Birthing My New Chichis

What if the bravest kind of strength is the kind that lets you be held? This candid share comes straight from the recovery chair after breast reconstruction and a tummy tuck within a fast-moving breast cancer journey. No gloss. No highlight reel. Just the truth of pain, gratitude, and the quiet revolutions that happen when your body insists on a slower, softer way.

We walk through the difference between vanity and victory, and why reconstruction can be a sacred act of reclaiming your body after disease. You’ll hear the visceral details of recovery—drains, stitches, anesthesia haze, and that first careful walk—and how those moments unlocked grief that had lived in the muscles for years. Family becomes a lifeline: a husband learning the cadence of care, kids who read pain without words, a mother whose food tastes like home, sisters who show up for the mess. Beyond the home, community prayers and messages create an invisible net, reminding us that receiving love is also a form of power.

The heart of this conversation is a rewrite of strength. Strength isn’t grinding through; it’s the courage to rest, to ask for help, to let softness do its slow, intelligent work. We name five lessons from the healing path: listen to the body before it breaks, practice receiving, leave survival mode to truly repair, remember the ancestors at your back, and redefine strength as being held rather than holding everything. A gentle guided breath invites you to ask your body what it needs, and to let the answers rise without force. If you’re navigating illness, recovery, or burnout, you’ll find language, tools, and permission to slow down and rebuild wiser.

If this resonated, share it with someone who needs a softer definition of strong, subscribe for more grounded conversations on healing and resilience, and leave a review with one insight you’re taking into your week.

Chapters

• 0:00 Raw Opening From Recovery
• 2:10 Cancer Context And Choice For Life
• 4:45 Inside The Pain And Surrender
• 8:10 Body Limitations And Frustrations
• 11:35 Gratitude For Family Care
• 15:20 Community, Prayer, And Purpose
• 18:20 Medical Update And Next Steps
• 20:18 The Body Remembers And Releases

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:05

Hi Mihita. Today is one of those episodes that comes straight from the womb of my soul. I'm recording this while I'm still in the middle of healing for my plastic surgery, my tummy tuck, my chichis, my reconstruction, my breast cancer removal, everything. And I'm sitting in the middle of my living room with all the feels and all the sounds and the everything because the hubby is going cracker right now, being homemaker. This journey has been wow painful, humbling, transformational. There have been moments where I felt relief, gratitude, oh, and divine protection. And others where I cried from a type of pain that only the body can explain. And I commend these people that go through this, like the you know, by choice, by elective choice, like the reconstruction, like the boobies and the Brazilian buttlifts and the war and the quirks. My as my daughter said, I'm now entered into the plastic surgery circle. But today I want to bring you with me not the cute version, not the Instagram ready version, but the real raw da dentro para afuera, where we're going to talk about the emotional and spiritual layers of healing, what my body has been teaching me in these past few days, the gratitude that's poured in from my family, my community, and my teachings of redefining strength, living softly in a hard world. Because this season, this has been my most tender invitation yet. So grab your cafecito, your tecito, and let's join me for the ride. This wasn't just a tummy tuck. This wasn't just new Chichis. This was part of a bigger story, my breast cancer journey. One I didn't ask for, one I didn't choose, but one that came as a divine wake-up call. I went into surgery knowing I was removing cancer with my first mastectomy on November 4th of 2025, and with a second surgery on November 10th, 2005, like shortly a week after, this is where I went into this plastic surgery knowing I was reclaiming my body. I was choosing life. And then on top of that, the reconstruction, the repair, the letting go of old tissue, and using that to build my new my new breasts. This wasn't vanity. This was victory. This was survival. This was rebirth. But even then, no one prepares you for the level of pain, the depth of surrender, the humility of needing help to sit up, to shower, to just breathe, the hobby to wipe my butt, the gassiness that goes on after eight hours of being in surgery, the anesthesia, and how it all shuts down. It was it was quite the experience, and just being able to eat and feel the food go through my body, down my esophagus, and needing help, even getting, you know, drinking from a straw, all those things just so raw, so real, and the feeling in my bodies. So let's talk about the pain because I meek, it has been intense. The type of pain that humbles you, the type that makes you surrender every illusion of control, the type that takes you into your body in a way that's almost spiritual. There were moments I felt like, dang, I did like, did I just do a thousand classes at the gym in one night? Why does my body feel like it's made out of bricks? My legs, especially the side of my hips, churning hard with because I haven't been moving and poor circulation. Why am I shaking? Why does everything hurt? It's like when does this anesthesia wear off? Feeling the numbness. When the pain meds faded, when I was awake late at night, that's when the grief leaked in and leaked out. Not just the physical pain, but the emotional release of decades of carrying the world on my shoulders. And in that pain, I heard my body whisper, Mihita, you've been strong for too long. Let yourself be held. The drains on each side of my body, the pain of getting up from the chair or from the bed at first was so intense. I didn't realize how much of my ab muscles I use on a daily and working out all these years, it has helped me to have that core strength and the legs and my arms. But when you're unable to move your arms, especially after that first day, like my right arm was so sore. I couldn't even like pick up my phone. Um, I could only voice a text certain things, and then loop being loopy and in and out of medication, and especially with the anesthesia part, it being a long surgery, takes a very long time to even pass a bowel movement. I didn't realize it took like 48 hours, and so all that becomes so frustrating. But then again, it's things that the body, right? It's amazing how the body knows. It's a b amazing how the body relearns how to walk again, especially taking those first few steps to go to the bathroom standing upright. Like everything is so stretched out right now, and no joke, I look like Frankenstein, like my boobies look like Frankenstein because they took my tummy tissue and they redid my and reconstructed my breasts. So girl got new Chi Chis. But obviously, they don't look like beautiful and precious right now. Um and all the markings all around my body, it's just all the stitches. It's wow, it's amazing. It's amazing what plastic surgery can do, um, especially after you know being given such a big news of you know breast cancer and and everything. On my right side, though, my surgeon did say they weren't able to salvage that much skin from the vasectomy, so I ended up having more tummy skin um added to my right side. And so it's been an emotional process as well, because breaking down, it's it's been also being very grateful and very thankful of everything that I'm that I'm experiencing. And wow, me quedo así como Dios medio vida, right? Like God gave me this life and made me feel all the feels right now and be grateful for what I do have, and really have been testing me at all levels, especially with myself, but then also my relationship with my husband, because I have never seen my husband feed me. Um, and at first it was kind of funny because he would feed me kind of fast, but it's like it's learning the dance, right? It's learning what true love actually is. And my husband and I have had our rocky moments, but this was communication just by like a wince where he could tell that I'm pain, and he's all about making me comfy right now. And wow, that is that is true love, right there. That is true love. One thing this journey made me feel in the deepest way is gratitude for my husband who has been crying, holding me, watching over me like his whole world could shatter. And the amount of care and love and tenderness and grace that he's has had and patience for my kids, definitely stepping up, supporting, loving on me, being there for me. Um, I it feels weird being led by them. Like they hold me for my mama, trying to be strong. I know she cries a lot at night or when she's away and she feels a certain extent of guilt. She feels worried, stressed, but yet tender, right? And her cooking, oh my god, is such the bomb. And I came home um yesterday night, she made sopes, and they were oh, the de asada. Of course, I could only have like one. Um I don't have much of an appetite, but it's like dang, she really knows how to throw it down with food. And then for my sisters, oh my loving Lola, hmm, my loving sister coming over and wiping me down and wiping my butt, um, and feeling all the fears with me, seeing me raw and my true self, like that definitely has me, that got me. And then my other sister, like, for her to start a new job and have her sister go through all this journey and hold her shit together at work, I could just imagine. But being able to make time to come on over and and pay a visit. And for my ancestors, it's like I swear, my ancestors' teachers, loved ones, the ones that have passed, I swear they have been surrounding my bed every night. And to all the many people that I don't realize how many people actually love me and hold me in their prayers and thoughts, y re sal mucho. They they have a lot of prayer. And that's when you don't realize how many people actually love you until you need help to stand up, to actually get up and out of bed, to eat, to move, to exist. I learned that receiving love is also strength. Letting someone care for you is strength, allowing yourself to be vulnerable is strength. My community has I posted on Instagram and Facebook, but then also the the messages that I've been receiving are are of so much of love and compassion that it fills my heart, especially when it's trialing times in the world. And that's what it's all about is love. Love, the root of all, light, the root of all. Eso's amor. And I know divine, God, source, universe, whatever you identify with. There's a bigger plan for all of us in this life, and there's a purpose for each one of us. And right now I'm sharing my story, but it's like the story of resilience, the story of life, the story of you can do it, and notabatumbar, it's not gonna knock you over. You have the like for me, it's like motivation to see people show out themselves, like the tender and raw self, because we're not perfect, and I'm not perfect. And this this surgery wasn't necessarily by choice, it was it was definitely something that came on right away. It's it was growing fast. Um, luckily, the breast cancer did not go to my lymph notes. Um, so so far it's it's panning out good. But I have my oncology appointment later this month on the 24th of November, and I will be taking note of next steps, which is most likely chemo. So this journey is only beginning, and it's been such an emotional and physical ride already. You know me, I see everything through the lens of healing, energy, and the soul. And this journey and this surgery, this recovery, this has been one of the biggest spiritual experiences of my life. Bodies hold memory, bodies speak, bodies keep score, and as I look at my stitches and they tug here and there, as my muscles and my skin are super tight, as the drains have you know, they're they're doing their thing, as the bruising showed up, I could feel old grief leaving, old trauma is dissolving, old identities are shedding. It felt like once the cancer left, everything I had been holding on for years began to surface. My body was saying, no more caring, no more pushing, no more neglect. It's time to heal, Mika. And I truly embody that because as I go through this pain and as I go through the feelings and the emotions, it's everything's just coming together. This has been my greatest teaching so far. Strength isn't about how much you carry, strength is how softly you allow life to hold you. Strength isn't being unbreakable, strength is letting yourself break open and trusting you'll rebuild softer, wiser, truer. Strength isn't pushing through, strength is pausing, resting, listening, letting your body lead. Living softly is not being weak. Living softly is being conscious, being intentional, being aligned. In a world that says hustle, I'm choosing to lie down or sit in my healing chair. In a world that says be strong, I'm choosing to be soft. In a world that says don't show weakness, I'm choosing to say I need help. This experience has shown me softness is medicine, vulnerability is sacred, receiving is powerful, slowing down is healing, letting others care for you is holy. I'm redefining strength for myself and for every woman listening. So lessons that I'm carrying into this new chapter, into my new chapter, is lesson one. The body speaks. Listen sooner. Don't wait for a breaking point to rest. You don't want your body to give out on you in order for you to take note on what it needs. Lesson number two, you are allowed to receive. You don't have to be the caretaker all the time. That's where allow yourself to receive the accolades. Allow yourself to receive the love, the compassion, the grace, what divine God source universe is trying to tell you that you need in this given moment. Lesson number three, healing requires softness. Trying to heal in survival mode is impossible. That's where be soft with yourself. The way you nurture yourself, talk to yourself, your thoughts that come through, just take note and reflect on them. Lesson number four, your ancestors walk with you. I felt them every night, and I still do. And I was just having a conversation with one of my close relatives where I feel my grandfather, he went through cancer, prostate cancer, and he panned out not to live for a long time, but he ended up beating the odds, and he handled it like a champ. And I know he in his experience, like going through the chemo and going through the motions, that's the one person, and that's the one ancestor that keeps coming through time and time again. Lesson number five, strength is being held, not holding everything. And that's where I go to the gym and I would work out and do all these intense things. But I'm learning a different type of strength this time around. And that's where when you let everything drop, all the cards and everything drop, and you don't have to hold it. All the juggle, all the balls in the air. It's actually really satisfactory, or there's a lot of satisfaction I have when I feel like I can just like fall back in my recliner. It's kind of a drop of trust, right? That someone's gonna catch you. So those are the things that I'm walking away with into this next phase of my journey. Close your eyes, Mijita. And if you are feeling in a safe spot and you're able to, you can place your hand over your heart and one on your lower belly. Breathe. In through your nose, and out through your mouth. Slow deep. Ask your body, what do you need from me today? And drop down to your heart. Ask, where have I been too strong for too long? And drop to your slow to your soul and ask your soul, where can I soften? Let the answers rise. No forcing, no judging, only listening. Feel your energy drop from your mind, into your body, down to your womb, into your roots. You are held, you are protected, you are guided, and softness is allowed here. And I invite you to stay here as long as you'd like and reminisce on what comes up. Thank you for witnessing me and my softness, my vulnerability, my truth. I hope this episode reminds you that you don't have to be the strong one all the time. You're allowed to rest, you deserve support, and your softness is actually a superpower. As I continue healing, I'm taking things slow. I'm listening to my body, and I'm letting this experience guide the next evolution of my work, including my teachings on redefining strength and living softly in a hard world. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the prayers, or losientos, el amor, el carino, the messages, the love and support. I feel every single one of them. And Mijita, I do love ya. Thank you for being here. Thank you for showing up for yourself on a daily and going through the motions. I want you to remember to embrace your raises, reclaim your essencia. Nos vemos pronto. Thank you so much. And I wish you the best and see you next time.