10 Simple Energy Cleansing Tools To Ground & Center You
Cleansing negative energy might sound like something only healers, witches, and shamans would ever need to do, but we can all benefit from shaking the day off us on an energetic level.
We take showers and baths to physically cleanse our bodies. But we are not purely physical beings with a physical body. We also have an emotional body, a mental body, and a spiritual body. These cannot be seen, but they exist and are all made up of energy. Everything in the world is made of energy. And energy always has a vibration on a spectrum of light to dark.
Have you ever walked into a room or a bar and gotten a “bad” vibe? Conversely, have you ever spent time with someone and walked away feeling energized and uplifted? This is you feeling the energy around you.
You pick up some energy from the people and places you encounter everywhere you go. And unless you consciously cleanse that energy, it sticks around and affects your energetic frequency and even your physical health and wellbeing. This is why it’s important to learn how to clean your energy to transmute, dissolve and release energy that does not belong to you or is not serving you.
Why cleansing negative energy matters
Every human being on Earth has an aura, which is made up of energy. A few people with psychic abilities can see auras, but everyone can feel them. And these subtle energies affect us, whether we’re conscious of them or not.
You will be even more vulnerable to other people’s energy if you’re particularly sensitive or empathetic. You might not even talk to someone, but you’ll still pick up on their vibe and carry it. And you don’t even have to see them with your eyes—you could be tuning into the energy of someone down the street or even miles away simply because your field is so vast.
If someone is particularly sad, angry, or anxious, that energy can easily seep into your energetic field and get stuck. And this will make you feel more of those negative emotions for a few minutes, hours, days, or more. The more negative emotions you take in, the more negative you will feel and the more negative energy you will attract because this is the law of manifestation.
This is why cleansing your energy and your energetic space is essential. Every day, you want to be a clear, grounded vessel, radiating light and high vibrations.
10 Energy cleansing ideas to ground, center & raise your vibration
If you’ve ever been to or performed your own moon ritual, engaged in spellwork, or accessed your Akashic Records, you’ll likely be aware of cleansing your space before you do any magic. But we often skip the part of cleansing our own energy. Do this before you cleanse your space.
There is no set rule for cleansing your energy. You can do it as frequently as you feel called to. Once a day, morning and night, between client sessions, or anytime you need a reset.
Below you’ll find a selection of energy cleansing tools you can choose from depending on what you intuitively need.
1. Regularly check in with yourself throughout the day
If you’re a beginner at cleansing energy, you may not instinctively know when you’ve taken on someone else’s energy. This discernment will come in time. So check in with yourself regularly throughout the day. This can be as simple as pausing whatever you’re doing and asking, “how do I feel?” You can combine this with a quick body scan to see if there is any physical pain, discomfort, fatigue, or tingling—these are all signs that some energy might be stagnating and manifesting within your body and auric field.
From here, check in with your emotions and connect to your intuition. Is there anything troubling, worrying, or stressing you?
The purpose of this step is to uncover anything that needs cleansing. If something needs cleansing, you can use any of the tools below to dissolve, transmute or release whatever you’re holding onto.
2. Call yourself back
One of the simplest energy cleansing tools is to find a place of stillness, drop into your body, and call your energetic spirit back from wherever it has traveled today. You might want to audibly say something out loud, visualize it, or even use physical movement to pull your energy back into your physical body.
Close your eyes, drop into your body, and call all of you back to your center. Keep doing this until it feels like you are fully present.
3. Visualize negative energy leaving your body
This is another simple tool for cleansing negative energy you can use anywhere. Find a comfortable seated position (in a chair or on the floor), or you can stand. To begin, set an intention. For example, “I cleanse myself of all the energy that does not belong to me and does not serve me.”
Close your eyes and imagine your worries, stressors, and anxiety draining out of your body and into the crystal grid beneath you.
Next, visualize a sphere of golden light at the center of your chest. As you breathe in and out, imagine this brilliant ball of light gradually expanding, filling your entire body. Next, visualize it expanding beyond your skin and up to about arm’s length around you so you are encompassed in a bubble of golden light.
4. Smudge yourself
Smudging is one of the most popular ways of cleansing negative energy from yourself and your space before a ritual. It’s an ancient practice that used white sage or palo santo, but due to the rise in popularity of smudging, white sage has come under threat and is being harvested unsustainably. So I’d recommend using other dried herbs that grow locally where you live. Try garden sage, lavender, rosemary, basil, cedar, juniper, or cloves.
Open your windows and doors before you start so that energy and smoke can leave your space.
Think about your intention, then light your herb bundle, and blow on the flame so that it starts to smoke. Place a fireproof bowl underneath to catch any embers. Then start at the crown of your head (being careful not to touch your body) and slowly waft the smoke down your whole body until you reach your feet. This will take around 30 seconds. Carry your intention with you as you do this.
You can then move on to cleanse your whole space, ensuring you reach all the corners of the rooms.
When you’re done, put your herb bundle out with water or sand.
5. Make an auric spray
If fire isn’t your thing, you can also do an energy cleansing using air and water.
All you need is a repurposed spray bottle (that has been thoroughly cleaned). Use the ratio of 10 drops of essential oil to 100 ml of water. Use whatever oils you like. Lemon, lavender, eucalyptus, and frankincense all work well. Give it a good shake when you’re done.
The next step is to set an intention and spray it all over your body (while closing your eyes). You can also spray your space.
6. Pillar of light
Pillar of light is an ancient practice that the Priestesses would perform in temples to clear their energetic channels and connect to Source and Earth.
For this practice, you want your spine to be straight, your root chakra pointing to the ground, and your crown chakra pointing to the sky. So you can sit in a chair, sit cross-legged on the floor, or stand up.
Close your eyes, ground into your body, and connect with yourself. Now imagine a pillar of white light running through the center of your body, connecting you to Source energy above and Gaia below. Feel yourself anchored to the ground but also tapped into the spiritual realm. Feel your energy being cleansed and revitalized.
7. Brush out your aura with a selenite wand
Selenite is a brilliant crystal for cleansing other crystals, and you can also use it to cleanse your energy. It’s the same practice as smudging yourself, except you’re swapping your herb bundle for a selenite wand, and there’s no danger of anything catching on fire!
Set your intention, then begin at the crown of your head and “brush” out your aura and chakras. Work lower down the body, and brush every part, including your arms and legs. Keep brushing until you feel lighter. You can cleanse your selenite wand by placing it in dry sea salt.
8. Use sound
If you’ve ever done a sound bath meditation or been to a yoga class, you’ve already witnessed the use of sound in cleansing energy and elevating the frequency of the room. This is also why some yoga teachers chant “om” at the start and/or end of a class. They are cleansing the space and raising the vibe.
Singing bowls, bells, and wind chimes can also bring negative energy back into alignment. So if you have any of these to hand, use them to cleanse your space and yourself whenever you feel called to. I like to work in threes, so ring your bell or say “om” three times and visualize any negative energy leaving your body.
9. Take a cleansing bath
A bath is a luxurious way of cleansing negative energy! And water is extremely healing and perfect for washing away the old and making space for the new to flow in. This is why water is often used in rituals.
Add a cup of salt (Epson, dead sea salt, or pink Himalayan salt) to your bath water to cleanse negative energy. You can layer in essential oils, herbs, flowers, and anything else you like. Light a candle. Set an intention as you step into the tub. Soak here for as long as need.
This is a wonderful way to cleanse your energy after a long day before you go to bed.
10. Cut negative cords
The final energy cleansing tool I want to share with you is a cord cutting ritual, similar to one you would do after a breakup.
Energetically, there is an invisible cord attached from you to everyone you have ever known and encountered. Some of these energetic cords will be positive, and others negative. And if you don’t consciously cut these cords, that energy (and person) remains with you forever.
There are several ways to do a cord cutting ritual. You can close your eyes and visualize these cords being cut, or you can physically cut a piece of cord or rope to symbolize letting go of all that no longer serves you.
Cleansing your energy is as important as bathing
Can you remember a time you were traveling or sick in bed, and you were past the point of needing to bathe? You feel dirty, uncomfortable, and sluggish. When you finally step into that much-awaited shower, you feel like a brand new woman! Who knew something so small and simple could have such a profound effect?
Even though we can’t see or smell our energetic field, it gets just as dirty as our physical body (maybe more). So it’s important to cleanse your energy at least once a day. Even if you can’t see the benefits, you will feel them over time.
Have you tried any energy cleansing tools on this list, and how have they worked for you? Do you have any others you love? Share your thoughts, stories, and questions in the comments below!