Unmasking Insecurities for Personal Growth

Are your insecurities keeping you from reaching your full potential? Tune in to explore the fears and doubts that hold you back and explore how unmasking them can lead to personal growth and freedom. Learn how to identify your blind spots, shift your mindset, and take control of emotional reactions like anxiety and self-doubt. With practical strategies and real-life examples, you'll discover how facing your insecurities can open the door to a more confident and fulfilling life. Don't let hidden fears dictate your future—it's time to step into your power!

In this episode, I cover the following:
1. How to gain control over emotional reactions by increasing self-awareness.
2. The impact of Brave Academy VIP retreats.
3. Long-term consequences of avoiding emotional pain and how addressing blind spots leads to growth and healing.

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[FREE TRAINING]
How high-achieving women can
DITCH anxiety in as little as five minutes a day
www.brave-method.com/anxiety

Which of these results do you want and inspire you the most?
www.brave-method.com/testimonials

💗 Dr. Steph
@DrStephanieLopez
www.brave-method.com

Chapters

• 0:07 From Broken to Brave Podcast
• 4:28 Removing Blind Spots for Empowerment
• 12:20 Confronting Pain

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

I'm Dr Steph and I want you to know that you do not have to suffer from anxiety or explosive emotional reactions like lashing out. You are not, in fact, broken, and I'm going to show you how to have the ultimate control over your reactions so that you are unstoppable. Welcome to the Broken to Brave podcast. Welcome back. Oh my gosh, I just hosted a two-day in-person retreat and, if you don't know, everyone who signs up for Brave Academy VIP gets the two-day in-person retreat free of charge, totally free. My gift to you. And I'm just on a high because the testimonials coming in from all the women who attended about what has shifted for them just puts a smile on my face. I'm going to share a few of those with you.

Speaker 1: 1:06

One woman said she's not going to be defensive with her husband like she has been. She's really been on the defensive and she can feel it in their relationship and he can too. And another said I'm not going to dim my light anymore to protect other people from their feelings. Now I'm going to start asking for help in my marriage and for what I want in my marriage. I'm going to be kinder to myself when I make mistakes. This particular individual had been beating herself up quite a bit with any mistakes that she was making. Another said now I don't have to hide my strong personality anymore because I really realize that it's not a bad thing, even though others kind of made her feel that way. Another one said now I'm going to be saying no when I really don't want to do something, instead of just automatically saying yes. And another said that she's feeling more joy rather than guilt, tripping herself into being productive all the time because that's how she was raised. Afterwards I got several messages and I just want to read one of them to you.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Rachel shared one of the. I'm just going to directly quote her. One of the most valuable aspects of this program that's Brave Academy VIP is the two-day retreat offered, she said. While the modules and the calls provide essential tools and guidance, the retreat offers a unique opportunity to explore and address deep-seated issues and underlying emotions. Dr Steph's insights and facilitation allowed me to engage in profound self-reflection and honesty, and the retreat's capacity to address and resolve personal obstacles is remarkable, she kept going saying. This week I already feel a sense of relief and greater authenticity in my interactions and I am no longer trying to meet everyone else's expectations. I'm also more aware of when I'm becoming defensive and can adjust my responses accordingly, leading to significantly less stress and a greater sense of freedom. She kept going saying, although traveling for the retreats can be challenging, they truly represent a crucial missing piece to the puzzle. Thank you is definitely not enough, but, dr Steph, I am so grateful for you and I have to tell you I couldn't agree with her more. For me, it feels so rewarding to be able to gift you this incredible experience when you sign up for Brave Academy VIP.

Speaker 1: 3:44

What is happening, though, at these retreats that makes them so remarkable? Let me ask you this question If you were driving and someone was in your blind spot and you moved over, does that mean that you won't get into an accident? No, so what is the implication of this If you don't know what your blind spots are? That does not mean that it won't impact your life. It absolutely will. So are you doing the work to identify what those blind spots are? Are you actively doing that work?

Speaker 1: 4:28

The work that I do with clients is to drastically deepen their self-awareness. First and foremost, it's to install those mirrors for them so that they can see things differently and subsequently make different choices. You can't make a different choice if you don't realize that you are making a choice. You wouldn't believe how often that I hear that from people At the two-day retreats. I make it an experience. It's not just me standing at the front of the room lecturing you, telling you what to do. It's not like a class. It's an experience where I show you through different exercises and tools and modalities and feedback and assessments. I help you gain self-awareness really, really quickly. You can't make a different choice if you don't realize that you are making a choice. All those times that you said things like oh it, you know, it just happened. Or oh man, I'm stuck, what if I told you there are choices that you don't even realize that you're making yet? You have to look at it. If you want to heal, you have to look at it. If you want the life that you've dreamed of and if you're thinking, look at what. Your blind spots, your not so shiny parts, your reactions, the things that you've been avoiding, your insecurities, your role in your relationships, all of it.

Speaker 1: 6:02

What do most people do instead of looking at it? I'm going to share this list because I want you to truly be honest with yourself and ask yourself am I doing this too, or where in my life am I doing this? Because you're probably not doing it everywhere, but I am willing to bet there's got to be somewhere where you are doing this. So what do they do? They distract themselves. They deny that there's any issues or feelings of inadequacy. They numb. They numb with food. They numb with alcohol. They numb with shopping. They numb with working. They numb with TV. They numb with working out. They numb with prescription meds, non-prescription meds, video games. The list goes on and on.

Speaker 1: 6:51

If you do one of these three things, why am I insinuating that that's not a great thing? Because if you don't allow yourself to see your blind spots, they will run the show, not you. And if you're like most women in this community, you want to feel in control of your emotions, how you react and how you respond. But if you don't allow yourself to see these things, you won't get the control that you desire. The blind spots will run the show and be in. Are you doing one of these three things, or are you putting yourself in a safe container, like Brave Academy VIP, where you can be guided to install these mirrors so that you can show up in a way that you're proud of.

Speaker 1: 7:43

It makes sense that people avoid facing their pain. Maybe there's a fear there, or there's some shame there, or they just don't know where to start, and I get that. And sometimes there's also short-term relief and that can result in them making the same choice over and over and over again. But you know what? There are long-term consequences. Now the list here is pretty long. I'm going to go over a few of them, but this is not a comprehensive list.

Speaker 1: 8:15

Long-term consequences to refusing or being unwilling to look at it and to put yourself in that safe container to grow results in suppression of emotions, which you know. If you're suppressing your emotions, that's essentially brushing it under the rug. When we brush something under the rug, what happens if you have an issue with somebody and you just don't say anything. Don't say anything. Don't say anything, don't say anything. It builds up over time and so that buildup can result in rage, yelling, anxiety, physical pain. You can also end up having an increased sensitivity and overreactions and emotional outbursts in situations that, in hindsight and objectively, would be otherwise pretty manageable. Chronic stress is a long-term consequence. Physical health issues like headaches. Physical health issues like headaches, digestive issues, chronic pain, a weakened immune system.

Speaker 1: 9:15

Issues in your relationships, like avoiding conversations, increased resentment, misunderstanding, lack of intimacy, decreased trust in that relationship, stagnation in your life where you have missed opportunities for growth, where you don't go for the thing that you want because you don't think that you can do it, because your self-esteem hasn't been worked on, feeling stuck, procrastinating. Honestly, the list goes on and on and on. Where can you see yourself in this list? Where can you see yourself in this list? Where can you see yourself? It can feel easy to gloss over things and say like, oh, it's not that bad and just focus on things like diet and physical appearance. I see that over and over and over again, focusing on the external rather than the internal, which will result in improvements on the external. The longer that you avoid, the worse that it will get over time. In fact, I was actually just talking to two women recently who struggled with anxiety most of their life. They had not addressed what was going on beneath the anxiety. One ended up with an autoimmune disease and the other got to the point where her nervous system was so dysregulated that she was having panic attacks regularly. Both of them told me that they previously thought oh, my anxiety isn't that bad and then they regretted not looking at it sooner.

Speaker 1: 10:50

When you look at it, when you invest in yourself so that you can be guided to install those mirrors and to see things differently for the first time, what happens? You see the number of choices that you really have in any given moment and if you're like women inside of Brave Academy, you get your life back. You take a big step in your career rather than being paralyzed in it. You experience more joy. You start the business you've always dreamed of. You live freely. You have conversations with someone when your feelings are hurt, rather than just shutting down, sucking it up or yelling. You share with your partner what you really want and need, rather than just going with the flow and putting yourself at the bottom of the bandwagon yet again. You enjoy life and live in the present so that when you're old and when you're on your deathbed, you're not filled with regrets and tons of I wish I would have. I know that this happens because, although I'm not on your deathbed, you're not filled with regrets and tons of I wish I would have. I know that this happens because, although I'm not on my deathbed, my oldest client was 79 and I've had many clients in their 60s, approaching 70s, their 50s, their 40s, and the amount of regret that I hear. I don't want you to experience another day of that and these results that I just talked about. Women are getting daily inside of Brave Academy.

Speaker 1: 12:20

What I want you to do today, I want you to take action. Identify one area in your life where you're avoiding pain and just take the first step. It can be a baby step, it doesn't have to be a huge thing. First step to confront it and if you need accountability, I totally get that. So, to keep yourself accountable, send me a DM on Instagram at Dr Stephanie Lopez and let me know. Let me know what you discovered, what you identified and what your first step is. All right, that's it for today. I will talk to you soon. Thank you so much for listening today. Are you ready to finally heal and break free from anxiety, including symptoms like replaying interactions, fearing, making mistakes, imagining worst case scenarios and constant worrying? If so, dm me the word free on Instagram at Dr Stephanie Lopez and I will send you a link to my completely free class to officially ditch anxiety.