How to become who you actually are and not who you were trained to be with Cheri Carandanis
Wellish · Sarah Ritondale
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Show Notes
What do you do when the story you built your whole life on suddenly… doesn’t exist anymore?
In today’s episode, I’m talking with abstract artist and former Air Force critical care flight nurse Cheri Carandanis, whose entire identity was built around being “the capable one” — the nurse, the helper, the perfectionist, the strong one. After two brain injuries and a sudden, traumatic loss, that version of her was gone. No more ICU, no more hospice leadership, no more “Cheri the nurse” everyone called for answers.
What came next wasn’t a perfectly curated glow-up. It was panic, grief, depression, EMDR, spiritual wrestles, and a cardboard “canvas” covered in kids’ paint that somehow cracked her open to an entirely new self.
We get into:
- What an identity collapse actually feels like when you’re in it
- The difference between performing a role vs. actually being yourself
- How creativity, intuition, and “soul glow-ups” helped her move from left-brained perfectionism to right-brained permission
- Letting go of the girl you thought you had to be — and meeting the woman you’re actually becoming
- Authentic vulnerability vs. performative vulnerability (and how your body tells the difference)
- Learning to talk to your past and future selves, and letting your next chapter write you
If you’ve ever thought, “I don’t know who I am without this job/relationship/identity,” this one is going to hit home. This is your reminder that your storyline is not fixed, your identity is allowed to change, and you don’t have to be “that girl” anymore to be worthy of a beautiful life.