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Spiritual Hygiene and the Midnight Self · Curious Cat - where science & supernatural collide

• 0:00
  Jennifer Hotes: You are listening to Curious Cat, a podcast that examines the shadowy space where science and the supernatural collide. And I'm your host, Jennifer Hotes.
• 0:10
  Jennifer Hotes: Join me every week to examine what it means to be a soul in a meat suit. Welcome to Curious Cat.
• 0:35
  Jennifer Hotes: How are you this week? I hope you're well. I'm really glad you're here. I feel a little tense, like, in the back of my neck and shoulders, as though I've been bracing myself for something. So before I hit record, I lit an incense match.
• 0:54
  Jennifer Hotes: I did some stretches. And I am grateful to be in this space with you right now.
• 1:00
  Jennifer Hotes: Today we're talking about a couple topics that seem very appropriate and slightly disconnected. But they relate I promise. Let's get into it, shall we?
• 1:13
  Jennifer Hotes: The first is spiritual hygiene.
• 1:13
  Jennifer Hotes: Don't worry, I'll explain. We don't think twice about showering after we exercise, or brushing our teeth a couple times a day. Those self-care routines are ingrained in us.
• 1:27
  Jennifer Hotes: But what about our spiritual hygiene? Sweeping off energy that isn't ours? And maybe taking back the energy we've spread out all over the place when we've been interacting with the world? Spiritual hygiene goes mostly neglected, doesn't it? It takes a backseat to all the rest of our adult responsibilities. If you attend church or meditate regularly, you're on top of it. But that's not me most of the time, I am afraid. I'm trying to change that.
• 2:00
  Jennifer Hotes: Is it you know, the pursuit of daily spiritual hygiene necessary? Picture it this way, you're coated in sticky tape.
• 2:12
  Jennifer Hotes: And as you interact with others, whether it's online or out in public, for work, or school, or just commuting, or taking a walk around your neighborhood, you attract energy, and it sticks to you. And soon your coated in metaphorical fuzzies. Energies that aren't yours. Notice I'm not saying positive or negative, I'm not laying a judgment on that energy. It's just energy, you haven't given permission to be a part of you. And it can have a real impact. When I run errands, I often return home tired with a slight little headache, grumpy and edgy. If I spend time on social media, the same thing can occur. So as a result, I'm learning to become more proactive. And I'll get into that later.
• 3:07
  Jennifer Hotes: But for now, I'm going to go over some ways, a lot of them are free, very simple ways to cleanse your energy. But remember, our living space also needs a regular spiritual sweep.
• 3:22
  Jennifer Hotes: I mean, you may live in a tight space like in a dorm or an apartment or share your room with a sibling. It's a constant stream of energy that's butting up against yours. Even f you're vibing with it, it's a positive energy, it can take a toll. So it's not just necessarily this conversation is for the introverts versus extroverts.
• 3:44
  Jennifer Hotes: It's for all of us, because it's energy that you did not give permission to interact with yours. It can take a toll which is why it's imperative that you take care of this.
• 3:55
  Jennifer Hotes: So spiritually sweeping yourself, there's really simple ways to do it. One of the quickest and easiest is to yawn.
• 4:04
  Jennifer Hotes: Yeah, simple, right? I noticed that when my dog is stressed out or frustrated, he often stretches, does the downward dog yoga pose and he yawns. There's this biochemical reaction that happens inside of us when we yawn, a release of calming hormones that washes over us. If you aren't tired, just initiate the action of a yawn and your body will kick in. And as you do this, this yawning action, exhale and just release that energy.
• 4:45
  Jennifer Hotes: Another method is to it's a micro meditation; if you don't have time for the full, you know, 30 or 40 minute dive into meditation. This is a micro meditation. So quick visualization I'll demonstrate it if you're needing a little reset right now. If you're not driving, then give it a try.
• 5:07
  Jennifer Hotes: Close your eyes and picture a white light coming from above you. Then let that white energy that white light, wash over your head, down your shoulders, down your arms to the tips of your fingers, down your torso and spine, through your hips and circling through your hips, and then down each of your legs to your knees, and your shins. Both your shins and your ankles, your feet, and then out your toes and into the earth. Let that white light surround you. And imagine any darkness inside of you leaching out and evaporating into the white light. Okay, you can open your eyes. It's a little better, right? It feels like you release something that wasn't yours. I hope it helped.
• 6:21
  Jennifer Hotes: So that's the micro meditation.
• 6:23
  Jennifer Hotes: Another effective way to sweep yourself spiritually is to laugh. You've heard the saying laughter is the best medicine.
• 6:34
  Jennifer Hotes: Well, it's been proven. Laughter is good medicine. It triggers tangible physical changes and boosts positive energy. It also repels negativity. You might feel fake and a bit ridiculous for forcing yourself to laugh.
• 6:51
  Jennifer Hotes: But within moments, those laughs will be genuine. That scene in Mary Poppins comes to mind.
• 6:59
  Jennifer Hotes: Remember the house that Bert and Mary visited and the song that that man? They're saying, I love to laugh? Well, I'm not going to say it here. Don't worry. But every time I watch that scene, no matter my state of mind, soonI'm chuckling right along, belly laughing. And when I stop, I feel emptied out, clear, and spiritually reset. It's the same impact a good cry can have.
• 7:33
  Jennifer Hotes: Maybe that's why sometimes when people are down, they, including me, we like to watch the sad drama movie and you cry and you empty it out. That's a spiritual reset, isn't it? So the scene in Mary Poppins is a good example.
• 7:49
  Jennifer Hotes: Playing music can be another way to vibrate higher and reclaim your energy, reset. Music and dancing. Play music. And if you've got a bit of privacy, dance. But if you lived in cramped quarters or commute on a cramped bus or a train, just stream music and close your eyes. Then picture colors moving, bursting, shrinking, and circling to the sounds. Release the tension in the back of your neck, behind your eyes, along your hairline, down your spine, and then clench your muscles like hold them tight. Just for a few seconds, and then release.
• 8:38
  Jennifer Hotes: Feels better, right?
• 8:41
  Jennifer Hotes: Saging is a great method to achieve a spiritual reset. It's funny because every now and then I catch myself feeling like the house is dirty. I'll do the dishes. I'll take out the garbage, I'll sweep the floor and then I'll realize, oh, I'm so ridiculous. It's saging! This house needs to be spiritually reset. The "dirty-ness" I was feeling was the stickiness of energy that needed to be swept out. If you have some sage, light your bundle, let it burn and then blow the end out and then surround yourself in that smoke. Walk through your space with it, walk, you know, wherever inside, outside the different rooms and as you do, set your intention, invite in positive energy. It's even better if you have Palo Santo, you can burn that after doing a saging to invite in positive energy but if you don't, say it out loud, "I welcome pure positive white energy into this space." Because as we know nature hates a vacuum. And that includes vacuums of energy. So if you don't decide what kind of energy to invite into the void that you created when you sage, then it's up for grabs. It's like a, you know, karma lottery that you don't want to be a part of. An alternative method, if you can't have open flames in your space, invest in a salt lamp. They're pretty reasonable on a lot of online sites and even at your small stores in your town. And that peach glow that it gives off makes a perfect nightlight. The salt itself will keep this spiritual energy in your space and within yourself clean and clear.
• 10:39
  Jennifer Hotes: Ring a bell. It is part of some beautiful meditations that began and conclude with the ringing of a bell. I have a little copper bell that when I'm feeling anxious, or I feel like I've been kind of mean or grumpy. I ring the bell and I let the tone reverberate through me. And at first, when I do it, sometimes it irritates me. And I'm realizing that's that energy that it's this negative energy that's sticking to me that doesn't want to let go. I continue to ring the bell and really tune into it. Soon my vibration matches the beautiful vibration of the copper bell.
• 11:30
  Jennifer Hotes: The next technique is new to me.
• 11:30
  Jennifer Hotes: I just it just kind of gave it to me when I was queued in line this weekend. It's visualizing a wax exterior. Remember at the top when I told you about my new I profess to try to be proactive about you know, protecting my energy when I go out in public?
• 11:47
  Jennifer Hotes: Well, last weekend, I went to a artists market that was amazing.
• 11:53
  Jennifer Hotes: When I arrived, the line to enter the the event wrapped around the warehouse and my nerves started getting the best of me. I hadn't been in a cramped space like that since before the pandemic. How could I possibly manage my energy in a crowd? Well, as I stood in line, I set a boundary, no one has permission to invade my energy.
• 12:34
  Jennifer Hotes: I also acknowledged the converse, I don't have permission to invade the energy of others. No matter how curious I am, I can only see I am not allowed to feel. Then I pictured myself being dipped in warm white wax. And it hardened over me like a second skin. I'd never employed this tactic before. But it worked great. I slipped through the crowd. I talked with artisans and enjoyed interacting with other people that were there. And after a few hours, I left the event and I felt really good. I wasn't desperate to get home and take a nap, recharge my battery, which is the norm. So I'll definitely try this again in the future.
• 13:28
  Jennifer Hotes: One of the simplest ways to reset your energy and ground yourself and also to retrieve your energy from others that may be scattered about when you've been doing things is to be barefoot on solid ground outside. So strip off your socks. Stand outside on the grass or gravel or dirt, whatever you've got. And just for a few seconds feel the earth beneath you and your energy connecting to it and just kind of it's almost like a flush. You just give your the energy that isn't yours back to the earth.
• 14:06
  Jennifer Hotes: This works beautifully. Whenever I take out the garbage in the morning, if you're in my neighborhood, you always see me do it and probably roll your eyes at me but I do it in bare feet.
• 14:20
  Jennifer Hotes: I scamper out the door, go down the cold steps even this morning when there is a light dusting of snow. I then I come back up and in the house and when I close the door I feel fantastic.
• 14:33
  Jennifer Hotes: Soaking in a tub or taking a shower can have a similar effect. If you set the intention to clear your spirit before you bathe; you can tackle two things at once. You'll step out squeaky clean inside and out. Baths are great too, especially if you add salt to the water which pulls out toxins. I've also been taught that if you're pulling out toxins with salt in a bath It's really important to when you drain the bath at the end, you remain in the water as the salty water and toxins drain away, because it's part of the whole experience to watch that flush out. Yeah, it can get a little cold. Sometimes I'm a little bit impatient right at the end.
• 15:21
  Jennifer Hotes: If you're not fortunate enough to have a tub, a little added a aromatherapy to your shower, it goes a long way. So you know those fizzing bath bombs. I set one, just outside where the perimeter of the showerhead spray lands, and the light sprinkle that it gets releases the essential oils inside. But the indirect spray allows it to last three, four showers sometimes five. And the beautiful thing is you can breathe in and out that fragranted air and your space smells fantastic, too.
• 16:03
  Jennifer Hotes: There's a simple way to bring your energy back to you after you've been out and about. A lot of people recommend pinching the inside of your wrists, that soft skin on the inside of the wrist just give it a quick pinch. And that pain brings all your energy back to you. A lot of people swear by that.
• 16:37
  Jennifer Hotes: But I do this thing called magnet, I picture a metal ball and concentrate on its shiny silver gleam and then ask my energy to return. And pretty soon, tiny shards of metal like little triangles will swoop in, collect and stick to the outside of the ball. And that's my energy that's returned to me.
• 17:04
  Jennifer Hotes: This is how I like to see it. I find myself restored after I've pictured this.
• 17:10
  Jennifer Hotes: So our second topic starts with a confession. I'm addicted to podcasts. Having one is the perfect cover to disguise my addiction. I've been learning so much about people and places around the world. And lately, as I've been endeavoring on this spiritual pursuit and make it part of my whole lifestyle, I've been relying on teachers that are on these podcasts that have been doing amazing work and they're interviewing incredible people. So on a recent episode, I heard a spiritual teacher say they talked about our midnight selves. And they defined midnight selves as who we are in the dead of night. It's the rawest, most stripped down version of ourselves. And they got me thinking what is my midnight itself? So, at first glance, I thought of myself beneath the covers surrounded by pets, and I was smelling my sleep at some, like hyper enlightened dream that I was having. But that is a joke because that is to be honest, not even close to accurate.
• 18:25
  Jennifer Hotes: Because midnight me is basically Miss Frizzle you remember her from Magic School Bus except, imagine her coded in like sweat, and then cat first sticking to it. She's scratching, herself tossing, turning, and sometimes cussing. That's me. My Midnight's self is a neurotic, hyperactive, twitchy, sweaty wreck. Menopause makes it so much worse. And so does my cell phone charging inches from my pillow.
• 19:05
  Jennifer Hotes: So the last few weeks I've been kind of doing research in pursuit of improving my midnight self, making it more aligned with my daytime self, right?
• 19:14
  Jennifer Hotes: Finding balance. And pretty quickly, I learned that cellphones emit radiation that far exceeds safe levels. That was I mean, I heard rumors of that, but I confirmed it. So according to the article I found in Healthline and the links to which are in the show notes. If you're curious about reading about it. They recommend you not sleep next to your phone or electronic devices. They also say don't store them in your pocket, which I do all the time with my phone. And they also suggest that when you can power down your device, so at night, what I should ideally Do his power off my phone and then have it charging across the room. But I'm the mother of two adult kids, so I'm not comfortable with that part of it. But I do now place my charging phone across the room from my bed.
• 20:15
  Jennifer Hotes: Another change I've made to my routine to keep from being that angry, sweaty, fuzzy Miss Frizzle is I have started to read a book before bed I used to, and sometimes I do but still, but I used to regularly watch alien television shows as I drifted off to sleep. But then I saw that studies showed your brain activity slows down more naturally with books, then electronic screens. This was easy for me to do. But also, it's been fantastic. I have this to be read pile that's massive.
• 20:53
  Jennifer Hotes: And I like had to break it up in two parts because it was toppling over and outs and three and half it's in a basket.
• 21:02
  Jennifer Hotes: Anyway, I never seem to find time to relax with a book. So this new tact is wonderful and it's solved this problem. It's good all the way around.
• 21:13
  Jennifer Hotes: I also do what I did before today's cast recording which is burning incense match, and that smell the matches that they have right now smell like frankincense and cinnamon, they just like pervade the space and just give my whole room a peaceful vibe. So doing all this was a success. I slept well. My midnight self was markedly calmer and a lot more pleasant.
• 21:38
  Jennifer Hotes: Then around four in the morning, my cat coughed and hacked and threatened to puke. So then the following night, I started the pre bed routine by locking the cat out of the space. And I felt guilty about it at first, but it's the cat that interrupts my sleep more than anything else.
• 21:55
  Jennifer Hotes: And my dog Cooper seemed to enjoy this new protocol too.
• 21:59
  Jennifer Hotes: Because in the past our cat he'll be dead asleep and our cat will walk down and bite is on the tail when He's sound asleep, which is kind of me really, I don't know where that comes from, because they get along in the daytime. But both Cooper and I slept well.
• 22:19
  Jennifer Hotes: I promised you spiritual hygiene at midnight itself would coalesce, right? That's the big thing I've found this week is that the the most impactful way to change the quality of my sleep is to get my spiritual energy, right. If I clear off everything that's not mine, and call back my energy to me often.
• 22:43
  Jennifer Hotes: Also, right before sleeping.
• 22:43
  Jennifer Hotes: I'll sit on the carpet and stretch my legs, my back my neck and kind of meditate. It's sort of a meditation, but it's more just like self care. It takes five minutes tops and has also made a world of difference to stretch.
• 23:03
  Jennifer Hotes: I hope this information stays with you. And it helps you to be whole and complete. I am certain that I missed some really great methods to spiritually aligned myself and clear, but hit me with what works best for you in the comments.
• 23:22
  Jennifer Hotes: I'd be grateful if you would share the show with a friend and maybe give it a like, because it'll help others find Curious Cat in the search engine.
• 23:31
  Jennifer Hotes: Join me next week for a discussion about the big things that hold us back. It's a conversation in three parts.
• 23:39
  Jennifer Hotes: from accepting unconditional love to conquering your fear of death to banishing religious gatekeepers. It should be interesting. I'd like to shout out my awesome audio engineer.
• 23:53
  Jennifer Hotes: Last week I thought a ghost was messing with my recording. Turns out my gain was turned way up.
• 23:57
  Jennifer Hotes: Also huge thanks to my art director who's done this amazing job for the cover of my podcast.
• 24:06
  Jennifer Hotes: If you require either service, please find their links in the show notes and have peace of mind knowing that you are supporting some incredible up and coming human beings. Until next time, be kind to one another and extra good to yourself. I love you