We had the good fortune of connecting with Paige Frisone Subconscious Health Practitioner, International and Award-Winning Speaker, Professional Writer & Published Author and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Paige Frisone, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
If you had asked me this question even two months ago, I would’ve told you it was all work all the time. Balance was merely a fleeting thought, a romantic theory, and an unattainable goal. This didn’t mean that I worked 24-7, but I may as well have.

Truthfully, work was my priority. It colored most conversations, thoughts, and my own identity. I’ve always had a strong work ethic, so I didn’t realize that my relationship with work had actually become a maladaptive coping mechanism. I didn’t realize that my keeping busy was taking me away from my present life experiences, my emotions, my Self. I didn’t realize that I was actually acting out old wounds; thinking work could earn me a sense of worth and value in the world.

And even when I did realize these things, it wasn’t enough to stop the behavior. That’s the scary part. I had unconsciously subscribed to the exact societal norm I strongly repel: hustle culture.

As someone who guides people dealing with depression, anxiety, trauma, and addiction, this wasn’t a great look for me or my brand. Offering subconscious emotional processing is all about working through the default programs in your life that you’re not consciously choosing. Just like this one.

Working in this field essentially requires that I walk my talk. That said, the ways we get knocked back into survival modes are sneaky and sly, sometimes. There’s a phrase that I live by that states, “Don’t push the river.” Turns out, that’s exactly what I was doing.

For me, this was an urgent call to go deeper into it. I started to learn how the addiction to work was another masked iteration of dis-orders I’ve struggled with in the past. That awareness is what fueled my desire to kick it.

So I’ve been working hard at balance. And I think that’s entirely okay to have to work at it. There’s significant conditioning behind the stories and messages we’ve been told (and now tell ourselves) about how to show up in this world.

Truthfully, I value ease and simplicity. I don’t believe business, life, or work has to be hard or painful. I owe it to myself to prove it. So I had to do some intense behavioral intervention and deal with the emotions I’d been suppressing. I got more clear about the role work was playing for me. I learned a lot. I reconnected to me. I found alignment once again.

I now treat balance like a dance. Some days, I still have the tendency to push myself beyond my limits, but I’ll self-correct more quickly. I’ve adjusted my schedule to only be available on certain days at certain times (as opposed to any day, at any time). I’ve called in extra support to help me continue addressing the deeper wounds.

And, it’s perfectly on brand to be a work in progress if being human is the brand. And it is. I know what I need to be well, and I know that I cannot be my best when I’m running on fumes. That’s an example to no one. My priorities have shifted. I give myself time and space. Breathing room.

Luckily, I’ve always seen business as an animate object. As within, so without. Where I move, it moves, and vice versa. My business and I are one in a lot of ways. It’s a reflection of me and I treat it as such. I built a business for time freedom. Not to have ten jobs at once. So I’ve been working to undo that and I’m honestly enjoying the unfolding.

I lean more into myself now. I trust life to support me. I revert to my “why” as my guide. Balance is how well I fulfill my basics. It’s my water intake, relationship with food, rest, sleep, mindset, and movement. I strive to achieve harmony amongst all of these parts for optimal personal and professional wellness. We’re getting there. It’s a (worthwhile) journey.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I graduated from school with an English Literature / Creative Writing degree and a dual Contemplative Psychology focus. Despite the fact that writing was my first love in life, I warred with it from an early age. I genuinely felt as though the calling was more of a nag. I tried to pursue other things and it always followed. That magnetism ate me from the inside out at times. It kept me stuck in the mind’s darkness—in thoughts, hyper fixations, and analysis paralysis. It felt beyond my control. Compulsory. Obsessive.

I think there’s an element to art that innately involves these tones. At least, the creative and academic environments I experienced nearly encouraged them. Today, I’m not sure that it has to be this way. But it was for me for quite some time.

Fast-forward to graduation. Although I received my degree in writing and always dreamt of having books in the world, I didn’t feel equipped to be in the professional writing world off the bat. So, I reverted to what I did best back then: self-study. I worked my way into the professional writing scene after endless applications, unknowns, and shots in the dark.

I slowly but surely became an established SEO freelance writer for some well-known companies, but felt far away from my passion: healing through words. I morphed and changed my craft to match the algorithms and digital standards of content creation. I blogged, cross-linked, and adjusted my style to meet the asks of the day. I prided myself on being chameleonic, but there’s a shadow side, too.

To this day, I can write about anything under the sun, but I don’t always want to have to. It remains my dream to write the truth. To help people know we’re here to heal. To transform hearts by sharing stories.

While I have a lengthy portfolio of experience and some poems in the world by now, this recent co-authored book is my greatest win yet. I pushed myself emotionally to go to the places I had formerly tucked away. It was the ultimate form of self-reclamation. Liberation. And a collective healing at once.

Plus, writing in this community wasn’t just cathartic and empowering, but I got a closer look at the behind-the-scenes editing, publishing, and marketing processes. Win-win-win.

In my chapter, I discuss how silence was my first language. I learned to interpret between the lines what was known but never said. I grew strong in my intuition as a kid as a result of not having a communicative household. I learned how to translate energies and feelings that swam below the surface. This is also what fuels my work in the subconscious realm—tending to the 95% of the invisible brain—that which lives under conscious awareness.

Growing into my professional career, I learned that I can bridge my passion for writing with healing. I do feel there are things in life that seem inarticulable in healing. But as a writer, I love working to find the words to go there. In a sense, the writer in me keeps me accountable. It brings me to a more direct experience with life. It helps me bridge the invisible and visible words—the conscious and subconscious.

I love writing. I love healing. And I love bridging them together. How these journeys intersect is informed by my childhood and I discuss that in the Women Thrive Book Vol. II. As it pertains to the subconscious work offer, I find that understanding the brain is complex. Understanding where emotions, thoughts, and nervous system dysregulation come from is intricate. So writing helps. It serves as a mind map to bring what’s inside, out.

I take writing seriously, in that, it has been my lifeline as far back as I can remember. My journals and diaries are some of my most prized possessions to this day. It’s sacred what ends up on paper. The stylistic choices we make. The mystical relationship between the writer and reader.

In both writing and healing, I feel there’s a way to be intentional, careful, and strategic. I’ve always viewed these crafts like a game. There are only so many words to use to convey the exact emotion or circumstance; which work best? Which land the most?

For me, writing is somatic. It’s intuitive. But it wasn’t always that way. I had to heal through chronic dis-order and dis-ease and my writing evolved immensely through that.

I wrote my thesis in school about embodied versus disembodied writing. What it means to write from a cognitive, conscious, top-down place, or a somatic, embodied, bottom-up place. There are infinite ways to explore speaking your truth and expressing yourself.

I’m continually learning about this in my life. I’ve learned that my writing changes as I change. Our art, our offerings shift based on our life’s experiences and stages of integration.

I’ve always joked that I thought in poetry from the jump. My poetry style is structurally fragmented and experimental in nature. I write poetry based on how I visually see things in my mind. I feel what happens on paper and through spoken word are different experiences. In my opinion, a great poem is one with the ability to provide two different experiences: one on the page and one in one’s heart.

I’ve learned to learn your audience. People can be quite influenced by art, by hearts, by words, by truth. I’ve learned to own the intent behind the work as well as the impact. Sometimes, there are bumps. Big ones. But I trust it’s all part of a greater, divine unfolding.

I’m here to respect and honor my methods of being. My loves. The things that have kept me alive. If others can benefit, all the better. It’s an honor and a responsibility; one I don’t take lightly. One that humbles me every day.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
For art: Historic Santa Fe Art District in Denver. For nature: The Paint Mines. Also Breckenridge, Steamboat Springs, and Manitou Springs. For more local nature spots, Golden and Boulder to hike.
For food: Sherpa House in Golden, Sherpa’s Adventure in Boulder, Mizu Izakaya in Denver, and Acova in Denver.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The monumental leaps and bounds I’ve taken in my career over the last year cannot go without recognition. I’m forever grateful to Raimonda Jan of Women Thrive Media and her Women Thrive team for their unwavering personal and professional mentorship, support, cheerleading, championing, and BIG love.

As a result of my work with this community, I received the Impact Speaker award on the largest global virtual stage for women empowerment speakers this past March. At the beginning of November, I became a published author in the Women Thrive Book Vol. II entitled, “Inspiring True Stories of Women Overcoming Adversity,” where I co-wrote transformational narratives with seven other outstanding women from around the world. The work is currently trending as the #1 hottest new release and we’re on our way to best-seller status (I can feel it!).

Before connecting with the Women Thrive platform, I was emotionally and energetically stuck in my business. As a solopreneur, I didn’t know the life-altering impact of having a stable community. Of having other dream-chasers walking alongside you and cheering you on each step of the way. I was stubborn and insistent on doing it alone. I couldn’t justify why if you asked.

The relationships I’ve created over the last year have given me a sisterhood and forever family that truly is beyond words. I do feel that so long as I have these women in my corner, everything will be okay.

I’ve learned I can do hard things. Even when they’re really hard. That life IS what happens at the edge of your comfort zone. That the only way through fear is going straight at it. That freedom awaits. That you can have it all. That it can be easier.

I’ve grown as a speaker, writer, practitioner, woman, and soul. I have experienced a lifetime of lessons in just one year. And I know that these accomplishments are just the beginning. There are no limits to the infinite potential within.

My encouragement? Find your dream team, say yes to you, and absolutely go for that thing you think you can’t or shouldn’t do. You may just surprise (and impress) the heck out of yourself.

I’m celebrating my recent authorship with an in-person event and keynote talk in Spain this month. Seriously. What a ride it has been and will continue to be.

Website: https://innerrealmwellness.life/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/innerrealmwellness/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paige-frisone-5072551a2/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/innerrealmwellness

Other: Link to book! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CM2H9HG6/

Image Credits
“My book comes out Nov 2nd” photo cred: Jennifer Williamson The rest were mine 🙂

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