, and full life recalibration will happen on its own. Your only job is to rest, witness, and respond.

THESE HEALING CRYSTALS WILL HELP YOU GO WITH THE FLOW. Understand how these crystals will help you go with the flow. You will be able to take your day more in stride with the changes that may come your way.

FIND YOUR FLOW TAROT SPREAD

If you’re ready to figure out exactly what needs to happen in order to create more flow into your life, try this 7 card spread.

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Crystals and Water: Here are five things you should know about this formidable duo and how you can use them both to kick your spiritual wellness up a notch.

So last month Smudge hosted a Scream Session to celebrate our theme of opportunity. We realized that we, probably like many of you, needed a space to release it all. So we created that space in a session devoted to the healing practice of the cathartic scream. Led by therapist, yoga instructor, mindfulness teacher, and founder of The School of Mom, Sarah Harmon, and moderated by Smudge Wellness CEO, Lara Corey it was an interactive hour. Watch Now.