14: Embrace Mindfulness: Transforming Your Life One Breath at a Time with Leticia Escamilla

I have a special guest today - Leticia Escamilla, a meditation teacher, mindfulness mentor, and transformational speaker. 

In our conversation, Leticia and I explore the transformative power of mindfulness and self-awareness. 

Leticia shares her journey from corporate life to entrepreneurship, highlighting how mindfulness practices have helped her manage stress and improve emotional well-being. 

We discuss the impact of childhood experiences on adult behavior. 

Practical mindfulness tools such as breath work, meditation, and journaling are shared, along with the significance of taking time for oneself to foster personal growth and improve relationships. 

Mindfulness cultivates self-awareness. Self-awareness is the foundation of building Grounded Confidence. 

Start now and begin with baby steps. Consistently taking small actions can lead to significant, lasting changes in your life. 

I hope you enjoy listening. 

Key takeaways: 

• Childhood experiences shape our emotional responses as adults.
• Transforming perspectives is key to personal growth.
• Breathwork is a powerful tool for managing stress.
• Journaling helps clarify thoughts and emotions.
• Self-care is essential for being present for others.
• Mindfulness practices can be integrated into daily life.
• Emotional intelligence can be learned and improved.
• Taking small steps in mindfulness can lead to significant changes.
• It's essential to show up for yourself before others. 

Chapters

02:22 The Journey from Corporate to Entrepreneurship

07:17 Childhood Influences on Adult Behavior

13:20 The Power of Mindfulness in Daily Life

16:14 Finding Beauty in Life's Challenges

24:27 Starting Your Mindfulness Journey: Baby Steps

29:59 The Importance of Self-Care

Connect with Leticia: 

• Website 
• Instagram 
• LinkedIn 

• Coco Duan helps High-Achieving yet Self-Doubting women executives build their Grounded Confidence to become unstoppable in achieving their goals.

• For VIP, step-by-step, systematic support, apply now for Coco's transformative "Build Your Grounded Confidence" VIP Coaching Program.
  This is your chance to work directly with Coco and unlock the tools, strategies, and mindset shifts you need to thrive. Once you apply, Coco will personally reach out to invite you to a free consultation call to explore how this program can help you achieve your goals.

• I’m offering a Free 45-Minute Consultation Call to explore how I can guide and support you in creating the life you truly desire.

👉 Email me at Coco@CocoDuanCoaching.com with the subject line: “Consultation.”

• Website: www.CocoDuanCoaching.com
• Instagam: https://www.instagram.com/cocoduan/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cocoduan/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coco.duan

Transcript

Leticia (00:00)

Doing meditations and instantly my life started to change. I started to learn how to be still, go inward, more answers and clarity and awareness started to come and I wasn't healed overnight but I decided I was gonna stick with this practice every single day and take time for it and as I did, my life started to change

Coco Duan (00:23)

Hello everyone. Welcome back to Grounded confidence. I'm Coco Duan, a former Fortune 500 executive turned life coach. 

I empower successful yet self-doubting women leaders to build Grounded confidence from the inside out so they become unstoppable in achieving their goals. 

Today's episode is about mindfulness, a practice of being fully present and engaged in the moment. A practice can transform how you live and lead. I'm thrilled to welcome Leticia Escamilla to the show.

She is a certified meditation teacher, mindfulness mentor, and a transformational speaker. And her mindfulness approach has empowered many people to elevate well-being, manage stress, and build mental resilience. As an avid meditator and a big advocate for mindfulness practices myself,

I'm excited to explore with Leticia the basics of mindfulness, its benefits, and practical ways to bring more awareness and peace into your life. Mindfulness builds self-awareness. And self-awareness is the foundation of building Grounded confidence. I can't wait for you to hear her insights and tips.

So let's dive in.

Coco (02:08)

Leticia, welcome to the show.

Leticia (02:10)

Thank you, Coco. So excited to be here.

Coco (02:12)

well, I always love to hear the origin story. what made you do what you do.

Leticia (02:22)

Yeah, thank you for asking. So I get asked this a lot, as you can imagine. I think everyone loves a good story. So my journey really started about a little over 10 years ago. Me and my husband started a business that we still have to this day. And I never imagined myself as an entrepreneur. I was working for corporate at the time.

And he was very entrepreneurial spirited even since he was a kid. And when we started, our journey together in partnership in love first, he really just shared this idea of owning a business and being out on our own. And he really stretched my mind about this idea. so I decided to jump all in and doing so.

I definitely jumped into territory that I was not used to. It was very overwhelming. It was very stressful. It was uncertain, unknown, so many things. And what I realized at that time was that it was definitely bringing up a lot of just aspects and qualities about myself that I had never allowed myself to really pay attention to before.

When you're working in corporate, you have your position, your title, your role, and you fall in line with what that is. it doesn't really stretch you or ask you to do any more than what that role or title is requesting of you. However, when you start a business, there's no one there to say, hey, just do this, or hey, just do that. Like you are playing all the parts, even with a partner, you're both playing all those parts. You're wearing all those hats.

there was parts that I started to realize about myself that I never paid attention to before parts of me that I enjoyed and parts of me that I needed to work on and heal I'd already been doing some self-care practices working out a little yoga and Then something just kind of started crumbling down in my life or my relationship with my husband started to crumble because we were in this partnership and I was getting stressed and

overwhelmed by it all and I was questioning myself, questioning us, questioning life and I knew that something had to change and we actually had a conversation with a friend or a couple friend from India and they were talking about meditation and a particular guru known as Sadguru and just telling me more about this person and this practice so I decided to just go on our favorite place where we go for everything YouTube

and went there and started looking him up

doing meditations and instantly my life started to change. I started to learn how to be still, go inward, more answers and clarity and awareness started to

I wasn't healed overnight but I decided I was gonna stick with this practice every single day and take time for it and as I did, my life started to change at some point,

As my life was changing, I then got the call to share with what I was experiencing with others. And that's what led for me to explore whatever that meant. And it eventually led me to become a meditation teacher and learn more about mindfulness and mindset and really now help others on their path and their journey to be able to live just a more fulfilling life, face their demons, face who they really are. so they can come out on the other side, which I know you definitely have experienced as well, Coco.

That's a little bit of the origin story on that.

Coco (05:33)

wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing. Hearing your story, I noticed that there are so many parallels between your experience and my experience. One is switching from corporate career to being an entrepreneur. Wow, What a journey, right? What a ride. It's so much more challenging than I ever imagined.

Leticia (05:38)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Coco (05:58)

So I can imagine how stressful it could be, especially doing that with a partner, It's like a double challenging, because the relationship, intimate relationship is challenging on its own. On top of that, it's building this baby together, I would say life is the best teacher, especially pain, because of that painful experience.

Leticia (05:59)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Coco (06:22)

And then you realize, wow, I need to do something different. your path to transformation really started, seems like started with meditation and then mine very similar too, I also started with my meditation practice. That was life changing for me. And ultimately it is also, I see this passion in yours.

through your lived experience through your experience of transforming your pain, now you're sharing your knowledge, expertise to help others.

Leticia (06:53)

Yeah.

Coco (06:54)

Yeah, that's beautiful. What I wanted to hear a little bit more actually even original origin story, is it, which is what you have learned so far, your childhood experience has contributed to that kind of crumbling of your marriage just overall just

Leticia (07:01)

Okay.

Coco (07:13)

so much pain, so much stress at that moment, which motivated you to change.

Leticia (07:17)

Yeah, that's a great segue. So, it was through meditation and these mindfulness practices, sitting in stillness and really going deep within that I realized that my childhood and really our childhood, yours and everyone's has such a pivotal role in how we react to the world, how we handle chaos, how we manage stress, how we handle and manage our emotions and

as I am learning, continuously I'm always learning as I'm doing the mindfulness practices, I've learned just basically how my childhood played such a huge role in what I'm good at, what I'm not good at, what I allow to stand in my way, which is really myself, what do I allow myself to believe or not believe? It's something I've learned and that's been just a huge healing journey as well

that the things that I wanted to experience as a child, I didn't get to. So now I get to be the parent. I'm parenting myself in a sense of my inner child. And one of the big things that I learned, the dynamic that I grew up in, that I'm still learning more about, but I love talking about, because I feel like I'm at that place where I can do so, is I grew up in an emotionally immature household.

Coco (08:19)

Mm-hmm.

Leticia (08:32)

So I grew up with my mother and my grandmother, those were the adults in the home, no father, and both of them were just without them knowing, were very just emotionally immature. So this is something that I'm getting excited to talk more and more about because I don't feel like a lot of people talk about this. We talk about the abuse of homes.

physical abuse, we talk about the homes that have parents that are, addicted to drugs or alcohol or some substance, but we don't talk about the homes that, you know, appear to be perfect, appear to be doing the right things. And yet there's this piece that's missing that a parent or an adult, because it could be any adults that's taking care of a child, that they're not providing for the child. And that's something that I've now recently learned in these last few years.

of why I get angry and show anger the way I do, why I was having trouble in my partnership with my husband, why this business was so hard because of just all these different things that happened or didn't happen in my home because of the type of adults that I had raising me and showing me the way. so that's something that I'm starting to...

uncover and have more conversation about and it was because of meditation. It was because I allowed myself to sit still, ask the questions, go deeper, face what I needed to face that now I'm at this place where I can understand it and heal through it. it doesn't mean that I still don't have some qualities of, what I've basically have done for almost 40 years. But the difference is, is that now

Coco (09:48)

Hmm.

Leticia (10:07)

aware of it. So if I'm starting to react a certain way or whatever it is, I'm able to like take a step back and be like, I'm doing it. Where most of the time we're not aware of what we're doing, We're not aware, when we are lashing out or we're, holding ourselves back from something or saying no, when we want to say yes or the opposite or we're people pleasers, like, where does this come from? Why are we like this? it just we didn't just wake up one day and go, I'm going to be like this.

Coco (10:16)

Mm-hmm. Yes.

Leticia (10:34)

There was something that contributed to it and I've been taking the time to use these mindfulness practices to go deeper, deeper within myself to go, why am I like this? Why do I hold myself back? Why do I feel less confident when I'm in this situation and more confident in this one, There's answers to it and we have them within us and meditation or any type of mindfulness practice, whether it's just going for a walk outside in nature,

Coco (10:51)

Mm-hmm.

Leticia (10:58)

journaling, whatever it is that someone wants to do, it helps you unlock that. so yeah, the real origin story really goes back to my childhood of what I didn't receive or what I did receive. And now having to kind of reparent myself, unlearn certain things and reparent that smaller version of myself that technically I'm not anymore, but she still lives inside. So I get to go to her and go, okay, we're gonna do it right this time.

Yeah, I could go on and on Coco, but that definitely is a deeper version of that.

Coco (11:23)

Mm-hmm. yeah.

For sure, I hear so much curiosity in your story, It's through this intentional practice, pause, in those moments of reflection, and then you are able to see, what shaped me? And then what can I change? so much it is not, this is who I am. This is my personality, that's it, no.

so much we think was personality, actually it's not. It is programmed behavior. also I really resonate with what you said childhood trauma, it's not just what happened to you. It's lot is what didn't happen to you, what you didn't receive. grew up with emotional immature,

Leticia (11:53)

Yeah.

Mm.

Coco (12:09)

parents or adults in your life. And then you probably were emotionally neglected, just like me, When emotionally neglected, meaning that you didn't receive the attention and validation, acknowledgement on your emotional needs when you needed it. with that, we develop all sorts of, I would say, dysfunctional behavior patterns, people-pleasing.

Leticia (12:26)

100%.

Coco (12:33)

didn't know how to regulate our emotions and didn't know how to express our emotions in a healthy functional way. All of that. kudos to all the work that you have done. And I know sometimes it's not pleasant to go back to look at those experiences, but that's the only way, only when you work through those experience.

Leticia (12:36)

huh.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Coco (12:58)

through meditation or stillness, different type of mindful practice, then actually you can, work, not work through it is they first need to work in it, really work and then you can go through it. But if you don't want to work on it, then you will never work through it. Cause it will always be there. So now tell me, let's, talk more like

Leticia (13:16)

Right. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

Coco (13:20)

Like turn it to the more positive note, It's like, okay, childhood, we all are screwed up one way or the other. But as adults now, guess what? It is our responsibility. First of all, it's not our fault how we turned out, but now it's our responsibility to change and transform. so how your life is different now, since you have

Leticia (13:23)

Yeah

Coco (13:41)

develop mindful practice and start teaching mindfulness.

Leticia (13:45)

I would say the difference between now and then is the way that I perceive and look at life. So there's challenges that are coming up. I own now not just one, but two businesses since, 10 years ago when I first started becoming an entrepreneur and what that was. So there's definitely more things that are causing, some stress that, the world around us, is a big contributor of that.

But the difference is, that it's my outlook. I can either choose to be a victim or I can choose to blame everyone else and, wait for the world to change in order for me to be happy and have a better life, which is what I used to think that I needed to do or what I was waiting on or, things like that. I would expect someone else to show up and do what they needed to do in order for me then to show up the way that, I was supposed to or wanted to. now that's completely different.

my perspective on life, the way I look at it is one, that life is beautiful, life is amazing because I get to choose to see it that way. And when challenges are coming up or whatever's coming up, I get to see this as an opportunity to grow. I get to see this as an opportunity to fail and learn and pick myself back up. Because it doesn't mean every day is easy or

rainbows and butterflies and some days it honestly does feel like that. before we jumped on and recorded, we're going through all these technical difficulties that all this I'm trying to make this work and, plug that in and it wasn't working. but I was, okay with it. I was like breathing through it. I was like, okay, this just isn't meant to be. I tried and let's move forward with it. Let's have fun. Let's have this conversation. Let's connect and let's share what we're meant to share with your listeners.

Coco (15:03)

Hehehe.

Leticia (15:21)

before I would have been so stressed. I would have been like, my gosh, dah, dah, dah, I suck, blah, blah, blah. now I'm just like, okay. That was definitely a learning lesson and I get to learn from it, take what I need from it and let the rest go, and surrender to it. that's definitely the difference from then to now. I'm not a victim. I don't blame everyone else.

I just see life as this beautiful experience that I get to have and I want to have all the experiences I can while I'm here and be able to help others as well see life in that way through the work that I do, through working with my business and these practices and sharing them with others.

Coco (15:59)

Yes, for sure. You're definitely a testament of this saying

when you change the way you see things, the things you see change. It's the same thing, but it's just very different perspective and then you see different side

Leticia (16:08)

Hmm.

it's true, the way that you perceive, yourself or your inside world is what you'll see on the outside world, I don't know who says it, but we know this, Like, yeah, the outside world, even though what's out of my control, what's out of our control, still looks beautiful, Nature looks beautiful to me. nature looks more beautiful to me than I've ever viewed nature,

Coco (16:22)

Yes.

Leticia (16:32)

people are more beautiful even when they're not at their best. I'm like, great, you're showing yourself. You're at your best right now. That's the best you've got, And I'm sure, everyone lives like these passed by areas where there's poverty. there's moments where I see even poverty and, it's not fun to see. Like I definitely feel myself feeling empathy and compassion, but then I also see this beauty in it because one thing that I've learned is that everyone is serving a purpose. So even when we look at people who,

are homeless and living on the streets, it's beautiful because if it allows you to have compassion and empathy, then they're serving their purpose. Even in something like that, you can find beauty in. I recently, I shared this with you because we get together every week and have our great conversations and help each other and support each other. I lost my aunt passed on and I just saw the beauty in it. I obviously was sad

Coco (17:08)

Mm-hmm.

Leticia (17:21)

And I think more sad and grieving for the fact that she's not here to have the human experience with us. I'm sad because it was very hard on her son, my cousin, it was very unexpected. But I just saw the beauty in it as well it brought our family together. Because I grew up in this emotionally immature family, she was also part of that. unfortunately she didn't get to heal through that herself. my cousin also,

picked up on these qualities because you just do without meaning to and he hasn't had that opportunity to heal yet but he had but I could just see that he was experiencing something he's never experienced before and and it was so beautiful to see that because my hope is that because he's experienced that he'll have just little breakthrough of of being able to see life just so much

more clear, so much more better, so much more with awareness and clarity. I don't know where I got off on that, but it was, guess the message was meant to be shared, but yeah, the perspective that we have on life, it's so important. the more that we go inward and practice mindfulness and in whatever way we choose to, the more we can see all things that are happening in our life for their beauty, for their purpose.

Coco (18:12)

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I totally agree. When you see things clear eyed, I think because the type of meditation I practice is Vipassana.

Vipassana's philosophy very much about seeing things with clear eyes. It's just seeing things clearly, realistically and accurately. When you do that, at least my personal experience, when I do that, I realize, you actually experience the life more fully.

You experience the pain and also experience the beauty and then you can find the beauty in pain. doesn't mean there's no pain in life. There's a lot of pain in life and you actually now truly fully experience it. Where you experiencing it, then you actually feel like more meaning in those moments. Versus before I started mindful practice, it's very much about

Avoiding the pain, numbing the pain, escaping the pain, When I feel something negative, I don't want to feel, scrolling the social media, watching Netflix, Or just do other things. Just, were working more, Than I need to. Just avoid experiencing that. When you avoid experiencing that, guess what? Then you're ignoring the joy and the beauty and,

Leticia (19:30)

Yeah.

Coco (19:44)

those things in life as well.

Leticia (19:46)

Yeah, you can't have one without the other. They work together.

Coco (19:47)

You cannot have one without the other. But while you're experiencing pain, at the same time, you're like, just like your aunt passing, You'll get to see actually beauty in those touching moments in that painful experience as well.

Leticia (20:03)

Yeah.

Coco (20:04)

Yeah. I know that the mindfulness you teach meditation is only one of the tools and there are quite a few different tools. So I would love you to, do a little bit of education on different tools and which of those tools are and how would you explain to those people who are fairly new to this practices?

Leticia (20:25)

Yes, so when it comes to the mindfulness tools, I focus on three main ones then I add a fourth one in as well. as like a bonus. the main ones I focus on is meditation. I focus on breath work and journaling. And then that bonus one is movement.

with meditation, there's so many different types of meditation, allowing from visualization to even yoga nidra and breath work even plays a part in meditation. So there's just so many different types. I share those different types of meditation when I'm teaching that with the different businesses that I work with. I come in and work with their teams as part of their wellness programs. And then I also teach breath work.

So really teaching this idea when it comes to breath work that we already have the tool within us. Our breath is a tool that can help us manage stress. And I teach different types of breath work like box breathing or alternate nose breathing, diaphragmic belly breathing. So different types of breathing to show how to use the breath properly and how it can actually help us bring more calm, bring more peace, bring ourselves back to present moment, recenter ourselves, rejuvenate ourselves.

That's how powerful our breath is. So I really good into sharing that. And then of course, teaching the different types. the beauty about breath work is that we can do it anywhere, anytime. Same with meditation, but meditation is a little bit different, That one does require us to, if we're gonna do like a seated meditation, but there's all kinds of other meditations, such as like a walking meditation, a shower meditation. those are kind of like, when we think about meditation, those like the things that can kind of branch off from meditation.

than what we're traditionally used to when it comes to like sitting down, on the floor, on your yoga mat, or even like a chair. I share those with my clients as well. And when it, going back to breath work, just sharing like breath work can be discreet. Like you can literally be standing in line at the bank or the grocery store doing breath work or, walking the halls. I actually did a workshop for residents, doctors here in Las Vegas, where I live.

they're doing rounds, they're visiting patients, they're going from

having what they call like a code where they're either about to die or have died, and then they're going to visit a patient that is there for whatever reason, but isn't as severe. They're gonna be going home in a few days. So how do you go from someone you just

give their last breath to then to a patient that is there obviously for a reason, but isn't as severe and

they're gonna make it, right? They're gonna be okay. They're gonna get to go home. Like, how do you go from that? teaching them how to use breath work was so amazing to be able to, as they're walking from one thing to the other, they can be regulating themselves using breath work. I shared that, because that was just something really recent. The other mindfulness tool that I use is journaling. And this one is another just powerful practice, using our hand,

clearing our mind of all those thoughts that are swirling, swirling, swirling, getting them onto paper and not worrying about grammar

punctuation and just allowing us to write and write freely and honestly is such a powerful tool as well. So those are the main ones that I talk about and then they go a little bit deeper. Obviously I talked about my emotional immature adults. So I teach emotional intelligence because that was a game changer for myself because that's a tool that anyone can.

anyone can learn. If you're like me, who wasn't that emotionally, having high EQ, I learned that I can be better at it. And so once I learned how to be better at, I wanted to teach others how to be better at it as well, because we could all use a little bit of education in that area. Some people have it higher than others. some don't, it's a skill that anyone can learn. So that's another practice that I share with people as well.

And they work really well together because for us to learn how to regulate our emotions, we have to use these mindfulness practices. Cause when emotions come up, we can either choose to be reactive or proactive. So the more that we know how to use breath work, meditation, journaling, walking meditations, shower meditations, whatever it is, the more that we can learn how to regulate those emotions. So that's kind of the way that I take my program and share these practices with other people.

Coco (24:27)

Thank you for sharing. say for someone who are just starting this journey and I always encourage, hey, take baby steps, Those are amazing. They can do it all, but sometimes just too overwhelming, it's best I would suggest just start with one thing. start with this baby step.

and do it consistently. So what would you recommend if someone were starting with this mindfulness journey, really this journey of developing, I would say self-awareness, what would you recommend? Start just one thing.

Leticia (25:00)

That's a great question, Coco. I would recommend what's coming for me would be the breath work. And it would be a particular breath work known as box breathing. Are you familiar with it, Coco? Okay, so I figured you were, but I don't wanna assume. So box breathing, it got really popularized in the military. And it's known as the 16 second breath. 16 seconds, you can reset yourself. You can change your whole perspective.

Coco (25:09)

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Hehehe

Leticia (25:25)

if you like, we could do it really quickly here for your audience. box breathing is gonna be an inhale for four, a hold or retaining of the breath for four, exhaling of the breath for four, then you continue to hold the breath out for four. it's just four seconds, and that is our 16 second box breathing. So you can do it with your eyes open, do it with your eyes closed, it's your choice. all we're gonna do is take a breath in for four, three,

Coco (25:27)

Yes, absolutely.

Leticia (25:52)

two, one, hold and retain the breath for four, three, two, one, release the breath for three, two, one, hold the breath out, four, three, two, one. And then just return to your natural breath.

Coco (26:13)

Hmm, I feel calmer already.

Leticia (26:14)

And that's it's so quick. here's the idea behind it. It was just because you were focused on breathing. You took your mind away from whatever you're thinking about, For you, Coco, you're probably watching the time. You're leading this, even though it sounds cool, calm, and collected, but you're in charge of this podcast, So there's some things that you're keeping mindful of outside of just having this great conversation together. So it took you away from just all that for a few seconds.

because you were just focused on your breath and I was doing the counting, you were listening to me count for you. you're just like, okay, all I gotta do is listen to her count and focus on my breath. And when you do it on your own, you're counting yourself and focusing on your breath. And it brings you to this present moment for just a moment. You're not thinking about whatever happened just a few seconds ago or what you're about to go do, you know, future wise, what you're about to step into, It just brings you to this present moment in just a short amount of time.

Coco (27:02)

Hmm.

Leticia (27:05)

if you are starting out, you're not sure about mindfulness or all these things you're hearing about, I mean, at the end of the day, we don't need any, it doesn't have to do with religion or any beliefs. You are the tool, your breath. Your breath is a tool. At the end of the day, your breath can help you. If you don't believe in anything else, you have your breath. if you take control of your breath and do a practice like that, you have the power.

to start to manage stress, regulate your emotions, and be more proactive versus reactive. Trust me, I know, because I was a very reactive person before I started doing these practices.

Coco (27:39)

Yes, I love this practice. It's so practical. So practical, so easy. 16 seconds. exactly also in that sacred pause, will call, I love this phrase, sacred pause. Raise a pause and sacred pause. This sacred because so much of what was reactive, the nature of our things is really just a split of a second. Usually just one, two second.

Leticia (27:44)

Yeah,

Mm, yes.

Coco (28:03)

Someone said it to you, you're triggered and then you just boom. But if you're able to just in that moment, hold this sacred pause, everything changes because guess what? That urge to yell at someone, that urge to curse at someone, it would just be gone. Then we are return to our logical brain versus being driven by this fight and flight.

Leticia (28:12)

Mmm.

huh.

Coco (28:29)

response. Really just that few seconds of pause makes massive difference.

Leticia (28:30)

Yes, right, exactly.

Coco (28:36)

Yes. Yeah. Love this. this podcast, is about building Grounded confidence. I firmly believe Grounded confidence, first and foremost, it's Grounded in the fact that you know yourself and self-awareness is the foundation of Grounded confidence and how to build.

Leticia (28:36)

100 percent.

Coco (28:57)

Self-confidence, is exactly, Leticia, what you just talked about. Those tools, the reflective tools, The meditation, this breath work, and also journaling allow you to connect with yourself in the most organic way, You don't need any other tools, just you by yourself, connecting with your thoughts, your emotions, your physical sensations, Breath is so much as a physical sensation.

Leticia (29:03)

Mm-hmm.

Coco (29:23)

And that really is the power that you get to discover so much power. also you feel empowered, Because you don't need anybody else. You don't need anybody to do this work. you get to control this. then also this, is how I started this horror journey, also how you started a horror journey. And then look at me and look at you, we're completely transformed for the better.

Leticia (29:33)

Right.

Coco (29:45)

I'm very much

and also very much inspired by all the work that you have done. Yeah, any last word of wisdom, any last word of advice would you give to my audience?

Leticia (29:51)

Thank you, Coco.

Yeah, I would say that if you are someone who isn't taking time for yourself, you have those excuses, don't have time, I have to, take the kids here or whatever it is, I have to like show up and do all this work, At the end of the day, if you don't show up for yourself, if you don't take time for yourself, then...

you think that you're showing up for your kids, you think you're showing up for your spouse, you think you're showing up for your friends, you think you're showing up for work, at your best. deep down, you are only giving at best your mediocre. And that's just the honest truth. When we don't show up for ourselves first, we are not showing up for others in the way that we think we are.

Coco (30:33)

Hmm.

Leticia (30:39)

it appears, because society has told us this is what success looks like. This is what, a parent looks like or a mother looks like or whatever it is. This is what a successful woman looks like, successful man. But if you're not showing up for yourself and taking time, really you're not doing your self justice and you're not doing your loved ones justice as well. So take the time for yourself. Take that 16 seconds. Take one minute.

for yourself and do it every single day and just watch how you'll start to transform. Just watch how you start to see yourself and honestly how you'll start to show

Coco (31:09)

Mm-hmm.

Leticia (31:14)

for others. You'll be more passionate, you'll be more compassionate, you'll be more present with

I've seen parents who are running around with their kids, taking them here and there, but they're not really present with their kids.

They're just kind of going through the motions and, that only can fulfill us for a short amount of time, because time is going by either way. And the more you take the time for yourself, the more you actually get to enjoy all the other things that you're doing. your goals and your dreams, when you reach them, will feel so much more fulfilling. So that's what I felt called to chair today.

Coco (31:44)

Hmm. Absolutely. I love that message. First it is, I will always say the best gift you can give to your children is to work on yourself. It's not just for your children. Let's say if you don't have children, the best gift you can give to people you love, is to really love yourself and take care of yourself. we have

Leticia (31:56)

100 percent.

Coco (32:05)

This cultural sometimes expectation is that you need to be, it's selfish. Sometimes people think, if I take care of myself, I take too much time of, like exercise or meditate. I'm taking away, Time for my children. But no, that's not the case. It is when you're fully charged, when you're fully refreshed, energized, and

When you are

regulated, then you can actually be the parent, be the partner and be the friend to really care for someone else. it's not just physical presence. It is your

emotional presence. It is that you are actually there with them to make them feel seen, heard, and understood. this is so, so critical. doesn't even take much time to be honest, It is, can start with just five minutes a day obviously build only be more at just few minutes a day or

Leticia (32:44)

Yeah.

Coco (33:02)

just that do it consistently. And then that's where you will really see the result.

Leticia (33:08)

I want to share this too, Coco. I don't know if we have time, but I think sometimes people think like, it's easy for them. They've been doing it. They talk about it. They have a business around it. They speak on it, whatever it is. I feel called to share too that I'm not perfect. I definitely do the practice every day, some form of the practice.

Coco (33:10)

Yes, go ahead.

Leticia (33:25)

But life

where I stay up late because the holidays are coming, so family's gonna gather, we're gonna stay up later than my normal time where I like to go to bed and wake up and do my practice. And I sometimes still have to go back to the basics of like, okay, I've got five minutes before I have to start my day and do all the things. I just want you to know that happens. It's not about the perfection of it or

it has to be in this perfect pose or I have to have this perfect scenario happening. it rarely happens that way. it's, just about showing up. It's about willing to show up for yourself and let go of the perfection of it or how it's perceived to be and just do it. And, that's the most important thing because yeah, we've been doing these practices for 10 plus years and we know what it's like on the other side and you might be just beginning it, but

Coco (33:56)

Mm-hmm.

Leticia (34:14)

You have to begin to do it. You have to just show up and do it and do it for one minute. Do it for one minute for 30 days. That's 30 minutes of a practice in a month. And you will notice the benefits. You will notice a shift if you do it. I promise you. Versus when you don't do it. Because I can guarantee you if you don't do it, your life is going to stay the same. But if you dedicate at least that one minute to yourself, guaranteed

Coco (34:17)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Leticia (34:39)

you're gonna have some kind of shift in something change in you and you'll even see a little bit in your outside world change. just start, just start doing it. Do it for yourself.

Coco (34:46)

Mm-hmm.

Yes, start now with just one minute. That's very doable.

Leticia (34:51)

Yes.

One minute. Very doable. That minute, the moment you start scrolling on social media, just go, I got one minute to meditate or I got one minute to breathe. if you want to go back to social media, go for it. it's very easy how most people are like, I don't have time, but the minute they get to social media, I mean, it's happened to me, like 30 minutes passes. You're like, where did 30 minutes go?

Coco (34:55)

We all have one minute. Come on. Social media.

Let's go.

Leticia (35:15)

it happens. I'm more mindful of it now to not do that, but it happens every once in a while. we have the time. We just have to be willing to do it, willing to do it for ourselves.

Coco (35:20)

Absolutely. You have the time. Exactly. Yes. This is a wonderful conversation. Before we go, just want you to share with the audience, can my audience find you? You want to learn more about what you do and all different mindfulness tools that you teach.

Leticia (35:39)

Yes, absolutely. So my company is MindFuel, M-I-N-D-F-U-E-L-N, Motion I-N-M-O-T-I-O-N. I am on LinkedIn, I am on Instagram, and then that's my website as well, www.mindfuelinmotion.com.

Coco (35:52)

Thank you so much, Leticia. Really appreciate this thoughtful insightful and thought-provoking and also practical conversation. I'm sure that my audience will really benefit from that and taking this first step to be mindful and build their self-awareness. Thank you again.

Leticia (36:13)

Thank you, Coco. Thank you, everyone.

Coco (36:16)

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