Untangling the Heart

Elizabeth Gifford Maffei

Have you ever felt emotionally stuck, unsure how to move forward, or ready for change but not sure where to begin? Untangling the Heart is a space for honest conversations about healing, vulnerability, courage, and becoming your truest self. Hosted by Elizabeth Gifford Maffei, this weekly podcast blends solo insights with powerful guest stories to explore what it really means to grow. Here, we talk about the things that matter, emotional resilience, self-awareness, confidence, and reclaiming your voice. This is not surface-level inspiration. This is growth that moves you. New episodes every week. 

  1. 1d ago

    The Heart Learns | Discernment vs Defensiveness

    Not every wall is wisdom. Sometimes what feels like protection is actually fear. Discernment allows us to stay aware and make thoughtful choices. Defensiveness keeps us expecting danger around every corner. In this clip from Untangling the Heart, we explore the difference and why emotional safety isn't the same thing as emotional armor. 🎧 Watch now and let me know which one you relate to most.

    1 min

  2. 2d ago

    The Heart Learns | Trust Yourself First

    How often do you second-guess yourself? Many of us spend so much energy trying to figure out who or what we can trust that we overlook a deeper question: Do I trust myself? In this clip from Untangling the Heart, I explore why self-trust is one of the most important foundations for emotional healing and healthy relationships. When you learn to trust yourself, you stop looking outside yourself for every answer. 🎧 Watch the clip and join the conversation.

    1 min

  3. 3d ago

    When the Heart Learns to Protect Instead of Trust with Elizabeth Gifford Maffei | Ep 9

    Why do we hesitate to trust, ask for help, speak up, or let others get close? In this solo episode of Untangling the Heart, Elizabeth explores how emotional protective patterns quietly develop over time and how they can shape our relationships, decisions, and sense of safety without us even realizing it. What begins as a survival response to disappointment, rejection, criticism, loss, or emotional neglect can eventually become a default way of moving through life. Elizabeth unpacks the important difference between protection and true safety, revealing how many of the behaviors we call independence, perfectionism, overthinking, self-doubt, or emotional distance may actually be protective strategies created by the nervous system. She also explores why self-trust is the foundation for trusting others and how healing begins when we learn to recognize our protective patterns with compassion instead of judgment. In this episode, you'll discover: how emotional protective patterns formthe difference between protection and safetyhidden ways protection can show up in everyday lifewhy self-trust comes before trusting othersdiscernment versus defensivenesspractical ways to rebuild trust in yourselfhow to soften protective walls without abandoning wisdomBecause healing isn't about becoming naïve. It's about learning how to remain open while staying connected to yourself. 🎧 Join Elizabeth for a thoughtful conversation about trust, emotional safety, self-compassion, and the courage to move forward even when uncertainty remains.

    30 min

  4. 6d ago ·  Bonus

    Your Body Speaks | Nurses Journey to Self- Care

    Nurses spend their lives caring for others. But who takes care of the caregiver? In this heartfelt clip, Michelle shares how years of putting everyone else first eventually led her body to demand something different. Healing began when she stopped running on empty and started making herself a priority. Because self-care isn't selfish. It's essential. And sometimes the most important person you can care for is yourself. 🎧 Untangling the Heart

    1 min

  5. Jun 7 ·  Bonus

    Your Body Speaks | Return to the Soil

    What if the answer wasn't something new? What if it was something you had forgotten? After receiving devastating news, Michelle found herself remembering her childhood on the family farm — where food came from the soil and health felt natural. That memory became the beginning of a completely different healing journey. Sometimes healing isn't about adding more. Sometimes it's about returning to what mattered all along. 🎧 Untangling the Heart

    1 min

  6. Jun 6

    Your Body Speaks | A Nurse's Near Death Experience

    For 14 years, Michelle Ralls fought cancer while continuing to care for everyone around her. Then one day, her body said "enough." After collapsing on the nursing floor and being told there was nothing more doctors could do, she made a decision that would change the course of her life forever. This is a powerful story about listening to your body, trusting your inner knowing, and finding hope when everything seems lost. Sometimes the moment that breaks you open becomes the moment that changes everything. 🎧 Untangling the Heart

    1 min

  7. Jun 5

    When My Body Finally Got My Attention | Michelle Ralls & Elizabeth Gifford Maffei | Ep 8

    In this powerful episode of Untangling the Heart, Elizabeth sits down with Michelle Ralls for a deeply moving conversation about what happens when the body finally says, “enough.” Michelle shares her extraordinary journey through chronic illness, emotional exhaustion, nervous system overload, and a life-changing cancer diagnosis that forced her to stop, listen, and reconnect with herself in an entirely new way. From years spent caring for others while neglecting her own wellbeing, to ultimately choosing a radically different healing path centered around nutrition, stillness, gratitude, nervous system regulation, and emotional alignment, this conversation explores the profound connection between the body, emotions, and healing. Together, Elizabeth and Michelle discuss: how emotional stress impacts the nervous system why stillness and inner peace matter in healing the body’s warning signs and emotional overload burnout in caregiving professions gratitude and spiritual grounding reconnecting with intuition and body awareness using journaling and reflection to restore alignment whole-body healing through nutrition and emotional care This episode is a reminder that healing is not only physical. Sometimes the body gets our attention because it’s asking us to finally come back to ourselves.

    30 min

  8. Jun 2 ·  Bonus

    Insight & Release | Embracing Discomfort

    What if you didn’t have to run from uncomfortable emotions? What if, for just one moment, you allowed yourself to feel them… without judgment? In this grounding clip, Elizabeth shares why emotional healing sometimes begins by simply sitting with discomfort instead of immediately trying to escape it, numb it, or fix it. You don’t have to fear your emotions. You can learn to move through them safely. 🎧 Untangling the Heart

    1 min
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About

Have you ever felt emotionally stuck, unsure how to move forward, or ready for change but not sure where to begin? Untangling the Heart is a space for honest conversations about healing, vulnerability, courage, and becoming your truest self. Hosted by Elizabeth Gifford Maffei, this weekly podcast blends solo insights with powerful guest stories to explore what it really means to grow. Here, we talk about the things that matter, emotional resilience, self-awareness, confidence, and reclaiming your voice. This is not surface-level inspiration. This is growth that moves you. New episodes every week. 

Information

  • Creator
    Elizabeth Gifford Maffei
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    43
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Elizabeth Gifford Maffei
  • Show Website
    Untangling the Heart