Is sensing energy normal or weird? | #74

If everyone was sensing energy and working with their intuition, more intimately on a regular basis, the communication in our world would be completely different.

Transcript for episode #074 | Maria Furlano, DMQ (China), MTOM, L.Ac.

INTRO:  Welcome to The Art Of Tuning In Podcast with Maria Furlano, sharing insights, tools and conversations to inspire your energetic well being.

0:11

Hello, everyone. Welcome. This is Maria Furlano. Thank you for joining me today on episode number 74. On the art of tuning in podcast, I'm calling this episode "Is it normal to sense energy?" And the reason why that title is here today is because I had a really great conversation with a student of mine that I would like to share with you today because I believe that it's going to answer your questions, and I'm hoping to inspire you on your journey. And I think that it's definitely something a lot of people may deal with.

0:51

I know that in the beginning of my training, and especially when I started to really open my intuitive gifts, and have them really be a prominent part of my regular life. I also went through some of these things that this conversation brought up. And so I'm really hoping that it will give you some really good insights today. And I'm cannot wait to dive into it.

1:19

But at first, I just want to say if you're new here, welcome. I'm Maria Furlano. I'm a Doctor of Medical Qigong, a physician of Chinese Medicine, and I'm also a spiritual medium. I teach people how to tune in to their own energetic alignment, and increase their emotional balance and well being and vitality, and expand their intuitive gifts. I have an online membership called The Art Of Tuning In Studio. And if you are interested in expanding your energy and expanding into your own intuitive gifts, please feel free to check that out at theartoftuningin.com.

And while you're there, if you are looking for a way to root your mind and calm your energy, please sign up for free access to my four minute guided visualization called "Root the Mind." It will be great to have you part of my community and to continue to share wonderful things with you. And if you've been listening for a while, thank you so much for coming back. I so appreciate you and appreciate your time.

 Click > HERE to get free access to my 4 min. seated practice that calm's the mind and resets your energy AND my subscribers also get discounts on all Live Workshops I offer! 

2:30

Is it normal to sense energy?

Let's jump right in! Is it normal to sense energy? Well, of course, if you've been here and listening to me and know what I do, yes, it's extremely normal to sense energy. But what happens when we actually begin to dive in and open our intuitive gifts?

2:54

Qigong is an energy healing art. And it is a movement art. And it encompasses the entire body, body alignment, energy movement through the meridians of the body, the Acupuncture meridians of the body. It encompasses breath, mental focus, meditation, and so it is a full body healing system. But it also tunes us in to our intuitive gifts. And what's so wonderful about it is because through the Qigong and through meditation, and through refocusing your mindset and understanding how you're reacting and responding to life, your energy begins to open. Your system begins to open, blockages begin to clear, and you begin to heal. And as you do that your natural intuitive gifts begin to come forward.

3:52

So many ways you sense energy...

And so again, if this is new for you, intuition compiles of many different things. We can sense, we can feel, meaning we can feel the energy or the emotions of a room of another person of the planet and of animals. We can hear, meaning we hear messages, we hear information. We see, some people see auras, colors around people. And sometimes the seeing the visual, literally looks like there is something physically in front of you that is actually tangible. And sometimes we see things like we're looking at a movie in our mind. We still see the images, but it's more we know it's inside of us that we are interpreting. We can hear thought forms that we translate into information. Some people have a very strong intuitive taste, that where they can even taste what an illness in someone they can translate what's going on with someone through translating the tastes that they're picking up that sensation. And the same thing can happen for people with their sense of smell.

5:09

There are so many ways to interpret energy, and all of these gifts everyone has. But sometimes we are more predominant in one. So for example, it's very, very, very common for healers, people who work with other people, coaches, therapists, bodyworkers, to really be very empathic meaning that they feel in their own body, they can interpret in their own body, feeling what someone else is going through, for example. So that's very, very common.

5:49

But what happens when we have our strongest gifts, and then we begin to do Qigong, meditation, changing your mindset, working through your energy, clearing, your energy healing, things that you have been carrying around with you, is that other gifts, other intuitive gifts begin to open as well. And so when this happens, this is a wonderful thing! And you know, I've never heard anybody say that they didn't want it to happen, that they were truly afraid of it. But what can happen is that it can come on very strongly, and very quickly, and sometimes in very large doses, especially when you're doing the kind of work that I teach.

6:37

Tuning in to your true self...

And so this wonderful student that I have, in the last two years she's really committed herself to doing the Qigong practice and doing the meditations and doing the clearing and really spending the time. And for her, as soon as she began to do those practices, it really connected with her very, very easily and her intuitive gifts that she wasn't aware of.

7:02

She always knew she was very empathic, you know, she can feel other people's emotions. And she also was learning she was picking up other people's emotions and sometimes taking them home with her. And so she learns to clear that and not carry that around. But then other intuitive gifts began to emerge for her. She can see colors, these colors are auras around people. She actually can tune into her own energy and she can see the colors in her own energetic fields, which we call the "Wei Qi" fields. That means "protective field. In medical Qigong I teach a technique where we actually tune into the three "Wei Qi" fields... Which are our physical field, our emotional field, and our spiritual field. And this is what we work with primarily in Qigong. But if you work with the Chakra systems, this is not very different than that. There's seven chakras, there's three "Wei Qi" fields.

8:02

She was doing this work, in her meditation and in her Qigong, she realized that if she tuned into her own energy, she could sense the colors in her fields. And she could sense how they shifted and changed with her emotional state. And with her physical state, meaning if she wasn't feeling well, if she had an injury and was in pain, whatever was going on with her, she could start to read and see how her vibration changed, which is truly fascinating and wonderful. And it really helped her to see very quickly how she could rebalance her energy. Because she could see that it was out of balance, she could understand why. And she realized that she could clear herself and she could realign herself.

8:49

And that's wonderful. But then she began to see energy outside of herself, she began to see colors around people at times, not all the time, but sometimes. And then she began a few times to see an energy hanging out. That was a color. So like a floating vibration of color. And this started to make her question a little bit and wonder and mostly because again, if we don't have people that we can share this with, we can sometimes feel very strange. And it isn't a common conversation that we can just walk up to somebody and say, hey, you know, I see these colors over here and I see those colors around you and I heard these voices and I heard this music and I I heard these things and I know that there was nothing around, but I know that I'm hearing certain vibrations and this is new for me. Or you know, I'm waking up at night and there's someone in my space and it is an energy and a frequency and it's not necessarily scary, but it's so real and tangible to me that I know that it happened. And then I went back to sleep. And I have no no way to prove it, no one to share it with, right?

10:12

So all of these things are happening to this beautiful student of mine. And they do happen, these things have happened to me, I understand that it can be so real. And what happens is that, then you can begin to doubt yourself, or you can move into states of nervousness and fear. And again, a lot of it is because we don't have people to communicate which, which is exactly why I created the Studio, because we all communicate in there.

And we can all share things, and no one thinks you're weird. We're all working on the same goals.

It took this student of mine a little bit before we were actually able to have a conversation on the phone and communicate. And I regret that it took so long because this has been going on with her for quite a while. And what she shared with me was that she actually stopped her meditation and her Qigong practice, because there were so many things happening for her, there were so many intuitive experiences that she was having very quickly, right after she would meditate or during meditation, or after she would do the Qigong. And when she stepped away from it, and they would all tone down. So it was like she could, turn them off if she stopped doing her spiritual and energetic practice. But they would really amplify as she was doing her practice, which, of course, is totally normal, because those practices open up our energy. But she wasn't sure if she knew enough to continue to open these gifts? What if all that she was seeing wasn't okay, or was it normal? Was it not normal? Was she different? Did a lot of people have this experience?

 Click > HERE to get free access to my 4 min. seated practice that calm's the mind and resets your energy AND my subscribers also get discounts on all Live Workshops I offer! 

10:16

And she felt bad because she really loves doing the practices. But she was just admitting to me that she had stopped. And interestingly, when we stop doing energetic practices that are really serving us. and helping us to heal, our energy can shift and we can go into very low energy states, because our frequency has now been trained to go to an elevated frequency, a higher frequency, we're vibrating at a very fast and fluid rate. So when we turn that off, a lot of times we can start to feel not great. And this was happening to her. But she just wasn't sure how to step back in and if she should?

12:02

Why do people get afraid of tuning in?

This brought up in my mind, the question that I was speaking to my guides, as I was channeling them, why do we many of us, not everybody, but why do many people because like I said, I know I went through this as well in the beginning, why do we get afraid of intuition, and have these amazing gifts that connect us so strongly, and purely to our divine guidance?

13:24

And the reason that we do get scared is because we are actually stepping into our pure empowerment.

13:35

Throughout history, generations, 1000s of years, we have had a very, very strong religious influence. Now, I'm not saying anything against religion, I actually think religions are fascinating, and that every single religion has something of benefit to offer, because at the heart of them they are dealing with love and universal love and universal energy and God.

14:04

But it is about understanding that as religions, different religions have placed emphasis on separation, meaning that we should not connect directly with God or directly with source or directly with divine energy, that we are lower than that. "That is blasphemy" (some religions would say) to be able to have a conversation with God, to connect directly to God. 14:40 And because of this influence, even if you don't believe that it's still an influence it is still within generations of our culture, and our philosophy. And so when we start to step into this empowerment, this true connection of our divinity, it can bring up all of those questions that are basically sitting in our cellular structure that may be laying dormant and quiet, and fears can begin. And the more powerfully aligned we get, the more fears can start to surface and we can begin to pull ourselves back and out of that alignment and empowerment, because we're afraid of what might happen, or should we do this?

15:31

And there's nothing wrong with that, there's nothing wrong with stepping back. For me what happened when I was beginning to really open up a variety of gifts... So I am similar to a lot of people were, you know, being in the healing profession for many, many, many years, I was and am highly empathic and read people's energy through what I feel in my body. But after my Qigong training, and working with myself, other gifts began to open very quickly, my hearing, my sense of sight, knowing. And I was very excited about that only because I didn't want the empathic to be my only sense of intuition. Sometimes being empathic can be very difficult, because you really do feel very intensely. And when you're able to open up your other senses, it becomes more balanced, and you're able to tune in, in such a way to the intuitive information that you can access. So it's much more of a wonderful flow of information. Instead of sometimes when you're highly empathic, it kind of feels like you're just being pummeled until you learn how to balance that.

16:49

So I was really excited that things were opening for me, but I was having lots of experiences at night. I would wake up and I would hear my name, and I would be seeing things and my dreams would be very intense. And I was starting to get quite nervous. And so of course, I had a teacher that I would speak to about these things. And I noticed that I started to shut down these gifts, that I was feeling a great deal of anxiety that would come up. And I was so confused, because I thought, this is what I want to do. This is why I'm here. And I have these natural gifts, and why am I stopping myself?

17:32

Take the time to process how you feel...

And so I always share with my students when there comes a point where they're beginning to open their natural gifts, and things are changing for them and their frequency and how they're looking at their life and themselves... To take some time and begin to process and take note of how they're feeling, and are their fears coming up or not? Because it doesn't have to be. But many people who I have worked with do have some kind of fear or hesitation or something that comes up that can confuse them. And if they just ignore it, they can step back and not actually be able to tune in and step into their empowerment the way that they deserve to. 18:19 So for me when I was starting to have a lot of hesitations and confusion and worry and fears, my teachers said to me to spend time in meditation, and really ask, what was I afraid of? What was I avoiding?

18:39

At the time when he mentioned this, honestly I just kind of rolled my eyes because I had no idea that this would really work. And so I came home after training. And every day I sat in meditation, and I would ask what was going on? And basically, for two weeks, I did this and nothing happened. And in fact, I felt like I couldn't tune in at all. I felt like I actually hit a wall like. Above my head where I normally I would expand into divine consciousness and below my feet, I expand into the earth and I would get my alignment, I was having a hard time even getting my alignment and I felt like I was hitting a wall and I just didn't understand what's happening? And I would be frustrated, in every meditation and just move on.

19:38

And then finally about two weeks later, I decided to sit in front of a tree and do a meditation. And as I was sitting there doing my meditation, honestly my heart wasn't really into it because I was so frustrated. But this was really a good thing because I relaxed and I let my guard down and I stopped trying. And all of these tears began to pour out of me. And I realized that I did not feel worthy of connecting to the highest frequency of divine love that I could. And then, of course, why didn't I feel worthy? And a lot of what came up for me was about the fact that I had been raised in a religious background that really said that it was not normal to be able to connect directly with divine source. Also, what would happen to me, if I could do that? These were all the things that were coming up, how would my life change? What was stepping into my true power to this empowerment to this connection to this divine knowing... How would it change me? And what responsibility would I then have? And all of those things started coming up, and I will honestly tell you that I had no idea that they were going to come up, it was such a shock to me, especially the part of where I didn't feel worthy enough to connect.

21:20

But this was the biggest turning point in all the ways that my energy was able to move and heal. And so it takes a while, you know, it's not like all of a sudden that comes up, and then the next day, you're hunky dory, and everything's fine. It was a process that I went through, I continued to meditate, I continued to cry continue to heal, I did my Qigong practices, I journaled, I really began to look at and take apart how I was feeling, what I had learned as a child. And none of this came from my parents. Which was great, because my parents were extremely encouraging, of spirituality. But I was raised Catholic, and I went to Catholic school. And there was just a lot of this kind of talk that happened when I was very, very young and this disconnection from being able to really sit and align in that kind of way.

22:22

And so through the process of working with myself and exploring these questions, I began to heal it. And I began to release the ego that I was attaching to it, I began to release the fears. And I realized through connecting with guidance and with my teachers that seeing energy, understanding the frequency of energy, is the most natural thing in the world. And everyone should be able to see it, feel it, hear it, sense it, everyone, it is not a unique thing to a precious few.

23:10

Some people enter this life more tuned in to their intuition...

Some people come in to this life with much stronger intuitive gifts present, they're much more open, and then others develop it and open it as they go through their life. But it is not unique, and it is normal, totally normal.

23:29

And if we could move into states where we were really seeing each other's energies, where we were really feeling each other's energies, where we were tapping in to our divine guidance, whether that is divine source, whether that is your guides, your angels, whether that is different realms that you tap into... There is so much loving, guided, intelligent, so highly intelligent information available to us. There is so much support available to us in the spiritual realms, and to be able to tap into that on our own is the most natural thing in the world.

24:12

Feeling isolated...

And so with this beautiful student, we had this great conversation about what is normal, what is natural, what are the fears that are coming up? And really a lot of it also came down to "feeling so isolated, not being able to share with other people what I'm experiencing, and because I can't do that freely and openly, am I weird?"

24:39

There's probably not going to be a lot of people who you probably can talk to unless you're in a community, or you have a lot of friends who are into spirituality, who are into opening up their own intuition or into really elevating their own frequency and working on their personal development.

You probably have at least one or two people in your life that you can access or that you will be able to find. And I highly encourage you to speak with these people regularly to set up phone conversations, set up coffee dates to really share what it is you're experiencing.

25:23

Create the sacred space with your group...

And also put up some boundaries around this relationship that you are going to be sharing your experiences with, and they're going to be sharing with you. And the boundaries that I would put up in advance to talk it through is that you're going to create a safe and sacred space, for the two of you, the three of you, whoever it is to really be able to completely explain what you experience, and that there's no interruption from anyone else, as you're explaining what it is you're experiencing.

 Click > HERE to get free access to my 4 min. seated practice that calm's the mind and resets your energy AND my subscribers also get discounts on all Live Workshops I offer! 

25:59

And the reason why I say that is because when we are translating intuitive energy, meaning that we see something or we hear something, or we experience something, and then when we're trying to put it into words, to communicate to somebody else, that can be very difficult for people. But it is the most fantastic exercise.

26:20

Keep communicating what you're experiencing...

One of the things I always do with my students is I gently push them to keep sharing with me to keep telling me what they're experiencing, to keep communicating. Because the more that they can communicate, the more real it becomes for them and their ego mind can't just push it aside as "Oh, I didn't experience that, that didn't happen."

26:43

The more we communicate, the more we're able to communicate this energy, if you are someone who, for example, wants to do intuitive, or mediumship readings for people, if you want to work with other people, communication is key you you have to learn how it is that you translate the energy because everybody's very different.

Someone might, for example, see a red rose. And that means one thing to someone, and someone else sees a red rose. And it means something completely different to them. So how you experience the energy, how you experience, the communication, that's coming to you is going to be very different than how somebody else communicates.

27:25

And so as you share with people who you trust, and to are also into this same kind of personal growth, spiritual growth that you are, it's important to not interrupt each other, it's important to have a boundary and the beginning that says, We're not going to interrupt each other because it could take a while for all of this to be able to be explained and shared. And I may stumble through it, but you want to let me stumble through it. Because that helps me really not cut corners, not try to move through something quickly and miss something that's really important. And then when you're done, that's when people can ask questions, you know, I didn't understand this part, or can you make this part more clear? How did you feel here? What did you think about that, and then it goes even deeper, because now you're in a real conversation with people about the experience that you had.

28:25

And this can take your experience and open your intuitive gifts. even further. I always say to people, journal about your experiences and I do think that's wonderful. And journaling is a really important tool, especially when you experience something and you need to write it down, you need to write it down in that moment, you know, you cannot wait a few days. Because when you experience an intuitive hit, as we call it, or you you know, receive information, that information can feel extremely profound in the moment. But a few minutes later, you can actually feel like it was like a cloud that just moved through and you don't remember it fully.

29:10

So if you get used to writing it down, immediately, you then allow that energy to take forms. This is another reason why in all of my private sessions, we audio record the sessions because the information that's coming through the intuitive information that's coming through to be shared, comes through so fast, that it's in it's out and it's gone.

29:35

Intuitive information is quick...

And so this is something too, that you want to be aware of is that when you are really tapping in when you're really aligned and you're tapping into this intuitive field. The information is light, it's flowing, it's quick, it's coming in at a vibrational speed that's completely different than our 3d kind of heavier energy tangible world. And so your energy will needs to be very high frequency very relaxed, the more open your heart is, the more energy you'll be able to receive and be able to express.

30:11

As you're speaking with your friends, as you're communicating in your spirit group, we'll call it your heart also wants to be relaxed. When we get nervous, and we're trying to communicate something, we can shut down and kind of stumble, and we can lose our connection. Because as you're sharing in your spirit group with your friends, more information will come through from your intuition from your divine guidance, it will continue to come through you as you share and communicate as long as you can relax in as long as you can keep your heart open.

30:48

Something else that you may want to do when you're speaking with your friend, or if you're in a group is that before you begin sharing with each other, maybe you have a few minutes, where you're quiet all of you together, and you breathe, and you relax your body. And you are in a nice aligned posture, and comfy and safe and a quiet space - really set your alignment for this conversation. And everybody does it at once. And if you get nervous, or if you feel yourself closing up, a lot of times, you may feel your throat Chakra begin to close up, just pause and step back. And we said to yourself, This is just such a great practice because as you're communicating with people, you're also still moving into alignment and channeling information, you're connecting in with your divine empowerment, and you will really, really grow that way. And when you don't feel weird when things don't feel kind of out there and not normal, like you know, everybody else, your gifts will be something that flow with you day to day, moment to moment.

32:04

And then when you really want to tap in to your intuitive gifts, you will maybe you have a question, or you do need some support, you will be able to do it at will, in a really big way. This may sound like a lot to some of you if this is new for you. And of course, that is why we do in my case, the Qigong practices and the meditation and and we begin to heal our energy so that we can be an open conduit so that we can flow in a very different way.

32:37

You're sensing in every moment...

But you are sensing information every moment. Again, sensing intuitive information, intuitive energy is totally normal. And we're doing it all the time. You know, you might walk up to somebody, and they you know are dressed and look perfectly fine. But you can sense that maybe they don't feel so well. Or maybe they are emotionally in not a great place. But maybe they're looking at you and they're smiling, because they're trying to hide it. But you're still sensing something is off, you're actually sensing their energy fields, you're sensing how their energy is responding that day. Is it bright? Is it full? Is it healthy? Is it balanced? Is it happy? Is it sad? Is it expanded as a contracted?

33:29 We're sensing these things all the time. And as we begin to open up our own intuitive gifts, we can then determine are we seeing it more, are we feeling it? Are we actually hearing information?

33:46

You know, when I hear information, it's like a block of thought. So I have heard voices before especially when I'm sleeping with a student who was speaking with me said that she was hearing voices during the day because I asked Well, do you hear it like when you're sleeping or when you wake up because for me when I'm sleeping and about to wake up, sometimes I will hear my name very strongly, or I will hear something else. And it's literally like somebody is standing next to my bed and talking into my ear. It's that profoundly real to me. But she was hearing some of that during the day and it would be very fast and it would go away. And there was no radios on or anything like that, because she would check of course.

34:28

And so these things happen for people, different ways, different times the majority of the time. For example, if I'm having an intuitive session with somebody blocks of thought, come in and as they come into my mind into my heart into my energy field, then I translate what it is that I'm reading or picking up through words so that the other person can understand it energies coming very quickly and it's how we translate it, the better we get at translating it, the more we can understand it. So you want to spend time with this and don't get frustrated, allow it to come in, allow it to come out, allow it to just be with you.

35:15

And in your heart, if you are struggling a little bit with, I feel intuitive, or I really want to open my intuitive gifts, but I do notice that I have some fears coming up. Just remember that this is a very, very normal thing. See if some of those fears are culturally based, have you been brought up or heard that a pure connection with divine isn't normal? Or is very arrogant? Or any of these things that we may have heard, you know, blasphemy? And is that holding you back? And why would you not want to connect fully into your full empowerment. So those things are normal, they're normal questions that come up. And there's nothing wrong with them.

36:07

So if you are struggling with that, or if you have questions about your intuitive gifts, it's just something to sit and explore more. And really, if you can find yourself a spirit group where you can share this, oh, you're going to see huge changes in your intuition and your development. And it's going to be so good for all of you. And it can be just one other person. It doesn't have to be a group. But the more people who come together, the more different experiences that they share. And you all learn that you're all different, but you're all the same as well. And alignment to divine energy is absolutely beautiful.

36:48

And the great news is after the conversation with my student, she is back into doing her Qigong and her meditations and expanding her gifts and working through them. And she knows that she can communicate.

So I hope that inspired you today to step into who you are.  

Just ask yourself questions, if you feel yourself resisting, or you feel any fears coming up, just say:

• "Where's this coming from?"
• "How do I really feel about this?"
• And "how can I let this go?"

Just know sensing energy, your intuitive gifts are absolutely normal.

If everyone was sensing energy and working with their intuition, more intimately on a regular basis, the communication in our world would be completely different.

I thank you so much for joining me and I'll see you in the next episode.

Outro: Thank you for tuning in. If you'd like to learn more and elevate your energetic well being I invite you to visit the art of tuning in.com where you can learn all about our online studio. I look forward to meeting you there.