#376 Athena Brownson: Healing in Real Time—The Comeback Behind the Chronic Pain — Part Two

Summary

Chief Change Officer Podcast - Episode #376 Summary

Title: Athena Brownson: Healing in Real Time—The Comeback Behind the Chronic Pain — Part Two
Host: Vince Chan
Release Date: May 17, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode #376 of the highly acclaimed Chief Change Officer podcast, host Vince Chan engages in a profound and heartfelt conversation with Athena Bronson, a resilient real estate agent from Denver, Colorado. This episode, titled "Healing in Real Time—The Comeback Behind the Chronic Pain — Part Two", delves deep into Athena's extraordinary journey of battling Lyme disease while maintaining a thriving career. This summary encapsulates the key discussions, insights, and actionable advice shared during their dialogue.

Athena's Journey: From Invincibility to Chronic Pain

Athena Bronson’s narrative is one of unexpected adversity and unwavering perseverance. At the height of her real estate career, Athena began experiencing strange health issues, which led to a diagnosis of Lyme disease—a condition that dramatically altered her life. Over the past seven years, Athena has contended with chronic pain, necessitating plasma transfusions four times a month just to sustain her energy and functionality.

Vince Chan sets the stage by highlighting Athena’s formidable spirit: “Feeling invincible and unstoppable, Athena's life took an unexpected turn...” (00:12). This transition from a successful professional to someone grappling with severe health challenges forms the backbone of their discussion.

Mental Resilience and the Adversity Quotient

Central to Athena's coping mechanism is her mental resilience, which she equates to an "adversity quotient (AQ)"—a concept Vince emphasizes as equally crucial as IQ and EQ (04:47). Athena elaborates on the significance of mental strength in managing chronic pain:

"I believe that the mental aspect of it is at least 50% of the challenge. ... What am I creating positive affirmations in my life?... Routines are huge." (04:47)

Athena’s approach involves creating new neural pathways through positive affirmations, breathwork, and meditation. Her morning and evening routines are pivotal, incorporating journaling and goal-setting to reinforce a positive mindset:

“I am healthy, I am healing my body. My body feels great because I want to tell my brain that I am doing okay.” (04:47)

She underscores the interplay between mental and physical health, noting:

“When we can convince our mind and nervous system that we're going to be okay... that is where we're able to keep moving forward.” (04:47)

Building a Support System: The Power of Delegation and Teamwork

Athena attributes much of her continued success and ability to manage her condition to her robust support system. Initially, as an only child and a professional skier accustomed to handling everything alone, Athena struggled with delegation. However, recognizing the impossibility of managing everything solo, she invested a decade in building a reliable and dedicated team.

“Delegation is actually giving someone the opportunity to be their best and to empower them.” (09:34)

Athena emphasizes the importance of coaching and mentorship in this transformation:

“Having someone that can look over your business... help you understand what your strengths are that you should be focusing on.” (09:34)

Her executive assistant, whom she affectionately refers to as her boss, exemplifies the critical role her team plays:

“I wouldn't be able to get any of this done without her, honestly.” (09:34)

Athena's philosophy revolves around teamwork and community, asserting that:

“Understanding that we're not meant to do life alone, we're meant to do life in community.” (09:34)

Advice for Those Undergoing Transitions: Small Steps, Big Impact

Towards the latter part of the episode, Vince prompts Athena to offer guidance to listeners who may be experiencing similar life transitions without a support system. Athena’s advice is both practical and empowering, rooted in the principles from the book Atomic Habits.

1. Acknowledge Struggles Without Stagnation

Athena advises listeners to:

• Acknowledge their struggles: “It's okay to acknowledge when you're struggling.” (17:26)
• Avoid toxic positivity: Recognize challenges without getting stuck in them.

2. Implement Small, Incremental Changes

She advocates for the power of baby steps:

“Focus on being 1% better every day... break everything into smaller steps.” (17:26)

Examples include gradually increasing physical activity or establishing a simple morning routine.

3. Accountability Through Visualization

Athena highlights the importance of making progress visible:

“Commit to implementing small changes that add up to completely life-changing changes.” (17:26)

Vince supplements this by suggesting:

“Grab an actual notebook, not on the computer, but a real paper notebook and pen... create a visual reminder that says I did it.” (20:54)

Athena concurs, emphasizing the effectiveness of handwritten logs:

“I write everything down by hand in a notebook... these are tools that we have at our fingertips to hold ourselves accountable.” (21:59)

Conclusion: Embracing Simplicity and Self-Belief

In a poignant exchange, Vince references Jodie Foster’s advice on simplicity and confidence, which resonates deeply with Athena’s journey:

“Pen, paper and confidence... self-belief can be the true foundation for creating something meaningful and sustainable.” (23:19)

Athena echoes this sentiment, reinforcing the transformative power of simple, consistent actions combined with unwavering self-belief.

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Key Takeaways

1. Mental Resilience is Crucial: Building a strong mental framework is essential in overcoming chronic adversity. Practices like meditation, affirmations, and structured routines significantly contribute to this resilience.

2. The Power of a Support System: Delegation and teamwork are indispensable. Recognizing one’s limitations and fostering a reliable support network can empower individuals to thrive despite challenges.

3. Small Steps Lead to Monumental Changes: Adopting incremental improvements and maintaining accountability through visible tracking methods can lead to significant personal growth and recovery.

4. Simplicity and Confidence: Embracing simplicity in strategies and having confidence in one’s abilities are foundational to sustained success and meaningful change.

Final Thoughts

Athena Bronson’s story is a testament to human resilience and the transformative power of mindset and community. Her journey underscores the importance of adapting to unforeseen challenges with grace, leveraging support systems, and making consistent, small efforts towards healing and growth. Listeners are left with a profound sense of hope and actionable strategies to navigate their own adversities.

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Transcript

[Vince Chen]

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 4 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 will talk about how she coded, what she's endured, and the fight to survive today. In part two, Athena 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 aq, 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 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?

[Athena Bronson]

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. It's our brains are wired that 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, 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, like, 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. 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 breathwork 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 my. I have many doctors like my pain doctor. For instance, last week we did a class on breath work and there's been a huge number of studies done that show that when you're in pain and your nervous system is activated and is in fight or flight mode, so frequently due to illness or pain, whatever you're going through, it's easy for your brain to get stuck in that pattern. So it's up to us to make sure that we're doing the work to teach our brains and our nervous system that we're okay, we're and we're going to get through this. And it's a challenge. And like I said, there will be good days, there will be bad days. But I believe that having routines and being able to stay goal oriented in any aspect of your life is absolutely critical for overcoming adversity.

[Vince Chen]

You've talked about how you help yourself normalize the situation so that life and work could go on. You kept earning Kept things moving, especially with those high medical cost, even with insurance, it still adds up. But beyond that, you mentioned the importance of, of building a support system with mentors, coaches and others, which I think is crucial. Can you share more about how you started building that from scratch and how you went about finding the right people, those who really became the perfect fit for your journey? Eventually, it seems like it grew into a really strong support system, one that not only provided you the help you needed, but also gave you a true sense of community.

[Athena Bronson]

I love this. Yes. So I firmly believe that I would not be where I am today, in business, in life, in anything, without the people that I am surrounded by. And as an only child and a professional skier, I was a one man sport, a one person activity all the time. Being an only child, I didn't have siblings to delegate or really understand how delegation works. So for me, building out the right team was something that I continued to work on, was a huge challenge for me because I was a athlete that believed that I could get everything done myself, that it was my job to make sure that I did everything perfectly. The truth of the matter is there is absolutely no way of getting through any of anything in life by yourself, let alone a real estate career, which is extremely taxing. I would say there was. You could work 24 hours a day and still have a 24 hour to do list easily. And then taken me a lot of coaching, a lot of surrounding myself with people that have taught me really the art of delegation and the art of understanding that we are not going to always be the best at everything. We need to know what our strengths are and what our weaknesses are, because we all have strengths and we should be focusing on those. And our strengths might be someone else's weaknesses or their strengths are weaknesses. So by, by assessing really who we are, what we're good at, what we're not good at. And for me, coaching has always been really important because as an athlete I learned that a discipline and accountability. But having someone that can look over your business or your life, whatever it is that you're doing, and help you see where your blind spots are, help you understand and build the path that you want to be on and understand what your strengths are that you should be focusing on, you have to understand that about yourself before you can attract or bring in the right people around you. So for me, coaching was absolutely paramount and it continues to be. And I continue to learn how to delegate because I still have a tendency to want to get everything done by myself. But illness has taught me that I don't have the physical stamina to do everything. And nor should I because there are people around me that are much better at certain activities than I am. So for me to be trying to do those activities is actually robbing them of the opportunity to really thrive at something that they love. So it's taken me a good decade, I would say, to build a team of people that I look around me and I know that the people on my team would absolutely do anything for me. They want nothing more than for me to get my health back and they support me unconditionally through my treatments and they take amazing care of our clients. Honestly. My executive assistant, I like to call her my boss because her skill set is so vast and incredible and the complete opposite of mine. I wouldn't be able to get any of this, anything done without her, honestly. So understanding that we're not meant to do life alone, we're meant to do life in community, whatever that may be, whether it's at work or outside of work. For me, my. My business have become my family. It is a very demanding business. Real estate is to perform at a high level. We work very hard. But the most important thing that I've learned and I had to learn and continue to learn the hard way through not having the physical ability to do everything is understanding that we're not supposed to be able to do it all ourselves. And when we can find like minded individuals that have similar visions in terms of why they're doing business and what motivates them and really find the people, I like to call them, like your tribe, who are the people that have your back unconditionally. They care just as much as you do about the business or about your clients or whatever it may be as you do. And it's taken me years and years to find those people. But now that I have, it's truly the only reason that I'm able to continue forward with having a really successful business is because I have people around me that not only care about me and my health and making sure that I'm able to take care of myself if I'm not able to get out of bed one day. I know that these people have my back and that they're going to take just as good of care of our clients. They want to build relationships, they put heart into everything that they do. And I honestly don't know what I would do without my amazing team. But it's taken years and years of coaching and therapy and mentors to help me understand that I can't do it all by myself, and I need to. Delegation is actually giving someone the opportunity to be their best and to empower them. And I will continue to learn how to do it, but I believe in teamwork more than anything.

[Vince Chen]

You shared so much today about building a support system. Rewiring your mindset and finding ways to move forward is incredibly helpful. For those out there who might be in the middle of a live transition just like you were. They don't have a support system yet. They're still feeling stuck and they are struggling with that rewiring process. What would you say to them? What advice or encouragement would you offer to help them take that next step towards doing better? Especially after listening to this episode.

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[Athena Bronson]

Yeah, and that's what I would love. Nothing more is to be able to and give people hope in whatever challenge or adversity that you're going through. I would first say it's okay. It's okay to acknowledge when you're struggling. When you're going through hardship, there is somewhat of a toxic positivity that people can say, oh, just don't think about it like, you'll be fine. No, it's acknowledged that you're going through a significant challenge, but don't allow yourself to get stuck there. And oftentimes I believe that we have a thought, a vision that we have to make all of these changes at one time, that all of a sudden we're supposed to have a completely new mindset and we're supposed to be able to have the ability to rewire our brains and we're not supposed to hurt. And everything seems like it's supposed to all happen at once. But what I've learned is the key is to take baby steps every single day if we can focus. One of my favorite books, Atomic Habits, talks about if we focus on being 1% better every day, then imagine how much that will accumulate over a year. If you're looking to get healthier, start by walking five minutes outside and then try six, and then try 10, and then break everything into Smaller steps. If you're looking to create routines in your life, for example, a morning routine, Start with two things that you're going to consistently do every day and commit to them. And for me, I have to keep myself accountable by actually printing out my. My must dos and checking them off every day. Because if I don't keep, if I don't do that, I won't hold myself accountable to doing the. The things that I have to do to stay in a positive mindset or in a healthier place. So find one small items in your life activities that you can implement and that you can commit to implementing that are going to be small at first, but over time, those small changes that you hold yourself accountable to are going to add up to being completely life changing changes. And before you know it, the amount that, the amount of growth and change and development that you can create by having these small routines and being 1% better than you were the day before, these are going to add up to monumental changes in your life and a process promise that it's gonna, it's gonna help you get through whatever challenge it is because you have something positive to focus on. And when you have something positive to focus on, you can get through any challenge that life throws your way. And I truly believe that.

[Vince Chen]

One thing I add to that is when you are practicing this mindset shift and making those small changes or steps forward, make it visible. Grab an actual notebook, not on the computer, but a real paper notebook and pen or even a board you can put up on the wall. Write down each small win, check it off and create a visual reminder that says I did it. That simple action of writing, seeing those check marks and having a visual cue of your progress can really enforce that sense of accomplishment, I think is a powerful way to feel and see your growth over time.

[Athena Bronson]

I completely agree. I write everything down by hand in a notebook. I believe that if you see yourself writing gets into your brain and you're able to visualize it and internalize it in a completely different way. Thank you for adding that. Because I have a journal that I bring with me everywhere to write my positive affirmations and my goals, it makes a huge difference. And I really believe in the power of using just a pen and paper, which is something everyone can do. But these are tools that we have at our fingertips to hold ourselves accountable to being the best that we can be, no matter the situation that we're in.

[Vince Chen]

The power of pen and paper. There's something to it. Put your smartphone aside. Really engage with the old school pen and paper. Writing things down this way makes it feel more real, more lasting.

[Athena Bronson]

100%. You just gave me the biggest smile because I am a huge supporter of writing. It needs to be hand paper. Put your phone away and go. Just make it simple.

[Vince Chen]

Jodie Foster once said, all you need to make a movie is pen, paper and confidence. Despite her success as an actor, she didn't step into directing until later in her career, initially thinking she needed to master every technical detail. But as she shared in her masterclass, she realized that those three essentials, pen, paper and confidence were all she needed to start. It's such a powerful reminder how simplicity and self belief can be the true foundation for creating something meaningful and sustainable.

[Athena Bronson]

That is beautiful.

[Vince Chen]

Of course I know all the scripts were crafted by a copywriter, but it felt so authentic. I believe she was speaking directly from her heart and her experience.

[Athena Bronson]

So powerful.

[Vince Chen]

So I'll leave you with that and share it with my listeners too. Pen, paper, that's power in them. A journal as well by the way. And of course a bit of confidence. Thank you so much Athena. Thank you for your time and sharing.

[Athena Bronson]

Thank you. I appreciate your time and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and I hope this inspires anyone out there. Please feel free to contact me if you need support.

[Vince Chen]

Thank you so much for joining us today. If you like what you heard, don't forget, subscribe to our show. Leave us top rated reviews, check out our website and follow me on on social media, I'm this Chen, your ambitious human host. Until next time, take care.