Don't let yourself be silenced: The creative power within you

Actress and author Carolina Carvajal joins us this week to talk about something many of us women carry in silence: the fear of trusting our feelings, of taking our rightful place and of letting our creative power—the one we sometimes hide, downplay or simply forget we have—come to light again.

Because creating, Carolina reminds us, is much more than just making something new. It's that capacity—so uniquely ours—to breathe life into ideas, projects, a home or a space that felt lifeless and that, with just a plant or a well-placed painting, begins to breathe differently. "People came in and said, 'Oh, a woman's here,'" she says with a laugh, recalling the day she transformed her husband's desk without even trying too hard. That is, at its core, our power: to transform a space with what we have at our fingertips.

Why we hide the best parts of ourselves

And yet, how many times do we keep that part hidden for fear that it isn't "good enough" for the world? We've been taught—without anyone saying it out loud—which things count as achievements and which don't—and so we start to believe that placing a plant, tidying up a corner or simply listening to a friend isn't, in reality, any kind of power at all. Carolina experienced this firsthand: for years she thought her creative power lay only in acting, until she discovered that it also lay in supporting other women, in her intuition and in her ability to listen. That feminine energy—she says—has been somewhat wounded in recent decades, and that has distorted the way we see ourselves.

Because we women are, in many ways, givers of life: not only when we bring children into the world, but every time we enter a dull space and bring color back to it, every time we support a friend who arrives "feeling crushed" and help her get back on her feet. It's a beautiful quality—and one that the world, for some time now, has been gradually eroding.

That sixth sense we shouldn't silence

One of the most heartwarming conversations in the episode revolves around intuition. That ability to perceive what others don't see, to sense that something isn't quite right even if we can't fully explain it. "In the end, we're always right, so they might as well listen to us from the start," jokes one of the hosts, but behind the laughter lies a profound truth: that intuition, that wisdom we build by talking with our friends and sisters before making a decision, is a gift. It's what allows us—at work, at home, wherever we are—to offer a perspective that no one else can provide.

And yet, how often do we doubt that inner voice because we fear that raising it will be mistaken for shouting? On the show, they put it with a clarity worth remembering: speaking up isn't shouting; it's making ourselves heard without fear; it's sharing that opinion that validates and adds value. "My dad always told me: 'Your voice has value. Always speak up if you disagree—you have every right to express yourself respectfully—but your voice has value,'" recalls one of the hosts. Those words, she says, still resonate with her every time she finds herself in a situation where a woman's voice isn't always taken into account.

The silence we need to hear ourselves again

If there's one call to action that stands out from everything else in this episode, it's this: to reclaim our creative power, we need silence. Not silence as an absence, but as a space to return to ourselves. Carolina puts it with an image that stays with you: you don't have to climb a mountain to reconnect with yourself; you can climb your inner mountain, right there, in your day-to-day life, and ask yourself how you're disconnecting from yourself.

How long has it been since you stopped to look at a flower? How long has it been since you truly listened to the birds, or simply turned off the radio in the car and sat in silence for a while? These are small, almost invisible gestures, but they're the ones that allow us to feel the pulse of who we truly are again, instead of living by lending our creative energy to everything but ourselves.

Staying home doesn't mean sitting idle

One of the most moving parts of the conversation dispels a guilt that many of us women know all too well: the feeling that devoting ourselves to the home—to raising children, to running a household—is somehow giving up on ourselves. Carolina shares this from her own experience—when she put her career on hold for a while to care for a sick son—and how her own daughter, now grown, encourages her today not to completely abandon what she studied, what she loves, her calling.

And here an idea emerges that's worth pondering for a moment: building a home is also like building a business. Not one that the world recognizes by that name, but certainly one of the most important ones that exist—that of nurturing our children's self-esteem and identity, a fruit we often don't see right away, but one that eventually ripens. Staying home for a while doesn't mean coming away empty-handed: it means contributing, supporting and planting something that will bear fruit later on. Resting, in that sense, isn't the same as stopping progress either. It's part of the same journey.

We aren't all creative in the same ways, and that's okay

With the tenderness and humor that come only from speaking from personal experience, Carolina also reminds us of something liberating: we don't all have to be good at everything. She herself recounts, with a laugh, how she ended up sewing a pair of pants onto her own clothes in a sewing class, or how she knitted a lopsided blanket while dealing with a cancer diagnosis—and still kept it, because it was her way of processing that moment. "There are areas where you're not creative," she says, "and that's okay." The beauty of it is that we can rely on each other's creativity: ask for help, ask questions, learn from those who do know—without that taking anything away from us.

On the show, they experience this firsthand: some organize, others guide and still others bring joy. Each one shines in her own way, and that difference—far from being a problem—is what makes the whole group work. Your place to shine isn't determined by your surroundings. It's determined by what's inside you.

Your talents have a purpose

The episode closes with a reflection that could very well sum it all up: our talents are a gift—something we neither choose nor earn, but rather receive. And the wisdom with which we develop them—what we build with them, what we add to them in terms of knowledge and experience—is often where we find our purpose. You don't need to have everything figured out or be creative in every area. All you need to do is stop underestimating what you already have inside you.

So if this week you feel like your spark has dimmed a little, take it as an invitation: pause, be still and listen again to that inner voice that knows exactly what you were made for. Your voice matters. Your creativity is powerful. And the place where you're meant to shine today is still yours.

Want to hear the full conversation?

Check out Episode 89, "Don't Let Yourself Fade Away," with Carolina Carvajal, right here

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