Written by Joseph Berridge, Founder of Joga Yoga
Aura cleansing is the practice of clearing heavy or stuck energy from the field that many traditions say surrounds the body. In practice it means slow breathing, washing, quiet, sound, time outside, or moving your body. You do not need crystals, sage or a paid session to start.
What aura cleansing means
The aura is described in yoga, Theosophy and several other traditions as a field of subtle energy around the body. Aura cleansing means deliberately clearing that field after stress, conflict, crowds or illness, so you feel like yourself again.
People reach for the phrase when they cannot name what is wrong. You slept enough and you are still tired. You left a room and took the mood with you. Nothing happened, and you feel heavy anyway. Aura cleansing is the folk answer to that feeling, and it has been around a lot longer than the internet.
The word gets used two ways now. In yoga and energy work it means what is described above. On TikTok, aura means social standing, and losing aura means embarrassing yourself. This article is about the first one.
How to cleanse your aura at home
You can do this in about fifteen minutes with nothing you have to buy. Work through it in order the first time, then keep whichever parts you actually use.
- Sit down and slow the exhale. Breathe in for four counts, out for eight. Ten rounds. The long exhale is doing the work, so do not rush it.
- Wash. Shower or bathe, and let water run over the back of the neck and the shoulders. Add a handful of salt to a bath if you have it.
- Change what is touching you. Clean clothes, open a window, put the phone in another room.
- Make a sound. Hum, chant, or sing one long note until the breath runs out. Repeat five times. Chanting Om is the traditional version of this.
- Sit still for five minutes. Eyes closed. Let the mind do whatever it wants. You are not trying to empty it.
That is the whole method. If you want a longer, structured version of step five, Vipassana meditation is the tradition that formalised sitting with whatever comes up.
How to clear negative energy from your aura
Most people searching for this have a specific day in mind. An argument, a hospital visit, a shift that went badly, a person who takes something out of you every time you see them.
For that, cut the list down to three things and do them the same evening. Wash first. Then get outside for ten minutes, even if it is dark and you only walk to the end of the road. Then sit quietly before bed with the long exhale.
Order matters more than technique. Washing marks the end of the day. Going outside changes your input. Sitting still gives the nervous system a chance to come down before you sleep. Do them in that sequence and you will feel the difference more than if you scatter them.
If the heaviness is mental rather than physical, the pattern is usually rumination rather than absorbed energy, and the answer is different. Yoga for overthinking covers that case.
What each method does, and what it will not do
Most articles on this topic hand you a list of rituals and leave you to guess which ones matter. Here is the split we teach instead. The middle column is what you can notice yourself. The right column is where the claims stop.
| Method | What the tradition says | What you can notice | What it will not do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long exhale breathing | Moves stuck prana and settles the field | Heart rate slows, shoulders drop, thinking gets quieter within a few minutes | Treat anxiety disorders, depression or burnout |
| Salt bath or cold water | Salt draws off heavy energy | Skin temperature shift, a clear before and after marker for the day, easier sleep for some people | Remove toxins from the body |
| Smudging, incense, palo santo | Smoke carries negativity out of a space | Strong scent cue that signals a change of state, same way a candle does | Purify a room in any measurable sense, and smoke irritates asthma |
| Crystals | Absorb and transmute negative energy | A physical reminder to pause, which is not nothing | Store, emit or change energy in any way that has held up under testing |
| Sound, chanting, singing bowls | Vibration shakes loose stagnant energy | Long vocal exhale, jaw and throat release, attention pulled to one thing | Tune an organ or repair a chakra |
| Time outdoors | Nature returns what the day took | Daylight, movement, distance from screens, all of which affect sleep and mood | Replace treatment for a diagnosed condition |
| Yoga practice | Clears the nadis and steadies the field | Breath and attention held together for a set period, which is the part that carries over | Guarantee an emotional result on any given day |
None of this makes the practices useless. It makes them honest. The common thread in the middle column is breath, attention and a change of environment. That is what you are actually working with, and it is available to anyone with fifteen minutes.
A note on aura photography. Aura cameras take readings from hand plates. They measure things like how damp and how warm your hand is, then turn those readings into colours on a screen. They are reading your hand, not a field around your body. Treat the picture as a souvenir.
Signs people look for before they cleanse
There is no test for a dirty aura, so what people are really reading is a set of body signals. The common ones are tiredness that sleep does not fix, feeling drained after specific people, tension across the shoulders and neck, low mood with no obvious cause, and a short fuse.
Take those seriously, and not only in an energetic sense. Persistent fatigue, headaches and mood changes are also how anaemia, thyroid problems, sleep apnoea and depression present. If the feeling has lasted for weeks, has got worse, or came with weight or appetite changes, see a doctor before you see an energy healer. Cleansing your aura and getting bloods done are not in competition.
Reiki, sound baths and paid aura cleansing sessions
A paid session usually runs 45 to 90 minutes. The practitioner scans the body with their hands, works over specific areas, and finishes with a short debrief. Reiki is the most common format. Sound healing, pranic healing and shamanic clearing are variations on the same structure.
What you are buying is an hour of undivided attention, touch or near-touch, a quiet room, and permission to stop. Those are worth something. If you want to understand the framework these sessions are built on, pranic healing lays out the theory of the energy body that most of them share.
Two things to check before booking. Ask what happens in the session and how long it lasts, and walk away from anyone who tells you a curse needs removing for a fee. That is the oldest script in this field and it does not get better with repetition.
How often to cleanse your aura
Daily for the short version, which is the breathing and the wash. Weekly for the longer sit. After any event that knocks you sideways, do it that night rather than the next morning.
The frequency matters less than whether you keep it. A five minute practice you do every evening beats an hour-long ritual you do twice a year. Build it onto something you already do, like the shower, and it survives.
Aura cleansing FAQs
Do I need sage, crystals or salt?
No. Breath, water and quiet cover the practice. The objects are cues, and cues are easy to replace.
Can your aura change?
In the traditional framework, yes. The field is described as responsive to mood, health and environment, which is why the practices are repeatable rather than one-off.
What does it mean when someone says stop cleansing my aura?
That is the slang sense of aura, meaning social standing. It means stop embarrassing me. Nothing to do with energy work.
Can I cleanse someone else’s aura?
Traditions that allow it require training and consent. Doing it uninvited to a friend who is upset is not help, and asking them what they need works better.
Is aura cleansing part of yoga?
The energy body sits inside yoga philosophy through prana, the nadis and the chakras. Cleansing practices in that system are breathwork, kriyas, diet and meditation rather than objects. Yogic kriyas are the formal version, and sattvic food is the dietary side of it.
Want to go further than a fifteen minute reset
Breathwork, meditation and the yogic energy body are taught properly on our Yoga Alliance registered teacher trainings in Bali. Drop-in classes are open too if you are not ready for a course.
See training dates