Healing isnโt just about thinking positively or meditating your problems away. You pick up emotional baggage that you need to let go of because it’s a real, tangible energy that you’re holding onto.
Like a physical wound won’t heal if it’s covered in dirt, your emotional body won’t heal while it’s carrying dense energy. Therapeutic hobbies like meditating can help squeeze this energy out like a drip, but to properly heal your emotional body, you need to let go of the baggage.
Dense energy is often built up through suppressed emotions, unprocessed trauma, and energetic blockages, which can manifest in the form of stress, anxiety, depression, and physical illness. If you feel emotionally clogged, as if something inside you desperately needs to be released, then you need to purge that negative energy to help facilitate the process of healing.
In this article, weโll explore why purging dense energy is so crucial for spiritual and emotional well-being and how you can leverage emotional catharsis to heal.
What Is Dense Energy In Spirituality?

Dense energy (also known as negative energy) is a low-vibrational quality of energy that feels heavy and painful. It’s a quality of energy that is associated with suffering.
Essentially, any painful emotion that feels heavy can be considered dense energy, including:
- Shame
- Guilt
- Resentment
- Jealousy
- Hatred
While through the scientific lens, it’s ‘just an emotion,‘ from a spiritual perspective, dense energy is an entity that we can store energetically – creating emotional baggage. This is why you need to get rid of it because it’s an energetic property that’s weighing you down and preventing you from feeling happy and free.
Dense energy can be induced by trauma and it tends to build up if we donโt process it. Itโs stored in yourย emotional bodyย and tends to get trapped there. When negative energy is trapped in your emotional body, it manifests into other forms of dysfunction.
When people experience trauma, the negative energy is stored in their bodies until they release it. From a more psychological perspective, we understand the release of negative energy as catharsis. From a more holistic perspective, we understand this as purging.
Why Purging Helps Remove Dense Energy
Having worked in shamanic medicine communities for some time, purging is an essential ingredient for healing because it allows people to get rid of certain energies they’re storing in their bodies. During plant medicine ceremonies such as Ayahuasca, purging usually manifests as vomiting, however, it can manifest in different ways too.
Plant medicine ceremonies are one example, but most of us purge sometimes naturally. When you allow yourself to cry, it’s a form of purge. You’re releasing energies from your body through crying. Likewise, purges manifest differently for different people, including:
- Crying
- Yelling or screaming
- Venting and talking about your problems
- Sweating
- Trembling or shaking
Purging creates a vent to release dense energy from your emotional body. Think about it this way… Dense energy gets trapped in your energetic body and doesn’t have a way out.
While this dense energy is stuck in your energetic body, it bleeds into your life experience, affecting the way you feel, your outlooks, beliefs, and mentalities, and ultimately reducing the quality of your life. After all, life is a much more arduous experience when you have all of this weight energetically pulling you down.
Purging creates an energetic channel that allows some of these dense energies to come out. There’s no specific way to purge, and we all do it naturally because our bodies know what they’re doing. But when we prevent ourselves from letting it out, then we’re doing ourselves damage.
What It Means to Purge Dense Energy

Many spiritual traditions across the world recognize that true healing happens when we let go. Crying, venting, shaking, or deep emotional catharsis are passages of releasing dense energy which is why we feel so much lighter after these experience.
Purging dense energy is about clearing out emotional and energetic blockages that keep you stuck. If youโve been holding onto heavy emotions, past wounds, or spiritual stagnation, you need to let them go. Here are some ways that you can purge dense energy and restore balance to your mind, body, and spirit:
Cry It Out
Crying is one of the most natural ways to release dense energy, and usually, we feel the relief almost instantly. Whether itโs grief, frustration, or stress, crying allows your body to process physically what your mind may be struggling to release. Instead of holding back, give yourself permission to feel and let the emotions flow freely.
Move Your Body
Physical movement such as dancing, shaking, yoga, or a long walk in nature can help shake off dense energy. This is why some people’s natural reaction to stress is to shake because it’s their body’s way of unloging the dense energy. Likewise, practices like breathwork go even deeper and help to clear energy blockages within your bodyโs meridian system.
Use Your Voice
Venting, screaming into a pillow, or even primal yelling can be incredibly cathartic. Sound carries vibration, and using your voice to express whatโs trapped inside can release emotional weight instantly. Singing is something I’ve really learned the power of lately and has become one of my favorite ways of purging dense energy. If you’re feeling blocked, try singing. If you’re not much of a singer, humming can help too.
Vent to someone you trust
Venting is also a very effective way of releasing dense energies from the body. Every therapist will understand this, and you probably notice it yourself too. When there’s something on your mind, expressing yourself freely to someone you trust can make you feel much light afterwards, while also helping you process the situation and make sense of it.
Engage in Deep Breathwork
Breathwork is a powerful tool for energetic clearing. Techniques like holotropic breathing, Wim Hof breathing, or simply deep belly breathing can help release dense energy. Conscious breathing moves energy through your body, helping to purge negativity and bring in fresh prana that revitalizes you.
Work with Sound and Vibration
Sound healing tools like singing bowls, drumming, or listening to high-frequency music can help dislodge dense energy. In any spiritual healing modality, sound is usually applied, whether it’s through sound healing or shamanic ceremonies. Sound works on a vibrational level, helping to shift stagnant emotional and spiritual blocks.
Connect With the Elements
Nature naturally absorbs and transforms heavy energy. This is why you tend to feel way lighter after spending time in nature. Walking barefoot on the earth, sitting by a river, or standing in the sunlight can help clear away emotional residue and recharge your energy field. The elements have strong purifying properties which is why they’re so highly respected and incorporated into shamanic healing.
Work with Spiritual Practices
Many spiritual traditions have methods for purging dense energy. Smudging with tobacco, sage, or palo santo can help unstick some of that nasty energy, and healing techniques like Reiki can also move the needle. Many plants have energetic properties that clear energies.
Purging Dense Energy Is a Practice

Purging can help remove some of the dense energy stored in your energetic body, but a single purge won’t heal you. Imagine each purge as taking a shovelful of dirt from a mound. It may take many purges in various forms until you begin to see some real traction with your healing and growth.
Therefore, treat purging as a practice and do it whenever you feel you need to. If you undergo some difficult, emotionally painful situation, make sure you listen to your body’s natural response, whether it’s to cry, shake, or scream, and allow yourself to do it.
Ultimately, healing takes time. Purging, of course, is necessary, but treat it as a continuous practice. You may not see permanent results in your healing instantly, but if you learn to be calibrated with your energetic body and purge when you feel a build-up, then you will become much healthier and happier in the long run.