8 Unique Benefits of Burning Sage

Image of Burning Sage

8 Unique Benefits of Burning Sage

Image of Burning Sage

If you have ever burned Sage before, whether that be in your home or elsewhere, you are probably familiar with some of Sage’s core benefits.

As smoke cleansing with Sage becomes more and more mainstream in westernized culture, the same few benefits seem to be popping up all over the internet.

Most notably, Sage can cleanse your space of negative energies and help positive energy reenter. 

Banishing negative energies, no doubt, is extremely important in the use of Sage as a form of cleansing.

However, it is also necessary to talk about some of the lesser known benefits of burning Sage. Persuading energies is a metaphysical belief and idea with specific intentions behind it, but there are numerous physical reasons to burn Sage that improve our bodies as well.

Whether you are new to burning Sage or a pro, you can always find a new and exciting way to utilize Sage in one of its purest forms.

Benefits of Burning Sage

  • Cleanses Homes, Objects, & Spaces
  • Helps Deepen Meditation
  • Disinfects The Air
  • Soothes Stress
  • Helps Ease Depression
  • Aids in Focus
  • Combats Sinus Infections
  • Helps With Feeling Grounded

Burning sage, or smudging with sage, has roots in cultures all over the world. We’ll go over some of the many benefits of Smudging, and how you can incorporate it into your life!

If you have ever burned Sage before, whether that be in your home or elsewhere, you are probably familiar with some of Sage’s core benefits.

As smoke cleansing with Sage becomes more and more mainstream in westernized culture, the same few benefits seem to be popping up all over the internet.

Benefit 1: Cleanses Homes, Objects, & spaces

You can cleanse yourself, another person, home, or space. You can also cleanse objects. But what would you cleanse and why? 

Some common items to cleanse or smudge are vintage items. When you find or buy something antique, you have no idea what residual energies are clinging to it.

The person who owned it before could have been bad or could have even tragically died. Without cleansing those items, those negative energies could still be there. 

You can also cleanse or smudge items that you frequently use, such as your phone, laptop, or even bed. These items are used almost every day, so they are hot spots to pick up the negativity you may feel.

Even if you are negative one night and positive the next, those negative energies could still be lingering.

And lastly, you can smudge objects that are close to your heart or that are important to you, such as family heirlooms and beloved gifts.

By doing this, you can keep your items cleanse and keep their energies neutralized and stable.

Benefit 2: Helps Deepen Meditation

One very common way to utilize Sage is with meditation. Because of its calming aroma, Sage is great to burn before or during meditation.

Smoke cleansing your meditation space before you meditate ensures that you have a calm, positive atmosphere.

If you burn your Sage during your practice, it can help you achieve a deeper mediative state. 

This is especially useful when you have a day that you feel scattered.

Maybe you’re more stressed than usual. Maybe you had a bit too much caffeine and are having trouble sitting still.

The smell of Sage can hone in your ability to think, “I am here, and I am in the now.” This mentality is what can get you through a peaceful and successful meditation session. 

Benefit 3: Disinfects the Air

On top of banishing negative energies from your home, burning Sage also cleanses the air of bacteria.

And that’s not a “can” or “maybe”!

According to a study carried out by the National Botanical Research Institute of India, burning Sage for 60 minutes or more can reduce the air’s bacteria up to 94%.

When in enclosed places such as a home, burning sage can maintain cleanliness for up to 24 hours.

Some bacterias, such as Corynebacterium urealyticum and Kocuria rosea, can still be absent up to 30 days later. 

With this knowledge, Sage burning is such a perfect way to cleanse difficult, hard-to-clean spaces.

Closets, pantries, cars, and even rooms where someone with a cold has been are all places that could benefit from a smoking cleansing.

Benefit 4: Soothes Stress

One of the more commonly known facts about Sage is that it is a useful tool in dealing with stress and anxiety.

According to McKinley J. Sangwin’s studies at the University of Montana, burning sage has soothing properties. 

In Sangwin’s experiment with this form of “therapy” and how it affects college students, he discovered that on a scale of 1-10, the overall anxiety of the control group increased by 1.8 by the end of the study.

In contrast, those in the treatment group of aromatherapy had an overall anxiety decrease of 1.0. 

Benefit 5: Helps Ease Depression

According to the ADAA (the Anxiety and Depression Association of America), 322 million people worldwide are currently suffering from depression.

That number is just shy of how many individuals live in the United States and makes depression the leading disability in the United States. 

That being said, a study conducted by Vanessa Perez at the Center for Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Computational Biology found that negative air ionization was associated with lower depression levels!

This applies so heavily to Sage because when burned, Sage releases negative ions into the atmosphere. 

Though this study states that other studies on this topic provide inconsistent conclusions, many individuals make time each day for a Sage burning for this reason.

Benefit 6: Aids in Focus

Sage burning can also aid in focusing your mind. 

Focus helps you stay in the moment, and the more objectively we can see the moment, the more room we have in our minds to problem solve.

This is proven by the same study previously discussed by Olimpia Pino and Francesco La Ragione.

When carrying out their testing, they discovered that rats exposed to NAI (reminder: a key component of Sage) finished their maze with decreased errors and in less time when compared to the control group of rats.

So next time you want to bust out a chapter of your book or work on your personal website, burn some Sage! See if it helps you be more productive due to an increase in focus.

Benefit 7: Combats Sinus Infections

Another health benefit of burning Sage is its effects on common cold symptoms.

According to registered pharmacist Suzy Cohen in her article “Ask The Pharmacist: The Health Benefits of White Sage and How to Use It”, if you are dealing with a sinus infection, you can burn White Sage to keep your nasal passageway clear. 

By reducing mucus, you can in turn reduce coughing, sneezing, and sinus pressure behind the eyes and cheeks. 

This is an awesome way to alleviate painful and miserable symptoms tied to a sinus infection to avoid using any chemical-based treatments, such as Amoxicillin.

Benefit 8: Helps With Feeling Grounded

Much like the use of Sage in meditation, you can still use it in the same way outside of meditation for grounding techniques.

One of the most effective ways to use Sage for grounding is in the 54321 technique. 

Take a few deep breaths, then do the following: 

  1. What are 5 things you can see? 
  2. What are 4 things you can touch?
  3. What are 3 things you can hear? 
  4. What are 2 things you can smell? 
  5. What is 1 thing you can taste? OR What is one good thing about yourself? 

Though Sage doesn’t seem like it would be a big piece of this process, it can make a world of difference.

Sage has a sharp yet earthy smell that is easy to identify. When using this in your grounding process, smelling something sharp can guide the mind back to the present easier than some milder scents. 

Now Its Your Turn

With all that said, get out there, and try it out yourself!

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