7 Energy Cleansing Rituals to Clear Your Body, Home & Aura
Are you feeling drained, overwhelmed, or just a little off-kilter? It might be time to cleanse your energy field. Just as we wash our physical bodies daily, our energy bodies need regular clearing too. Over the course of a day, a week, a lifetime, we can accumulate negativity — other people’s emotions, the residue of difficult experiences, stagnant patterns we have carried for years — and this accumulation affects our physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing in ways we often do not immediately recognise.
Shamanism is, at its heart, about energy. How we hold it, how we move it, how we clear it, and how we protect it. These seven practices are ones I return to again and again in my own life — some daily, some seasonally, some whenever I feel the need for a deeper reset. All of them are accessible to anyone, wherever you are on your path.
1. Sacred Bath: A Soaking Ritual for Renewal
1. Sacred Bath: A Soaking Ritual for Renewal
Create a sanctuary of relaxation and release by infusing your bathwater with carefully selected herbs known for their cleansing properties. My favourites are rose, lavender, calendula and chamomile. I create a brew of these herbs — about a handful of each — in a big saucepan with 1 to 2 litres of boiled water, and leave it to steep for 10 minutes as the bath runs.
Strain the infusion through a sieve to remove the flowers before adding it to the bath — you can add the whole brew, flowers and all, but that involves considerably more cleaning up afterwards! Light a candle to invite positive energy into your space. As you settle into the water, set a clear intention to release negativity and invite in positive energy, asking the herbs and the water to be your allies in this process. You might also like to play some gentle meditation music as you soften into the experience.
As you empty the bath afterwards, imagine your heavy thoughts and feelings draining away with ease, leaving you lighter and brighter. When you are ready, blow out the candle — sending your positive prayers into the heavens with the smoke as it ascends.
2. Harnessing the Power of Smoke and Herbs
2. Harnessing the Power of Smoke and Herbs
Smudging is an ancient practice that uses the smoke of burning herbs to purify your aura and environment. I use Palo Santo almost daily. Palo santo — meaning “holy wood” in Spanish — is traditionally used in South American spiritual practices and is revered for its cleansing and purifying properties. Its aromatic smoke, with notes of citrus and pine, dispels negative energy and creates a calm, uplifting atmosphere.
By wafting the smoke around yourself, another person, or a space, you cleanse the aura, promote relaxation, and invite positive energy in. The practice is simple and deeply effective — even a few minutes of smudging can shift the energy of a room noticeably.
You can learn about the specific benefits of different herbs — such as sage, frankincense, or cedar — and how to conduct a proper smudging ceremony in my free Energy Cleansing Handbook, Unveiling Your Inner Light.
3. Crystal Clarity: Aligning Your Energy Field
3. Crystal Clarity: Aligning Your Energy Field
Crystals are powerful tools for energy healing and cleansing. These natural wonders carry unique vibrational properties that can help clear away negative energy and create space for positive vibrations to flourish.
I encourage you to experiment and find the crystals that speak to you most strongly. As a starting point, wearing green aventurine can help shift negative thought patterns; placing selenite in the corners of your home or on windowsills continuously purifies the environment; and obsidian offers deep protection, whether worn as jewellery or placed on an altar for spiritual grounding.
Above all, trust your intuition when choosing and working with crystals. The one you are drawn to is almost always the one you need. You can explore crystal work in more depth in my free book , Unveiling Your Inner Light.
4. Shamanic Rattle Resonance: Vibrational Healing
4. Shamanic Rattle Resonance: Vibrational Healing
Shamanic rattles have been used for centuries to create sacred sound vibrations that cleanse and purify the energy field. They are wonderfully intuitive instruments to work with — even a beginner can learn the basic technique quickly and feel the effects immediately.
I was once blessed to be taught how to make a rattle by Black Elk Wallace’s grandson, in the Lakota tradition — crafted from deer hide to heal the heart, and filled with 405 stones to represent my 405 spirit guides. This instrument is my most powerful cleansing rattle, with an extra-long handle so I can reach all the way around my back.
We use rattles in much the same way as smoke in smudging: moving the rattle slowly through the energy field from head to toe, holding the intention to clear any negative energy. At the end, touch the rattle to the floor, gifting the released energies to Mama Earth to compost and reform into something nourishing.
5. Energy Cleansing
5. Aura Cleansing with Hands and Intention
Your aura — the energetic field that surrounds and interpenetrates your physical body — consists of three main layers, each holding a different quality of experience:
The outer layer acts as a shield and offers protection from external energies
The middle layer is where our emotions are most affected — when something penetrates the outer shield, this is where we feel triggered or destabilised.
The inner layer is closest to the physical body — when something or someone hurts us deeply, we feel it here as a broken heart, or a stab in the back.
When we cleanse and strengthen each layer with intention, it leaves us feeling genuinely protected and empowered. In my free book — Unveiling Your Inner Light — I share in detail the method the Q’ero Shamans taught me to cleanse my energy field using only my hands and intention. It requires no tools, no special ingredients, and can be done anywhere.
→ Download Unveiling Your Inner Light — free
6. Chanting for Clarity: The Power of Sacred Sound
6. Chanting for Clarity: The Power of Sacred Sound
The sonic vibrations created by chanting have a profound impact on the energy field. Incorporating chanting into your daily routine can cultivate inner peace, clear energetic stagnation, and support the health of mind, body, and spirit.
My favourite chant was taught to me by Dr Kulreet Chaudhary — a neurologist who incorporates Ayurveda and sound medicine into her healing practice with extraordinary results, and author of the book Sound Medicine. Her chakra mantra — available via her website — consists of a powerful series of ancient Sanskrit bija mantras, or seed sounds. These single-syllable frequencies are used in yogic and Ayurvedic traditions to activate the body’s energetic centres. Listening to and chanting this mantra sound bath daily for 20 minutes enlivens, clears, and realigns the chakras, promoting lasting health and wellbeing.
There are, of course, many other chants available across traditions — explore freely, and find the ones that resonate most powerfully in your own body. Daily practice will always yield the deepest results.
7. Journaling Your Way to Freedom: The Warrior Heart Practice
7. Journaling Your Way to Freedom: The Warrior Heart Practice
Journaling is a powerful tool for emotional release and self-discovery — and my personal practice goes deeper than simply writing. I use the Warrior Heart practice, a Toltec shamanic journaling method for identifying and transforming negative thoughts into positive intentions and actions.
I use this method daily to bring unconscious thought patterns into the light — to examine them, understand where they come from, and choose differently. We create our reality from our thoughts, and this practice has been genuinely life-changing for me. It has helped me uncover beliefs I did not even know I was holding and transmute them into something that actually serves my highest good. You can learn more about the practice at thewarriorheartpractice.com.
You might also explore gratitude journaling, or art journaling — my daughter’s favourite way to process her feelings and soften before bedtime. Whatever form it takes, journaling offers a moment of self-reflection and a safe space to process emotions and release what no longer needs to be carried.
Why Energy Cleansing Matters
Shamanism is all about energy. We need to continually cleanse our energy field to maintain our power and presence in this world — to create the life we dream of, rather than live in a world we wish to escape from.
Teaching the art of shamanism is a huge passion of mine. Mostly because it healed my life — it literally saved me from suicidal ideation and the destructive behaviours I once used to help me get through the pain and traumas of my past. In the same way that Tracey Emin says art saved her, I would not be here if it were not for the shamans, herbalists, and healers who helped me heal from the wounds of this lifetime and the epigenetic wounds of my ancestors.
The Shaman’s Way is the course I created from 30 years of training and experience — a year-long journey in a small, intimate circle, meeting once a month to clear old energies, align with our highest selves, and learn the shamanic and herbal practices in real depth. It is complex, but I guide you step by step, and the transformation that unfolds over a year is unlike anything else I have witnessed.
We can heal our world, one heart at a time. Let us begin with our own. 🌿
→ Download the free Energy Cleansing Handbook
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