Your Yes Filled Life

Today's conversation goes deep into what it can look like to reclaim parts of yourself you've been taught to ignore.

Wendy Mata spent more than 20 years in cybersecurity and digital forensics before leaving the corporate world and returning to the spiritual practices that had been part of her family and lineage for generations.

Today, Wendy is a bruja curandera, fire priestess, healer, spiritual teacher, founder of Bruja Power Botanica, and author of Bruja Curandera: Spells, Rituals, and Ancestor Work from a Mexican Healer and Witch.

In this conversation, Brenda and Wendy explore what it means to recognize and work with your spiritual gifts rather than feeling controlled or depleted by them.

Wendy shares how she understands the roles of witch, healer and priestess, and why training, boundaries, devotion and practice matter. They also talk about creating intentional communities, working with mentors, balancing spiritual guidance with practical systems, breaking inherited patterns, allowing joy and abundance into your life, and why reclaiming your power doesn't mean blaming yourself for painful experiences.

In this episode:

Wendy Mata is the founder of Bruja Power Botanica and a Bruja Curandera by lineage. She’s on a mission to help witches, healers, and magic-curious souls reclaim their power and live with purpose, magic, and abundance. Initiated in Shamanism in Yucatán, trained in Curanderismo and Brujería through her family line, and certified as a Reiki Master and Advanced Pranic Healer, Wendy blends ancestral wisdom with global experience. She’s a Feng Shui Master (Malaysia), a certified leadership coach (Canada), and a lifelong student of energy, consciousness, and co-creation. Before fully stepping into her spiritual path, Wendy led global product launches in cybersecurity and digital forensics. Now, she helps others weave systems, soul, and strategy to build powerful lives and businesses on their own terms. Her work has guided tens of thousands back to their power, and she believes the collective shift begins when each of us remembers who we really are.

Connect with Wendy: Website: https://bruja.us

Book: Bruja Curandera: Spells, Rituals, and Ancestor Work from a Mexican Healer and Witch

Additional links:

https://bruja.us https://www.bruja.us/book  https://www.tiktok.com/brujapowerbotanica  

AND SOMETHING IS COMING... TURN DOWN YOUR EMPATHY. TURN UP YOUR INTUITION. I'm an empath and I think I might be psychic…how do I know? A live workshop to help you understand what's empathy, what's intuition, what's emotional overwhelm—and how to hear your own knowing more clearly. Coming soon.

Keywords: empath, intuition, intuitive empath, psychic abilities, psychic medium, highly sensitive person, spiritual gifts, how to trust your intuition, empathy vs intuition, emotional overwhelm, energetic boundaries, spiritual boundaries, discernment, intuitive gifts, psychic signs, how to know if you’re psychic, energy sensitivity, spiritual awakening, self trust, ancestral healing, ancestral practices, witchcraft, healer, priestess, bruja curandera, reclaiming your power, spiritual development, nervous system, energy healing, Wendy Mata, Bruja Curandera, Brenda Winkle, Your Yes Filled Life 

What would a psychic medium and empath never do during spooky season?

Brenda has opinions. 👻

In this playful (and decidedly witchier) episode of Your Yes Filled Life, Brenda shares five things she personally avoids during spooky season—and why sensitivity, intuition and discernment all matter when you’re deciding what experiences you actually want to engage with.

From haunted places and unexplained chills to spiritual practices, secondhand objects and knowing when to turn your intuitive “dial” down, this episode explores a side of empathy we don’t always talk about:

Just because you can sense something doesn’t mean you have to engage with it.

You’ll also hear how Brenda approaches spooky season without becoming afraid of it, why she believes energetic boundaries matter, and how she decides when she’s available for intuitive information—and when she simply wants to be a human having fun.

This isn't about giving you more things to fear.

It’s about discernment.

Because your sensitivity doesn’t require you to make yourself available to every person, place or experience.

In this episode:

Our newest POWER cohort begins its foundational work October 6. To learn more about POWER: Self-Trust for Empaths and future opportunities to join, visit:

https://BrendaWinkle.com/power 

Download your free energy audit: https://www.brendawinkle.com/audit 

If you know someone who loves spooky season, intuition, psychic development or all things witchy, send them this episode.

Keywords: psychic medium, empath, spooky season, psychic medium podcast, empath podcast, intuition, intuitive gifts, psychic development, spiritual discernment, energetic boundaries, haunted houses, haunted places, Ouija board, spirit communication, highly sensitive person, HSP, empath boundaries, intuitive development, trusting your intuition, self trust, emotional boundaries, energetic sensitivity, spiritual practices, Halloween, witchy season, psychic abilities, mediumship, clairvoyance, clairsentience, intuitive empath, Your Yes Filled Life, Brenda Winkle, POWER Self-Trust for Empaths 

What if one of your greatest strengths is also making it difficult to hear yourself?

You can walk into a room and immediately sense who's uncomfortable. You anticipate what people need. You may trust your intuition completely at work.

But when someone you love is disappointed by your decision, suddenly you're questioning something you felt perfectly clear about five minutes ago.

In this episode of Your Yes Filled Life, Brenda shares 10 signs that your empathy may be running your life instead of supporting it—and why the answer isn't to become less sensitive.

The goal is to let your empathy include YOU.

You know what you want until someone else has feelings about it.

You feel responsible for emotions nobody asked you to manage.

You confuse someone else's discomfort with evidence that you've done something wrong.

You anticipate everyone's needs but struggle to identify your own.

You say yes before checking in with yourself.

You seek reassurance about decisions that originally felt clear.

You struggle to distinguish intuition from emotional overwhelm.

You feel guilty resting when someone else might need something.

You explain your boundaries until they sound like requests for permission.

You feel deeply connected to everyone else but disconnected from yourself.

Through examples from relationships, work, family life and her own experiences, Brenda explores how these patterns can show up even in confident, accomplished women.

You'll also hear why someone else's reaction isn't necessarily information about whether your decision is right for you, and how to begin recognizing the difference between seeking perspective and seeking permission.

Think about a recent moment when you felt clear about something—until another person had feelings about it.

Ask yourself:

What did I know before their reaction?

What am I feeling now?

What might I be feeling that isn't mine?

Has my knowing changed, or has honoring it become uncomfortable?

You don't have to stop caring deeply about other people to start honoring yourself.

POWER: Self-Trust for Empaths is Brenda's six-week live foundation with a full year of coaching, community and opportunities to revisit the work through three live POWER rounds.

You'll also receive a private coaching session during your first cohort and lifetime access to the curriculum and replays.

Enrollment closes Thursday, October 1, 2026. The first content call is Tuesday, October 6.

Explore POWER and enroll: https://BrendaWinkle.com/power

If this episode helped you recognize a pattern, share it with someone who cares deeply about others and is learning to include herself, too.

Download your free energy audit: https://www.brendawinkle.com/audit 

Keywords: empath, empathy, signs of an empath, self trust, self trust for empaths, highly sensitive person, HSP, intuition, emotional overwhelm, emotional boundaries, setting boundaries, people pleasing, self abandonment, overgiving, intuitive development, trusting your intuition, empath boundaries, emotional regulation, somatic coaching, how to stop people pleasing, how to say no, decision making, guilt and rest, women's personal growth, POWER Self Trust for Empaths, Brenda Winkle, Your Yes Filled Life

How to harness your empathy, recognize your intuitive gifts and trust yourself when a decision gets uncomfortable: You make a decision, and it feels clear. Then someone gets quiet. Someone disagrees. Someone might be disappointed. And suddenly, you're questioning everything.

Is your intuition telling you something has changed? Are you feeling anxious? Are you picking up on someone else's emotions? Or has honoring what you know simply become uncomfortable?

If you're deeply empathic and intuitive, those experiences can become tangled together.

In this episode of Your Yes Filled Life, Brenda Winkle explores why learning to harness your empathy can be an important part of developing a clearer relationship with your intuition—and why you may not need to receive more information nearly as much as you need to discern the information you're already receiving.

You'll explore how intuitive experiences can be subtler than their dramatic portrayals on television, why you may trust your intuition professionally but second-guess it in your personal life, and how other people's emotional reactions can feel like evidence that you've made the wrong choice.

Brenda shares a personal decision involving family commitments and POWER, along with a participant's realization that knowing what to do doesn't necessarily make taking action easy.

In this episode:

Why intuition doesn't have to resemble what you've seen on television.

The difference between receiving information and discerning what it means.

How other people's emotional responses can complicate your decisions.

Why professional confidence doesn't always translate into personal self-trust.

Four questions to explore when you're second-guessing yourself.

How practicing discernment may help you recognize your own intuitive information more clearly.

Why POWER includes a full year of practice and three live cohorts.

POWER: Self-Trust for Empaths

POWER begins with six weeks of foundational work and includes a full year of coaching, practice and integration, with three live POWER cohorts. The Fall cohort begins with a meet-and-greet on September 29, and enrollment closes September 28.

Learn more at https://www.brendawinkle.com/power 

Download your free energy audit: https://www.brendawinkle.com/audit 

Keywords: selftrust, intuition, intuitivewomen, intuitivegifts, psychicdevelopment, psychicgifts, empaths, empathlife, highlysensitiveperson, empathboundaries, emotionalboundaries, energeticboundaries, discernment, trustyourintuition, trustyourself, intuitiveknowing, clairvoyance, claircognizance, clairaudience, clairsentience, spiritualgrowth, spiritualawakening, intuitiveawakening, selfawareness, nervoussystemregulation, somaticcoaching, peoplepleasing, fearofdisappointingothers, secondguessing, decisionmaking, personalgrowth, embodiedselftrust, youryesfilledlife, brendawinkle 

You know the pattern. You know you over-function. You know you take responsibility for other people's feelings. You've read the books, listened to the podcasts, maybe spent years in therapy or coaching - and you understand why you do what you do.

So how do you move from knowing better to actually doing differently?

In this episode of Your Yes Filled Life, Brenda explores the gap between understanding a pattern and being able to make a different choice when you're actually inside it—and what helps close that gap.

Because when someone you love is uncomfortable, helping may not even feel like a decision.

It can feel like love. Helping. Compassion. Responsibility.

And sometimes the very thing you're resentful about later is something you didn't realize you were choosing in the moment.

The answer isn't more shame. And it isn't necessarily more insight.

It's learning to notice the moment sooner.

To create enough space between what you feel and what you do that you can recognize: I have a choice here.

You'll hear how empathy can turn someone else's discomfort into something you feel responsible for fixing, why noticing your choice sooner is such an important part of building self-trust, and how practice begins turning something you intellectually understand into something you can actually live.

Brenda also shares why practicing alongside other women can accelerate this work. Sometimes hearing another woman describe your exact pattern creates the realization: Oh. I do that too.

Shame loosens.

You witness another possibility.

And eventually, you get to practice choosing differently yourself.

In this episode:

POWER: Self-Trust for Empaths is currently open for enrollment. The Fall cohort begins September 29, and enrollment closes September 28.

Learn more and join POWER at https://www.brendawinkle.com/power 

Keywords: self trust, self trust for empaths, empaths, empath life, highly sensitive person, empath boundaries, emotional boundaries, energetic boundaries, people pleasing, overfunctioning, over functioning, over responsibility, emotional responsibility, emotional labor, caregiving, caregiver burnout, anticipatory caregiving, resentment, setting boundaries, boundary setting, nervous system regulation, emotional regulation, somatic coaching, discernment, intuitive women, intuition, trusting yourself, trust your intuition, second guessing yourself, self abandonment, self awareness, personal growth, breaking patterns, changing patterns, embodiment, embodied self trust, building self trust, practicing self trust, emotional sensitivity, compassionate boundaries, caring without carrying, other people's emotions, other people's needs, stop rescuing, fixing people, self care for empaths, women and boundaries, Your Yes Filled Life, Brenda Winkle, POWER Self Trust for Empaths

You know what you think. At least…you thought you did. Then you text three friends. Ask your coach. Google it. Check Reddit. Pull another card. Look for a sign.

And somehow, after gathering all that information, you're less clear than when you started.

What if you aren't always asking because you don't know?

What if sometimes you're asking because knowing means becoming the person responsible for the choice?

In this episode of Your Yes Filled Life, Brenda explores the difference between seeking perspective and seeking permission - especially for empathic women who are highly attuned to other people's feelings, preferences and reactions.

Because asking for advice isn't a self-trust failure.

Other people have expertise, wisdom, and perspectives you may genuinely need.

The question is:

What job are you asking their answer to do?

Are you gathering useful information?

Or are you hoping someone else's certainty will make you feel safer about your own choice?

Brenda shares her own experience of looking for external validation around decisions she already felt internally clear about, along with a behavioral shift POWER participant Kendra D. noticed: less asking for opinions and confirmation from others and less need to justify or explain her choices.

You simply get to hear yourself first.

POWER isn't about replacing everyone else's answers with Brenda's.

It's about developing your own discernment.

The first six weeks establish the foundation, followed by a full year of coaching, practice and integration support, including three live POWER cohorts, somatic work, breathwork, community, lifetime curriculum and replays, and a private 1:1 session during your first cohort.

The Fall cohort begins September 29.

Enrollment closes September 28.

Learn more at https://www.brendawinkle.com/power 

Keywords: Your Yes Filled Life, self trust, self trust for empaths, empath, empaths, empath life, highly sensitive person, trusting yourself, trust yourself, intuition, intuitive women, discernment, inner knowing, decision making, making decisions, decision fatigue, second guessing, second guessing yourself, external validation, seeking validation, validation seeking, asking for advice, asking for opinions, confirmation seeking, people pleasing, people pleaser, fear of disappointing others, other people's opinions, self doubt, trusting your intuition, intuitive decision making, stop overthinking, overthinking decisions, boundaries, emotional boundaries, empath boundaries, nervous system regulation, somatic coaching, personal growth, emotional intelligence, self awareness, inner authority, self leadership, coaching for women, Brenda Winkle, POWER Self Trust for Empaths

Have you ever finally gotten clear about what you want—only to start questioning yourself the moment your decision becomes real? 

You knew you needed to say no.

You knew you wanted the opportunity.

You knew the relationship needed to change.

You knew you needed to rest.

And then someone had a reaction. Your body got activated. The consequences became real.

Suddenly you're wondering:

Wait. Was I wrong?

In this episode of Your Yes Filled Life, Brenda explores an important distinction:

Hearing yourself is not the same thing as trusting yourself.

Because knowing what's right for you doesn't guarantee that honoring it will feel comfortable.

Brenda shares a recent personal experience where a decision she knew was right for her could still disappoint someone she cared about. She also shares POWER participant Stephanie White's experience of building something far more valuable than perfect certainty: lived evidence that she can pause, listen to herself and stay with herself when things feel difficult.

You'll explore the difference between new information and new feelings, why discomfort after a decision doesn't automatically mean the decision was wrong, and what self-trust can look like when the wobble inevitably comes.

When you notice yourself questioning something you previously felt clear about, ask:

Has my knowing changed—or has honoring what I know become uncomfortable?

You don't have to force an answer.

Just notice.

Hearing yourself matters.

But staying connected to yourself when real life responds to your choice? That's where practice matters.

POWER includes six weeks of foundational work followed by 12 months of coaching, practice and integration support, including three live POWER cohorts, community support, coaching and Q&A, somatic work, breathwork, lifetime curriculum and replays, and a private 1:1 session during your first cohort.

The Fall cohort begins September 29 and enrollment closes September 28.

Learn more at https://www.brendawinkle.com/power 

Keywords: self trust, self trust for empaths, trusting yourself, empath, empaths, highly sensitive person, intuitive women, discernment, intuition, inner knowing, hearing yourself, trusting your intuition, second guessing yourself, self doubt, decision making, making decisions, difficult decisions, nervous system regulation, nervous system activation, emotional regulation, boundaries, setting boundaries, people pleasing, other people's opinions, fear of disappointing others, guilt after setting boundaries, trusting your decisions, discomfort after making a decision, self trust after making a decision, staying connected to yourself, learning to trust yourself, building self trust, embodied self trust, self trust practice, somatic coaching, empath boundaries, empath self trust, emotional sensitivity, personal growth, self awareness, inner dialogue, supportive self talk, Your Yes Filled Life, Brenda Winkle, POWER Self Trust for Empaths

Keywords: self trust, self trust for empaths, trusting yourself, empath, empaths, highly sensitive person, intuitive women, discernment, intuition, inner knowing, hearing yourself, trusting your intuition, second guessing yourself, self doubt, decision making, making decisions, difficult decisions, nervous system regulation, nervous system activation, emotional regulation, boundaries, setting boundaries, people pleasing, other people's opinions, fear of disappointing others, guilt after setting boundaries, trusting your decisions, discomfort after making a decision, self trust after making a decision, staying connected to yourself, learning to trust yourself, building self trust, embodied self trust, self trust practice, somatic coaching, empath boundaries, empath self trust, emotional sensitivity, personal growth, self awareness, inner dialogue, supportive self talk, Your Yes Filled Life, Brenda Winkle, POWER Self Trust for Empaths

Have you ever said you desperately wanted something—and then watched yourself behave in ways that seemed to move you further away from it? 

Maybe you've called it procrastination.

Self-sabotage.

Fear.

Laziness.

A lack of discipline.

But what if that's not what's happening?

In this episode of Your Yes Filled Life, Brenda explores competing desires—the experience of genuinely wanting one thing while another part of you genuinely wants something that seems to conflict with it.

After asking for greater visibility in her business, Brenda recently had approximately 30,000 people roll through a TikTok Live. It was the kind of reach she'd been actively working toward.

And then something happened that hurt.

That experience helped her see her own competing desires clearly:

Part of me wants visibility. AND part of me wants safety.

Neither desire is wrong.

And that's the point.

You'll hear how competing desires can show up around boundaries, relationships, business, visibility, money, rest, family, and identity—and why labeling the second desire “self-sabotage” can keep you from understanding what's actually happening.

Brenda also shares examples from her coaching work, including what can happen when pursuing a dream collides with loyalty to someone you love, and when professional ambition seems to threaten an identity you've spent years building.

You'll learn why the goal isn't to prosecute one side of yourself until it submits.

It's to hear both.

If this exercise uncovered something you've been circling, bring it with you to YES TO ME on September 15 from 6–8 PM Pacific.

Bring the decision. The boundary. The relationship. The opportunity. The change. The desire.

You don't have to arrive knowing the answer.

This free live experience includes teaching, coaching, somatic work and breathwork designed to create enough space for you to hear yourself.

Register at https://www.brendawinkle.com/yestome 

Keywords: Your Yes Filled Life, Self Trust, Empath, Empaths, Empath Life, Highly Sensitive Person, Intuition, Discernment, Self Sabotage, People Pleasing, Boundaries, Nervous System Regulation, Somatic Healing, Personal Growth, Emotional Intelligence, Competing Desires, Trust Yourself, Sensitive Women, Intuitive Women, Yes To Me, Brenda Winkle

What happens when you finally get something you really wanted…and your entire body responds with, “Oh shit. Maybe I don't want this after all.” 

Brenda is recording this episode in real time, just hours before TikTok boosts her Live to the top of the For You Page - giving her an opportunity for significantly more visibility than she's accustomed to.

She wants it.

She's worked toward it.

And she's also nervous as hell.

In this episode of Your Yes Filled Life, Brenda explores an important distinction in self-trust:

Activation is information. But it isn't automatically an instruction.

Sometimes activation really is telling you something deserves your attention. Sometimes you're facing uncertainty. And sometimes you're standing at the edge of your current capacity, being asked to hold something you haven't normalized yet.

The goal isn't to override your body and call fear “growth.”

It's learning how to stay with yourself long enough to discern what your body is actually communicating.

Brenda also takes you through a somatic practice she is using that day to prepare for the increased visibility - not after she knows how the story ends, but while she's still inside the wobble.

You'll explore how to orient to the present moment, reconnect with physical sensation, create more space around activation, and ask yourself:

If I knew I could trust myself to respond to whatever happens next, what would I choose?

Because self-trust isn't accurately predicting the outcome.

It's knowing you can stay with yourself through what happens next.

Mentioned in this episode:

YES TO ME | September 15, 6–8 PM Pacific
A complimentary live experience using teaching, coaching, somatic work and breathwork to help you hear yourself underneath everyone else's needs, opinions and energy.
https://www.brendawinkle.com/yestome 

POWER: Self-Trust for Empaths
The Fall cohort begins September 29. Six weeks of live transformational work followed by a full year of practice, coaching and integration, including three live POWER cohorts throughout the year.
https://www.brendawinkle.com/power 

Have you ever gotten off a phone call completely exhausted - or walked away from a conversation feeling depleted - and immediately started questioning yourself? 

Am I being too sensitive? Did they really drain me? Maybe they’re just having a hard time. Maybe I’m tired for another reason.

For many empaths, noticing the energy drain isn’t actually the problem.

The problem is what happens after you notice it.

Instead of responding to what your body is telling you, you start collecting evidence. You analyze the other person. You question your perception. You try to figure out whether your depletion is justified.

And the whole time you’re investigating, the bathtub is still draining.

In this episode of Your Yes Filled Life, Brenda shares a simple four-part process for responding to an energy leak without making the other person wrong—or requiring yourself to prove that your experience is real first.

You’ll learn how to notice your earliest cues of depletion, why curiosity is valuable but shouldn’t always be your first move, practical ways to “plug the leak” during conversations and social situations, and how nervous-system regulation can help you come back to yourself before deciding what something means.

Brenda also gives you one question to ask when you catch yourself building a legal case for why you’re allowed to protect your energy:

What would I do right now if I didn’t need proof that my depletion was justified?

Because protecting your energy doesn’t require deciding someone else is toxic.

Sometimes you simply need enough space to come back to yourself.

Mentioned in this episode:

YES TO ME — September 15, 6–8 PM Pacific
A complimentary live experience combining teaching, coaching, somatic work and breathwork to help you hear yourself underneath everyone else’s needs, opinions and energy.
https://www.brendawinkle.com/yestome 

POWER: Self-Trust for Empaths
The Fall cohort begins September 29. Six weeks of live transformational work followed by a full year of coaching, practice and integration - with three live POWER cohorts throughout the next 12 months.
https://www.brendawinkle.com/power 

Keywords: empath energy drain, energy protection for empaths, energetic boundaries, self trust for empaths, empath exhaustion, energy leaks, how to protect your energy, highly sensitive person, HSP, empath boundaries, nervous system regulation, somatic awareness, people pleasing, emotional exhaustion, emotional boundaries, stop absorbing other people's energy, empath overwhelm, empath self care, protecting your peace, trusting your body, body awareness, self abandonment, emotional regulation, setting boundaries, empath burnout, intuitive empaths, sensitive women, emotional energy, personal empowerment, discernment for empaths, Your Yes Filled Life, Brenda Winkle