Intentionally Designed: Ditching the Lies, Walking in Freedom, and Living as God’s Daughter with Hannah Castiaux!

Intentionally Designed: Ditching the Lies, Walking in Freedom, and Living as God’s Daughter with Hannah Castiaux!

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey and identity at the same time? This conversation on *Anchored by the Sword* brings in writer and mentor Hannah Castillo to talk honestly about body image, people pleasing, and learning to live as a loved daughter of God.

Hannah shares how a single comment on a primary school playground – being called “chubby” on her tenth birthday – triggered years of people pleasing, disordered eating, and trying to earn her worth through others’ approval. She explains, with raw honesty, how that moment “started a vicious cycle in my life of people pleasing,” and how it shaped her relationship with food, exercise, and her own body.

As she chats with host Gina Fox, Hannah talks about the pivotal question that helped her start walking in freedom: “Who told you that?” Guided by a mentor and later a teaching at YWAM, she went back to that memory with God, tracing the lie to its root so it could finally be cut off. Her story will resonate with anyone who’s tried to fix pain by overachieving, over-serving, or over-controlling.

Hannah also unpacks themes from her book *Intentionally Designed: Ditching the Lies and Labels and Living Free in Christ*. She explains why roles like “wife”, “mum”, or even “author” can’t be the core of who you are, because “my identity is a child of God because my identity doesn’t change.” From there, she and Gina chat about mentoring teens, struggling with trust, setting boundaries as recovering people pleasers, and learning to rest instead of running like a “well-oiled machine”.

If you’re tired of chasing worth through perfection, productivity, or other people’s opinions, this gentle yet challenging chat might be the nudge you need to ask: whose voice have you been believing about yourself?