Podcast | Mindset
Episode 20| October 14, 2023

Mindshift for Success & Happiness w/ Carmen Paredes

Two Engineering Degrees, a Harvard MBA, a Corner Office. And She Googled How to Be Happy.

Carmen Paredes had reached the pinnacle. Vice president. The only woman in the boardroom. The first Latina VP in her company.

On paper, she had everything.

She had never been more unhappy in her life. One night she typed four words into a search bar: how to be happy.

The thing she was chasing was never outside of her.

In this episode of the Happy Healthy Hustle Podcast, freedom coach and energy healer Carmen Paredes shares how external validation left her empty, the wake-up call with her son that changed everything, and how self-compassion put a new pair of glasses on her whole life.

At forty she started healing. At forty-eight she helps others do the same.

If your résumé looks full and you feel empty, this one is for you.

Listen on:

Share With a Friend

“There is no other gold medal that is going to make me happy.”

– Carmen Paredes

Fast Skim & Timestamps

0:00 Meet Carmen: From Corner Office to Freedom Coach
3:26 The Superpower: Helping People Find Balance
5:35 The Wound That Shaped the Adult Carmen
8:06 Starting Her Healing Journey at Forty
8:55 Googling “How to Be Happy”
11:44 Finding the Courage to Jump
12:48 New Glasses: Compassion and Forgiveness
16:26 The Wake-Up Call: Time With Her Kids

Key Takeaways

External validation does not equal internal happiness. The corner office proved it.
The traumas we do not name still shape the adults we become.
We often become the very thing we vowed never to be, until we heal the wound.
Burnout can hide behind the label of a successful life: migraines, sleeplessness, always on edge.
Self-compassion and forgiveness work like new glasses. The same world looks different.
You cannot change the past. You can make any day going forward better.

Three Petite Practice® Questions

1. Where am I chasing the next gold medal, hoping it will finally feel like enough?

2. What have I normalized as the price of success that is really a warning sign?

3. What relationship am I repeating from my own past without meaning to?

Transcript Chapters

0:00 Meet Carmen: From Corner Office to Freedom Coach

[00:01:26] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Today’s guest is Carmen Paredes, a retired corporate executive, mom of three, freedom coach, and master energy healer. She empowers driven souls to thrive in their lives, relationships, and careers. As host of Living Intentionally with Carmen Paredes, she shares how to heal unresolved childhood traumas without reexperiencing the pain. Originally from Panama, she now lives in Alaska. [00:02:22] Carmen Paredes: Thank you for having me. It is so nice to be here with you.

3:26 The Superpower: Helping People Find Balance

[00:03:26] Carmen Paredes: If I have to pick one, my superpower is helping my clients achieve balance in life. For most of my adult life, I was always seeking that thing that would make me happy. I was an overachiever, but I could not find it, because that thing was not outside of me. It was inside of me, and it came when I found balance between my mind, my body, and my soul.

5:35 The Wound That Shaped the Adult Carmen

[00:05:35] Carmen Paredes: Like many of us, I grew up with childhood traumas I did not know were there. I am not going to victimize myself or shame anybody, it is just the way we process information. Those events molded the adult Carmen into someone always looking for praise, recognition, and validation from the outside world. Very early I decided, subconsciously, that love was not safe, so I shut down my heart. I excelled at everything professionally, but my personal life was a disaster. I had been divorced a couple of times, and even the connection that mattered most, with my children, was suffering, because I became the exact mother I vowed never to become.

8:06 Starting Her Healing Journey at Forty

[00:08:06] Carmen Paredes: About four years after I realized all this was happening, I started my healing journey, which led me to delve into energy and somatic work on top of the mindset tools I already had. I started that journey around forty years old. I am forty-eight now. There is always a relationship in your life that shapes who you become, and until you heal those wounds, you have no choice but to keep reproducing it subconsciously.

8:55 Googling “How to Be Happy”

[00:08:55] Carmen Paredes: I got to the pinnacle of my career. The corner office, the accolades, two engineering degrees, an MBA from Harvard. I was the vice president, the only woman in the boardroom, the first Latina VP in the company. And I had never felt more unhappy in my life. There was no gold medal that was going to make me happy. I remember googling how to be happy, that is how sad it was. When I came across happy people, it would make me mad, and then I was ashamed and felt guilty that I was not grateful for all I had.

11:44 Finding the Courage to Jump

[00:11:44] Carmen Paredes: It took me a while to make the decision. I had built a life on that salary, with rules and beliefs I had to work through. One of the books I published, a co-author book, my chapter is about finding the courage to jump and going beyond what is certain in your life. It took me a couple of years to go deep inside myself and start shifting my mindset, digging into what I believed, why I believed it, and whether those beliefs were even mine.

12:48 New Glasses: Compassion and Forgiveness

[00:12:48] Carmen Paredes: That journey led me into self-compassion and forgiveness, and the alchemy power of those emotions. When you stand in the world and look at your life and others with compassion and acceptance, it is almost like you change your glasses. You take off the ones with all the trauma and limiting beliefs, and it is like, I am not colorblind anymore. Everything has so much more color, light, and love. Through that, I tapped into what makes me happy. The best part of my career had always been helping people bust through their limiting beliefs, so that is what I decided to do.

16:26 The Wake-Up Call: Time With Her Kids

[00:16:26] Carmen Paredes: It was really my children. I had every sign of burnout: daily migraines, hives, peptic ulcers, I could not sleep, I was gaining weight, moody and grumpy. But I had normalized it as what a successful woman looks like. When my oldest became a teenager, gaining independence and even a girlfriend, I realized I was losing him already, and he was not even college age. There was a lot of grief. But you can spend ten years being a victim of your decisions, or you can make any day going forward better. That is what I chose to do. [00:20:31] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Health, happiness, and productivity are all interconnected. Thank you so much, Carmen.

Meet My Guest

Carmen Paredes

Freedom Coach, Energy Healer & Host of Living Intentionally

Carmen Paredes is a retired corporate executive turned freedom coach and master energy healer. Originally from Panama and now based in Alaska, she helps driven people heal unresolved childhood wounds and find balance across their lives, relationships, and careers.

She hosts the podcast Living Intentionally with Carmen Paredes and is a published author. Learn more at exceptionalleadershipsolutions.com.

Meet Your Host

Dr. Christiane Schroeter

TEDx Speaker & Leadership Strategist

I’m Dr. Christiane Schroeter, TEDx speaker, leadership strategist, and host of the Top 1% ranked Happy Healthy Hustle Podcast. I help leaders think clearly, speak with conviction, and take the next step during change.

About Dr. Christiane

Subscribe on YouTube

Want the short, practical version of these conversations, plus behind-the-scenes clips and new videos each week?

Related Episodes

Show All Episodes