#376 Athena Brownson: Healing in Real Time—The Comeback Behind the Chronic Pain — Part Two
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What is Athena Brownson's journey with chronic pain?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today, I'm talking to Athena Bronson, a real estate agent from Denver, Colorado. Nope, we are not talking about real estate. Instead, we dive into her extraordinary journey of resilience. At the peak of her real estate career, Feeling invincible and unstoppable, Athena's life took unexpected turn. Strange health issues appeared, and she was eventually diagnosed with Lyme disease, a condition that would change everything. For the past seven years, Athena has lived in chronic pain, relying on plasma transfusions four days each month just to keep going. Her life has revolved around battling this disease, something she never imagined facing. As she says, if life didn't give us adversity and challenges. This story is too powerful and real for just one episode.
In part one, Athena shares her experience with Lyme disease, a condition that remains poorly understood but has profoundly impacted her health. She'll talk about how she caught it, what she's endured, and the fight to survive. Today in part two, Asina will share how she not only survived, but found ways to thrive, rebuild her support system, and grow her career once again.
I really resonate with what you said about being our biggest advocate, especially in tough times. We hear a lot about IQ and EQ, emotional quotient, emotional intelligence. But there's another measure, adversity quotient or IQ, which seems less talked about yet. So crucial. I think we are all starting to see how important it really is. Your experience is a powerful example of this. Physical pain is intense and medications might help here and there. maybe make sleep easier. But that's only part of it. It's the mental resilience that really keeps us going, especially in those moments when you are alone, in pain, facing it all. What stands out from what you've just shared is how you found ways to mentally change your focus even on the small things, to help you stay grounded.
It seems like that's been your best defense and maybe even your offense.
Does that feel accurate? You couldn't say it better. I think that is a beautiful way of putting it. I completely agree. I believe that the mental aspect of it is at least 50% of the challenge.
How does Athena train her brain to stop listening to pain?
Our brains are wired in a way that if we continue to think a certain thought, whether that's I'm in pain or I don't want to do this, I don't feel good, I don't want to get out of bed, when we're continually reinforcing those thoughts, we will have those thoughts because when you're in pain, you're in pain and your brain notices that. And unfortunately, that's an unavoidable truth. But when we pair that with How am I creating new neural pathways? How am I creating positive affirmations in my life? How am I surrounding myself with positivity? What am I ingesting when it comes to what I'm listening to? What information I'm taking in? The people that I'm spending time with. For me, having routines is huge.
Why are routines essential for healing?
So I talk about having your toolkit to get through challenging times, something for me that is really critical for my mental health and thus my physical health, because they do go so hand in hand. is having my morning and evening routines. And that involves doing breath work and meditation. That involves having time to journal and write out my affirmations and write out my goals. I'm constantly writing out like I am healthy. I am healing my body. My body feels great because I want to tell my brain that I am doing okay. I want to convince myself that my body can get through this because when I can convince my mind and nervous system that I'm going to be okay and that there's an end goal and I keep my eyes on really looking forward instead of downwards into the current state that I'm in,
That is where we're able to keep, I really believe that you're able to create more healing in the body physically when you're mentally working on strengthening your mentality and
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is Athena Brownson's journey with chronic pain?
0:12–5:01
2
How does Athena train her brain to stop listening to pain?
5:01–6:00
3
Why are routines essential for healing?
6:00–9:34
4
What role does delegation play in leadership?
9:34–14:07
5
How did Athena build her support system?
14:07–20:24
6
What is the importance of accountability in recovery?
20:24–21:28
7
How can writing affirmations aid in healing?
21:28–24:38
Speakers
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