The Art Of Tuning In Podcast with Maria Furlano

Floating Anxiety | ep. 96

• Maria Furlano • Season 4 • Episode 96

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When we're dealing with anxiety, or overwhelm there are tools we can use to redirect our energy flow to feel safe and supported. In today's episode I'm sharing these insights and a guided practice with you, that I hope you'll use to manage your energy in positive ways.

*Introduction to Qigong workshop > https://www.theartoftuningin.com/flowing-within-waitlist

And when you're ready, here's the ways I can support you today:

Thanks for tuning in!

- Hello everyone. Welcome. Welcome to Yhe Art Of Tuning In Podcast. I'm Maria Furlano This is episode 96 and it's called Floating Anxiety, and I cannot wait to jump in with you today and give you what I hope will be some great insights and tools to help you. Or maybe you have a friend or a loved one that deals with anxiety, overwhelm, who's dealing with some fear, who's just being not quite settled in how they feel. I'm hoping that today will really help shed some light on why and what you can do energetically to bring yourself back into balance. If you're new here, welcome. Thank you for finding this episode. It's very nice to meet you. My name is Maria Furlano and I'm a doctor of medical Qigong, a physician of Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and I'm also a spiritual medium and I work with people internationally as a coach. And I'm so glad you're joining us today. And if you've been here before, thank you for coming back. It's great to have you here again. There is so much that is happening over on The Art Of Tuning in.com. A brand new introduction to Qigong workshop is happening in October. All our welcome, if you go on over to The Art Of Tuning On.com, you will find a place to sign up for the wait list, sign up for Energy Insights, sign up for Holding Space, Tuning In Studio Private coaching. There is just so much going on. Please go over and visit and of course I will put all of the links below. I would love to have you join me for whatever it is that is most supportive to you at this time. So floating anxiety, let's jump in to today's topic. Again, it's all about frequency. It's about being stuck in certain areas of our body and how emotions can create these stuck places in us. So I want you to picture yourself when you have felt anxious, and I want you to really tune in if you're open to it, to where that energy or emotion tends to be in your body. And what I mean by that is do you notice that often when you're feeling anxious, the energy tends to be up in your chest, in your throat, in your shoulders, in your neck, kind of up in your head. A lot of times you can't focus very well and it's just all around you. You just feel like it's pervasive and you can't really get settled, right? That's why that you feel anxious is you can't settle. And I know some people have never really felt truly rooted and grounded in their body where they felt really rooted, really grounded and really safe because they all go together. So when you're rooted and when you're grounded. And so when, when I say that rooting means that we feel stable, that we feel centered, we can breathe all the way down through our legs. I mean that's real grounding that we are really present. Being grounded is also a real sense of presence. And if you'll notice when you felt anxiety or overwhelm, you don't really feel present because all of your energy is being spent on worrying or feeling anxious. So you're losing a lot of energy through anxiety. And this is why we often feel really tired. And then of course if we're not sleeping well, because when we go to sleep, we tend to think about things or we do fall asleep and maybe we're having a lot of anxious dreams or a lot of things are coming up and our dreams and we don't feel rested when we wake up in the morning. Now we're in this vicious cycle where our body never settles. And that's really what I want us to understand today is our theme is settling. We can learn to settle our energy. We also learn to settle anxiety. So if you're picturing and understanding that all of this energy is floating up in your chest, up in your throat, up in your shoulders, up in your head, then why is it not going down? Why do you feel this way when you have anxiety and overwhelm? When you have fear that kicks in? Because when we're anxious, we are feeling out of control. That is the fear. The fear is we are not in control of the situation. I feel anxious because I don't have control over it. Our control mechanism in our body is deeply related with our root chakra. Our root chakra is all about grounding. It's about being centered. It's about being in our power fully in our power of who we are, what we're doing, where we're going in life, standing up tall, having the confidence to move through life. So if we don't have that feeling within us, if that is not what is playing out in our present life, then our root chakra pulls right up in our body. So as our root chakra pulls up in our body, you'll also notice that when you have anxiety, typically people who have anxiety, a lot of anxiety are very tight in their hips, very tight in their lower back, their legs can be tight. They don't move very fluidly through their body because they're holding especially in the root of their body. So if you're feeling anxiety, and if anxiety is something with you that is predominant, meaning we all have our predominant emotions that we go to, some people go to worry. Some people go to overwhelm. Some people go to fear. Some people go to anger. Some people have anxiety. And some people you have a combination of all kinds of emotions that happen. And emotions are normal. We want to feel emotions. We wanna be in tune with our emotions. Emotions tell us so much. And there are very healthy ways to have emotions. But when emotional states, such as anxiety, overwhelm, when they hang on day after day after day, or they come up at the same times every day where they're very prevalent in our life now we are really draining our energy system. And now we're really out of balance and we find that we become less and less productive because basically we're just pulling all the gas out of our tank. So learning how to align your energy, that energy management piece, learning how to release what you need to release, learning how to align your energy, learning how to root and ground yourself, then you learn how to refill that tank that you've been using. You can't replenish the energy of your body if all of your energy is spinning out, meaning all this anxiety is going out, out, out. You can't replenish because those are two completely different actions. In order to replenish your energy, you need to come to center. You need to be able to ground, you need to be able to be still, and you need to be able to nourish yourself. So with anxiety and with overwhelm, there's no stillness. It's constantly out putting, the mind is going, we're thinking, thinking, thinking. And it can be very unsatisfactory thinking and feeling, meaning that it's not solution oriented thinking and feeling. When we have a lot of anxiety and overwhelm, because again, anxiety and overwhelm is about feeling not in control. When we don't feel in control, it's very hard to have creative solution-oriented ideas that come to the surface until we take the time to center ourselves. So silencing, being able to move into silence can be incredibly challenging for anyone who is dealing with anxiety and overwhelm.'cause what I want you to see is that in anxiety and overwhelm is always outputting and you can't be still and quiet unless you're in your body. So one of the first things that we wanna do with being able to calm, anxiety and overwhelm is to learn how to breathe into our hips. And as you learn to breathe into your hips, that will automatically begin to bring the energy down. Now, this of course, is something I teach. I do it every single week in holding space, which is a free offering that I give in a guided meditation with anyone who wants to join. And you can find out all about that, of course on the website. But Qigong exercises and understanding how to go into stillness and understanding how to clear your energy and knowing how to ground yourself, that is the beautiful training to reset anxiety and overwhelm. And so the first thing that needs to happen with that is to learn how to breathe into your hips and to learn how to begin to feel your legs and to feel your feet and to feel the earth. Because chances are, if you're paying attention to how you're feeling, in the moments of when you feel anxiety and overwhelm, you will notice that you're disconnected in your body, that you're not really feeling your body fully, definitely not grounded, rooted, touching the earth, feeling really secure again, right? Because if you were feeling really secure, you would not be feeling anxious and overwhelmed. So in order to re-pattern the anxiousness and the overwhelms and the fears and and all of the energy that's coming up in our body, because we're not rooted, so it's all rising. We're not feeling secure, we're not feeling safe, it's all rising. We need to redirect that energy down. As we lower our energy, as we drop in, as it's called, we become still and we can become still, and we can hold that stillness and be still and be present for longer and longer and longer. The more we practice it when we're still and when we're present, we see things from a completely different viewpoint. We're able to expand our awareness in a broad way, to be able to see situations, to be able to listen to people differently, to be able to take in information differently where we're really just taking in the information and understanding it, but we're not being overwhelmed or bombarded by the information. And that's because we've created a different frequency within us that is rooted, that is grounded, and that is strong. And when we're able to shift into a frequency that is grounded, rooted, and strong, we no longer feel out of control. And so as we no longer feel out of control, we're able to step into any situation in our life with a completely different presence. So do you see where this is going? This is all about reshifting your energy, redirecting your energy, and learning to feel safe. For everybody, that's gonna be a little bit different. The anxiety in your life, the overwhelm in your life is there for a reason. It may be that you feel you don't have support. It may be that you have fears coming up from past in your life. It may be that you are completely overworked and you need to change your schedule. It may be that you're not nourishing yourself well enough with food, with water, with rest, with exercise, with all of these different things. It can be many factors that are contributing to anxiety and overwhelm. When we start to look at all those factors that are causing the anxiety, that are causing the overwhelm, it can be much easier to release them gently and allow you to come back into your center, allow you to get the support you need, allow you to understand what it is your body is asking for. So when we are in anxiety and overwhelm, it's not something to be ignored or it's not something to feel like, oh, we're weak in some way because we're not feeling grounded and rooted. When we're in anxiety and overwhelm, there's a reason that needs to be listened to. And when you're able to understand that reason, or usually there's several reasons why this is happening in your life, you're able to retune them and heal those reasons. Anxiety and overwhelm begins to dissipate on its own, but you still usually have to learn how to move into your center, how to release the root chakra, how to ground into the earth, how to feel supported, how to feel, move into who you are, move into that center, move into your strength of who you are, move into your wisdom self. So there is a shift, a great shift, and I'm sure you can feel that right now, that if you were in anxiety, if you were in overwhelm, if you were in fear and you were to let that go and you were be able to step into who you are, root yourself and feel the power of you, how amazing would that feel? It would feel like a completely different frequency, which it is. And that's what I really want us to understand today. Again, with everything that I teach, it's about shifting frequencies, what you're currently doing into the frequency that you want to hold. I don't know if you've noticed that When we move into anxiety or overwhelm, a lot of times we feel a lot, we feel overwhelmed, right? A lot of times people feel very heavy, they feel very tired. Sometimes they're breathing changes, but they don't really feel their body, they're not really connected to themself. And a lot of times it's because we're trying to get out of the anxiety overwhelm. We're trying to ignore it, or we're trying to push through it, or we're trying to push it away. And what we really wanna be able to do is to step into that anxiety and overwhelm and say, hello, hello, anxiety, hello, overwhelm. What is going on? What am I most concerned about? What am I most fearful of? What am I most worried about? What are all these feelings that are coming up? And really take some time instead of pushing through it, instead of ignoring it to write, to get it out, to do what's called a brain dump, where you just sit down and you write free hand and you just let it all out. You don't censor it. You don't judge yourself. No one else is gonna read this. You just let it out. What are you feeling? What are you feeling? What's happening? And you really get to the root core of what's going on. When you do that, sometimes things come out that you had no idea that you really didn't know were in there. Some of the most rooted fears that you have or or the reasons of feeling unsupported or what it is that you need. When you allow time to listen to yourself and not push through the anxiety, not push through the overwhelm, but actually stop again, our goal is to go into silence. Our goal is to move into a space within ourselves where we can hear ourselves, and we call it of course in the energetic guards, that we're moving into a space of alignment, that we're centering ourselves, that we are fully embodying our energy, but that is bringing everything into alignment and becoming still. And that stillness is essential to heal overwhelm and anxiety. Because in overwhelm and anxiety, we are used to constantly chasing our energy. Our energy is always out in front of us. It's always trying to figure things out. It's always feeling overwhelmed. It's reacting and responding, and its very frail energy. You learn how to center yourself when you learn how to relax, drop in the root chakra naturally relaxes when it feels safe. And when you do that, an amazing flood of energy comes into you and your exhaustion begins to dissipate, and you gain within you an energetic source that you had no idea was there. This is like a fountain of energy that recharges your entire system. And so this is why we don't wanna ignore anything. We don't wanna push it away. We actually wanna go into the feelings of why are we feeling anxious, and why are we feeling overwhelmed? And what it is that you need, because there's a reason. It's not that you're doing anything wrong, it's that the situation in your life that you are in. So your energy has also created this situation. You are part of the energy of the situation, which means that you are part of solution to the energy that is presently in your life. When you take responsibility for that, when you step into the energy that you have also created, been a part of this energy, then you can see things from a much broader vantage point. So let's take a moment, and if you'll do this with me, I wanna be able to make sure today that you leave with a real understanding of how to step in and do this Wherever you are, you put your feet on the floor. Sometimes when you put your feet on the floor, one foot kind of turns up and the other one is flap, but the other one is up. Well just move your body so that both feet, the soles are touching the floor, really connect both feet, move your toes, kind of tap the earth and really feel and take this seriously, because this is part of a disconnection that can happen in your body when you're really used to being in anxiety and overwhelm. You're just not present with the earth as your feet are touching the earth or the floor or the grass, or wherever you are, feel the weight of your feet. Feel your toes. Your feet might be in shoes. That's okay. If you can take off your shoes, that's even better. But wherever you are, just feel your feet. And as you take your mind, as you take the attention of your mind into your feet, automatically your energy will begin to flow to your feet. Because wherever you focus your mind, the energy of your body will focus as well. And now picture that your feet are breathing with the earth. So if you can be very visual about this. And so if you were to breathe, what happens when you breathe? When you breathe, you expand. Either you know, your chest expands, your belly expands. And as you take in air, your body expands. And as you exhale, your body gently contracts. Well see that with the bottoms of your feet. As you inhale, see the bottoms of your feet expand. And as you exhale, see the bottoms of your feet, just relax. And as you do that, again, see it expand. It's almost like a cartoon in your mind, like when they do a cartoon and they make something kind of big and not really realistic, see your feet that way for just right now. See your feet as big. See them as as bigger than life. And as you breathe in, see them expand and connect with the earth. See them breathing with the earth. And as you let go of the breath, just see them relax with the earth. And just notice as you do this, create an inner smile or an outer smile. But if you keep your lips closed and you breathe in and out through your nose, we create what's called an inner smile. And that inner smile lifts our energy. It also opens up, lifts our cheekbones, and it also helps to open up our sinuses. But it's actually a chi mover. It moves the chi, it moves the energy of the body. It allows yourself, your vibration, your frequency to lift. So this inner smile that's happening with yourself right now as you're breathing in and out through your nose if you can, and you are eyes open or closed, picturing feeling your feet breathing with the earth and have fun with this, just take a moment and breathe with your feet. And as your feet are breathing with the earth, keep them breathing with the earth. But take your mind now and bring your breath into your hips. Bring your breath into the seat of the chair that you are sitting on. And as you breathe into your hips, you can also breathe into your butt. And that butt is sitting on your chair and you're gonna feel the chair. And as you're breathing fully into your hips, you're gonna feel that your belly is gonna expand and you're gonna begin to feel yourself breathe into the chair, and you're gonna feel your feet breathing into the earth. And as you do this with this inner smile, and you start to center yourself, it may not be right away or it might be, but you're gonna start to feel your shoulders relax. You are gonna start to feel yourself let go. And I want you to know that you're being held by that chair. You're being held by the earth. And as you do that, feel safe, feel yourself being held and supported just for a moment, just for a moment. And as you breathe, just begin to tune in to a deeper wisdom within you, a wisdom that is so much more important than whatever is going on in your outside world. With this wisdom is who you really are. Breathing into your hips, breathing into your butt, breathing into the seat of the chair, breathing into your feet, being held by the chair, being held by the earth, connected to a deeper part of you. Feel yourself let go. And the more you do this on a regular basis, as often as you can throughout your day, even just taking five minutes to pause and stop and breathe and connect and feel supported within you, you'll begin to tune into that part of yourself. That is your completeness, that is your inner strength, that is who you really are. That is that support system for you. And you'll be able to then start slowly to see things differently. And you'll notice that solutions will more easily come about that. If you allow yourself to get the support you need, you will bring about more support for yourself, and you will learn a little bit and a little bit to redirect the energy of your body. And that floating anxiety will begin to dissipate and you'll move through life differently. So when we talk about these things and just now allow yourself to breathe. If your eyes were closed, that's great. You can just slowly open them and just keep breathing into your hips. Just kind of make that a regular practice for yourself all the time. We should be breathing that way all the time. That allows our belly to open and allows us to breathe into our back. It allows the sides of our body to breathe. So it's a very healthy breathing. Sometimes it's just hard to get there. We have to move from this chest breathing because of the energy going up down into our belly. And so breathing into the hips, breathing into your butt, breathing into the chair can help you do that. And then adding the feet as well can really bring us down and get us rooted. So as you do this more and more and more, you are gonna get more in tune with your body, and you're gonna get more in tune with how your body feels. And so you're gonna be able to catch the early stages of when anxiety are overwhelm, begin to build, then you have a choice. If we're able to catch things when they start to build, when they just begin, we have such an amazing opportunity to redirect that energy that puts us in control of our life, that puts us in control of our decisions and what it is we choose to embark on. So when we catch things early, if it feels great, if it's a forward moving event, if we feel good, if it's like what we're supposed to do, then great. Our energy goes with that. We are fully supported. If things begin to come to you and you feel a little anxious, you feel overwhelmed, you feel a little fearful, you feel a little doubtful. That is your body's energetic system telling you that something is not quite in alignment, something is out of tune. And so just by pausing, just by finding that stillness within yourself, you can read direct, realign, recenter, and then move differently into what's in front of you. How you've been thinking can change how you've been moving. Your body can change. How you've been breathing can change how you've been interacting with people can change. So give yourself that opportunity to be able to redirect your energy in a different way, and you will find a place within you that is a fountain of energy, that revitalizes your life in every way. And if there is anything that I can do to help you find those tools, come on over and see me because we teach this every single day. But start with your breath. Start with being held by the chair that you're in. Start by connecting to the earth. Be present with yourself. You are supported. You have all the support you need. You are truly an amazing soul. I thank you for being here today. I will see you in the next episode.