Energetic Hygiene: How to Cleanse Your Energy

Regularly cleansing your energy, in other words having good energy hygiene, is vital to our well-being and yet it is something that, in our culture, very few people know about or practice. This lack of energy cleansing can lead to anxiety, conflict, accidents, illness, and more. In fact, through my years of working with clients, I have come to recognize that many of our issues (be it physical, emotional, or mental) are a result of poor energy hygiene. Let’s discuss how to cleanse your energy.

Why Cleanse Your Energy

We are energetic beings swimming in a vast sea of energy. Just like a radio picking up voices and music out of thin air, our bodies receive signals from our environments, including the people in them. As we move throughout the world, we collect and release energy. Sometimes rather than processing these energies, they get stuck in our energetic bodies. We may not be able to see or even sense this energy; however we are impacted by it. 

In our fast paced world with 24/7 news, our bodies are continually blasted with stimuli (aka energy). This near constant assault (including cell phone radiation and Wi-Fi waves) makes it very challenging to have a vibrant aura. Our aura is meant to act as a protective shield, only allowing in the energies that are beneficial for us while helping to maintain our own energy.

When our auras are depleted or even holey, we become overwhelmed by the energy coming in, which often results in anxiety. We can also experience depletion, even to the point of complete exhaustion. While this depletion is a cause of concern by itself, resulting in lower vitality, less desire to participate in life, or an inability to enjoy pleasures; the depletion makes us more susceptible to experiencing serious, harmful energies such as malevolent magic.

What is Malevolent Magic

Feeling our fear and pain is uncomfortable and sometimes terrifying. So when something happens that elicits fear or brings up a wound, often our first inclination is to do whatever we can to make this situation stop. Sometimes that’s screaming, or responding with violence, sometimes it is saying something hurtful or wishing harm for another, sometimes we gaslight or deflect. All of these actions have the desire of lessening our pain. The problem is that they don’t work.

Our pain hasn’t been reduced. Even worse, we caused the hurt to grow by sliming someone else with it. Resmaa Menakem refers to these actions as “dirty pain”.¹ Dirty pain is the basis of generational trauma and the unproductive cycle of the oppressed becoming oppressors. It is also the most prevalent form of malevolent magic in our culture.

Malevolent magic has often be referred to as “Black magic”. This term; however, has serious racist connotations, where everything harmful or negative is referred to as Black. The term “malevolent” is a more appropriate and accurate term for this energy as it has an intent of harm, even if that intent is often subconscious.

. . . the vast majority of malevolent magic that occurs, especially in the US, is caused by ordinary people trying to alleviate their pain and fears.

Hollywood has done a great job of depicting malevolent magic as something that is done by Sorcerers, Witches, or even the practitioners of Vodou. (All of these are simply people who honor and work with Nature to bring about certain results. Their threat or crime was not conforming to the paradigm of the oppressors.) It is true that there are people that you can go to to cause harm to another person and this practice is more prevalent in other cultures. However, the vast majority of malevolent magic that occurs, especially in the US, is caused by ordinary people trying to alleviate their pain and fears.  

Our culture tends to encourage this form of malevolent magic evident in the increasing amount of divisiveness and vitriol. Of course, social media plays a role as it is often easier to respond with ill will when you are not looking someone in the eyes. Despite the old adage about sticks and stones, words (and thoughts) contain energy and can cause harm to others.

The Impacts of Malevolent Magic

Malevolent magic shows up in our lives in various ways. We may find that we are suddenly accident prone or experiencing an unusual amount of conflict. We may experience extreme exhaustion, barely able to function (without cause) or just don’t feel like ourselves. We might suddenly experience strange physical symptoms, including illnesses with no apparent reason or that morph into other illnesses. We may act in unusual ways like wanting to end a loving relationship or quit our job for no apparent reason. Simple tasks like changing a light-bulb may suddenly become challenging. We may surprisingly have an urge to engage in addictive or risky behaviors. We may no longer want to engage in activities that we generally enjoy or lose our excitement about an experience we were looking forward to.

Experiencing any of these does not mean that you are impacted by malevolent magic that needs to be cleared. However, they are red flags especially if they are a sudden shift from your normal life or there is no apparent reason for them. 

Malevolent magic can also appear as anxiety, overwhelm, thoughts or acts of self-harm, negative self talk, depression, psychotic breaks, and even schizophrenia. Of course, there are other causes and contributing factors to these symptoms; however, they are common signs of malevolent magic.

For more serious forms of malevolent magic, it is helpful to have someone with experience clear this energy. It is difficult to clear this energy ourselves. However, we can and should regularly clear the general daily energetic gunk from our bodies.

How to cleanse your energy of negative energy

There are many ways to cleanse your energy of negative energy. The key is your intention and the frequency in which you do this.

Probably the most common method to clear negative energy from your aura is smudging. Smudging is the burning of a Plant or resin and using the smoke to release and transform your energy. The most known smudging Plant is White Sage. However, White Sage is at-risk of extinction and is a Sacred Plant to many Indigenous peoples. Therefore, I encourage people to only work with this Plant if they grow ki* themselves or know the person who is growing ki. Please do not buy wild harvested White Sage. 

Other common Plants and resins that are utilized for energy clearing are Mugwort, Cedar (needles), Rosemary, Copal, Frankincense, Piñon Pine resin, and Balm of Gilead. For resins or a resinous Plant, you will need something that can keep the resin warm, like a charcoal disc.

To smudge, you light the Plant material or place the resin on the prepared disc and bring the smoke into your energy field. Again intention is important. This is a good time to say prayers and ask specifically to have your energy body cleared of unwanted energies including intentions of harm.

Sometimes we do not want to use smoke, maybe we or our family members are sensitive to the smoke or we are in a public place. A clearing spray is a great alternative. This spray generally has a base of 50% vodka and 50% distilled water. To the base, we can add clearing Essences or Essential oils. Leaving the spray scent-less allows it to be less conspicuous and more friendly for public spaces (many people are sensitive to strong smells).

Essences of the above smudging Plants could be added to the spray bottle. Because we do not need to harvest the physical Plant (or only harvest a small amount) to make the Essence, we could include an Essence of White Sage or Palo Santo (another at-risk Plant). Other Essences you may want to include to help clear your energy and remove malevolent magic are Ayahuasca, San Pedro, Snake Plant, and Tiputini Pugyo, You may also want to add in other supportive Essences especially those that provide protection like Achiote, Chonta, Motherwort, Poison Ivy, St. John’s Wort, and Yarrow. As you make your spray bottle again be sure to add your Love and prayers. When you want to use this, only a few squirts are needed. I usually do 2 sprays around my body and 2 or 3 for the room, saying prayers and intentions.

It is important to smudge regularly, especially if you frequently interact with the public, do healing work, or work/live in a toxic space. Because I frequently am engaged with other people’s energies, I smudge multiple times a day including before and after every client.

Smudging is only one way that we can clear our energy. There are so many others. If you would like to learn more about energy hygiene, I have a free Energy Hygiene E-book that goes into more detail.

Remember, one of the best things that we can do for our energy and our well-being is to spend time in Nature. Nature, especially Trees and running Water, naturally helps to remove the excess gunk and bring us back into our center. 

How to cleanse your energy spiritually

Smudging and the techniques mentioned in the Energy Hygiene E-book are methods to cleanse your energy spiritually. When we have a need, Nature provides many options. No matter what method you utilize, your intention is vitally important. 

Other ways to spiritually cleanse your energy include singing, humming, movement (especially shaking), asking Angels or other Guides to clear your energy (Archangel Michael is particularly helpful), moving into Heart coherence, surrounding yourself with light, holding or running stones or gems through your energy, and many more.

Everyone has Guides who support them. Often they need some direction from us, so ask for help. Ask them to spiritually cleanse your body and aura of anything that is not yours or is not in service of your highest good. You can go on to list any specifics that you want cleared like densities or intentions of harm. Be sure to thank whoever is supporting you and don’t worry, you do not need to know their names. You know their energy even if you are not conscious of it.

As energetic beings, we emit a vibration. Vibration is the universal language. Whatever vibration we emit, we tend to attract back to us. So if we are a negative nasty person, we will experience a nasty world. I share this because one of the most important things that we can do to spiritually cleanse our energy is to be aware of our own thoughts and actions. We want these to be a reflection of Love (which is the truth of who we are).

When someone does something to us, rather than respond with dirty pain, we can pause, feel our feelings, get curious about what is coming up for us, maybe get curious about their action, move into our Heart center, and respond with Love (if a response is warranted). We are human, so we will make mistakes and we will act out of fear or pain from time to time, but the more we can lessen these experiences and the more we choose to respond with Love, the better our own energy and the less dirty pain there is flying about. 

How to cleanse your energy as an empath

Cleansing your energy through regular energy hygiene is absolutely vital for empaths. Empaths tend to be sponges soaking up the energies around them, even more than the average person. Which means that they can very easily be knocked off their center or overwhelmed.

Learning to have strong boundaries is a necessity for empaths. Strong boundaries help to lessen the absorption of others’ energies and also begin to discern what is their’s and what belongs to someone else. 

Too often there is a confusion between being intuitive and being an empath. Being intuitive means that we receive guidance (including from our own bodies) not that we are sensing everyone’s energy. A healthy person can feel empathy for another person’s situation without taking on the energetic impacts.

Being an empath or continually sensing other people’s energy or taking on their energy/issues is exhausting and depleting. Often this results in a person losing sense of themselves. Because this hypersensitivity tends to be a trauma response, where our safety relied on sensing the energy of those around us, many empathic people do not have a clear sense of who they truly are, rather they live their lives for others. 

Please know that if this describes you, you did a wonderful job of protecting yourself to the best of your ability. Hopefully, now you are in a situation where you no longer need to always be on, sensing what is happening in your environment. If that is true, then you can learn to turn down the hypersensitivity and focus on you. While you recover your true self, energy hygiene and strong boundaries are great supports to protect you from overwhelm. 

How to cleanse your home of negative energy

Cleansing your home of negative energy is an important part of energy hygiene. Your energy is impacted by your environment. Cleansing your energy without clearing your home is not very effective.

We can apply most of the same energy hygiene techniques mentioned above to cleanse our home. Smudging, singing, asking our Guides, working with Light or Archangel Michael are all helpful. Of course, saying prayers and holding a clear intention while we do this is important.

Physically cleaning our house and getting rid of clutter also helps to remove negative energy. Removing the dust and clutter lightens the energy and allows for an easier flow. Saying prayers or singing spiritual songs as you clean adds to the potency. 

Ideally we energetically clear our home on a weekly if not daily basis. If you work from home or have regular visitors, you may want to cleanse your home more frequently. Whenever I’m feeling stuck or things aren’t going as smooth as I’d expect, I often start by physically cleaning my house. The impact of this still amazes me.

What to do when smudging isn’t enough

Smudging is only part of a good energy hygiene routine. Most of us have a backlog of unwanted energies that require more effort to clear. We all know the frog in the pot story, where the frog doesn’t notice that the water is gradually warming up. This is a good description of our tendency to get used to the accumulation of energy whether in our bodies or our homes. We often don’t recognize the impacts until we clear this energy or something detrimental occurs.

For deeper energy hygiene or clearing more serious forms of malevolent magic, it is important to work with someone else and ideally someone who is experienced in clearing this energy. (I have witnessed unqualified people try to remove intense forms of malevolent magic. Not only were they not successful, they created an even bigger problem. These attempts can cause serious harm to all parties involved.) Besides providing the necessary skills, working with someone else provides a broader perspective and non-attachment to the energies impacting us, which results in a more effective clearing.

This means that even trained practitioners need to work with someone else for cleansing their energy. Trust me, I learned this lesson the hard way.

While some find the subject of malevolent magic and its impacts frightening. I see it as having a better understanding of our world and lives. This energy is there whether we acknowledge it or not. Ignoring it only allows it to fester, causing more harm to ourselves and others. It also creates unnecessary drama and challenges in our lives (and world). Removing these distortions, helps us to remember who we are and live the lives our Hearts yearn for. Whenever I help to remove malevolent magic from my clients, I feel that this act helped to create a better world.

May you be free and clear of any impediments or distortions

May you align with the energies supporting your evolution

And may you always know that you are Love(d)

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1. Menakem, Resmma. Monsters in Love. Las Vegas: Central Recovery Press, 2023. p. 16. ↩︎

* ki is an animistic, genderless third person pronoun which recognizes the aliveness of our more-than-human kin. To the best of my knowledge, in her book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer was the first to suggest using ki.

Since 2003, Earth advocate, Jen Frey, has supported courageous, conscious groups and individuals return to a deep connection with Nature. She founded Brigid’s Way in 2010 offering personal healing consultations, workshops in Plant and Nature communication, and apprenticeships for those who are ready to transform their lives. Jen continues to support other practitioners and seekers while also traveling the world providing land consultations and making Plant Spirit essences for our awakening to wholeness.