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Free to Be Mindful Podcast
When Your Calendar Is Full and You're Running on Empty
April 27, 2026
Ep:
310
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Overachiever moms and the hard call to slow down — Free to Be Mindful Podcast with Vanessa De Jesus Guzman, LPC, NCC
Overachiever moms and when to slow down... Vanessa shares the inherited blueprint keeping high-achieving women running on empty.
There's a voice a lot of us inherited early. Work twice as hard. Rest is a risk. If you slow down, someone else will pass you. For first-gen women, for Latina daughters, for high-achieving moms who have proven they can handle everything, that voice doesn't just disappear when we grow up. It just gets quieter, and we mistake the quiet for permission to keep going.
In this episode, Vanessa shares what happened after two nights up working until 2 and 3am, what her dad told her at nine years old that shaped decades of her work ethic, and the hard decision she made about the Free to Be Mindful Podcast for the remainder of this season. This is not a perfect, polished reflection. It's the real version, shared because she knows you're living some version of it too.
She also talks about what being deliberate actually looks like in the body, not just on a vision board, and the three things we can each take into our own lives right now, whether rest feels earned, scary, or completely out of reach.
What You'll Learn:
✅ How to identify the inherited blueprint running in the background that keeps us pushing past our limit, even when we know better
✅ Why being deliberate isn't only about what we remove from our plates, but whether our minds are actually present for what remains
✅ How to give ourselves permission to make the hard call before something breaks, not after
Chapters:
00:00 When Everything Matters
00:40 Welcome to the Show
01:36 My Word for 2026
02:16 Burnout Warning Signs
02:58 The Overachiever Blueprint
03:58 Culture and Rest Stories
05:07 Choosing Presence
06:07 Podcast Schedule Change
07:27 Three Takeaways to Apply
09:32 Reflect and Choose Deliberately
10:48 Reviews and Farewell
Stay in Touch
🎧 Podcast: https://www.freetobemindful.com/podcast
🎁 Free Resource — 120 Coping Skills: https://www.freetobemindful.com/podca...
📸 Instagram: / counselorvdejesus
💛 Coaching for Moms: https://www.amigamoms.com
🎤 Speaking & Workshops: https://www.freetobemindful.com/speaking
💼 LinkedIn: / 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.
FTBM Podcast Ep310: When Your Calendar Is Full and You're Running on Empty
[00:00:00]
Vanessa: You know that feeling when you look at your calendar and every single thing on it matters. Like you can't find one thing that you can move, one thing that you can cut the thing to say no to. Because all of it is something that you care deeply about, deeply something that you're committed to, something someone is counting on you for. And so you just keep going, right? You find another hour in the day. You wake up earlier, you stay up later, and you tell yourself that this is just a season of life that you're in.
And I wanna talk about that today because I've been living it. And I made a big decision recently that was hard, really hard, and I know that you're going to want to hear it.
Here we go.
You are listening to the Free to Be Mindful podcast, where busy moms get practical tips and real talk .Conversations to find calm joy in a little more breathing room in everyday life. I'm Vanessa Licensed therapist, mom, coach, and a mom to a tween and toddler. Each week we get honest about motherhood and [00:01:00] mindset helping you live with more presence, less pressure without losing your well, you know.