Many of us are now working from home full time, possibly for the foreseeable future. As we do, we must use intention to create a healthy workspace within our home that does not consume our home sanctuary. This is especially true if we untether from our office even further and start working in our living spaces.
In doing so, we are bringing new energy into our homes and potentially disturbing that sense of respite and security we’ve carefully developed for our space. Ideally, we can make a dedicated home office, but even designating a consistent workspace and cultivating healthy boundaries around our work can make a huge difference in how we experience working from home.
Is Your Work Zapping Your Home’s Positive Energy?
In the quest to untether from a stuffy workspace, we may inadvertently tether our entire home to the office. This outcome makes sense; not only are the objects from our office—files, laptops, pens, etc.—powerful reminders of the obligations and responsibilities of our jobs, but they also carry energy within them along with an energy flow. So, are you using good habits when you work from home?
The feelings we generated by doing our jobs can be transferred onto the objects themselves. Our proverbial blood, sweat, and tears are in these objects and we are reminded by these toils every time we see them.
Energy from our current and past experiences at work can stay trapped in these objects and fill the area around them. Adding electronics to your space can also bring electromagnetic energy that changes the energy field of the area.
If we have carefully crafted the energy of our home to be a joyful sanctuary, with everything in its place set with intention, forceful work energy can bring a dramatic shift to the feel of the home.
Maybe it feels like our living spaces are duller or muted—the noise of work a constant hum in the background.
Maybe our family members are constantly tripping over our work or feeling like they’ve lost their space.
Maybe it’s a stronger reaction, a sense of restlessness or unease for ourselves or our loved ones.
And, maybe our sleep is disturbed or we feel irritability that we can’t quite trace back to a cause. Our reactions can vary.
If you are feeling stuck or stagnant in your home since you’ve started working remotely, the energy around your desk or workspace is probably to blame.
The Lure of the Living Room
There is a temptation to take our work mobile in our homes. It has its appeal, no doubt; being nestled in your favorite chair, soaking in the comforts of home, is a welcomed change from the formalities of a workspace.
As we trade our suits for PJs and slippers, it’s natural to want to continue the slide into maximum comfort while working. Moving around the house helps us feel like we are taking full advantage of being “at home.”
However, the longer we do it the more we may notice that our work starts leaving its energetic imprint around the house.
It may go something like this…
One day, you leave a few folders of work out at your kitchen table at the end of the day. You plan to work on those files in the morning and think the kitchen table will be your workspace, so why bother moving them back and forth?
Next time, the laptop stays out too—one less thing to move; this is only logical. As you make dinner that night, you look over to see your work artifacts and you start thinking about your to-do list. You almost burn your onions as you absentmindedly cook, still ruminating about work.
You snap back to the moment and think nothing of it. Soon your house is littered with files, business cards, and other vestiges of work.
Or, perhaps, you may feel the persistent stare of your laptop from across the room while you try to watch a movie. You find yourself checking your email “just one more time”.
Or you start working another thirty minutes every time you make eye contact with one of these symbols of work. You are seeing your work everywhere and now feeling it everywhere.
We may come to a point where we have to ask ourselves
- Is it really freedom if we’re taking our phone into the bathroom because we’re afraid to miss a phone call? Or to scroll social media?
- Is the benefit of working from anywhere worth having, if you have to leave the house to seek out the feeling of ‘sanctuary’ you previously found at home?
- Is bringing work home or carrying it throughout the house actually making it worse?
By blurring the lines, work stress may begin to infect the entire house like mold or a messy roommate. So, we have to choose to change the pattern, cleanse our space, and reestablish defined workspace and living space to restore balance in the energy of our home and ourselves.
Make Working from Home Work for You
Once you’ve narrowed down the issue to the home/work balance, there are several things you can do to improve the work-life balance within your home. Now, this home slash work stagnation may not happen for everyone, but we’re here to help change the way people work.
When our work is life-affirming and fills us with boundless purpose and passion, it may add to the feeling of joy and sanctuary we want in our homes.
At Ink Stone Moon, we believe that everyone is having a unique journey as this planet hurdles around the sun—and we’re here to help meet you where you are, as you are.
So, if you’ve noticed that your work seems to follow you around the house—literally or figuratively—or you started to feel muddled energy once beginning to work from home, perhaps it’s time to reexamine where and how you are working in your home.
And, if working from home is going well, there still may be some tips below that further enhance your experience. Challenge yourself to look at each option for ways to inspire some new intentions for your work (from home) life.
Create Your Dedicated Workspace—in Your Home and Your Head
Consider creating a dedicated office space or use the same space routinely for work. This will allow you to focus on the energy (or vibe) of the workspace and keep it separate from living spaces.
- Turn to Feng Shui: it helps to choose the location and layout of your office, like maximizing the separation between your office and your bedroom by maintaining good office space energy, according to this design philosophy.
- Ensure that your workspace has boundaries: ideally, a separate entrance or a door you can shut or border around the area that you can visualize will help keep your work contained and energy focused.
- Create comfort: adding features to make the space more comfortable to work in will reduce the urge to move into a comfier living space (resist the Barcalounger!).
- Go ergo: a desk that’s at the right height, a chair that’s comfortable and supportive, and proper lighting are a good start. Then, add beloved photos, art, a green plant for happy green energy, textures that are soothing (like a fluffy lumbar pillow), and a diffuser to bring a pleasant scent or aromatherapy into your zone.
- Turn up the soundbar: we always love to have some music or soundscapes to round out the environment. The trick is to choose a speaker that’s immobile to help keep you in your space to listen to those sweet jams.
Now, use and work within this space as much as possible.
Do your assignments there, take your phone calls there, and check your email there. The more you stay within this space, the more you and your space will be conditioned that work stays in this space.
Lastly, beyond making the physical limits of your office space, we highly recommend creating the emotional, spiritual, and mental limits to your workspace.
One of the biggest traps of working from home is staying “on” at the office because the office has literally followed you home.
Instead of logging off and driving home, we now have the opportunity to stay logged on at all times. Yet our “off” time is a vital part of what our home life does to keep us happy, healthy, and sane.
- Intentionally keep your work confined to your workspace and your intended work hours, as much as possible.
- Create a schedule of ‘off-hours’ that you can commit to, allowing your mind, body, and spirit to come back home and reside in our place of respite and sanctuary.
- Be disciplined without being rigid. Don’t stress every time you work outside of the space or check an email after hours.
Just know that the more you practice these boundaries, the more you will benefit from the clearer energy in your home.
Fill Your Workspace with Positive Energy and Clear Stagnant Energy
Once you’ve selected and arranged your space, maintain its energy. But how?
Beyond populating your office space with the comfy touches mentioned above, it will need regular energy tune-ups to keep it feeling positive and supportive.
Crystal energy can help create an office space that can keep you focused, calm, and productive:
- Fluorite is renowned for helping with decision-making and clearer thinking. Green fluorite can bring clarity associated with money and prosperity—perfect for the spaces where you earn a paycheck or pay your bills. Blue fluorite can clarify long-distance communication—something vital for remote workers.
- Healing crystals known for their soothing properties like lithium, lepidolite, celestite, and aquamarine can aid in processing and resolving work-related stress.
- Protective and healing stones (the ones that can shield you from negative energy) like black tourmaline, smoky quartz, obsidian, and shungite can help you feel safe and grounded in your work. Some, like black tourmaline, also may lessen the effects of EMF energy from electronics.
Positive vibe stones, which promote positivity or transmute negative energy into positive, like amethyst, amber, and citrine help you stay positive and joyful in your work.
It is important to cleanse and charge these crystals regularly to ensure they are aligned with your intentions.
Indeed, it’s important to clear the energy of your workspace regularly to remove stagnant energy and the funk of stress or responsibility that may be lingering. Try rituals like:
- Cleansing energy by wafting sacred cleansing smoke (burning white sage, another form of sage, or palo santo—you may know it as ‘smudging’);
- Spritzing a crystal-infused cleansing spray;
- Using sound—clapping, singing, or ringing a crystal bowl, singing bowl, or bell. Anything that will acoustically break through the stagnant energy of the space will create a clean slate.
From there, open a window to cleanse, release, and refresh the energy of the space. Then you can set a new intention and align the energy of the space with that intention.
Now, to efficiently cleanse your space. Get into every closet and drawer, under the table, and into every nook and cranny. Stagnant energy loves to hide in the forgotten places! So, be scrupulous to clear every spot.
When clearing energy, it is important to declare your intention. You can do this silently or aloud. Reinforce that the negative and stagnant energy leave and new energy come in to replace it. “All that does not serve me as I work must leave and I invite in positive, supportive energy to aid my work” is all it takes to realign your space.
If You Go Mobile, Treat it Like a Field Trip
It’s ok to take a break, mix things up, and work outside of your office—for a bit. If you do, be sure to do so with intention and reverence for your living space. Treat your move like a fun trip to a coffee shop.
- Bring everything you need
- Know that you’re only going for a while
- Announce your intention for this new space, saying (to yourself or out loud)
- “I am borrowing this space for work. I will work in this beautiful space temporarily and will return this work to the office when I’m done.
- Announce your departure and ensure that you clean up everything when you leave and return it to your office once you’ve left work mode.
If you’re bringing more than just your laptop, try using a tablecloth, tray, or another device to place between your work and your tabletop. You will define the space and create a physical barrier for the work energy. We recommend something like an old scarf or tapestry that would otherwise be collecting dust in your closet.
Alternatively, you can create a boundary out of your work objects—notepad, pencils, calculator, etc.—or mentally set the edge of the workspace. Think of it as an energy grid, one that keeps the energy in.
Your energy is more likely to stay within a boundary you set with intention. This practice of defining your temporary workspace will also help with the urge to sprawl out and take over the whole room with work. When you’re done, take everything and put it back in your work space.
Thank your living space for hosting you by saying a prayer of gratitude. Try something like, “I thank this space for acting as my office today. It brought new and fun energy into my workday. I reclaim this space as my living space, my place for relaxation and comfort.” A fun additional step is to then clear the energy of the space using one of the clearing methods above.
These principles can apply to any major disruption of the energetic design of a room. For example, many parents like to have their children’s toys put away at the end of the day. It’s more aesthetically pleasing to not have the chaos and clutter of toys strewn about. But it also invites the space to return to a quieter state from the energy of jubilant playtime. You can try these techniques with children’s play spaces, creative spaces like art or crafts, gaming, and any other activities that need temporary space.
See if taking any or all of these steps makes your space feel more like home again or reduces the muddled energy you’re experiencing. If you try them, we would love to know how they worked!
