The Burn Book in My Brain
Season 2, Episode 1 of Honestly, I’m Fine

What if the meanest voice in your life… lives in your own head?

In this episode, I drag my inner critic out from behind the curtain and read her burn book out loud. The one that says I talk too much. I’m too loud. Too emotional. Too intense. Too everything.

If you’ve ever left a conversation replaying every word like it’s security footage…
If you’ve ever spiraled after a party thinking, “I ruined it, they hate me”…
If you’ve ever wanted something big and immediately talked yourself out of it…

This one’s for you.

We’re talking ADHD and external processing.
We’re talking trauma programming and the “too much” label.
We’re talking grief, shame spirals, manifestation blocks, and why the loudest voice in your head is not intuition. It’s conditioning.

This episode dives into:

• Why over-explaining is a survival habit, not a character flaw
• The difference between your inner critic and your actual intuition
• Growing up being labeled “too much”
• How trauma builds a shame soundtrack
• Why you sabotage big dreams but let small ones slide through
• The tiny, disrespectful action that starts shifting everything

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re dramatic, unstable, manic, or just finally honest… press play.

Because maybe the problem isn’t that you’re too much.
Maybe the problem is you’ve been letting Regina George run your internal HR department.

🔥 Weekly Challenge:

Do one small thing your inner critic hates.
Hit send. Apply. Post. Ask. Unfollow.
Make the move while the voice is mid-sentence.
Report back.

If this episode hit, share it with your group chat of emotionally self-aware geniuses.

Follow and subscribe wherever you’re listening.
Leave a rating and review if you’ve got the spoons.
Every download tells the algorithm this grieving, loud, unfiltered mom is worth amplifying.

Find me here:
https://linktr.ee/Haute.Mess

That’s where everything lives.

New episodes every week.

It’s makeover time.

Negative Income, Positive Trauma: (Anything Is Not Better Than Nothing)

People keep telling me, “Anything is better than nothing,” which is a cute idea until you open a calculator and realize that going back to work actually puts you in the red. That’s not something. That’s negative. That’s me paying money to have a job like it’s a reverse subscription service to burnout.

In this episode, I’m back in 2026 (late, obviously), talking about what it’s like to try to re enter the workforce after your nine year old dies and your entire personality gets put through a woodchipper. I spent nearly a decade as my son Kingston’s full time caregiver, then 18 months in grief free fall, and now I’m being told to “just go back to normal” like the last ten years were a weird gap year.

We get into:

• How caregiving, grief, and spiritual weirdness translate to exactly nothing on a résumé

• Why “just take anything” is financial gaslighting when childcare and lowball salaries equal negative income

• What boundaries actually are (hint: not you being a bitch) and why people react like you slapped their dad when you start using them

• Why the people closest to you fight your boundaries the hardest, and how to say no without writing a 12 page apology email

• How honoring your energy, your nervous system, and your connection to your dead child becomes non negotiable after your life detonates

This is not a soft, tea light grief podcast. There are no angel wing platitudes, no five step formulas, and definitely no “and then I magically healed” ending. Just one grieving mother telling the truth about trauma, identity, money, boundaries, and the deeply fucked math of trying to be “productive” when your nervous system is already doing advanced parkour.

If your current life motto is “Honestly, I’m fine” but what you really mean is “I’m not fine at all, but I’m still here,” this one is for you.

Links & Things I Mentioned:

Picture Book – Zuma’s Magical Balloon
A children’s book with a suspicious history of making grown men cry in airports and parked cars.
https://payhip.com/TheAfterWords

Grief & Signs Journal – You’re Not Crazy, You’re Connected
For anyone who keeps seeing signs, then immediately gaslighting themselves about it.
https://payhip.com/TheAfterWords

Start Here (Everything in One Place):
https://linktr.ee/Haute.Mess

Listen to the Podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/show/3KMvsMYt9F1e10sKhzehU2
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/honestly-im-fine/id1788589795
https://youtube.com/@honestlyimfine

Connect with Me (Maile Navarro):
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/honestly__im_fine
https://www.instagram.com/hautemess_la

TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@haute__mess

This episode is exactly what it sounds like and somehow also not.

I’m sitting down with my ex-husband, Michael, the father of our two kids, Kingston and Zuma, to talk about grief, parenting, loss, and what it looks like when two people survive the same earthquake and end up standing on completely different fault lines.

We lost the same child.
We did not grieve the same way.

And no, this is not a debate or a reconciliation special.

This is a conversation about public grief vs private grief, why one parent talks and the other disappears, and how neither approach fixes anything, but both are human.

We talk about signs, silence, anger, awkward moments, and the unspoken pressure to perform pain correctly so other people feel comfortable.

There is no moral of the story.
There is no healing arc tied up with a bow.

There is humor, honesty, a few derailments, and exactly zero instructions on how you should be doing grief.

If you’re grieving a person, a version of your life, a marriage, or just your tolerance for bullshit, you’re welcome here.

We’re fine.
Don’t make it weird.

🎧 Links, books, and the things I keep referencing mid-sentence:

You're Not Crazy, You're Connected: Grief Journal
https://payhip.com/b/q2fPt

Zuma's Magical Balloon with Audio
https://payhip.com/b/A58gO

Follow me everywhere!
👉 https://linktr.ee/Haute.Mess