There is a version of productivity that looks impressive on a spreadsheet and exhausts you before you even start. If you've ever downloaded a free resource, opened it, and immediately felt worse about your own life... this one is for you.

In this episode we talk about one of the sneakiest ways we undermine ourselves: letting the wrong voices become the loudest ones. Not just on social media, but inside our own heads.

What You'll Learn:

✅ Why "good advice" isn't the same as advice that was built for your actual life, your season, and your invisible load

✅ How slow morning content, detailed lead magnets, and productivity frameworks can quietly create guilt rather than relief, and what to do instead

✅ The difference between receiving inspiration from someone and letting someone who doesn't know your life tell you how to run your life

✅ Why over-planning is sometimes just a beautiful way to stay stuck, and how to recognize when that's happening

✅ How to trust yourself as the expert on your own life, your own kids, and your own capacity, without checking it against someone else's blueprint

Chapters:

00:00 Advice That Misses Moms
01:05 The Lead Magnet Overwhelm
03:06 Filter Advice By Reality
03:30 Slow Mornings And Guilt
05:11 Whose Voices Get Loud
06:25 Choose Contextual Support
08:23 Planning As Procrastination
09:37 You Need Permission Not Templates
10:43 Trust Your Inner Authority
11:06 Let Go Of чуж Standards
12:05 Wrap Up And Next Steps

Stay in Touch:

• 🎧 Podcast: https://www.freetobemindful.com/podcast
• 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/counselorvdejesus/
• 💛 Coaching for Moms: https://www.amigamoms.com
• 🎤 Speaking & Workshops: https://www.freetobemindful.com/speaking
• 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/counselorvdejesus/

Free to Be Mindful Podcast episodes are for educational purposes only and should not be considered as or substituted for therapy or professional help from a licensed clinician.

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NJ RESIDENTS, WORK WITH VANESSA Book a free 15-minute therapy consultation https://www.freetobemindful.com/contact

LET’S STAY CONNECTED
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🎤 Speaking & Workshops: https://www.freetobemindful.com/speaking

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/counselorvdejesus/

🎧 Podcast: https://www.freetobemindful.com/podcast

120 COPING SKILLS
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Use this link to get 15% off your total when you purchase the amazing brain sensing headband that tells you when you're in a meditative state and guides you to improve your practice.

DISCLAIMER:
Free to Be Mindful Podcast episodes are for educational purposes only and should not be considered as or substituted for therapy or professional help from a licensed clinician.

What does it look like when a community invests in its own future? In this special Podcasthon episode, Vanessa sits down with Dr. Angela Vargas - licensed psychologist and inaugural Futuro Fund board member - to share the story behind the Latino Mental Health Association of New Jersey's scholarship program that is changing the trajectory for the next generation of Latinx mental health professionals.

From a small group of psychologists meeting in a basement 27 years ago to a two-day annual conference, a growing gala, and now a formalized scholarship fund — LMHANJ has become a cornerstone of Latino mental health representation in New Jersey. Through the Futuro Fund, they've awarded $4,000 and now $5,000 scholarships to graduate students committed to giving back to their communities.

You'll also hear directly from scholarship recipient Yareimy Patrocinio, a first-generation MSW student and daughter of Mexican immigrants, on what this scholarship means for her path forward.

In this episode:

• The 27-year evolution of LMHANJ — from psychologists-only to a multi-disciplinary, rebranded association
• How the Futuro Fund was born out of the inaugural gala — and why it's growing
• Why mentorship and emotional support matter just as much as financial aid
• How students can connect to LMHANJ and build a professional network before they even graduate
• What it means to be a first-gen professional investing in the next generation

🔗 Learn more about the Latino Mental Health Association of NJ → https://www.latinomentalhealthnj.com/futurofund

💛 Donate to the Futuro Fund → https://www.latinomentalhealthnj.com/futurofund

📲 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/lmha.nj/

💼 LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/latino-mental-health-association-of-new-jersey

Guest Angela P. Vargas, PhD, Founder of Via Psychology

https://www.viapsychology.com/

Send a text

Support the show

NJ RESIDENTS, WORK WITH VANESSA Book a free 15-minute therapy consultation https://www.freetobemindful.com/contact

LET’S STAY CONNECTED
💛 Coaching for Moms: https://www.amigamoms.com/
🎤 Speaking & Workshops: https://www.freetobemindful.com/speaking

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/counselorvdejesus/

🎧 Podcast: https://www.freetobemindful.com/podcast

120 COPING SKILLS
https://www.freetobemindful.com/podcast-120copingskills

GET THE MUSE HEADBAND AT A DISCOUNT!
https://choosemuse.com/freetobemindful
Use this link to get 15% off your total when you purchase the amazing brain sensing headband that tells you when you're in a meditative state and guides you to improve your practice.

DISCLAIMER:
Free to Be Mindful Podcast episodes are for educational purposes only and should not be considered as or substituted for therapy or professional help from a licensed clinician.

You soften your opinions so no one feels uncomfortable. You deflect compliments before they can land. You say yes when you mean no - and then spend twenty minutes explaining the no you finally gave. This episode is about the quiet, everyday ways women make themselves smaller. And what it looks like to gently, firmly stop.

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

• Why the habits that make women great - being thoughtful, accommodating, considerate - can quietly become habits of self-erasure
• How shrinking shows up in the smallest moments: compliments, limits, disagreements, and the sentences we say before we say what we actually mean
• The particular loneliness of women in leadership who hold space for everyone and rarely have it held for them
• Why over-explaining our boundaries is often not for other people at all, it's for us
• Three practical, small shifts you can begin using immediately: in how you receive appreciation, communicate limits, and speak your perspective
• A guided embodied practice to rehearse these shifts before the real moments arrive

TUNE IN TO LEARN

• Recognize the specific moments and patterns where you quietly shrink without realizing it
• Understand why this is a conditioning pattern, not a confidence problem
• Practice responding to a compliment with just two words: thank you
• Set a clear limit without constructing a paragraph to justify it
• Speak your perspective without a disclaimer attached
• Use a short guided practice to build muscle memory around these new responses

TAKEAWAY MESSAGE

If you have been told - by your culture, your upbringing, the rooms you've been in - that being visible, certain, or direct is somehow too much, that message was never true. It was just loud. This episode is about turning down that volume and practicing, in small and honest ways, what it actually feels like to take up the space you have always been allowed to take. Listen in, try the practice, and remember… you are always free to be mindful.

REFERENCED LINKS

1. WORK WITH VANESSA (NJ MOMS): Ready to go deeper? Book a free 15-minute therapy consultation → freetobemindful.com/contact

2. Reset Experience for Moms → amigamoms.com

3. Book Vanessa for Speaking → freetobemindful.com/speaking

Send a text

Support the show

NJ RESIDENTS, WORK WITH VANESSA Book a free 15-minute therapy consultation https://www.freetobemindful.com/contact

LET’S STAY CONNECTED
💛 Coaching for Moms: https://www.amigamoms.com/
🎤 Speaking & Workshops: https://www.freetobemindful.com/speaking

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/counselorvdejesus/

🎧 Podcast: https://www.freetobemindful.com/podcast

120 COPING SKILLS
https://www.freetobemindful.com/podcast-120copingskills

GET THE MUSE HEADBAND AT A DISCOUNT!
https://choosemuse.com/freetobemindful
Use this link to get 15% off your total when you purchase the amazing brain sensing headband that tells you when you're in a meditative state and guides you to improve your practice.

DISCLAIMER:
Free to Be Mindful Podcast episodes are for educational purposes only and should not be considered as or substituted for therapy or professional help from a licensed clinician.