Lymphatic Drainage and Yoga: What the Body Did at the May Reconnection Reset

By Brittany Hopkins Switlick | Denver Yoga Summit

On this last Saturday of May, a group of people drove to Converge Yoga in Thornton in the middle of a sunny Saturday. Some came alone. Some had never been there before. A few had been to every Reset since we started.

We moved slowly and by the end the energy in the room had shifted.

This month's Reconnection Reset theme was clearing. Clearing as a physical, measurable process happening in your body while we practiced.

Here’s what was happening and how to keep it going at home.

What Is the Lymphatic System and Why Does Yoga Affect It?

Most of us learned about the circulatory system in school. Heart pumps blood. Blood carries oxygen. Simple enough.

But did anyone tell us about these other two systems?

Your lymphatic system is your body's waste-removal and immune network. It runs through almost every tissue, collecting toxins, excess fluid, and cellular debris. When it works well, you feel clear. When it stagnates, you feel it: brain fog, fatigue, a heaviness that sleep does not quite fix.

Here is the part that’ll change how you think about movement.

Unlike your circulatory system, the lymphatic system has no pump. Your heart does not move lymph. You do. It’s a manual process that moves through diaphragmatic breathing, muscle contraction and compression, manual drainage like tapping and massage, and changes in gravity and body position.

Sitting is the new smoking.

Sitting still for long hours actively slows the system. Slow, intentional movement does more for your body’s lymphatic system than a hard workout you spend three days recovering from.

This is why the sequence we moved through on May 30th was designed the way it was.

What Is the Glymphatic System?

This one is newer. Scientists discovered the glymphatic system in 2012.

It’s your brain's dedicated cleaning system. It uses cerebrospinal fluid to flush waste products out of your brain, including proteins linked to cognitive decline. Think of it as a rinse cycle running through your neural tissue.

It’s most active during deep sleep. Chronic sleep deprivation is not only exhausting. It means that your brain is literally not getting cleared.

Thankfully sleep is not the only lever.

The glymphatic system also responds to deep, slow breathing (inhalation drives fluid toward the brain, exhalation brings it back down), meditation and nervous system regulation (stress hormones actively block glymphatic flow), movement that supports circulation, and gravity shifts including forward folds and legs up the wall.

This is why we spent 20 minutes in stillness enjoying the sound bath at the end.

Why We Started with the Drainage Protocol

Before we moved into the full flow, we spent ten minutes doing something that may have felt unusual. Tapping. Skin massages. Arm pumping.

It had a specific reason.

That drainage protocol was based on one principle: open the exit before you move the fluid. If you jump into vigorous movement without clearing the lymphatic pathways first, you’re pushing fluid toward a closed door. Starting with the collarbone, the neck, and the axillary nodes opens the drain. Everything that follows moves more freely.

How to Do a Lymphatic Drainage Protocol at Home

Do this before movement, before bed, or any time you feel foggy, heavy, or like your body is holding more than it should. It takes less than ten minutes.

1. Deep belly breathing Three slow, full rounds. Hands on your belly. Feel it rise on the inhale and fall completely on the exhale. This is the pump. Everything else builds on the belly breathing.

2. Sternum tapping With one hand light rapid tapping the top of the sternum with finger tips. This is the thoracic duct, the main drainage point for the entire lymphatic system. You are opening the drain first. Breathe four counts in and four counts out 5x.

3. Collarbone tapping With both hands light rapid tapping under both sides of the clavicle. Breathe four counts in and four counts out 5x.

4. Lower side of neck skin massage Cross arms to bring fingertips to on opposite sides of the neck and move the skin with the fingertips in a sideways rainbow motion (back, down, forward). Breathe six counts in and six counts out 5x.

5. Ear sweeps Split the middle two fingers to frame the ears (think Captain Spock hands). Same rainbow motion with gentle pressure on the skin. Slow and deliberate. Breathe in for four, hold for four and exhale for eight counts out 5x.

6. Crown tapping Light rapid tapping on the top of the head. Breathe in for four, hold for four and exhale for eight counts out 5x.

7. Forehead tapping Light rapid tapping on between the eyebrows. Breathe in for four, hold for four and exhale for eight counts out 5x.

8. Repeat Sternum tapping With one hand light rapid tapping the top of the sternum with finger tips. Breathe five counts in and ten counts out 5x.

What to Carry Into Any Practice After This

You don’t need the full 90-minute flow we did together. Fifteen minutes of slow, intentional practice does more for these systems than an hour done without awareness.

Prioritize breathing. The deep inhale creates a vacuum in the chest cavity and that then encourages the lymph to move there on the exhale. The slow exhale also activates the parasympathetic nervous system, the state in which the glymphatic system does its best work.

Use gravity. Legs up the wall is a great pose to support lymphatic drainage from the feet and legs.

Let stillness be the final movement. The sound bath at the end of the Reset was not just a bonus. It was the integration. The glymphatic system does its deepest clearing when you are completely still and your nervous system is regulated. Savasana is not optional.

One More Thing

Patanjali named this practice thousands of years before the science existed to explain it. He called it Saucha: clearing what obscures so that what is true can come through.

The science just caught up.

What happened in that room on May 30th was real. Your body was doing something specific, and now you have the tools to do it again, alone, any day you need it.

The Reconnection Reset gathers monthly. Each one has a different theme. All of them are free and open to everyone. No experience required. Find upcoming dates and register at denveryogasummit.com/reset.

The Denver Yoga Summit gathers September 11-13, 2026 at Chatfield Farms, Denver Botanic Gardens. Three days of yoga asana, meditation, philosophy, breathwork, sound, and community at the foothills of the Rockies. Tickets are available at denveryogasummit.com/tickets.