From the Roots to the Overflow | Letter to La Familia

Estimada Familia,

Before I go anywhere with this letter, I want to start with thank you. Thank you to every one of you who reached out after the last letter. Your messages, your reflections, your honesty, they made my day and have stayed with me. And for those wondering… no Buffalo updates yet  I’m not chasing the storm. I’m just staying ready when it shows up. When the opportunity to make my move presents itself I will keep ya’ll posted! Now on to the Chisme!!

Lately, I have been having so many conversations with La Familia about how exhausted and tired everyone is. And it's not the kind of tired that sleep fixes. It is the kind of tired that comes from pouring and pouring and pouring… and wondering why our cup still feels low. If you find yourself here…Con Humildad y Amor I write this letter from my alter to yours, Familia. I pray it gives you the medicine you need, so be sure to take what you like and leave the rest. 

Pouring has always been my default. It’s how I learned to love. It’s how I learned to survive. It’s how I learned to feel useful, needed, worthy. I poured into people. Into work. Into relationships. Into ideas. Into places that asked…and into places that didn’t. And for a long time, I believed that the more I poured, the more love would come back to me. That one day it would feel easier. That one day I wouldn’t feel so stretched thin. Here’s the truth : A lot of that pouring wasn’t being reciprocated. And some of it was costing me my peace. My joy. My nervous system. My relationships.... especially with myself. Until I said...NO MORE!

The moment it all clicked for me came during an abundance ritual I performed. I was deep in meditation when I was shown my Tree of Life.  I was asked to look at my branches. Each branch represented where my energy was going: family, Love Your Now Comadre, friendships, responsibilities, social media… all of it. And then I was asked something simple and devastating:

Which branches are bearing fruit?

Which ones are thriving, blossoming, feeding you back?

And which ones…aren’t?

I could see it so clearly. Some branches were alive and full. Others were bare, still taking energy, but giving nothing back. And then came the instruction that changed everything:

If you cut the branches that aren’t bearing fruit, the energy will naturally return to the branches that are.

That’s when I knew. Some branches needed to be pruned. Not because it was bad. Not because I failed. Because they were no longer feeding me and it was pulling energy away from what was. This ritual wasn’t last week. It wasn’t a recent download. It happened over a year ago. And for the last year, I’ve been living and learning this lesson, imperfectly, consciously, and with a lot of humility.

The meditation opened the door… but the real work came after. The last year asked me to practice this truth with my time. With my relationships. With my work. With my phone. With my nervous system. Not once. Over and over again.

And it’s through living this lesson that I was brought back to one of my favorite Rider–Waite tarot images: The Ace of Cups.

So let’s break this down…now, before anyone comes for me, this is not a tarot lesson. I’m using the image as symbolism, not a textbook definition. Don’t fight me on this one.

The Ace of Cups shows a hand emerging from the clouds, offering a cup overflowing with water. From that cup, five streams flow into a pond. A dove descends into the cup with an offering.

This image speaks volumes about energy exchange. Here’s how I see it:

• The five streams = your overflow of mind, body, heart, spirit, and you.

• The hand = your hand, holding your energetic cup.

• The dove = the source of the exchange, what flows between you and the world.

We are meant to pour from our overflow. Not from the cup that is meant to sustain us. And we must be open to receive.

And Familia, I want you to know this way of thinking didn’t magically make life easier. It made it clearer. It made my yes more honest. My no more sacred. And my energy finally felt like it belonged to me again. If your cup is empty, you don’t keep pouring. You return to your source. You refill with what actually nourishes you. We pour from places that were never meant to be emptied. That’s when resentment creeps in. That’s when burnout takes over. What helped me wasn’t doing less, it was getting honest about where I was pouring. I checked in with my four pillars before saying yes. I watched how long it took to recover after giving my energy. I noticed what fed me back… and what left me depleted. Little by little, I learned to listen.

So here’s the truth I’m sharing with you… gently, lovingly, without shame:

Do not pour into what does not pour into you.

That doesn’t mean stop caring. It doesn’t mean you won’t love. It means you're honoring your energy exchange. Reciprocity isn’t keeping score. It’s choosing sustainability over self-sacrifice. You can still be generous. You can still be loving. You are no longer abandoning yourself to prove it.

So Familia, let me ask you, not as a mentor, not as a coach, but as someone practicing this and still learning:

Where are you leaking?

What branch in your life is taking energy but not bearing fruit?

Where are you pouring out of obligation instead of overflow?

You are not here to be emptied. You are here to blossom. And sometimes… loving yourself looks like pruning or cutting access to your overflow. I love you Familia. I am sending you so much Fire & Butterflies. And as always don’t forget to Love Your Now!

Loving My Now,

Comadre Cristal Baez-Arellano

Spiritual Mentor/Bruja Coach

PS— If this letter stirred something in you… if you’re realizing how exhausted you’ve been from pouring without being poured into… you don’t have to navigate that alone.

Unlocking Your Inner Comadre (UYIC) is where we slow down and gently untangle those patterns together. It’s a 1:1 mentorship where I walk beside you like a spiritual sponsor, helping you rebuild trust in yourself, strengthen your relationship with your Higher Power, and learn how to pour from overflow and prune what no longer serves you. This work is magical, and so are you.

Unlocking Your Inner Comadre – Consult

45min

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