As I walked along the street, a truck passed by with the words “Sanitation Department” printed across its side in large letters. For some reason, the words caught my attention differently than they ever had before. Sanitation. The word immediately made me think of sanity. The similarity between sanity and sanitation seemed too close to ignore. I found myself wondering whether the connection between the two words pointed toward something deeper. After all, cleanliness, order, and tidiness are not merely physical concerns but are also important keys to our mental and emotional well-being.
A city may celebrate visits from celebrities, athletes, or royalty, but if garbage collectors stopped working for a month, people would very quickly realize which role is truly essential and would happily exchange any celebrity visit for the return of their local garbage collectors. When garbage is allowed to collect and grow, unwanted elements move in, taking advantage of the unsanitary conditions to make the accumulating garbage their new home.
The same question can be asked of our inner lives. What happens when emotional garbage is left unprocessed? If old resentments, wounds, disappointments, and grudges are allowed to accumulate in our mind and emotions, do they create the inner equivalent of unsanitary conditions? When these conditions develop, do states like anxiety, bitterness, depression, and anger take up residence within our mind, emotions, and energy field? Could it be that just as unbrushed teeth gradually accumulate dental plaque, an unattended, disordered, and unsanitary mentality and emotions will inevitably produce mental and emotional plaque? When we harbor a grudge can the energy of the grudge grow and gradually fill the harbor of our mind, emotions, and energy field so that little else can get in?
While studying the worlds of energy, I have often encountered the idea that lower energies tend to gather in neglected and disorderly ecologies. Across many traditions, whenever an important rite, ceremony, or celebration is to take place, there is a period of preparation beforehand. The space is cleaned. The environment is ordered. Things that do not belong are cleared away. However, it is not only the action of cleaning that the effect of attracting higher energies seems to depend upon, but it is also the sentiment that accompanies it. A room can be cleaned by someone who is angry, resentful, and simply wants to get the task over with. The room becomes clean. The same room can be cleaned by someone acting from care, gratitude, devotion, or respect. The room also becomes clean. Outwardly, the result appears identical. Yet inwardly, and energetically, something quite different has occurred. This demonstrates an observation that has stayed with me for many years: it is the reason why you do what you do that makes the difference. The same action can connect us to very different levels of energy depending upon the motive from which it arises.
A person may clean their home because they are embarrassed that visitors might see the mess. Another may clean because they genuinely care for the space and the people who live within it. One may perform the task out of obligation; the other out of devotion. The action is the same, but the energies being cultivated are entirely different. If this is true, then what we attract into our lives may depend not only upon what we do, but upon the motivating reasons and the energies to which they are connected and attract. An inexpensive apartment tended with care may become more attractive to higher energies than a mansion maintained without love. The atmosphere of a home is influenced by the energies being processed by those who live there. A house is a physical environment. A home is something more. It reflects the qualities being generated within it. Care, respect, consideration, devotion, and love leave traces just as surely as neglect, complaint, and resentment do. Likewise, a simple act performed with love, compassion, or a desire to increase good in the world connects a person to greater energetic qualities and vibrations than an impressive act performed out of vanity, resentment, or self-interest.
In pursuing these reflections further, I realized that the word "dignity" is an anagram of "tidying." Whether coincidence or not, the relationship between the two words suggests something worth considering. Tidying is often thought of as a practical task, but it may also be an expression of dignity. When we care for the spaces we occupy, we affirm respect for ourselves, consideration for others, and responsibility toward the wider environment. In this sense, tidying becomes more than cleaning up after ourselves; it becomes a small participation in the qualities of order and dignity themselves. Each time we embody these qualities, we strengthen our connection to them and contribute to their growth and expression in the world. I once had someone ask me an insightful question: "Do you clean your house because it is dirty, or because you want to be with that which is clean?” The distinction stayed with me. If cleaning is only done because we can no longer tolerate the dirt, then the action arises from one set of energies. But if cleaning is undertaken because we value cleanliness, care, harmony, and order, then the same action becomes a vehicle for entirely different qualities. This principle extends far beyond physical cleaning. We can clean and tidy as we go mentally, emotionally, energetically, and spiritually. An older person once told me in my youth, "Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Over the years, that statement has come to feel less like a moral instruction and more like an observation. The state of our surroundings and the state of our inner world are not separate things. They continually influence one another.
Perhaps the invitation is to think of ourselves as good stewards of our inner ecology. If we wish to be mentally, emotionally, and energetically clean—to become a place where fresh possibilities, higher qualities, and healthier forms of energy can enter and remain—then regular inner sanitation is just as important as taking out the household rubbish. Resentments, disappointments, grudges, and old emotional debris do not disappear simply because we ignore them. They must be noticed, processed, and released to make room for something new. Yet the cleaning itself is only part of the equation. Equally important is the spirit in which it is done. The reasons behind our actions matter because they determine the qualities we cultivate and attract. Care invites care. Respect invites respect. Love invites love. If we wish to create lives that are hospitable to these qualities, then perhaps we should periodically ask ourselves not only what we need to clear out, but also what we are making space for. After all, every home reflects what is allowed to live within it, and the same is true of our heart, mind, and energy field.
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David Price Francis M.A.
