We recently connected with Anaston Scott and have shared our conversation below.

Anaston, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I started blogging and creating content in 2016 after I began my personal healing & self-care journey.

After my grandmother’s passing at the beginning of 2016, I entered into a heavy stage of grief and depression. I had recently started law school and the pressure of performing academically and being present for my family became too large of a burden to handle on my own. I made the decision to start going to therapy and started to create a self-care practice that would allow me to start taking care of myself in ways that I hadn’t before.

Once I started learning more about different mental health challenges—mostly anxiety and depression, I decided to share my story and experiences with both. It was my hope that in sharing my story, that I would inspire someone else to tell their own. I also wanted to help make others become more comfortable with doing the work that they needed to within themselves.

Since the creation of my blog and then business I have navigated many of life’s changes and challenges—I graduated from law school, began my legal career without practicing law, & became a mother. These experiences have created new areas of interest that I am working to integrate into my business and offerings as I continue to help others make self-care their lifestyle.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Anaston, and I’ve been in the self-care realm since 2016.

I started out blogging about mental health and the self-care practices I used to combat the challenges I was facing as a way to express myself and make sense of what I was discovering. As I mentioned before, losing my grandmother to her battle with dementia in 2016, during my first year of law school, was the hardest time of my life. The grief I was experiencing forced me to finally start taking an active approach to my mental health, & that’s where my self-care journey began.

Since then, I’ve started With Self, a lifestyle company created with self-care in mind. My focus has been helping others incorporate self-care into their every day life style. I’ve done one on one coaching, hosted workshops, & published self-care guides as a part of my mission to normalize self-care. We’re currently undergoing a re-brand at With Self & are looking to provide more offerings like merchandise, classes, & other resources.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

The story from my journey that illustrates my resilience is the same story that got me started with my self-care practice. Juggling my familial obligations and my law school career was really challenging, and often times it felt impossible. Being a first generation, first year law student came with its own challenges, but trying to perform academically during the most chaotic time in my family made it harder for me to focus in class or even have the motivation to be at school. I really had to tell myself to just take things day by day, and that’s what I did. I took little baby steps until I was ready to really start healing, and I ultimately made it through not only my first year of law school, but graduated with my JD. I know my Granny would be proud.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that I’ve had to unlearn time and time again, especially as a black woman, is that strength means doing it alone. Since becoming a mother, juggling a business and a full-time job, I’ve had to learn how to ask for help. Asking for help and allowing others to support and love me doesn’t subtract from my strength or mean that I am inadequate in anyway. It actually means that I have the courage to show vulnerability and the wisdom to know when someone else can help me along the way.

One of my proudest moments has been becoming a mom, and I truly believe the birth of my son propelled me into a lot of the blessings I’ve received. As a first time mom, I’ve had a lot to learn and I’ve embraced this weird feeling of always having something new to tackle and having a lot of questions. I’ve been fortunate to watch a lot of my closest friends become mothers and they set an example for the type of mother I hoped to be. I’ve learned to actually ask questions, not just of them, but my own parents, & be willing to hear the answer. This has often looked like letting my village show up for me to do things for my son, which was not easy to do at first. Asking for and receiving help is a radical way that I practice self-care, & I hope to help other moms do the same.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.withselfco.com
• Instagram: @anastonjeni / @withself_
• Linkedin: Anaston Scott, J.D