Show notes
What changes when you stop looking outside yourself for permission to feel whole? In Part 2, Rocio Aquino and Angel Orengo return with G-Rex and Dirty Skittles for a powerful conversation about breaking generational patterns, choosing yourself, letting go of emotional weight, healing old wounds, and building a life around joy instead of someone else’s definition of success.
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Sh!t That Goes On In Our Heads is a 2024 People’s Choice Podcast Award Winner (Best Health), 2024 Women in Podcasting Award Winner (Best Mental Health Podcast), 2026 Podcast Tonight Award Winner (Best Mental Health Podcast), and 2026 NYC Podcast Award Audience Choice Winner (Best Hosts), with over 4.5 million downloads and listened to in over 160 countries.
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Mental Health Quote
“Choose yourself. When you stop giving away your power, you finally have something real to give back to the people you love.” — Inspired by Rocio Aquino & Angel Orengo
Trigger Notice + 988 Crisis Reminder
This episode includes conversations about childhood abuse, abandonment, suicide attempts, trauma, and emotional pain. Please listen with care.
If you or someone you love is experiencing a mental health crisis in the United States, call or text 988 to connect with the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You do not have to be suicidal to reach out for support.
https://988lifeline.org/
Episode Description
What happens after you recognize your wounds? How do you make sure you aren’t unknowingly handing them to the next generation?
In Part 2, Rocio Aquino and Angel Orengo join G-Rex and Dirty Skittles to continue their conversation about healing, self-awareness, and the lessons behind The Orchid: The Secret Code of Modern Goddesses.
Rocio and Angel explore the stories society teaches women and men, why empathy and compassion matter, and how the media and stories we consume can shape how we understand ourselves and the world.
Rocio reveals that the five women at the center of The Orchid carry pieces of her own experiences, trauma, and transformation. Angel shares one of the biggest lessons of his healing journey: we have more control over where our emotional energy goes than we realize.
The conversation becomes deeply personal as Angel discusses childhood abuse and Rocio shares losing her mother, attempting suicide at 20, and what she would tell that younger version of herself today: go play the game, because you are going to be okay.
They also talk about generational trauma, parenting, letting go, intuition, self-love, nature, emotional energy, and why taking care of yourself first is not selfish. G-Rex brings it home with one hell of a reminder: stop chasing somebody else’s definition of happiness and start chasing your joy.
Healing yourself can change more than your own life. It can change what the people who come after you have to carry.
Keywords: generational trauma, choosing joy, self-love, emotional healing, breaking generational cycles, intentional living, childhood trauma, personal empowerment, mental health recovery, letting go, self-worth, emotional wellness, healing family patterns, self-compassion, finding purpose
Meet Our Guests — Rocio Aquino & Angel Orengo
Rocio Aquino and Angel Orengo are the storytellers and creators behind The Orchid, a book and growing community dedicated to healing, self-discovery, purpose, and intentional living. Their work blends personal experience, honest reflection, storytelling, and meaningful conversation to encourage people to look inward, challenge inherited beliefs, and create healthier emotional patterns for themselves and future generations.
Website: https://www.theorchidbook.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rocioangel__/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rocioangel.social
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocioangel.theorchid
Key Takeaways
Healing your own wounds can change what gets passed down to the next generation.
Loving yourself does not take love away from your family; it can increase your capacity to show up for them.
You have a choice about where you spend your emotional energy.
Letting go is not weakness—it is deciding that something no longer deserves your peace.
Happiness tied only to possessions or achievements can be temporary; joy can live in ordinary moments.
Family, cultural, and societal stories can shape you, but they do not have to control the rest of your life.
Actionable Items
Do an energy audit. Identify one person, argument, resentment, or expectation receiving more of your emotional energy than you want to give it.
Spend ten minutes outside without your phone and notice something small that genuinely brings you joy.
Identify one belief, behavior, or emotional pattern from your family history that you do not want to pass forward, then choose one small way to respond differently.
Important Chapters
00:00 – Welcome to Part 2 + Why Healing Stories Need a Bigger Stage
G-Rex opens by asking how stories like The Orchid can help people better understand women's emotional experiences and normalize talking about mental health.
03:34 – Rocio’s Mission to Create Stories That Help People Heal
Rocio talks about dedicating her life to stories that allow people—especially women—to see themselves through a different lens.
05:39 – Strengthening Women, Men, and the Human Experience
Angel discusses the importance of empathy, kindness, compassion, and strengthening qualities historically labeled as feminine.
08:06 – How the Stories We Consume Shape Us
Angel explores the influence of film, television, video games, and storytelling—and why he wants more stories showing people how to heal and survive.
09:45 – Rocio Reveals Herself in The Orchid’s Five Women
Rocio shares that she sees parts of her own trauma and healing journey in all five central characters.
10:58 – Closing Your Wounds and Reclaiming Your Power
Angel uses The Matrix as a metaphor for reaching a place where another person’s insults no longer have the same power over you.
15:45 – Take Care of Yourself Before Trying to Save Everybody Else
Angel explains why healing yourself first allows you to show up differently for your family and everyone around you.
17:53 – What Angel Would Tell His Six-Year-Old Self
Angel reflects on childhood abuse and the lessons about personal power and self-belief he wishes he could have learned before experiencing trauma.
20:21 – Rocio on Losing Her Mother and Attempting Suicide at 20
Rocio talks about reaching one of the lowest moments of her life and the message she would now give her younger self: you are not alone, and this will not last forever.
22:11 – Their Hardest Lessons: Abandonment and Letting Go
Rocio reflects on surviving abandonment while Angel explains why letting go has been one of the most difficult and rewarding lessons of his life.
25:13 – “The Person I Love the Most Is Me”
Angel shares the realization that taking responsibility for his own happiness actually allows him to love his wife, daughters, and family more freely.
27:02 – Choosing the Story You Tell Yourself
Rocio and Dirty Skittles discuss how self-belief becomes a daily practice and why compassionate thoughts matter.
29:00 – Stop Chasing Happiness. Chase Your Joy.
G-Rex shares why joy has become more meaningful than material success and encourages listeners to stop building their lives around somebody else’s dream.
32:22 – Anxiety Theme Songs and Remembering to Breathe
Angel and Rocio share the reminders they use when anxiety kicks in and life starts feeling overwhelming.
35:50 – Healing as a Couple and a Family
Rocio talks about investing in personal growth, growing together as partners, and watching those lessons ripple through their children and extended family.
37:23 – Breaking Generational Trauma
Angel recalls the moment he and Rocio decided that the painful patterns carried through their family line would stop with them.
39:08 – “Yes, I Can” vs. “You Can’t”
Rocio and Angel share their favorite and least favorite words, ending the episode with a reminder to stop allowing other people to define what is possible for you.
40:06 – Where to Find Rocio, Angel, and The Orchid
Rocio and Angel share where listeners can connect with their work and leave one final reminder: one of the greatest resources you have is yourself.
Closing CTA
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