MINDSET SHIFT

MINDSET SHIFT
From Lost Dreams To Living Fearlessly With MS
Exclusive Interview with Dr. Patti Bevilacqua
Featured in 'Innerviews'
Hosted by Allié McGuire

​At 23, Patti Bevilacqua’s dream career as a PE teacher was cut short by a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. What felt like an ending became the beginning of a powerful new story—one that led her to earn a PhD, step onto the TEDx stage, and inspire thousands as a resilience educator. Today, Dr. Patti Bevilacqua shows the world that MS doesn’t just mean multiple sclerosis—it means ‘mindset shift’.

ALLIÉ: Before MS reshaped your world, you were living your dream job — tell me if I’ve got this right — as a high school PE teacher at age 23? Yes? Can you share a glimpse, Patti, of who you were in that season of your life?

PATTI: I was valedictorian of my university class. I was the first one to get a teaching job, and it was perfect. I was a high-achiever, a goal-setter, and I had never heard the word no. Everything was falling into my lap. Two male PE teachers, two female PE teachers, 650 kids in the school, coaching girls’ volleyball and rugby.

​When I stepped into the gym as Ms. Bevilacqua… it was magic. I taught running, jumping, and square dancing like I was in the Olympics. And instead of being a teacher with a whistle, I used a microphone. My greatest gift was my ability to connect with my students. I have over 700 members on Facebook. 627 of them are former students. They visit, they camp in our backyard, some took our puppies. They’re a huge part of our life. I was on fire. There was nothing else. I even married the other PE teacher. I was living the dream.

ALLIÉ: It sounds like it. So what was it like when that dream was suddenly interrupted?

PATTI: Like someone punched me in the gut. I was a person who lived on Plan A. It took a while to understand what the diagnosis meant, but I realized everything I wanted was gone. I had no Plan B. I always thought I’d retire after 35 years as a teacher. Maybe not PE forever, but still teaching.

It felt like a punch in the gut because it wasn’t my choice. Something else was making the choice for me, and that had never happened in my life. I stayed in the gym for five more years that were the best five years of my career. We took students to Ireland, England, Wales, Scotland.

But after three years, I got quite sick. Paul wasn’t going to leave me home alone while he went to work, so he drove me to my parents’ house, and I stayed there for about eight months. I eventually returned to teach social studies at another school. But I was in a portable classroom, watching my dream unfold on the field without me, talking about the Magna Carta with passion I didn’t feel. I didn’t want to be there. When I left the gym, I went in at 11 PM, cleaned out my desk, and left. I never went back. It took a long time to let go of that part of my life because I was reliving it every time I told the story. Now, I tell it as the beginning. Because you know what? I’m on Plan N, and I’m loving life. I’ve done more in the last five years than I ever could have done had I stayed in teaching. It doesn’t replace it;  it’s just different. I still move every day, but now I’m moving my mind, my heart, and my passion.

I was in a research trial. I was two rounds in when it ended because there was no significant difference between drug and placebo. I was on the placebo. And I was on fire. That’s when I realized: it was my mindset. For me, MS doesn’t stand for ‘multiple sclerosis’. It stands for ‘mindset shift’.

​ALLIÉ: That is powerful. What’s also powerful is how you’ve spoken about becoming a ‘negotiator’ with the voice inside your body. As someone living with MS myself, I can say that inner voice can sometimes sound more like an enemy than a partner willing to negotiate.

PATTI: Absolutely.

ALLIÉ: So how did you learn to change that conversation? And what does that negotiation look like on a hard day?

PATTI: First, I need to say: I’m pretty excited about my life today. Was it easy? No. Did it just happen? Absolutely not. Do I have bad days? Oh yes. But I learned to listen to my body. I respect MS, and I’m grateful every day that it continues to be kind to me.

I treat MS like a tenant in my basement suite. Sometimes the rent is late. Sometimes the music is too loud. There’s chaos. And landlords can’t always evict renters. So, I have to negotiate… I negotiate with an unruly tenant I can’t get rid of. I’ve given it space to live. I’m not fighting it, pushing it out, or cursing it. okay, sometimes I curse, but I still hold space for it.

​ALLIÉ: And the way you say that… that you choose to hold space for it. That shifts you back into the driver’s seat. You’re making a conscious decision: “I grant you space.”

PATTI: Exactly. I don’t know where it came from. No one suggested it. It just made sense, and it has served me well. You may not have a tenant in the basement — maybe it’s an invisible backpack full of bricks. Everyone has something. But by holding space for MS and being grateful, everything changed.

Before MS, I was a good person and I really liked myself. After MS, I am an amazing person and I love myself because I live with multiple sclerosis. MS gave me empathy and compassion. Yes, I had those before — I was raised that way — but now the stakes are higher: my health, my daily functioning.

My only hope is that someone hears or reads something I say and plants their own seed. You won’t find this in a pill bottle, IV bag, or lab. You find it in yourself. Is it easy? Hell no. But by changing your mind, you can enable yourself to enjoy a life you never thought possible. And if one day I end up in a wheelchair? I have no idea how I’ll feel. I’ll deal with it if it happens.

​ALLIÉ: You talk about negotiating, giving grace, holding space. There’s another word I want to talk about: strategies. Many people with invisible disabilities carry a weight — a brokenness — that comes and goes. You reframe that with: “My body needs new strategies.” I love that. What shifted inside you? And how do you help others do the same?

PATTI: It’s an invisible toolbox I carry with me. Heat affects me, so I choose my seating. It’s about decisions and being assertive. I was raised Italian Catholic — you didn’t speak up. Now at 59, I am very clear about what I want and what I can give. And if something is a big deal to others, I need their support. Strategies have to be about you.

A woman in Ireland hadn’t left home for seven years because her family didn’t know taxis for wheelchairs existed. I looked up the MS Society near her and said, “Connect with them. Get the tools you need to participate in life.”
That’s it… Give yourself the tools that allow you to participate in life.

ALLIÉ: Yes. A carpenter can’t create without tools — neither can we.

PATTI: Let me tell you something. My first year of teaching, after my diagnosis, I would sit in the prep room staring out the window. One day a teacher walked in and said, “Patti, do you know why you have MS?”

I snapped around: “No, but you’re going to tell me. Go ahead.”

He said, “You have MS because you were so great in your previous life that the universe had to give you a challenge this time so you could lift others up.” And, Allié, that’s an honor.

ALLIÉ: It is an honor to take a challenge and use it as a catalyst. It’s wasn’t, “What can’t I do because of this?” but “What can I do with this?”

​One more question. You turned MS — Multiple Sclerosis — into Mindset Shift, which I will carry with me forever. If you could hand one tool from your mindset toolkit to someone newly diagnosed — something they could hold onto in those overwhelming early days — what would it be and why?

PATTI: I relate to you because I have MS too, and it took me years to get here. If I can shorten that for you, here’s what I want you to remember. When you’re driving into your city and there’s construction, sometimes it’s fixed in two days, sometimes months. But eventually, things feel normal again.

Your life is not over. It’s just temporarily under construction.

Give yourself grace. Dig deep. Pull up your socks. Feel every emotion, but don’t let them define you. Don’t lose yourself. Don’t let the disease become your identity. And asking for help is not weakness — it’s how you live a fuller life without unnecessary struggle.

ALLIÉ: The help you’ve given so many — by showing up, sharing your story, sharing how you’ve gotten here — will continue to help so many more.

PATTI: That’s the plan.

ALLIÉ: You helped me today.

PATTI: I’m glad. Our narrative is huge. We are storied people. Your story is written to where you are today. If you don’t like it, you can rewrite it as you move forward.. That’s okay.

My dad was a coal miner for 47 years. When I left teaching to go back to school, he was upset — “You have a good job; you’ll never get fired.” But it wasn’t working for me. It took a long time to get here, and if I can shorten that time for anyone, I will. ∎

Find & follow Patti on Instagram:
​@fearlesswithms