The Disconnection From Self Is Trying to Tell You Something
The Breanna Williams Podcast | Season 3: EXODUS | Episode 8: Why Don’t I Feel Like Myself Anymore?
Scripture
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."— 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)
"God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."— 1 John 4:16 (ESV)
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Devotional
Three questions. All of them Googled by real people sitting alone, trying to make sense of something that doesn't quite have words yet.
Why don't I feel like myself anymore?
Why do I feel disconnected from myself?
Who am I really?
Let's go through all three — because they're actually connected. And together, they tell a story.
Question one: Why don't I feel like myself anymore?
Before we answer that — let me ask you something first: how did you feel before?
That question isn't as simple as it sounds. Because to feel like you're not yourself anymore, there's a version of yourself you're comparing to. So what changed between then and now? What situation came up? What season shifted? What happened?
The right move here isn't to panic. It's to get curious. Ask the questions: When did this start? Where was I? How did it happen? Who was involved? And then — the most important one — trace it all the way back to the original seed. Because the moment you find it, Holy Spirit can step in and replace the lie that's been sitting there with truth.
You don't feel like yourself because something changed your understanding of yourself. And God wants to be the one to hand you a new one.
Question two: Why do I feel disconnected from myself?
Here's something that reframed this for me: we are three in one. Just like God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — three persons, one God — we are spirit, soul, and body. Three in one.
And when you feel disconnected from yourself, what's actually happening is your spirit is out of alignment with your soul.
So the real question is: what are you feeding your soul?
Because your spirit eats from your soul. And if what you're putting into your soul — what you're watching, listening to, who you're surrounding yourself with, the decisions you're making — doesn't line up with who God designed you to be, there will be friction. There will be an itch. A restlessness. A sense that something doesn't fit.
That feeling isn't a crisis. It's grace.
Disconnection is grace speaking up. It's the Holy Spirit saying: hey, we need to talk. Not to condemn you — to course-correct you. Something is off, and your spirit knows it before your mind is ready to admit it.
Think about Adam and Eve after they ate the fruit. Their eyes were opened and they immediately felt exposed — so they covered themselves with fig leaves. Here's what most people don't know: fig leaves are poisonous to skin. They were trying to clothe themselves with something that wasn't designed for them, and it didn't fit. It itched. It irritated. It couldn't do what they needed it to do.
That's what you're experiencing when you feel disconnected. You've been covering yourself with something — a role, a relationship, a habit, an environment, an identity that came from somewhere other than God — and it isn't sitting right because it was never made for you.
Find what that is. Peel it back. And let God clothe you in what He actually designed for you.
Question three: Who am I really?
This is the question underneath all the others. And the answer isn't complicated — it's just profound.
You are a daughter. A son. Of the most high God.
You are a new creation. Whatever you've walked through, whatever you've done, whatever was done to you — that is not the final definition. In Christ, you are new. The old is gone.
You are the apple of His eye. You are powerful — because the gift of the Holy Spirit that lives in you is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. You are an inheritor of God's promises. A co-inheritor with Jesus. Not a servant waiting outside — a child at the table.
You are a friend of Jesus. Think about that. The one who spoke the world into existence called you friend.
You are a conqueror.
And here's the one that hit me the hardest when I sat with it:
You are love.
God is love — that's not a description of what He does; it's a declaration of what He is. And He made you in His image and His likeness. Which means when He breathed Himself into you, He breathed love into you. You carry love in your very design.
So when you show up — when you walk into a room, when you listen to someone, when you speak life into a stranger, when you stay when it would be easier to go — you are showing the world what God looks like. You are His love made visible.
That's who you really are. Not your history. Not your labels. Not the disconnection you've been feeling.
You are a child of God. You are love. And you are here on purpose — to show the world what He looks like.
That's not a small thing. That's everything.
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Reflection Questions
When you ask yourself, "Why don't I feel like myself anymore?" — what version of yourself are you comparing to? What season or moment did the shift happen? Have you ever traced it back to where it actually started?
What are you feeding your soul right now — what you consume, who you spend time with, what you've been telling yourself? Is what you're taking in aligned with who God says you are, or is it creating friction?
Of the identity declarations in this devotional — new creation, child of God, friend of Jesus, love — which one is hardest for you to receive? Why do you think that is?
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Prayer
Father,
I've been feeling off. Disconnected. Like a version of myself I don't quite recognize. And instead of running to You first, I've been trying to figure it out on my own.
Today I'm bringing it to You.
Show me what I've been feeding my soul that doesn't belong there. Show me the thing I've been covering myself with that was never designed for me — and help me take it off. Not with shame, but with honesty.
And then remind me of who I actually am. Not what I've done. Not what I've been through. Not what anyone has called me.
Remind me that I'm Yours. That I'm new. That I carry Your image — which means I carry love. And that this disconnection I've been feeling isn't the end of the story. It's the invitation to come back.
I'm coming back.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
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Declarations
Speak these out loud. Let them land.
I am a new creation in Christ. The old is gone — the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
I am a child of God — a daughter, a son — and no past, no label, and no season changes that.
I am a friend of Jesus and a co-inheritor of His promises. I have a seat at the table.
The disconnection I feel is grace speaking, not condemnation. God is course-correcting me, not abandoning me.
I will pay attention to what I feed my soul — because my spirit eats from it.
I am love. I carry God's image, and God is love. I am here to show the world what He looks like.
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Season 4: EXODUS — The Breanna Williams Podcast "Sometimes feeling disconnected isn't a sign that you're losing yourself — it's a sign that you're outgrowing an old version of you."