Evolving Identities: Chronic Illness and Self-Perception {Updated}

[00:00:00] Hey guys, welcome back to business with chronic illness. Uh, this is Nikita, your host, and I am here to say thank you for sticking around, even though I had a very unintentional break at the end of the year, and I will tell you a little bit. of why that happened. But first, I want to share with you what you can expect in 2025 in regards to this podcast and what I'm looking forward to and what's going to be happening in the next few episodes.

[00:00:37] So there were a few episodes that I did with some amazing women who are living with chronic illness and running a business and I did not get a chance to Drop those episodes. Secondly, while I'm out here, I'm outside on my patio recording because we moved since the last time you heard from me and we're still getting the office space and everything for the studio, the podcast thing together and it's such a beautiful day.

[00:01:05] One of the things I wanted so much when I moved back to Florida was to be around water, which I constantly am. I see it more than ever, but I also just wanted to be out in nature. Without being out in nature. So that looks like for me being out on my deck, looking outside, looking at my retention pond and looking at all of the beautiful animals, the hawks, the mallard ducks, and the turtles, and all the things that I get to see out here while it's not too hot, cause we're still in January.

[00:01:37] So it's not like blazing. So you might hear some background noise that the editing team may not be able to get out. So I hope you hear them and almost kind of. Embrace them as you're here with me as you listen and embrace the beautiful warm breeze that I'm feeling against my skin and the sun shining on my face just brings so much warmth to my heart.

[00:02:02] So that was a little caveat. Okay, so those episodes are going to be coming out over the next few weeks. I have something new exciting coming up, which is going to be like a private podcast where you get to hear me, hear from me a lot more frequently and a lot more like short blips of things. Think of it like Instagram stories, but in your pocket without being distracted by social media.

[00:02:28] So I'm looking forward to getting that out to you all and Yeah, so what are we all about in 2025 here on Business with Chronic Illness? We may change the name of the show. I haven't decided. I haven't decided you guys. I have grown. I've had this show since 2017 before the pandemic and the pandemic was literally five years ago, which sounds insane to me, but five years ago, plus three years before that.

[00:03:03] So I've had the show. A really long time, okay? And I have changed the name frequently, however, it's changed mostly because of listening to all of you and hearing everything that you guys are needing. So this is why I say the show name may change because his last show name, Business with Chronic Illness, shifted because a lot of folks were saying they didn't quite know if this show was for them if they live with chronic illness.

[00:03:35] And this past little unintentional break that I had, I realized. I have grown in so many ways that I had not acknowledged. I have shifted and re framed identities that I had not realized. And how I view myself as a person living with chronic illness has even shifted quite a bit. Right? You know, I have those three phases of chronic illness and I still strongly believe in them.

[00:04:03] I think I need to add a fourth one. And I probably will. But I have like the newbie. Uh, chronic illness warrior, then I have the awareness chronic illness warrior, and then I have the OG chronic illness warrior, right? And something happened in realization of me growing and healing as a person is like, I don't even view myself as a chronic illness warrior any longer.

[00:04:31] Now this is my story, not yours. Okay. So if you still identify as that and you still connect with that, please. that moves you and grows you and helps you endure right now and you choose that, please continue on your path. For me, I have realized that I don't necessarily identify as a warrior when it comes to chronic illness.

[00:04:53] I view myself more as a I don't have a name for it, you guys. I haven't discovered a name, but it's not Warrior. Warrior implies to me, like, this feeling of you are picking up arms, you decided to go and do a thing. You decided to be courageous, you decided to, you know. Go live this life. I don't feel that way with my chronic illness anymore, right with my chronic illnesses like, right?

[00:05:25] And the other part of me is for a long time Chronic illness was the only filter I would see a lot of different things through and yes It has helped me to survive and in some areas of my life It's allowed me to thrive and experience and discover things I had not I would not have known about if it weren't for my chronic illness But now that I see it as this part of a shelf, with multiple different things on the shelf.

[00:05:55] I just have a different feeling about it as a part of me, right? And it is a part of me, and I say this all the time, but it's not all of me. And I feel like for me, the name Chronic Illness Warrior makes it mean it's all of me. Because I don't think you can go to battle without all of you, but I think you can go to battle or you can go fight something with all of you, even though it wasn't your choice.

[00:06:23] And so I haven't defined what that name is, so I'll keep you tuned in for that. But yeah, so over this unintentional break, I realized, man, I serve a lot of different type of women. I am so fortunate to be able to have helped women with chronic illness. A huge majority of you who listen to the show have chronic illness, live with neurodivergency, live with mental health challenges.

[00:06:45] And I love serving you and I love that being a part of a huge part of my foundation that I don't think and I know will not change for my business. However, it's not the only pillar, right? I think we live in a society that glorifies hustle over hard work. I believe that we live in a world where we praise all of the hustle that leads to burnout.

[00:07:10] But not the rest that leads to healing and clarity and sustainable success, right? And so a lot of my clients, it's so interesting, half of you don't even identify as a chronic illness quote unquote warrior. You identify as a creative person trying to build a sustainable business or live a more aligned life.

[00:07:35] And honestly, that's really my jam all day long outside of living with chronic illness.

[00:07:43] We're looking potentially to change the name of the show, but who this show is for is for those of you who live and are experiencing life with chronic illness, neurodivergency, and those who are wanting a more simple, clear, aligned path to a sustainable life that brings joy and excitement in a business that brings profitability without sacrificing your overall being as a person now or in the future.

[00:08:13] Right. And so that is something I really like had more clarity around in this unintentional break is like, I, I love serving my chronic illness warriors because I think you all need, we all need more support. There's not a lot of support for those of us living with chronic illness and figuring out how to make money in a way that does not drain us, does not sacrifice our health, our sleep, our energy, our capacity, all of the things.

[00:08:38] Right. So that's a huge part. I want to serve. This community for that reason. Secondly, there's a huge community of women who just want to hear and have permission of it's okay to grow slow and steady and sustainable and not have these big number goals. And if you have those big number goals, you understand and are embracing that slow and steady wins the race, right?

[00:09:07] Doing things maybe the long way wins the race because it still brings you peace. Right. And I love that. And I want to embrace more of that. So you're going to hear more of that on the show. You're going to hear more of that in my content and my emails. Um, you're going to hear a lot about that in our community that we're building.

[00:09:26] So some new things are coming soon. I will be having a community that's tied to the private podcast. So that's going to be fun. But a lot of this is just, just a growing. Nikita's growing up, y'all. I'm growing up. I'm maturing. I'm still staying in this niche, if you will, in this lane of supporting women who want to live a life that feels in alignment.

[00:09:49] So, it made me think about this and I was like, I don't know if I want to call it this, but have you heard of like the 75 hard challenge? The 75 hard challenge where it's like, go really, it's like an exercise thing where you're like doing all of the things and it's so like, to me, it's a lot. It's a lot.

[00:10:04] right? And often I think a lot of people do it from a place of fear about something or a place of proving at times. And then some people do it because that's just what they love to do, right? Kudos, whatever floats your boat. And then there's the 75 soft challenge, right? Where it's like taking elements, but it's more about the holistic view of building healthier habits into your life.

[00:10:30] Sorry, I keep hitting my, my watch on the, on the desk. It's more about building a holistic life of habits that is mindful, that's intentional, that is buildable. over time. And I was like, that's kind of like business. I mean, you've got some business owners and people living their life who are like, hit the ground running, hustle, grind it out, do the thing.

[00:10:55] Right. And then, you know, some people are like, I tried that and I'm dead. Like I tried that and I don't know if I can keep up with that. I tried that and I quit. I tried that. And it just feels like I, how long do I have to do that for? Right. And I have realized that And my own journey as a business over, especially over the last two years, I think I started to implement that mentality as being, well, we've, you just got to push through it.

[00:11:24] You just got to do it to some degree, even though a big part of me was like, no, no, no. And I felt judged and I felt concerned about what other people thought about that. And I've decided not to care. Not to give a crap. I've decided if you want to run a business slowly and sustainably Then I'm your girl.

[00:11:47] If you want to do it fast and hurry up and like you want to hustle You want to grind it out. I am NOT your girl. I am NOT. I'm trying to do the I'm trying to do the work of healing and healing does not come from hustle and here's why Hustle by definition is to force and to shove Forced to push. Get it.

[00:12:11] Like nobody walked away from someone who got hustled in the middle of the street for their wallet. Nobody like that. Why are we doing that to ourselves and saying, Oh, I'm on my healing journey. No, you ain't. No, you're not. And if you think you are, I want you to really think about can you be in your healing era while you're ignoring or neglecting.

[00:12:39] Your human era Your human being era, right? So I want you to just to think about that Just to think about it. There's nothing wrong with hard work. I definitely believe in hard work Obviously, I believe in industriousness But I also believe in working smarter Not harder. I also believe in working in alignment and clarity.

[00:13:03] I also believe in working in a place that is the right place for you to be for what you want. That doesn't require you to sacrifice your values. Doesn't require you to sacrifice your your health, your mental health, your physical health, your spiritual health. Because it can be done without those things being sacrificed.

[00:13:30] Right. There is a hierarchy of needs and our brain knows it. And we are oftenly, often trying to overcompensate for some of those needs because of our trauma and our past experiences. So we're going to do things differently here. Okay. Um, so that's what we're going to kind of be talking about. This is going to be, I've I'm leaning more into teaching all of my clients the power behind long form content, AKA a podcast.

[00:14:01] Also, A lot of the strategies I'm going to teach you on the show are going to be from my experience for the last eight plus years being a top ranked podcast host on top of being an awarded coach on top of being An unintentional break this last year and have clients still book with me and I wasn't active on social media and I wasn't really active here on, on the podcasting, but because I almost 200 episodes, it's still serving the hemisphere.

[00:14:30] Also, why when I'm just minding on my business, minding my own business and someone finds me through chat GPT because it pulled from my long form content, not Instagram. Right. So I'm going to lean more and more specifically when it comes to my content. Cause that's what I love is long form content strategy as being a way that you grow your business sustainably and can heal without the hustle.

[00:14:54] Right. But with the profit, right. And we're going to talk about just different things that have supported us as far as like. Um, aromatherapy and breath work and EFT, those things I kind of have shied away from. There's a lot of things the last two years that I wanted to do and shied away from because of just not being quite there yet from a perspective of fear, right?

[00:15:23] And now I'm there. So there's going to be episodes just about essential oils. There's going to be episodes just about EFT. There's going to be, if you don't know what EFT is, emotional freedom tapping. There's going to be episodes just about podcasting and long form content. There's going to be episodes about chronic illness.

[00:15:39] There's going to be episode about life in general and growing and transforming and things like that. All of that is going to be under this umbrella. So that's why I don't know if the podcast name is going to change. But it, it may just stay the same right now because I do want those living with chronic illness to know that this is a place for them.

[00:16:00] And I want other people to know as well that are like wanting to live a slow, soft business life without sacrificing the things that matter and neglecting their themselves, that this is also a place for them. So if you have any ideas for a name, if you, if I were to change the name of the show. Send them to my DMs in, um, at Thrive with Nikita on Instagram or email me at hello at Thrive with Nikita.

[00:16:30] Again, that's hello at Thrive with Nikita. You can send me your email there of like any ideas that you have. So that's hello at Thrive with Nikita. All right, you guys. This is the episode, our next episode, which will be a week from now because we're doing bi weekly episodes for the time being Will be from one of my favorites that I've had on the show before Her name is Nitika Chopra, and we're gonna be talking about her journey to having a business Living with chronic illness and what helped her to con what's helped her to continue to innovate and Just build based on her energy and her capacity and how important that is.

[00:17:12] We're going to talk about one way That has been crucial and helping her have success that you might benefit from as well. Alright I'll see you in the next episode until then remember you are crafted to thrive