Episode #26: Nitika Chopra
Nitika Chopra has been a leader in the wellness industry since she founded her blog in 2010. As the host of the Talk Show Naturally Beautiful on Z-Living and as the on-air expert for Fresh on QVC, Nitika has always empowered women to use beauty as a tangible access point to self-love.
Known for her straight-forwarded tone and intense vulnerability, Nitika recently took everything she had learned from suffering with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis for the past 27 years and created a conversation about self-love in the chronic illness community. With her experience in public speaking, her highly engaged social media following and her raw and honest writing that she shares weekly on her blog, Nitika is determined to get honest with her audience so that they can get honest with themselves in a way that truly transforms lives.
Nitika Chopra remembers being younger, lying next to her mom in bed and wishing she had her beautiful skin. Her own skin was painful and patchy due to psoriasis, which she had been diagnosed with at age 10. At age 19, while in college, Nitika was also diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. On today’s episode, Nitika and I talk about the emotional and physical challenges of growing up with a chronic condition, and how she came to embrace little acts of self-love--even if she didn’t call it self-love at the time. We also discuss her faith in God, her shift to pivot her business to serve the chronic illness community, and how her heart plays a role in all of it.
“I would love myself in the tiniest of ways that made huge differences in my life.”
Here are some of the things Nikita and I chatted about:
Why New York (where she’s lived for 17 years) is where her heart is
How things like showering and even sleeping could cause pain and worsen her symptoms
Her faith in God, which gave her confidence as she grew up that things would be okay
The out-of-body experience that ultimately led to her diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis at age 19
Why she had always used topical treatments growing up, rather than internal medications
Her decision to try medication again, and how she navigates her conflicting feelings around it
The integrative doctor at Blum Center who acts as the “glue” for her treatment approaches
Becoming host of the show Naturally Beautiful, despite not feeling like she knew about beauty
The process of shifting her business to focus on self-love and chronic illness
Her Facebook community, The Chronic (Illness) Crew, and why starting it was eye-opening
Setting boundaries, despite the fact that in her heart she wants to be there for everyone
Why she advocates for sharing the truth, and doing it in an emotionally healthy way
“If you share things with integrity and with the desire to be of service, I just really don’t think you can go wrong. Even if it’s hard.”
Support for this episode comes from Ouchie. Ouchie is a free app for iOS and Android that provides solutions for chronic pain management. It uses evidence-backed tools like cognitive behavioral therapy, pain tracking, community support, access to resources, and integration with clinicians to help people feel better, faster.
Check out ouchie.com and download the Ouchie app to see for yourself. Make sure to share with them that you found the app through Made Visible! Download the app here: iOS, Android