I'm excited to announce that I'll be writing a new monthly column for @bezzycommunity called “Mindset Matters”!! 🥰🥳 This first one titled “ Who Am I with Chronic Illness?” discusses why letting go of your past self is so important and HOW to do so in a healthy way. Bezzy IBD is also a community you can join for free to hear from and get support from other people who know what it's like to live with the condition.⁣ ⁣ Are you taking any time getting to know who you are now with chronic illness, or are you spending all of your time wishing you were who you used to be? Oh, how I wish someone had asked me this during my first year post-diagnosis of ulcerative colitis.⁣ ⁣ Grief over who we were pre-sickness or pre-diagnosis is SO valid and SO necessary, but alongside that grief we must also see the importance of releasing those past versions of who we are.⁣ ⁣ Why? Well, pining after someone we can no longer embody keeps us stuck. Stuck in the past, stuck in a cycle of comparison, stuck far away from our present self.⁣ ⁣ The present you deserves your full attention.⁣ ⁣ Past me was completely entrapped by hustle culture - cheer, student government, grades, campus jobs, sorority president, honors societies, running... the list goes on and on.⁣ ⁣ Past Nat equated her worth to her work, her “successes,” and how much she “did.”⁣ ⁣ And letting go of that version of myself was so. dang. hard.⁣ ⁣ But on the other side of pining after that run down, worn out, societally-approved-of Nat, was a life I never realized my soul needed. A calmer, slower life. A life full of baths and good books and morning walks and meditation. A life completed by a beautiful relationship with myself and an unwavering feeling of worth no matter how much I “did.”⁣ ⁣ So although chronic illness and releasing past me came with a lot of lows, it also came with a permission slip for me to rediscover who I am and who I want to be, without the strict rules or need to always be doing.⁣ ⁣ Head to the link in my bio to read my newest article for Bezzy, sign up for the community, and don't forget to follow @bezzycommunity. 😌🫶🏼 Xx