025: Tiffany & Nitika

Written By Tiffany Yu

Tiffany & Nitika | Finding Connection, Self-Love, and Thriving with Chronic Illness ft. Nitika Chopra, Chronicon

Listen on: Apple // Spotify // Google // YouTube

In this episode, we’re joined by Nitika Chopra, founder of Chronicon, to discuss her self-love journey and how she is breaking the cycle of isolation for the 133+ million Americans that live with a chronic illness.

We discussed:

  • Nitika’s origin story

  • Chronicon’s origin story

  • Chronic illness and labels

  • Her journey to finding connection and how she manages social isolation

  • Deciding how much of your chronic illness to share and your relationship with yourself

  • Nitika’s new series with Well+Good

  • How the curvy movement influenced her vision for chronically ill people

Show notes

About Nitika Chopra

Nitika Chopra is the founder of Chronicon, a media and events company, dedicated to elevating the lives of those living with a chronic illness. Nitika was diagnosed with psoriasis at the age of 10 and psoriatic arthritis at the age of 19 and lived over 17 years of her life being defined by her conditions. After 10 years in event creation, Nitika launched Chronicon in the fall of 2019, focused on those living with a chronic illness. The event sold out, had over 2,000 livestream viewers, high-level brand sponsors and has been growing ever since. Now, Nitika is excited to announce that Chronicon is expanding online with The Chronicon Community, a new, accessible online space with inspiration, advocacy, and empowerment for chronically ill folks across the globe to connect. Nitika is also the host of The Point of Pain podcast which is available wherever you enjoy your podcasts.

Follow Nitika Chopra

Follow Chronicon

Transcript

Tiffany Yu: Hi everyone. This is Tiffany and you are listening to this episode of Tiffany & Yu, the podcast. And if you are new to the podcast, Tiffany & Yu is a podcast chatting with friends who are using their voices and platforms to cultivate compassion, change, and creativity. Today I have with me Nitika Chopra, who is the founder of Chronicon, which is this incredible community for the 130+ million people who live with chronic illness in the U.S. Hi Nitika. 

Nitika Chopra: Hi, Tiffany. Thanks for having me. 

Tiffany Yu: We ended up getting introduced through Nate Nichols. He's a big fan of yours and at the time you were thinking about launching your online community, Chronicon . And then we emerged on Clubhouse. And we've become much better friends since then. I always like starting with origin stories. What led you up to that point of really thinking that Chronicon needed to be in the world?

Nitika Chopra: Well, I just have to say I'm so glad that Clubhouse brought us closer together because I do feel like it was nice that there were all of these touchpoints. But then being with you on Clubhouse has been so special. And the way I would start my origin story is that it started when I was probably 10 years old and I was diagnosed with my first chronic illness. And so, there's so many things that I could say about that journey, and I know you, and so many of your listeners, have been on their own journeys with their bodies, but that has definitely been my greatest teacher in my life. And so, when I got diagnosed with psoriasis at the age of 10, I just saw my whole life through that lens. I had it in a very debilitating way. Sometimes people get psoriasis and it's maybe a small patch or in their scalp, which is frustrating for sure. But for me, I ended up having it covering 98% of my body. And I couldn't really move without severe pain. So it was everything. It was the way that I saw everything. It was the way people saw me. And then when I was 19, I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, which just really impacted me in a whole new set of ways. It made it really hard for me to walk without severe pain because my joints were painful. Before it was, my skin was painful and now my joints added to it. So, as I'm sure you and so many of your listeners can relate, that was the lens that I saw everything through. I tried to be positive. I have a really strong spiritual center and that really helped me through a lot of those challenges. But, it also shaped me to want to help people because I felt like there were not enough resources, almost no resources when I was going through all of that, that were there to really support me, especially emotionally. So I'm not a doctor, I'm not a practitioner, I'm a patient. So I don't pretend to try to heal people, but just that emotional support of like, Yeah. You know, I've got somebody that knows exactly what I'm feeling. I don't have to explain to this person why I can't walk the five blocks or I need to take a cab, or I actually can't help with moving this box or whatever. I don't have to talk about it. It's just like, no, I'm not going to do that. And you just move on. There's no heaviness there. So I never really had that growing up. So I think that just has a lot to do with my origin story and why I started doing the work that I do. 

Tiffany Yu: Thanks for sharing. There's a term that was coined by someone in the disability justice space named Mia Mingus, and she uses the term access intimacy. And it's this idea that when you show up in a place, you don't have to ask for permission, people just get it. And it sounds like the community that you've created or what you were seeking was some level of that access intimacy. What was that turning point of really moving more toward advocacy and really wanting to create that community? 

Nitika Chopra: There was definitely a turning point for me. I started my career about 11 years ago. And you know, at that point, no one was talking about chronic illness or disability or health, really in the truest sense of the word. There was this health and wellness industry that I sort of found myself being a part of, but truthfully it never was very helpful or felt very supportive. It was just my only option at the time. And so I gravitated towards that. I started an online magazine. I talked a lot about self-love. I talked a lot about beauty as it relates to self-love. I did that through a lot of media opportunities that I had, which was really great. But there was a turning point. And I would say after the 2016 election. There was just a reckoning that was happening for so many people and myself included. And it felt like, I thought I was using my voice before. I thought I was standing up for people that I wanted to stand up for and for what was right. But there was something after that election that made me realize there was so much more that I could be saying and sharing and really, it was a refinement process for so many people. If this is going to be this dark, where are we going to find the truth and the light in the midst of all of this? And so I really had to go on that personal journey and I spent a couple of years, actually in 2016 to 2017 asking myself a lot of really hard questions, realizing that I wasn't at all speaking up for the things that I really, I never talked about my health publicly. I would have it on my About page or, it was something if someone asked me, I was never ashamed of it in that sense. But I never wanted to talk about it in a major way, because I felt like I didn't want pity. I didn't want it to be gratuitous, all these things. So it was probably at the end of 2017, beginning of 2018 that I started to really embrace talking about it. I started just in small ways to start having conversations one-on-one with people. And then from there, it ended up opening up a lot of doors for me in terms of getting opportunities and partnerships and just ideas for ways to create things that were connected to that audience. 

Tiffany Yu: Definitions are really important. And oftentimes in my work, people will come to me and they say, I have X, Y, and Z does that count? And this is for me in the disability space. So I'm curious how you define chronic illness and if you've ever encountered these types of, within your own narrative and other people who come into your community, if they quote-unquote count. 

Nitika Chopra: If you feel connected to that label if you will, that like, Oh, I have a chronic illness, then you count. It's really a personal thing I believe. But the National Health Council says that a chronic illness is anything that has persistent symptoms for three months or longer. I feel like most people have a chronic illness. You mentioned the number earlier that I state a lot, which is that 133 million Americans that we know of as of 2019 have a chronic illness. So there's obviously a lot of research and data that needs to be done since then, especially after the pandemic, but that is everything from diabetes to heart conditions, to mental health, to acne, to psoriasis. I think people don't realize how many of us there are out there. And I think that's why I'm so passionate about having these conversations because it's treated as if it's this rare thing and Oh my God, like you have that? And it's just like, So does like most of the population that we know of, almost half of the population, but so many people. So the one thing I come up against more than I expected to with starting Chronicon, is that a lot of people are not comfortable with being a part of that group. And so what I mean by that is, they find that if they own Oh, I get migraines or I have a migraine condition, that it's them really owning that there's a quote-unquote problem. Or there's something quote, unquote wrong. And take those words as you want. I don't necessarily consider these problems or something wrong, but that's how they might think of it. So that's probably been the biggest, interesting learning around people who identify with having a chronic illness or not is that for me, I find a lot of comfort in just having a label. It's not my only label. It's one of many labels that I have. So it doesn't stress me out. But at the same time, a lot of the people that I'm talking about that have a little bit of that friction or apprehension around it are more newly diagnosed. I got psoriasis when I was 10 years old. I've had 30 years to process it, to sit with it, to not want to identify, and then want to identify and then over-identify and then under identify. So I've had a very long time of being able to process that. So I have so much compassion for people. Sometimes I'll connect with someone and they'll be like, Oh, I love this community. And I'm just like, you should join. And they're like, Oh, I'm afraid to say that I have this thing. And a lot of times they ended up joining anyway and they're just like quiet in the community and they're just taking in all the goodness. And I'm like, okay, that's totally fine. Everybody's got their own journey, which I think is important to respect. 

Tiffany Yu:  I love that level of compassion of just being able to meet people where they are in their journey. I want to come back to this idea of labels. Because I feel like these terms, even for me, disability, oftentimes the first thing that people think is bad or broken or less than, or needs to be fixed. And it took me over 10 years after I became disabled before I started identifying with the label and then deciding that I wanted to change how I felt about it. So I know your journey started when you were 10 years old of getting that first diagnosis, but was there a journey of actually embracing that label and redefining what it meant to you? 

Nitika Chopra: The first, like 10 years, it was just steeped in shame. It's not even that I said, Oh, I have a chronic illness. It's more just like I have this disease. And it was steeped in shame. And I know you and I have talked about this on and off just about our family upbringing and how my mom was basically like my nurse as a kid. I mean, she did everything that I could have possibly needed. I'm so freaking lucky. And she also was really afraid for me. My condition at the time was not invisible, so it was incredibly visible and I would get picked on a lot. I would get bullied a lot. And so it would cause me a lot of just trauma and shame and emotional challenges. So for the first 10 years, I feel like I didn't even know. I just felt like something was wrong with me and I didn't feel empowered at all. And then I would say there was like a spot in the middle there, like my early to mid-twenties where I sort of over identified, and it was almost like how I wanted people to feel connected to me or something. It really was that I didn't really know who I was outside of my health. My health was like the biggest thing always in my life. So I would meet someone and be like, Hi, I'm Nitika. I have psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis and I'm in so much pain. Like, even if I didn't say that, that was who I was being. And of course, I didn't know that until years later. I would say from like 26, 27, when my health started to get better until now, which I'm 39 now, I would say those years probably. For all those years, I think it's been owning of, I have this thing. It just happened. Like I have a finger, I have a foot, I have an illness. It doesn't have to have so much weight to it but that took a really long time. It took those first 17 years of ups and downs to get there. 

Tiffany Yu: In that period of your twenties, where you were, I want to call it like course correcting, but I'm not quite sure what the right terminology is. What do you think you were seeking in wanting to be so visible with sharing? Do you think it was compassion? Do you think it was understanding? What do you think was at the root of that? 

Nitika Chopra: I think about this a lot because I actually think a lot about codependency as it relates to having a chronic illness. I think a lot of people who struggle with their body in certain ways need to be dependent on people. And that's very real. And then there's oftentimes this extra layer of codependency that can come up. I haven't written any books or articles on this yet, so I'm still processing so much of it for myself, but I think the first thing that comes up for me, when you say, what was I seeking is I was seeking connection. And in the truest sense of the word, like I knew that I had this whole soul inside of me and that most people just saw this flaky skin person and didn't really see the whole me, but I just had no clue how to get there. I had no clue. So it was just like, I would overdo it. I would put it all out on the table just to be like, okay, maybe I'll like, throw these 10 things out there, someone will pick one up and it'll create connection because that's what I wanted more than anything. It's been a process since then to find that connection within myself and find that connection with a spiritual practice and then add human connection and add other connection, even connection through my work on top of that, but to start with the self and to start with my own internal connection to myself.

Tiffany Yu: That's beautiful. I think part of the work I'm trying to do is how can we reframe that all of us are interdependent. We all have desire for human connection, the internal connection with self. We need to be in relationship with each other and in order to thrive. So I'm going to take a quick break here. And when we come back, we will continue chatting with Nitika Chopra.

 And we are back from the break. You're listening to this episode of Tiffany & Yu. This is your host, Tiffany Yu, and I'm chatting with Nitika Chopra. Before the break, we were talking about her origin story of being diagnosed with a chronic illness at the age of 10 and what that journey has looked like over the past almost 30 years of really coming into her own. The last thing we were talking about was about connection. And I want to dig a little bit deeper into that because so much of what defines chronic illness is this feeling of isolation, is this feeling of loneliness, is this feeling of social exclusion. You talked about this journey of how you really went about trying to find connection within yourself and then in a way it manifested outward into creating Chronicon. I'm curious if you can share, for our listeners and all of us may be still at home who are feeling alone, what are some tools that you were able to find connection within yourself?

Nitika Chopra: Yeah. I mean, a lot of it started when I was stuck in my home for most of the time throughout five or six years of my early twenties when my arthritis was so bad I couldn't really get out of bed. So, as much as we're stuck at home at this time, and I know people when the pandemic first started, there were so many people in the chronic illness communities that were like, we know exactly what this is like because we've had to do this on our flare days for years. So I really resonate with that. A lot of it is simple. It's really simple. And I think that's why I'm so passionate about making things accessible. No matter if you can get out of bed or not, or no matter if you have millions of dollars to spend on a green juice, diet cleanse, or a special Peloton bike for your home or I'm just like not, everybody's got that. So a lot of my connection would come through talking on the phone. As simple as that is,  I feel like I'm so 1999 about this stuff, but when people become friends with me, they start to get Oh Nitika is a phone person. She's not just gonna text me. She actually doesn't really love texting. She'd rather just get on the phone. And I was like that when I was really going through it. I think part of the isolation is that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy in a lot of ways. And what I mean by that is, we are living a very isolated experience within our own bodies, which is true. It is only our body. But then we compound that by then not bringing anyone into our experience. And I definitely have been guilty of this. I mean, it's not something that comes supernaturally to me because especially when you start reaching out to people and then someone maybe doesn't get what you're saying or they trigger you. So I understand that there's nuances to this, but I found finding three people in my life that were my safe people that I knew I could go to this person and she'll make me laugh. And I could go to that person and he'll make me think about something really interesting. Or I could go to that person and I can just cry because that's what I needed to do that day. So just really being mindful and intentional about the people that you are connecting with, but don't assume that there's no one for you to connect with. Actually do the work in finding those people. And if you look around your life and you're like, Oh, none of my people get what I'm going through. Then it's up to you, up to us, to then say, okay, I need to go find these three types of people. This is what I'm looking for, where can I find them? And we do that for other things. We do that for, Oh my God, I want this kind of job. Or I want this kind of outfit for this event, or I'm going to go out and make that happen. I'm going to go in and find that. But why wouldn't we do that when it comes to our emotional well-being, our emotional health? I honestly think it's such a standard thing and probably something many of you have thought of, but I think it's a good reminder because it's one of the things that helped me the most. And then the other part about creating connection within myself that's really helped me is my spiritual practice. I came from a family. I'm not religious at all. I was born a Hindu. So I am Hindu, but I'm not religious. My mom always jokes to me, because my grandparents are like the least religious, spiritual people. Like they're pretty much atheist, probably. I'm not sure that they would say that, but they just are the opposite of me and my parents too. They never really talked about God or any kind of spiritual stuff. And then I come out and I'm just like obsessed with God and this higher power and this love energy that I feel. And so it's not because I was taught that as a kid. It's because I was really seeking something that made me feel safe in a world that really didn't make me feel safe. So allowing myself to be open to that was a really huge thing for me. So even this morning, we're just in the middle of a week, everything is super intense right now. It's the new year. There's so much that's been happening. And I noticed I feel a little disconnected. I feel a little like I'm in my brain. I'm in my head. I'm obsessing about the stupid thing someone said and I got in the shower and I was just like, Hey God. Um, so I'm feeling disconnected and I don't really know what I'm feeling and I'm kind of upset about this stupid thing. And I'm just having a conversation with some people might say it's myself, but to me, it's to a higher power that's really loving. So that was really huge. And then also finding ways to laugh. Finding ways to bring creativity and laughter into my daily experience, even on the days that were filled with so many tears. Sometimes that meant just watching this stupid YouTube video and being like, this is so silly and just as not significant, but it's hilarious. 

Tiffany Yu: I love all those tips. I think all of this is a yes. And this is what I'm learning because again, everyone's at a different point and we all have different levels of energy. Where I go to laugh and play and find joy and have fun is TikTok. It's really tapping into those creative juices. And so the majority of disabilities or illnesses are invisible. And I wanted to hear from you if you had any guidance for people who are really trying to come into their own narratives of taking ownership of whatever invisible illnesses they're going through. Because there's a lot of fear around being ostracized or potential repercussions or stigma. And so I'm curious what that internal dialogue is for you in terms of deciding if you want to disclose your disability or not. And I think that there's power in how both of those play out. 

Nitika Chopra: For me, all of this always comes back to our relationship with ourselves. So I think what happens when I let's say go into a room and I might be in my head about, Oh gosh, am I gonna be able to eat anything because I've got this autoimmune disease? And I have really strong reactions when I eat certain things or, oh, I'm at this weekend away and all my friends want to go on a hike and I just can't go on a hike right now. My bones they're super inflamed and I'm in a lot of pain and I just feel bad. I just feel really bad that I have to be the odd one out. So I think in turn, in certain situations like that, it's really important to advocate for ourselves obviously, but well, actually, I shouldn't say obviously, because we're not normally taught that, but it's really important to advocate for ourselves so that we don't put ourselves in any harm. But I think just in general, in navigating spaces, I think what I had to learn was back to this understanding myself and I had to understand that I was so many other things outside of my diseases. And to me, that was really a powerful exercise for me to go into spaces and be like, Oh, I really want to lead with, you know,  I'm really sick, like I have like this whole thing going on. That's like really what I wanted to lead with because it was the only thing on my mind. Let's be real, it was the only thing on my mind, but what I had to practice was leading with, Oh, I'm an entrepreneur or I really love to sing, or I really love these other things that make up who I am. It was important for me. So I think it's like one part of it is how other people are going to perceive you and all that kind of stuff. But I'm honestly, that's a whole other conversation. I'm not even so worried about that part. I'm more concerned about the individual who's carrying around the weight of knowing that they have this thing going on. And I think as much as I would love to say, Oh, just say this one thing, or it's this quick fix, or it's this affirmation that you say, and that's like, how you get through it. I just believe all of this leads us to a deepening and an understanding of ourselves and how do we own ourselves? How do we own the full experience of who we are so that when we show up to spaces, outside of someone infringing on our safety and not making us feel safe, which is a very important thing to be aware of and to advocate for making sure that doesn't happen. Outside of that, us knowing who we are and what we have to offer and the nuances what make us who we are is our own exploration. It's our own experience for ourselves. And then when we decide that we want to bring someone into that, It's a beautiful gift and that usually happens over time. Or maybe you notice someone else struggling and you want to connect with them. I saw your will.i.am post the other day, where he leaned over and was like, Hey, I got you. I'm going to cut that meat for you. Like, yeah. Yeah. And that's beautiful. That creates intimacy. It's not a forced moment. That is a real moment. In the moment that just happened. And that was exactly what was meant to happen. It wasn't you forcing anything, it wasn't him forcing anything, and obviously, I wasn't there, but I felt like I was, and it brings tears to my eyes because I feel like those moments are, that's what's real. That's what's real. I even have to practice, even on a space like Clubhouse or in any social spaces where there's so much that we want to say. There's so much that we want everybody to know, what we're going through and make sure you know, this is why I am this way or whatever. And when I've tried to practice is that a lot of that is coming from a place of being hurt in the past. A lot of that is coming from a place of being afraid people won't accept you for who you are, and I'm saying this because that's how it is for me.  That's what I mean when I say this is a practice of self because when I noticed that I'm doing that, the next thing I do is say, okay, like what does little Nitika need right now? Okay. She probably needs like some peanut butter because I really love peanut butter. Thank God I'm not allergic to peanut butter. She probably needs to call her BFF that always makes her laugh or whatever it is, but it's that relationship with self that allows us to move through those moments.

Tiffany Yu: Wow. That's so powerful. I remember you and I having a call, and I was just so caught up in the social dynamics and whether someone was mad at me or not. Let me use that as an opportunity to reflect on what nine-year-old Tiffany missed that is coming up now. Instead, I'm like, what is this bringing up for me? And why does it hurt so much that I'm spending so much energy thinking about it? I want to transition the conversation. You recently announced a partnership with Well+Good for Chroniconvo. I'd love for you to chat more about what Well+Good represents to you and what you're excited about with this partnership. 

Nitika Chopra: Oh, sure. It's really exciting because, with the work that I'm doing with launching Chronicon, it's really not about me. And it's really about the over 133 million people that have a chronic illness. And so to me, looking at a platform like Well+Good, we have thousands of followers on our Instagram, but they have a million and they have millions of people that come to their site every day. I don't have that reach personally yet. And so, partnering with a brand like them. First of all, it's saying to the media out there, these voices matter. These stories matter, they deserve the spotlight, which I do believe we do. And it's really about elevating that conversation because the whole point of creating Chronicon in the first place was to break the cycle of isolation that comes specifically from living with a chronic illness. We all have our own forms of that, but the specific isolation that comes from living with a chronic illness. So to be on Instagram and scroll through and see our guests talking about this so openly and sharing about their conditions, sharing about their highs and lows, being amazing in the lives that they're leading, and also being super real. It's life-changing. If I had had that at 20, at 10, at 30 even, that would have been tremendously healing for me on a cellular level. As I said, I'm not a practitioner, but that's the way that I hope to help people heal in the sense of like, just have some ease and a little bit of balm to like all the challenges that are going on.

Tiffany Yu: Oftentimes the reason why we share these stories and we are visible is for other people to see those mirrors and to find those points that resonate with them. But what I thought was so powerful about that partnership is that Well+Good is all about wellness. We've grown up with these harmful narratives that whatever diagnoses we have is mutually exclusive with being well and thriving. And this is why we're exploring what it means to be well, wherever we are. And one of the things that you and I have chatted about, which is all about creating an industry around chronic illness. I'd love for you to share what you saw in the body positivity movement and what you're aspirationally hoping to see happen in chronic illness.

Nitika Chopra: When I created Chronicon it was right when I had gone to Curvy Con, which is a conference for people who identify as being curvy. And I was invited by a friend and I saw this place that did not patronize the curvy person, but actually completely celebrated them. And I started to have this vision literally while I was walking around Curvy Con and I thought, what would it be like for us to have something like that for people who are living with a chronic illness? And so since then, I've really seen how, just like with the curvy movement, there were people that sort of put curvy humans in a box and thought like, Oh, they don't care about skincare or how they look on their wedding. And they don't want to be on the cover of magazines. They don't date. It's so ridiculous to think of that, but that's sort of how they were treated. They were just treated as these others. And then over time, curvy people were like, um, I'm sorry, not only do we care about those things, but we're freaking fabulous. And we also have a lot of money, so you're so stupid for not letting us be at the center of attention and giving us our own industry. That is something that I really see is where the chronic illness conversation needs to go. I feel like now the curvy movement is a multi-billion dollar industry. There are clothing lines galore dedicated just to that experience. And I don't see any reason why we have to have, like the people who are in the Chronicon community that have fibromyalgia, for example, they have taught me that wearing clothing can actually be really painful sometimes with that specific condition. So why is the only option that they have, a super oversized, random shirt that they can get from, like, whatever or some medical product that makes them feel like a sick person? We could have a whole podcast just about this, so I could go on and on and on about it for days. But I just see that we, as chronically ill people, are sort of put in this box, like, Oh, people who have a chronic illness aren't also entrepreneurs, aren't also dating, aren't also caring about the cute lipstick or making their hair cute or whatever their thing is, playing sports. If you're chronically ill, you're just like in that box and you're just a sick person. And I just am here to be like, no, like capital N capital O, absolutely not. And I don't know exactly what the path is totally going to be to have this change, but I know in my bones that we are meant and we deserve to have a multi-billion dollar industry that is dedicated just to us. So to be determined on how that's going to happen. You know, coming soon coming right up, but you know, that's, that's the goal.

Tiffany Yu: I feel like we're at the precipice of it. And I think too, your capital N O, I almost see it as a Yes and like a capitalized YES AND. We can be sick and we want to be fabulous and try and live our best lives. That message is so powerful. So much of the work you're doing aligns so well with what we're doing at Diversability. I always close by asking our guests, what are you grateful for today? 

Nitika Chopra: Oh, what am I grateful for today? I am grateful for honestly, I'm really grateful for my spiritual practice today. I feel like it really helped me get out of the ego state of just like spinning and obsessing about stuff that doesn't really matter. And I saw my calendar and I was like, I have this full day of work with people that I'm so honored to get to connect with. And this is like a dream. This is what I always wanted. And yet I'm like sucking my own prana, my own life force by obsessing about things that don't really matter. And so the fact that I could realign and get really clear about why I'm here and why this matters, why this moment, this conversation matters. I feel so lucky that I get to do that. 

Tiffany Yu: I love that alignment. And I also feel like, throughout this conversation, I just felt like you really honored that spiritual practice. You gave it space in our conversation as well. So people want to follow you or support you, where's the best place to do that?

Nitika Chopra: So @chroniconofficial on Instagram and @nitikachopra on Instagram and people comment and ask us all the time how they can get involved with Chronicon. The best way is honestly to join our community, thechroniconcommunity.com. It's a monthly membership and we do lots of events and all the things, and that's really the best way to be a part of it. It is open to everyone. Even if you don't specifically identify as having a chronic illness. Allies are welcome, people that want to support this conversation or might have adjacent experiences that would find this really helpful are totally welcome, and also practitioners, people that feel like they might have something to learn from hearing the experiences of a potential patient would be great. So everyone is welcome. You want to be there? You're welcome. 

Tiffany Yu: Join the community. What you're saying really reminds me of a conversation that was happening on Clubhouse. And it was a conversation on disability and someone raised their hand and they joined the stage and they said, Hey, I'm a non-disabled ally. I really want to be better. I don't know the right vernacular. And I'm really just here to learn. And the way someone else responded was they said, this is exactly what active allyship is,  it's raising your hand even when you're nervous, even when you don't know the right things to say, but literally just showing up in solidarity and this willingness to be open to conversation and exploring with people whose perspectives might be different than your own. With all of that, thank you, Nitika for coming onto my podcast, and thank you to our listeners for listening to this episode of Tiffany & Yu.

Nitika Chopra: Thanks so much for having me.

Tiffany Yu
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