What if the very laws you were taught to follow are actually keeping you from the life you're meant to live? In Episode 101 of Love Learning You™, cultural psychology researcher, author, and speaker Justine Gonzalez examines the viral "7 Laws for a Liberated Life" posts and goes deep into the heart and intent behind some of the laws we follow.

Most people scroll past posts like these without ever asking:

• Who created these laws?
• Who benefits from them?
• And what gets left out when the wisdom of entire cultures, ancestral traditions, and spiritual lineages is replaced with a list of Eurocentric/capitalistic productivity hacks?

In this episode, Justine models what it looks like to think critically as a cultural psychology researcher and then offers something radically different: her own 5 personal laws for liberation, built from 15+ years of research, lived experience, and cross-cultural spiritual study.

🔍 In this episode, we cover:

• Pareto's, Murphy's, Wilson's, Gilbert's, Falkland's & Hick's

Laws ... examined through a cultural psychology lens

• Why most self-help frameworks are Eurocentric and individualist by design

• Ubuntu ("I am because we are") and ancient Egyptian Maat principles of truth, justice, harmony, balance, and reciprocity

• How AI, social media, and algorithms are deliberately built on Hick's Law to create decision fatigue and keep you scrolling

• High-context vs. low-context cultures and what that means for how you move through the world

• The 5 Laws Justine lives by:

• Law of Inner Authority
• Law of Conscious Attention
• Law of Sacred Work
• Law of Liberated Data
• Law of Collective Healing

• How to ask "Whose voice is this?" every time a belief rises up in you.

This is not about giving you more rules. It's about helping you see the invisible ones already running your life without your consent.

💬 Reflection question: What "law" have you been living by that you never consciously chose?

💡Unpacking Your Cultural Origin Story

🧬Go deeper: INTROSPECTIVE PRATICES PROFILE

Love Learning You™ is hosted by Justine Gonzalez, author, speaker, and cultural psychology researcher exploring how culture, beliefs, and systems shape our inner and outer worlds.

We hit Episode 100 here at Love Learning You™ and we’re celebrating with Marla Echols! Author, educator of the heart, and joy curator extraordinaire. This is 35 minutes of pure laughter, real talk, and the vulnerability we rarely see in author spaces.

Here’s what we’re tackling: How do you market yourself as an author when you don’t have it all figured out? Spoiler alert: neither of us do. But that’s what makes this conversation so refreshing. 🤗

Marla and I dig into:

• ​ Facing our fears as writers (the imposter syndrome is REAL)
• ​ Author anxiety about self-promotion (and why “authentic marketing” isn’t an oxymoron)
• ​ The myth of the marketing expert (newsflash: real authors are figuring it out too)
• ​ Joy as a marketing strategy (yes, it’s a thing...! and it works!)
• ​ Building community over followers (because readers become advocates!)

This isn’t a masterclass. This is two real humans sharing honest wins, failures, and the messy middle of building an author platform. If you’re navigating your author/creative journey and tired of polished perfection, this episode is for you.

Here’s the truth: we don’t have it all figured out, and we’re not pretending we do. Instead, we share:

✨ Real fears about self-promotion and how to move through them

✨ The author anxiety spiral (and how to escape it)

✨ Authentic marketing strategies that don’t feel salesy

✨ Joy as a business asset in your author platform

✨ Community building over vanity metrics

This is a conversation between two writers who believe marketing doesn’t require expertise; just honesty, humor, and heart. Perfect for aspiring authors, writers navigating their platform, and anyone tired of polished, corporate author advice.

Discover Marla’s Work:Visit joyismychoice.com order her books, including Adventures with Joy and Hope and her growing library of titles inspiring joy, friendship, and courage.

Grab Marla’s books at joyismychoice.com !

Subscribe to the Reflective Edge Newsletter for insights and research projects on authenticity, cultural psychology, leadership, and the art of slowing down: reflectiveedgenewsletter.com

ABOUT THE HOSTESS

Hi! I’m Justine Gonzalez, an American-born Puerto Rican and Swiss educator, speaker, author, and cultural psychology researcher. My work is rooted in emotional intelligence, cultural psychology, and the belief that compassionate curiosity changes everything.

For two decades, I’ve served K12 schools, districts, and organizations as a teacher, instructional coach, principal, and consultant through my firm, Educator Aide®.

Beyond the credentials, I’m deeply committed to one mission: helping people pause, remember who they are, and embrace all of who they are.

The Love Learning You™ podcast is my love letter to real conversations. It’s where we explore the topics that make us human: spirituality, cultural psychology, emotional intelligence, communication, belonging, workplace culture, authenticity, and the messy, beautiful work of knowing yourself.

When I’m not hosting or speaking, you’ll find me researching ancestral stories, exploring how culture shapes identity, building community, and creating spaces where people can come home to themselves.

Let’s get compassionately curious together. 💖

Why This Podcast?

I created Love Learning You™ because I got frustrated with surface-level conversations. Real transformation happens when we get curious, not combative. It happens when we pause. When we remember who we are beneath the roles we play. When we embrace the full complexity of our humanity.

What I’m Obsessed With:

• ​ How culture shapes identity, relationships, and the way we see the world
• ​ The intersection of cultural wisdom, psychology, and personal growth
• ​ Ancestral healing and family storytelling (I’m deep in genealogy research)
• ​ Media literacy and how we make sense of the world
• ​ Why emotional intelligence is the skill nobody teaches but everyone needs
• ​ How joy, curiosity, and compassion create transformation

In this special closing episode of 2025, Justine Gonzalez invites you into one of the most vulnerable stories she’s ever shared. What began as a routine travel day in Spain spiraled into a severe anxiety attack at an airport carousel; an unexpected collision of grief, panic, dissociation, and the quiet nearness of God.

Through this story, Justine explores what it truly means to live with intentionality:

1. The difference between performing strength and embodying surrender,
2. Why our nervous systems remember what our minds try to outrun,and
3. How the teachings of Jesus in John 21 offer timeless guidance for modern believers, educators, creators, and leaders navigating digital overwhelm, friendship, family, partnership, burnout, and the myth of control.

Across this episode you’ll reflect on:
• grief, faith, and the tender courage to feel again
• discerning who and what you allow to shape your inner world
• anxiety, depression, trauma, and the patterns they create in adulthood
• radical faith vs. radical self-reliance
• why intentional living requires both planning AND surrender
• accepting every part of who we are: lineage, memory, shadow, and all

Justine also introduces The Reflective Edge, her research-based, long-form newsletter for those who love deeper thinking, cultural psychology, spiritual consciousness, and intentional living. *This episode includes a preview reading of her upcoming unpublished article.

You can choose to subscribe here: https://reflectiveedgenewsletter.com

🔑🔑🔑If you or someone you love is navigating emotional distress, remember you are not alone. In the United States, you can dial 988 for 24/7 free and confidential support.

This intimate episode is a soft landing place for anyone asking big questions about purpose, identity, faith, grief, and the quiet work of coming home to yourself.

Subscribe, share this episode with someone who needs gentleness today, and join us as we continue getting compassionately curious together en 2026!

Chapters

02:12–07:45 Chapter 1: The Woman at the Carousel (A Story Told from Outside Myself)

07:45–12:03 Chapter 2: When Strength Becomes a Costume

12:05-19:05 Chapter 3: Tears of Gratitude

#Salvation #Friendship #BusinessGrowth #LifestyleChanges #CriticalThinking #PersonalAnecdotes #Grief #Faith