71: Igniting Prosperity: How Smudging Fuels Entrepreneurial Spirit and Success

Unlock the ancient secrets to a thriving business with me, Jeffrey Mort, as I delve into the world of smudging and its surprising connection to entrepreneurial prosperity. Sharing lessons from my Native American cousin-in-law, Standing Bear, we reveal how the sacred act of burning sage, sweet grass, and palo santo can do more than cleanse your space—it can purify your business mindset. Learn how this ritual, steeped in tradition and respected for its masculine and feminine energies, is not just about spirituality, but also about scientific enhancement of air quality, mood, and cognitive function. Are you ready to harness the power of these plants and create a setting ripe for innovation and success?

Embark on a transformative journey as we discuss the tangible benefits of smudging from the Love Energy Wellness Community and Support Group. Discover how minimal exposure to the smoke can activate the limbic system, fostering an atmosphere where resilience and creativity flourish. While we acknowledge the need for caution regarding smoke inhalation, the focus is on the positive impact that a controlled practice can have on your entrepreneurial endeavors. Tune in to this episode to find out how integrating the wisdom of smudging into your life and business could be the key to avoiding failure and propelling you toward unprecedented heights of achievement.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello entrepreneurs and seekers of wellness, and welcome back to Breaking Boundaries for Entrepreneurs. I'm your host, jeffrey Mort, and today we're going to dive into a topic that might seem a bit unconventional for a health for business podcast, but bear with me because it's deeply relevant to your success and I'm talking about the ancient wisdom of smudging. Stay with me. Hello, I'm Jeffrey Mort. If you're like most entrepreneurs, you're busy taking care of business, yet who's taking care of you? If you're ready to take your energy and performance to the next level in your life and your business, then this podcast is for you, because today you're going to start breaking boundaries of your mind, body and business with integrative health, and when you do that, your possibilities are limitless. I'm grateful you're here. Ah, yes, always grateful for you joining me here today on the Breaking Boundaries podcast. Welcome to another episode. And of course, this is for purpose driven entrepreneurs. And we are at 71 episodes as of this episode here, and I'm grateful for you listening to as many as you have. And of course, you'll want to stay to the end when we bring it all together on how to avoid failure and reach your next level of success with integrative health, and for the show notes and the links and the research, visit JeffreyMortcom and click on the podcast button. Shout out to our latest listeners in Buffalo, new York, and Van Noise, california Never even heard of Van Noise before, I hope I'm saying that correctly. And, of course, st Louis, missouri. We appreciate you listening to our latest episode of the Breaking Boundaries podcast. And, if you are not aware of that, every single podcast we have from a certain date I shouldn't say every single, but many of the podcasts over the last six months have an accompanying blog post over at LevenageWellnesscom. So if you enjoy reading as well as you do listening, you can check out our blog posts over there.

Speaker 1: 2:06

And today you're going to discover something a little bit different to help you through your entrepreneurial boundaries, and you might be wondering, jeff, what does burning sage and sweet grass have to do with entrepreneurship? And that's a very interesting question, but, as it turns out, quite a lot actually. So stay tuned as we explore how this ancient practice can help us avoid failure and reach that next level of success. So let's start with the history and significance of smudging Now. Smudging is a term used for lighting or burning sage, sweet grass, palo santo, and this sacred ritual has been a cornerstone of spiritual and ceremonial practices for centuries, particularly with Native American traditions. Now, sage and sweet grass and cedar are commonly used plants, each with its unique properties, and sage drives out negative energies and sweet grass is known to attract positive energies and cedar is known to purify and protect. Now, this is the exact wisdom that I receive, because when I wanted to learn more about and here's what you're not going to get in the blog post, you're not going to get the stories and the nuance and the deep in the details that I give you here in the Breaking Boundaries podcast but when I wanted to learn about smudging and I wasn't even aware of the term, I just knew that Sage had these properties I went directly to the source.

Speaker 1: 3:50

Now I'm lucky enough to have a cousin-in-law who is Native American and he shared with me and I shared this actually in our Love and Need you Wellness Facebook group. If this sounds familiar in the group, you might have seen the video over there. His last name is actually Standing Bear and he shared with me the ritual. He sat me down and invited me into his home, him and my cousin, and they shared with me the experience of smudging as they educated me on this. So it was a little different experience for me where I didn't just learn this online or from a magazine or a book or some influencer. I went directly to the source and learned about the history and the significance of smudging and that's exactly what he taught me was that Sage is known to drive out the negative energy, so that is the masculine portion of the smudging, and then the sweet grass gets added after the Sage is lit and that attracts positive energies, and that is more of the feminine side of things. To make the duality or the yin-yang of this, if we were to reference traditional Chinese medicine, and he also shared with me that back when tribes would prepare to go to war with another maybe another tribe or maybe another party the men would plan the war and they would consult with the women and the women in the tribe would actually make the ultimate decision on whether or not they would proceed with battle. So very, very interesting. So that's sort of how the masculine and feminine energies come together to be able to help to purify and protect.

Speaker 1: 5:50

Now, smudging isn't just about spiritual beliefs. There's actually science behind it as well, and recent studies have revealed fascinating insights into how burning Sage can benefit us. Firstly, it purifies the air by releasing negative ions that neutralize harmful positive ions. And I know that's counterintuitive, because sometimes we think of positive as a good thing, but in this case, when we're talking about ions, positive ions are not good and negative ions are the good guys. And so they neutralize harmful positive ions that can be emitted by things like electronic devices, radios, cell phones, computers, especially smart TVs, especially your Wi-Fi, and, in addition to the electronic devices, also things like air pollution and toxic chemicals that can off gas from your furniture, from your flooring, from so many household products, as well as things like pollen and mold and pet dander. And the negative ions from smudging can effectively cleanse our environment. And also, according to research, smudging has been shown to have a significant impact on well-being. A study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that smudging significantly reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression in participants of the study. Additionally, smudging has been found to have antiseptic properties capable of reducing airborne bacteria by get this 94%. Now I'll link up that research for you in the show notes and also on the podcast website Now. Additionally, sage contains antimicrobial compounds that reduce airborne bacteria, viruses and fungi. So not only does smudging clear the air spiritually, but it also sanitizes it, creating a healthier workspace for you to thrive in.

Speaker 1: 7:55

Talk about breaking boundaries, but the benefits, they don't stop there. Smudging has a profound emotional and psychological effect as well. The aroma I was going to say physiological, and in fact it does have a physiological effect as well as psychological and emotional. The aroma of SAGE stimulates the brain's limbic system. So now we're getting into the neuroscience of things. And what this does is it promotes relaxation, promotes calmness, and this can be invaluable during stressful entrepreneurial endeavors. Moreover, the ritualistic nature of smudging fosters mindfulness and also a sense of ceremony, offering a moment of respite in our hectic lives. This can help us stay grounded, help us stay focused, help us stay committed and resilient in the face of challenges.

Speaker 1: 8:54

I'll tell you, I don't use the smudging technique as often as I should.

Speaker 1: 9:00

I just did it the other day because I hadn't in a while, and that's what prompted me and I said you know what?

Speaker 1: 9:06

I'm gonna do?

Speaker 1: 9:07

A podcast episode on this.

Speaker 1: 9:08

I'm gonna talk about it in the Love Energy Wellness Community and Support Group, even though it's not a supplement, it's not a protocol that you can do, but I guess it is.

Speaker 1: 9:19

I guess it is a protocol, because there's science that backs it up and it's known to be able to help to, you know, squelch anxiety and, I'm sure, free radicals, and just calm the sympathetic nervous system. So, wrapping things up here, embracing the ancient practice of smudging, it isn't just about spirituality, it's about creating a conducive environment for success and by purifying your surroundings, reducing stress, fostering mindfulness, what do we do? We set ourselves up for greater resilience and achievement in our entrepreneurial journey. So the next time you're feeling overwhelmed or stuck, consider lighting some sage and some sweet grass and let the healing smoke envelop you. Now I will say you know you don't wanna breathe too much of the smoke because it could be a carcinogen, but just enough to get that effect of the activation of the limbic system is what I wanted to say. Remember, success isn't just about what you do, it's also about the environment in which you do it. So until next time, my friends, keep breaking those boundaries.