In this episode of Juicy Bits, we explore how overworking, perfectionism and constant striving are often rooted in an unregulated nervous system rather than true desire. For women who have built successful lives yet feel exhausted, disconnected or unsatisfied, this conversation offers a powerful reframe: you’re not broken—you’re adapted.

We unpack how stress responses like overfunctioning, people-pleasing, and hyper-independence can quietly shape business, relationships and intimacy. You’ll learn why slowing down can feel unsafe, why rest may trigger guilt, and why pleasure can feel out of reach—even when life looks good on paper.

This episode invites you into a new way of living and leading—one grounded in nervous system regulation, self-trust and embodied pleasure instead of survival mode. We explore what it means to shift from hustle to flow, from self-abandonment to self-connection and from proving your worth to actually feeling it in your body.

If you’re a driven woman craving more intimacy, more pleasure, and a deeper connection to yourself—without burning everything down—this episode is for you. For practical exercises to help you do this join Carmen's Skool community and go to the Classroom. https://bit.ly/yjlskool There are 15 days of audio recordings to get you started on reconnecting to your body and uncovering what you actually want.

Check out Carmen's website at https://yourjuicylife.com/

In this compassionate episode of Juicy Bits with Carmen, Carmen offers a love letter to women who have carried shame, guilt or self-blame around their stress responses in moments when they felt unsafe. With care and honesty, she reframes trauma responses as intelligent survival mechanisms rather than personal failures.

Carmen invites listeners to engage only when they feel resourced, reminding them that this episode is not therapy or medical advice, but a personal reflection meant to bring validation and relief. At the core of the conversation is a powerful reframe of the belief “I abandoned myself.” Instead, Carmen explains how responses like freezing, people-pleasing or dissociation are automatic nervous system reactions designed to keep us alive.

This episode speaks to how often women turn appropriate anger inward, blaming themselves instead of recognizing where accountability belongs. Carmen names how common it is for women to minimize their own experiences, especially when they don’t fit cultural ideas of “big trauma,” even though the body still carries the impact.

Carmen explains stress responses and emphasizes that they are not conscious choices. Dissociation and checking out are framed as protective responses, not weaknesses. Repetition of these patterns is also normalized as the nervous system doing what it knows, not a sign of failure.

Carmen invites listeners to shift from self-judgment to gratitude—thanking the body for doing its job and keeping them safe. This episode offers a grounded, validating space for women ready to release shame, reconnect with their bodies, and begin healing with compassion.

For more on Carmen's work, check out Your Juicy Life here: https://yourjuicylife.com/

In this episode, you learn that being able to receive pleasure is essential to accept and sustain wealth. Carmen takes female entrepreneurs behind the scenes of a pivotal embodied experience that reshaped how she understands desire, pleasure and receiving. This conversation is an invitation for women who are successful on paper—but craving more aliveness, ease, and sustainability—to explore what it really takes to move from survival mode into CREATRIX mode.

Carmen shares a powerful personal story from a workshop where she made a bold request. The transformation wasn’t just in the asking—it was in her ability to stay present and receive what she had asked for.

This moment revealed something many high-achieving women struggle with: receiving requires capacity. It’s not enough to want more pleasure, more money or more support. Your nervous system has to be able to hold it. Carmen reflects on how often women are conditioned to tolerate what’s offered rather than name what they truly desire, especially when it comes to touch, intimacy, love and even success.

From an early age, all women experience touch and expectations before they have the language or power to consent. That conditioning carries into adulthood, showing up as people-pleasing, over-giving and difficulty expressing needs. Carmen explains how trauma—big or small—lives in the body, and how intentional somatic experiences around consent, boundaries and choice can help undo these patterns.

She also challenges a deeply ingrained belief many women carry: that a gift only counts if you didn’t ask for it. Drawing from her past marriage, Carmen unpacks how unspoken expectations and “mind-reading” fantasies sabotage connection. A gift that isn’t wanted or received as such isn’t a gift—it’s pressure. Whether in relationships or business, clarity around desire changes everything.

For female entrepreneurs, this work matters far beyond the bedroom. Carmen draws a direct line between embodiment and leadership, pleasure and profit. Just because you can build something doesn’t mean it’s what you want. Just because you’re capable of hustling doesn’t mean it’s sustainable. Desire evolves, and learning to listen to it—without judgment—is part of creating long-term abundance.

Carmen shares how her own journey through kink, open relationships,and sexual exploration expanded her understanding of herself beyond societal conditioning. As safety and self-trust grew, so did her capacity for pleasure, authenticity and unapologetic desire. The same is possible in business, creativity and life.

This episode is a reminder that pleasure is not frivolous—it’s foundational. Without it, we block what we say we want. With it, we build the capacity to receive, sustain and enjoy the lives we’re creating.

Carmen leaves listeners with a simple invitation: what is one small desire you could name to someone you trust?

If you’re a bold female entrepreneur ready to experience abundance without burnout and pleasure without guilt, Juicy Bits with Carmen offers a powerful place to begin.

Join Your Juicy Life free community on Skool here: https://bit.ly/yjlskool