What Is an Energy Cleanse? What It Means, How It Works, and Where to Begin

By Briana Barela

You’ve probably seen a dog give its whole body a shake after a tense encounter—another dog snaps at it, or someone unfamiliar picks it up. A quick shake, a pause, and it carries on. Almost as if it’s saying, That moment is over. I’m moving on.

That image has always fascinated me because it captures how I experience energy cleansing: a deliberate moment to release what I’ve been carrying instead of taking it into everything I do next.

After a difficult conversation, a demanding week, or too much time tending to everyone else, you may recognize that need yourself. The interaction is over, but you’re still replaying it. You’re home, but you haven’t quite returned to yourself.

An energy cleanse can be your own version of that shake—a spiritual practice for setting down the heaviness and coming back to you.

My own journey into energy work began with curiosity. Exploring Nikola Tesla opened the first door. From there, I found Neville Goddard and Abraham Hicks and began exploring consciousness, belief, and what I came to understand spiritually as the laws of the universe. That was the spark of my awakening.

Briana Barela reading a book about Nikola Tesla at a desk surrounded by spiritual books

As that journey unfolded, learning about energy became a personal practice. Energy cleansing gave me a way to pause, acknowledge what I was carrying, and reconnect with myself. It became part of the work I now share through Unleash Your Power.

Whether you are new to spiritual practices or simply curious about how to cleanse your energy, let’s begin with the question at the heart of it: What is an energy cleanse?

What Is an Energy Cleanse?

An energy cleanse is an intentional spiritual practice for releasing what you experience as heavy, stagnant, or unwanted energy and reconnecting with yourself. It can be a personal ritual or a guided session with a practitioner. The methods vary, but the intention is to create space to feel clearer, more present, and more connected to your own needs.

At Unleash Your Power, I approach energy cleansing as an opportunity to pause, acknowledge what you’ve been carrying, and consciously begin letting go.

What Does “Energy” Mean in Energy Cleansing?

Think about the way you describe an interaction. A conversation can feel warm, tense, uplifting, or exhausting. You might leave feeling like yourself or spend the rest of the evening mentally carrying what happened.

In spiritual energy cleansing, energy is a way of describing that felt experience, along with concepts such as the aura, chakras, and energetic connections. These are spiritual frameworks rather than established medical explanations for symptoms.

You do not have to interpret every uncomfortable feeling as someone else’s energy. Sometimes you are truly just tired. Sometimes you are upset about something that matters. Sometimes you have been giving more attention to everyone else than to yourself.

An energy cleanse gives you a deliberate moment to notice your experience and choose what you want to do with it.

How Does an Energy Cleanse Work?

An energy cleanse begins with intention: recognizing what you’ve been carrying and creating space to release it. Different practitioners use different methods, including meditation, visualization, prayer, sound, water, spiritual tools, and chakra-focused practices.

These methods give you something to focus on as you move through the cleansing—a spoken intention, an image, a sound, or your own awareness.

Common Energy Cleansing Techniques

  • Meditation and visualization: Turning your attention inward and imagining heaviness leaving your energetic field. You might visualize water washing it away, light surrounding you, or yourself setting down a burden. In my article on energy cleansing meditation, I share how I bring grounding, observation, and visualization into my own practice without turning every feeling into something I need to fix.
  • Prayer and intention: Speaking consciously about what you are ready to release and what you want to welcome. Your words can make the practice personal and give your attention a clear direction.
  • Sound: Using a singing bowl, chimes, or meditation audio—including frequency-based tracks and binaural beats—to support focus and create an atmosphere that feels meaningful to you.
  • Chakra-focused practices: Bringing your attention through the chakras, using this spiritual framework to reflect on different areas of your life and guide intentional clearing.

Within spiritual energy cleansing, the intention is to release unwanted energy and reconnect with your own. The ritual also gives you a deliberate pause: a moment to step away from outside demands, notice your experience, and listen to what you need.

Choose a method that resonates with you. You may prefer a quiet visualization, a spoken prayer, or a guided practice that helps you stay focused. Give yourself room to explore without forcing a particular feeling or dramatic release.

The tools support the practice, but you hold the power. You can begin without an elaborate setup.

Signs You Need an Energy Cleanse

People searching for signs you need an energy cleanse are often trying to understand why they feel weighed down or disconnected from themselves. Within a spiritual practice, those feelings can be an invitation to pause and check in, rather than proof that anything is wrong with your energy.

Maybe a relationship has ended, but your attention keeps returning to it. Maybe you have spent the week supporting other people and barely checked in with yourself. Or maybe you want a meaningful ritual to close one chapter and enter the next with more intention.

For someone who has spent years making room for everyone else, the desire to cleanse their energy can arrive alongside a bigger realization: they cannot keep giving at their own expense. I explore that turning point in When an Empath Has Had Enough, where recognizing what drains you becomes the beginning of reclaiming your power.

You do not need to wait until you feel overwhelmed to make space for yourself.

If you want to explore this further, read How to Know When You Need an Energy Cleanse: 7 Signs You’re Carrying Energy That Isn’t Yours. It’s also important to remember that feeling tired, foggy, or emotionally heavy does not by itself establish an energetic cause.

What Happens During an Energy Cleansing Session?

This is an hour devoted entirely to you—what you’ve been carrying, where you feel depleted, and what you are ready to release.

My private energy cleansing session at Unleash Your Power takes place during a one-hour Google Meet, so you can receive guidance from the comfort and privacy of your own space, wherever you are in the world.

My psychic gifts and intuitive perception shape how I approach your clearing. I tune into your unique energetic field and share the impressions that arise, using your experience and what you communicate to guide our work together. We explore where heaviness may be lingering, what patterns deserve your attention, and what you feel ready to let go of.

You can tell me what has been weighing on you, even if all you can say is, “I haven’t felt like myself.” You don’t need a polished explanation. There is room to ask questions, speak openly, and let me know what resonates as we move through the session.

My approach brings together psychic insight, energy work, and spiritual guidance, with space to understand what becomes clear during the cleansing and how you want to respond to it afterward.

You spend enough time making room for everyone else. This is your space to be heard, supported, and guided back to yourself.

What Might You Feel After an Energy Cleanse?

Some people describe feeling lighter, calmer, or clearer. Others notice a quieter shift: a little more space around a difficult thought, a clearer sense of what they need, or simply appreciation for having taken time for themselves.

Experiences vary, and no particular result is guaranteed. Crying, tingling, or having a dramatic emotional release is not a requirement for a shift to have happened.

Give yourself room to notice what actually changed for you. Did your attention settle? Did you recognize something you need? Is there a decision you have been avoiding that now feels easier to consider?

Pay attention to what becomes clear—and take your own needs seriously enough to act on it.

How to Cleanse Your Energy on Your Own

Learning how to cleanse your energy begins with making space for yourself. Set aside a few uninterrupted minutes and let these steps guide you into a simple, intentional practice.

  1. Pause the input. Put your phone aside and settle somewhere comfortable. Give yourself a moment without messages, demands, or anyone else needing your attention.
  2. Notice what you are carrying. Name what feels heavy: a conversation you keep replaying, a worry, an emotion, or the pressure to keep going. You do not have to solve it all before acknowledging its weight.
  3. Choose an intention. Make it personal and clear: “I am ready to release what I no longer need to carry and bring my attention back to myself.”
  4. Choose a cleansing practice. Sit quietly, gaze softly at a candle flame, breathe naturally, journal, or visualize yourself setting that burden down. Allow the practice to unfold without forcing a feeling or chasing a dramatic release.
  5. Honor what you need next. Ask yourself what would support you now—rest, nourishment, quiet, a boundary, or following through on something you have been putting off. Let the space you’ve created inform your next choice.

For a fuller reset after a draining interaction, follow my guide on how to cleanse your energy after being around other people.

If you want a more structured practice, my downloadable Personal Energy Cleansing: The UYP Method walks you through a complete seven-chakra clearing framework, from the base of your spine to the crown of your head. This self-guided PDF gives you a process to follow at your own pace, in your own space, and return to whenever you want dedicated time to clear, reconnect, and realign.

You hold the power. These practices offer structure and guidance to help you direct it with intention.

How Often Should You Cleanse Your Energy?

There is no universal schedule. You might use a brief practice after a demanding day, during a life transition, or whenever you just want time to reconnect with yourself. Most of my clients report that cleansing once or twice a month is sufficient.

Pay attention to whether the practice helps you feel supported. Constantly checking yourself for “negative energy” can turn a meaningful ritual into another obligation.

And if you repeatedly feel depleted after the same interaction, consider what happens outside the ritual too. Cleansing can be a moment of reflection, but the relationship may still need a different boundary or a change in how you participate.

If you feel lighter after a cleanse but find yourself carrying the same heaviness again, it may help to explore why you keep needing an energy cleanse. That is where I talk about the patterns beneath the cycle and what can change once you have enough clarity to recognize them.

Final Thoughts

You spend so much time meeting others’ expectations and responding to what other people need. An energy cleanse is an invitation to give your own experience some attention.

Begin with a simple practice, explore the UYP Library, or receive guidance through a private energy cleansing session. Choose the approach that feels right for you.

You do not have to wait until you have nothing left to give before making room for yourself.

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Disclaimer: Energy cleansing is offered as a spiritual practice for reflection and personal growth. It is not medical or mental health diagnosis or treatment, and it does not establish the cause of physical or emotional symptoms.