empowering your self-healing with limpia
Moving away from the negative energies that seem so common in your life can be a lot harder than it sounds. I don’t enjoy being sad or feeling heavy, I’m sure most people don’t. But sometimes it may feel easier to stick with what you know. To not let yourself heal. To not give yourself room to inhale. Maybe the idea of feeling slightly less unburdened is overwhelming. It definitely has been for me.
I started a new job a few months ago and it’s been exhausting. The environment isn’t quite what I was expecting and I’m putting in a lot more emotional labor than I imagined I would. There are days it feels impossible to shake off the negative energy that’s seeped into my body. Impossible to stop the absorption of the frustration and anger of my coworkers. There are days I feel heavy from the weight I’m carrying. Days I believe that feeling this way means I’m finally a “real adult” and that this is what life is like as an employed person and to suck it up and keep on going. Days I don’t want to let myself heal as some sort of sense of accomplishment that I can keep moving even when I’m suffering.
There’s not really a singular way to fix this. Maybe to feel better you need to rage about your feelings to a friend. Maybe you need to lay in bed a read a book for two days straight and not interact with another person. Maybe you go for a run. For me, a limpia can immediately help alleviate all the heaviness sticking to my ribs and coating my skin. Helps me feel centered in a way that doesn’t prickle at the part of me that believes maybe I should just push through.
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Limpia (n.): a cleansing, a cleaning
In Mexican tradition, a limpia is a spiritual cleansing that helps purge the mind and body and soul or any negative energies that have made their way into a person’s life. It can help get rid of blockages, emotional imbalances, etc.
My abuela used to perform limpias for me when I was a kid. Every difficult day was solved by her passing an egg over my body. And it worked. So why mess with a good thing?
HOW TO PERFORM A LIMPIA
*Please note that there are a million different ways to perform a limpia. Each interpretation is valid. This is based on the experiences in my own household. You may find that a more in-depth limpia ritual is better suited to your needs or desires*
Step One: Find someone you trust to help you perform the limpia
Performing a limpia is a two person job. You can try to do it on your own, but you run the risk of not being able to cleanse yourself as thoroughly as you want. Another risk is the reabsorption of the negative energies. If you perform a limpia on yourself, the likelihood of the energy being soaked back into your body is high.
You should also have a discussion about where along your body you would like the limpia performed. Please make sure you have set your own boundaries and comfort level!
Step Two: Gather your supplies
Performing a limpia is fairly low maintenance. All you need is a room temperature egg.
Step Three: Choose your words
Most limpias are performed alongside a prayer or spell. Your religion (or lack thereof) has no bearing on how effective your limpia will be. Simply choose a set of words, a prayer, a spell that you believe are especially healing or powerful. Your partner will be saying those words on a loop as they perform the limpia, until completion.
Step Four: Perform the limpia
Your partner is going to take the egg and press it along the lines of your body, starting at the center of your forehead and working their way down. As the egg is making its way down, your partner should recite the words you have chosen as a way to help draw the negative energies out of your body and into the egg. Continue this until the egg has touched along every necessary point of your body.
After the limpia has been performed, make sure to throw the egg away.
You should immediately begin to feel a little bit lighter (and that feeling will grow throughout the day). In some instances, when a lot of negative energy has been drawn out, you may find yourself becoming sleepy.
If you would like to go the extra little bit, have your partner crack the egg in a glass or bowl to see the changes in the egg. There are always people willing to read your egg and tell you what the changes in the egg mean.
You yourself should not look at the egg as you will reabsorb all the energies that were just purged.
If you want a new way to try alleviating your current funk, I highly recommend a limpia. The worst that can happen is you let someone rub an egg on your for a few minutes and nothing changes. At best, you help yourself heal just a little bit more!
image via.
Isabella is a writer with a focus on the culture/superstition of a Mexican household and how that relates to sexuality, gender dynamics, and grief/trauma.
Raised in Southern California by Mexican parents and grandparents, the magic and eccentricities of her culture were a part of her everyday life. With food and family being such an important part of her life, she found herself gravitating toward kitchen witch practices.
You can find her on Twitter and Instagram at @izellerbach or her website.