How to Practice Digital Feng Shui
"Sage" your socials and reclaim your energy...without going full flip-phone.
About a month ago, following a frustrating pursuit of repeatedly deactivating and reactivating my personal Instagram, starting another personal Instagram, returning to my original personal Instagram, only to archive all of its posts, I had an idea: what would it look like to “sage” an Instagram page?
Many of us have been in a process of purging, most recently with the eclipse portal (IYKYK). Personally, after embarking on a cross-country move and its attending shifts, I have a level of spaciousness in my life that almost feels scary. My closet is lighter, my life is lighter…yet when I log onto my personal Instagram, I feel dragged back into the old.
(As I’m typing this, I’m starting to question if this is even worth writing about at all; Internet discourse can often feel trivial or self-reinforcing, a way of feeding the very beast we’re trying to escape.
But, like any interaction, our relationship to the internet ultimately mirrors our relationship to ourselves. And when we act from a place of alignment, rather than reactivity or lack, our digital presence truly has the power to magnetize the right people and experiences into our fields…)
Enter: digital feng shui.
Like its physical counterpart — Kate Van Horn writes beautifully on this — digital feng shui invites us to treat our online environment as energetic terrain: sensing what nourishes our life force versus what depletes it, and acting accordingly.
Tracey E. McDowell, a practicing digital fengshui expert and one of the first to use the term (she hasn’t yet responded for comment), described it as “creating balance and harmony in the digital world.” Instead of decluttering your office, maybe this looks like decluttering your inbox. Balancing yin and yang in your bedroom? Try balancing yin and yang in your feed.
Digital Feng Shui: A How-To
The following are some steps and suggestions for purifying your online presence, drawing on Buddhist and Taoist cosmologies, as well as principles of energetic hygiene (reading list below). They are organized in a suggested order but can be used out of order. They are open to interpretation.
1. Set your energy before engaging
How am I presenting and communicating? Does my presence invite connection, clarity, and respect — or does it feel scattered, heavy, “energetically chopped”?
Spiritual teacher David Ghiyam speaks about the importance of “auditing” yourself before entering a room. Am I whole inside? Do I feel like a channel for light? These same principles apply to the digital realm, mitigating the chances of reactivity or unconscious engagement.
⤷ Practice logging on from a state of wholeness, rather than a state of extraction.
Be mindful of the triggers that cause you to go online in the first place, and write down a list of practices that might restore you to a state of fullness first. (Perhaps that’s going on a walk in nature, or allowing yourself to rest if you feel depleted.)
Then, your digital presence will become less about extracting and more about radiating — a channel for light in the virtual as much as in the physical.
2. Sow seeds that align with your values
What am I signaling to the Universe, God, my Higher Self when I post or engage with a piece of content? Does it reflect the life I’m cultivating?
From food to information, what we consume creates subtle imprints in our mind-stream, contributing to programming that shapes our subconscious (or conscious) fears, desires, and drives.
⤷ Practice unfollowing anyone or anything that no longer resonates with the life you’re creating.
You could even take this a step further by blocking certain words or phrases that don’t align with your highest good (think of it as a social media elimination diet). Curate your intake to nurture the energy you seek to embody.
Some words that I’ve previously muted on Twitter/X: apocalypse, touch grass, Charli XCX, fizeek.
3. Feed your Qi
Which apps or interactions leave me feeling energized? Which leave me depleted or scattered?
Qi is the vital energy that animates life, flowing through the body, environment, and relationships. Every interaction holds a subtle current of energy that either harmonizes with your life force or disturbs it — including those that occur online.
⤷ Practice curating your environment to reflect balance, inspiration, and flow.
Identify apps, feeds, and contacts that energize vs. drain you. Home screens, passwords, folders, and alert sounds are all an opportunity to “furnish” your digital environment in an aligned way.
4. Banish digital ghosts & demons
Which accounts or apps feel heavy or stagnant when I engage with them? Are they aligned with the person I’m becoming?
Old social media profiles, unanswered emails, and unaligned posts can hold stale energy, keeping you stuck in outdated identities or beliefs. Just like opening a window or blind can revitalize a dark, stuffy room, so too can archiving posts or deactivating profiles.
⤷ Practice auditing your accounts, deleting, deactivating, or archiving anything that no longer serves your growth.
This is a nice ritual to tie into your other seasonal resets.
How are your practicing digital feng shui? What would you like to see a guide on next?
Suggested reading:
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (Trans. Ursula Le Guin)
Energetic Boundaries by Cyndi Dale (See also: The Subtle Body)
The Minimal Self by Christopher Lasch
Kate Van Horn’s Substack
needed this ➕
Alexa, play "Feather" by Sabrina Carpenter