We were lucky to catch up with Karina Rodriguez recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Karina, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
I developed confidence and self-esteem by doing the inner work. When I say inner work I say looking at my mindset, my thoughts, my behaviors, and the mentality I was living by. To be honest, it took a few years for me to develop the confidence within. I had to heal past trauma from when I was a little girl. I had to rewire my mindset since society and family played a big factor on my mentality. I used to think thoughts of “I am not good enough”, “I am not pretty enough” and “I have to perceive myself a certain way” “I need to lose weight”.
I struggled with my self esteem and confidence since I was about age 9 all the way up until I was 25. I used to always care about what others thought of me, their opinions, and felt the need to seek validation from others.
Once I started looking at these limiting beliefs I realized those thoughts did not come from me. They came from outside of me, but for years my subconscious mind played those negative beliefs which kept me in the state of low self confidence and self esteem.
My light bulb moment was truly weeding out the limiting beliefs of my past and switching to an abundance mindset such as “I am worthy” “I am good enough” “I am powerful” “I am confident”. Once I flipped the lens of how I viewed myself thats when my confidence boosted! I worked closely with therapist and mentors for the past few years to get me here where I am today.
Today I am embodying my authentic self. Today I embody a woman who is confident in her truth, shows up for herself, and knows how to challenge her negative thoughts. Today I no longer compare myself to others or care what people think of me. I have to say the journey to get to where I am today was well worth the roller coaster I encountered.
However my story fueled me to become a confidence coach and help other women across the world learn how to truly heal the relationship they have with themselves. Today I am here growing my business, healing minds, and speaking my truth that we all have that confidence within us you just have to wake those confidence muscles up again!
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
A little bit about my story. For years I struggled with anxiety, depression, and low self esteem since I was a young girl. In my teens I began to drink daily and hang out with the wrong crowd. My mental health got worse when I was in graduate school to get my Masters in Social Work. I would always hear my professors say “social workers need therapists too!” But would ignore the statement thinking I am fine.
Finally one day I got so sick and tired that I was such in a dark place and I reached out to get support from a therapist. This therapist helped me for a whole year. This was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life. I faced past trauma, bad relationships and friendships, and repairing the relationship with myself.
However during the process I found out I was a pregnant, which motivated me even more to continue to get support and work on my mental health to avoid post partum depression. Unfortunately, I thought I could “beat” this depression and down the slope I went again with my mental health. I went back to therapy with a different therapist and did not like it. I tried another therapist virtually this time and she helped me a little, but I still felt like there was something missing. I felt lost, angry, sad, and ugly in my own skin. I cried every single day because I was so unhappy with my life.
I stopped going to therapy, I put my two weeks notice in at the job I was working at, and hired my first life coach. This coach truly helped me jump start my journey with my confidence, self love, and also my now business “The Confident You”. I was able to see so many blocks that we’re holding me back and change the perspective of my life.
Today I am here growing my business The Confident You to help women heal the relationship they have with themselves. My mission is to help women all across the world through my virtual 1:1 mentorship program. I enjoy this work so much because as a coach it’s all about creating the woman you desire to be and I can call my clients out on their B.S if they are slacking AKA really getting to the root cause. However as a therapist we focus more on healing and feelings. I am grateful to have the best of both worlds as I have experience in the therapy world and currently continue to work part time in it as I grow my business.
So if you’re a woman ready to take action, embody who the f*ck she is, and thrive in all areas of your life my 1:1 mentorship program can help with that! (spots available)
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
When it comes to developing confidence, self esteem, and self love the 3 things that were most helpful on my journey was practicing mirror work every day; saying 3 affirmations in front of the mirror to boost self confidence, setting strict boundaries in my life, and cutting off toxic people regardless of how many year I knew them for.
If you are someone currently on your confidence journey just know there’s no right or wrong way of approaching this journey. This journey is YOURS! You call the shots! You create your reality. So do things that light your soul on fire, do things that make you happy, and surround yourself with supportive people.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
When life gets overwhelming I take a step back from everything. My work, my family, and EVERYTHING! I go to the living room or a quiet place in my home and I meditate. If mediation does not work very well that day then I move on to some journaling. Journaling is the best medicine to heal this. What I usually do is write out what I am overwhelmed about, why am I overwhelmed about it, and how can I view this from a different lens? When we view things from a different lens this will ease the feelings of being overwhelmed. My last piece of advice would be do a 10 minute guided breath work exercise on YouTube to calm down your nervous system.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://stan.store/theconfidentyou
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconfidentyou.coaching
Image Credits
Karina Rodriguez
