I’m getting ready for August, so I’m ending July with this personal reflection about my professional journey and how it relates to health and my purpose. Here it goes…
Every time the question came up, I answered: “I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer.” I lived with that answer for a long time. But after 23 years of being one, it hit me. And that simple phrase I once clung to like they were truth, turned into the realization that I was wrong.
Before I go any further, I need to make something clear. Saying I was wrong doesn’t mean I made a bad decision. It doesn’t mean I regret the past. It simply means that I’m at peace with the decision I’ve made in my present, and that I embrace the journey because it has led me to what I do now.
Back in high school, when everyone was talking about what to study —especially in those years when everything suddenly felt urgent and final— I knew one thing. Whatever I chose, it had to help people. It had to create a positive impact.
As a Sagittarius —yes, I like astrology— I like philosophy, I chase optimism, I see life as a party worth showing up for, every time, with your best self. I’m also the one who burns for justice. The one that likes researching to find answers. Who feels inclusion in her bones. Who fights for the common good. It’s no surprise to me that I’ve always wanted to do things rooted in service.
Back then, I had in mind three options that I liked: psychiatry, psychology, or law. I chose law. I hate math and didn’t want to study for a thousand years before being able to do something. I told myself, what better way to serve than Law.
It moved me to find Labor Relations. I fell in love. That led to Law School, passing the bar, teaching Labor Law at the University, working in Government, even reaching directing roles in Human Resources and Labor Relations. And still, something inside was always whispering that there’s more.
Maybe it was my intuition. Maybe it was my subconscious mind asking me to listen. Either way, during my years of practice, I started studying things that had nothing to do with Law. The excuse was I needed to disconnect from the career. Which meant I needed to put my mind at ease. That’s how I found health coaching.
Not just any coaching. Holistic health coaching.
It’s different. It’s honest. And somehow, it tied back to those earlier dreams I had of psychology and psychiatry.
I began to see food differently. I moved my body with more care. I learned how to truly rest.
And little by little, I felt better. More focused. More present. More myself.
The other day, I told a close friend that when you’re a perfectionist, you want to be perfect at everything. And I’ve been great at embracing my perfectionism as a “strength”, until life shattered me with something I couldn’t control. It happened while working in Government, and it was my turning point.
Perfectionism is rooted in emotion. And if we don’t meet those emotions, we live in a constant loop of stress and anxiety. We become overthinkers. People-pleasers. And we lose touch with who we are, under a nervous system that’s stuck in survival. That was me.
It led to burnout. Which led to somatic pain. Which made my anxiety worse because I didn’t understand what was happening in my body.
Ironically, my health suffered… but my health also saved me.
Because stress relief isn’t just about breathing in peace and exhaling anxiety. It’s not just a mindset shift. Or a playlist that calms you. Or a spa day. Or a meditation. Those are great tools, and they helped enormously. They still do. But real stress relief? Real healing? It takes more.
We’ve been conditioned to reach for quick fixes. To treat symptoms without understanding the root. And sometimes we don’t even know what the root is.
That’s why healing and health are connected. They both happen from the inside out. Not the other way around. They happen when we get honest about our patterns. When we face our emotions. When we use food to support us, not punish us. When we move our bodies to feel, not to perform. When we let ourselves to truly recover —from the mind, from the gut, from the pelvis, the lungs, the heart, the spine… From the nervous system that carries us through it all. Because when your nervous system feels safe, everything works better.
That’s when your mind finds clarity. When your digestion flows. When your body flexes with ease. When life feels possible, even in the middle of chaos. When you move past those patterns that only wanted to protect you, as perfectionism do for me. That’s where real health begins.
Health that helps you lose weight, build muscle, eat better without pressure.
Health that shines in your smile and radiates from your skin.
Health that lets you live your life stronger, steadier, more grounded.
And then I realized that what I loved about my legal career wasn’t Law itself. In fact, I never even enjoyed the rigidity of a courtroom. What I loved was being there for others. Helping them get to the root of their legal problems. I loved being a facilitator, a mediator. I loved sharing my knowledge with others; teaching with the purpose of contributing to the world of ideas and helping develop critical thinkers. I embraced every time someone thanked me for bringing peace and calm into environments where that was hard to find, even when I couldn’t feel it inside myself.
And that’s the impact I live for. That’s what moves me. What pushes me to wake up every morning.
It’s the kind of impact I want to create now through the lens of health. And that’s what I’m here to share with you, today and always, as a holistic health coach.
To your rhythm and health,
