Empowered by Darkness

When we undergo transitions in our life, the feelings that arise can be very intense. There is often no escaping the overwhelming sense of uncertainty. This sensation can be so pervasive that it impacts our way of seeing ourselves, the people around us, and even the society we are living in. We are in a fog that is hard to put into words. While we know something is brewing in the near horizon, there is also nothing in our current p...

This episode is my gift to all of you for continuing to seek this podcast despite my time away. Tune in to hear about the life lessons I have gathered on purpose, relationships, death, faith, failure, and many more. There isn't a specific topic for today's episode but I think that what came from this was quite special. I think that you will leave feeling hopeful and inspired, ready to take on life wherever it is that you find yours...

I missed this space. The truth is that there has been a significant change in my life recently. I lost my mom to cancer. I am still in emotional shock and overwhelm, but I have also been blessed by God with the capacity to take a step back and admire the immense love you can still find in the middle of suffering. This episode is raw and unedited, much like the arrival of illness and then death usually is. But I urge you to tune in ...

We can talk about healing unhealthy attachment patterns, tending to uncomfortable emotions, addressing traumatic experiences, and sifting through our limiting beliefs, but encapsulating all of these actions is the concept of SELF-BANDONMENT. You can understand how this concept plays in your life and almost automatically, the wheels start turning of how you can start addressing everything else. This is because at the root of the beh...

"What is joy without sorrow." The truth is that we are living an experience that is not meant to have one without the other. Yet, so many of us are actively running away from our pain. This won't be the episode that shames anyone for seeking safety from that which is uncomfortable. I get why we do this and there are actually many factors that lead us to act in this way, some outside of our immediate awareness. So, what we will disc...

Welcome back to the podcast! I was on a hiatus due to a family emergency, but I'm excited to be here with a NEW episode and NEW season to usher in the new year. Let's talk about being seen and how we can take the things we learn with us throughout 2024.

In this episode, we'll discuss what it means to be seen, how we can go about it championing vulnerability, some practical advice about finding daily mindful practices, the liberatio...

We often hear that being single is a time for investing in our hobbies and building our professional lives. We also hear that it’s a time for actively preparing ourselves to be in a relationship. This episode strays away from these messages to bring up a much more hidden meaning to singlehood: it is a time for taking a magnifying glass to our current experience of love and our perception of it. When we are alone, we are simply bein...

• How I came to forget the majority of my childhood alongside my father and why this happens to many children who undergo trauma
• Growing up sensitive and empathetic in a home environment that was unpredictable
• Understanding the motivations behind my parents’ actions by observing their own dysfunctional upbringings in Mexico
• Living in Compton with pa...

Do you find yourself in a state of uncomfortable loneliness? What I mean by this is that on the path to bettering yourself, have you been thrust upon a season of being distanced from friendships and relationships? You may be battling inner feelings of resentment and confusion as to why you must go about healing alone. In this episode, I break down why this resistance exists and how we can acknowledge it in order to keep adding laye...

…and why it’s more common than what you may think. Wanting someone to come in to save us from a difficult situation, emotion, or thought process is, in some ways, what our society has romanticized in media over the years. While one may not act upon this desire, having the need itself can tell us something about our relationship with ourselves. If there’s no real relationship, we can come to believe our hurting parts will only be se...

In this first part of My Self-Hatred Journey, I dive deep into how being at odds with one’s looks is not shallow, but an actual wound that’s multilayered and destabilizing. I talk about what for me was the core of my concern with appearances: fearing not being good enough to be chosen, to be protected, to be cherished. The part of me that sought safety after years of being on edge and afraid came to associate being wanted by others...

This is an episode I wish I had growing up. Losing a father, no matter the way, leaves profound effects on the way we show up for ourselves and our relationships. I used to feel broken and misunderstood for repeating the same patterns of fearing abandonment, lacking self-esteem, viewing men as deceptive, engaging in sexual promiscuity, and being hyper-independent to the point of burnout. What I uncovered through choosing to look at...

Do you feel at the mercy of the uncomfortable parts inside of you? Perhaps it’s a fear of rejection, resentment toward loved ones, jealousy, overpowering grief, or insecurity that will not go away. When we sense the heaviness of these parts, we do things like suppress them through obligations, chase distractions, or get lost in unhealthy ways of coping. The parts seem like they’ve gone away but they haven’t gone anywhere. They acti...

In this episode, we get vulnerable and discuss how giving away our bodies makes us feel at a core level. In the pursuit of sexual freedom, do we find less liberation than we’d anticipated:

• Do you, like me, find yourself disregarding personal boundaries to please?

• Do you find yourself fulfilling someone else’s fantasy and no longer yours?

• Is there a part of you, no matter how remote, that feels there might be trauma stored in your ...

In this second part of My Self Hatred Journey, I talk all about hating the internal: one’s personality and capabilities. I especially go into talking about the difficult relationship I had with my sensitive nature, deeming it weak and unwanted in our society. I also have a conversation on impostor syndrome, something I suffered heavily from throughout my entire academic path. It wasn’t until I was accused of plagiarizing at my coll...