Meet Bianca Paige Smith

We recently connected with Bianca Paige Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Bianca Paige, so happy to have you on the platform with us today and excited to chat about your lessons and insights. Our ability to make good decisions can massively impact our lives, careers and relationships and so it would be very helpful to hear about how you built your decision-making skills.

Cultivating self-awareness has allowed me to reflect on my life and gather evidence from my lived experiences, which then helps me make choices that feel truly aligned with who I am. Knowing how to coach myself through building a habit helps me to stick with the journey of the outcomes of my decisions long enough to see if it’s actually correct for me after living it out. And moving my body always helps me to tune into myself, which brings me into a place of making decisions from integrity, as opposed to from fear. Integrity, for me, is usually found within my body. Fear, for me, usually comes from my mind. It’s a tricky thing to discern, but self-awareness helps with that too.

Here are two guiding questions that help me make decisions:
– Will this choice improve the quality of my life or not?
– Will this decision be good for me now and valuable for me later?

These questions help me discern the right choice when I’m faced with a decision.

I also had to go through a journey of accepting that I may never be 100% sure about anything—and that’s okay. A big part of developing my decision-making skills has been accepting that every decision involves some level of risk, and learning to soften my grip on finding the “perfect” answer,

Tuning into what feels right in my body, I wait to feel what would move me toward greater well-being. I trust that feeling and take my time. I repeat the process as often as needed until I’m ready to make the choice.

What matters to me is that I have enough clarity to move forward, especially if the alternative is staying stuck in a situation that doesn’t improve my life or support my well-being.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I work with clients to manage stress and develop healthy habits that support them in experiencing the best possible quality of life, no matter the circumstances they’re facing. This often includes creating a movement practice based on what I call movement for stress relief or yoga, alongside meditation.

I’ve also created a membership where people can subscribe monthly or annually for access to all the resources I’ve compiled from working with people in a 1:1 setting over the last 6 years. This membership is a collection of everything that has proven effective, and it’s what I’m most focused on right now.

Everything I do with clients is built on foundational pillars, one of which is repetition. I’m not here to offer quick fixes. I’m not the teacher who is focused on teaching you how to stand on your head (though I could do that!). My goal is for you to be able to sit on the couch and stand back up by yourself when you’re 85. I believe in holding space for you to repeat something enough over time so that your nervous system gradually develops the capacity for whatever you want to learn, embody or experience.

I bring a broad background to the table—everything from studying neuroscience, working as a professional dancer and choreographer, producing arts events, teaching yoga and mindfulness meditation, to my time working in retail, bartending, waiting tables, and even watching babies. If I have a story, a question, or a skill from another realm that could benefit you, I’ll share it. I believe all experiences have a purpose, and I know how to discern what’s relevant in each situation.

I am a deep listener. I’m not afraid of silence, and I’m not afraid to go to places that others might avoid. I entered the field of stress management because I know what it’s like to feel hopeless, helpless, and overwhelmed by stress—feeling like it’s just how life has to be. I understand the weight of grief, depression, and questioning your purpose. So when people come to me feeling lost, I don’t shy away. I don’t pretend to solve every problem—I know what I can help with and what I can’t.

What I do offer is my unique ability to support people in feeling better, seeing their challenges differently, and, ultimately, feeling differently about their lives. They can then seek additional support for what I can’t address, while our work helps with specific challenges.

What excites me most right now is the launch of A Place to Be, which opened in February 2025. This membership is the culmination of everything I’ve put together into a self-paced, 90-day stress management program designed to transform your life. If you fully commit to the program over 90 days, I truly believe it can change the way you see stress and make you feel better equipped to navigate it.

The membership also includes twice-monthly live events, new workshops each month, and access to a Telegram community where you can ask questions, share reflections, and connect with others on the same journey.
In May, I’ll be opening up the first round of 2025 private coaching slots—only 10 spots available. This one-on-one coaching is a personalized, tailored stress management program, which includes access to the membership during your coaching program.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Self-awareness, habit building, and movement.

Self-awareness-

When you were born, you developed a certain perception of the world that gave you a certain prescription for how you will see the world. At different moments, your life will bear the fruits of that prescription. These moments reflect back to you how you see the world.

What if you don’t like what you see?

Years ago, I realized that my feelings weren’t the same all the time, even in the same situations. I had been “prescribed” to focus on the negative, thinking I could fix it by doing so. But instead, I was just amplifying and resisting it, which kept it in place and often made it worse. When I started noticing the positive, peaceful, exciting, and safe (to name a few) experiences that were also present, that’s when things really started to change for me.

We live in a world of endless information and countless possibilities for self-improvement. There are many people with strong convictions about what works, based on their own experiences.

But how do you know what’s truly right for you? The key is self-awareness—the ability to witness and reflect on your own experience. This reflection lets you make informed choices based on the evidence of your own life. Self-awareness helps to clear the fog from your mind and sight.

Habit Building-

As you live out your “prescription” (shaped by your perceptions), you develop certain behaviors, which eventually become habitual. These habits are formed without us even realizing it.

We all have habits, but most of the time, we don’t understand how we developed them. When we realize there are habits we don’t like, we often don’t know how to change them.

We tend to think that if we really want to develop a positive, healthy habit, it will just happen if we desire it enough. But that desire is just the fuel. It’s like putting fuel in a car—you still need to turn the car on and drive it to actually get anywhere.

Building a habit requires a process, and this process is a meta-skill—one that allows you to coach yourself through the journey from Point A (where you start) to Point Z (the desired end goal). At Z, the habit feels natural and consistent, with little to disturb your ability to continue..

Once you make a choice, give yourself time to experiment and coach yourself through building the habit. This will provide valuable evidence—from your own life—about whether the choice truly supports you.

Movement-

In 2018, I was broke, heartbroken, and overwhelmed. Living in New Jersey with only $100 a week to my name, I felt trapped and lost. After four incredible years in Ireland, I found myself back home with no other visa options and nothing left to hold me there. I spent five miserable months feeling completely overwhelmed by everything I’d lost.

One night, after agonizing over a big decision about whether to return to Ireland for an audition, I reached my breaking point. I slept for 14 hours, and when I woke up the next day feeling utterly hopeless, I decided to go outside and walk.

I walked for three hours that morning, then made myself a grilled cheese and some homemade carrot soup. The next day, I walked again. And the day after that. Eventually, things started to shift.

Walking didn’t solve my problems, but I truly believe it helped me walk my way through them. I now recommend movement to every client, because even if you don’t know how to solve your problems, movement—especially walking—can change your state and shift how you perceive challenges.

—
It’s easy to waste time, money, energy, and attention on things that don’t help or even make things worse. There’s no shame in that, but these are the most impactful skills I’ve learned that have saved me from this cycle.

I spend my days working to pass them on to help you save time and energy. That’s why I love when people join the membership—it allows them to benefit from my years of experimentation and bypass that process. I want you to discover what truly supports a high quality of life, no matter what’s going on around you.

Honorary mentions to the skills of patience, reflection, and discernment. I have found that they are required to succeed with the skills I’ve outlined. And possibly life in general…

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

The first thing I want to tell you about being overwhelmed is that it’s okay. It’s okay to feel overwhelmed, and everything that comes with it is okay too—fear of the unknown, stress, uncertainty, worrying about what others will think, feeling physically unwell, not eating or sleeping well, crying, or even repressing it. What if all of that is okay?

Here’s a big lesson I’ve learned (and am still learning): I used to fear that if I accepted something as it is, I’d be stuck with it forever. Have you ever felt that way? Like, if I accept that I’m overwhelmed, I’ll never get out of it. So, I resisted it, fought it, and tried to push through it. What I’ve learned, both from my own experience and from working with hundreds of clients over nearly six years, is that allowing something to be present is often the first and a necessary step toward transformation.

So, how can you allow yourself to feel overwhelmed? I call this “stress about your stress.” When you resist the overwhelm, pretend it’s not there, avoid it, or react to it by reaching for something like chips or cake, how is that impacting your well-being? I am *not* villainizing chips or cake, either. I have no problems with it! In fact, I love both.

Self-awareness is key here—why are you reaching for that food? If it’s to avoid the overwhelming feeling, that’s something important to notice. Allowing yourself to be with the overwhelm, saying “I’m so overwhelmed right now,” can be a game-changer for many people.

Then, on a practical level, I would ask yourself:

– What do I need right now?
– Do I need to do something? Do I need to learn something? Do I need to rest?

This may take some time to discern, but it’s worth asking. It simplifies your next step.

Here are some recommendations for each:

Do something
– Go for a walk
– Move your body through some yoga, dance, or other exercise
– Make something or create something (cooking, baking, drawing, crafting)
– Write, journal, or create a to-do list

Learn something
– Purchase a webinar, watch a YouTube video, listen to a podcast
– Learn a new skill like playing an instrument or a new language
– Do some research about what you are overwhelmed about
– Call up a friend and tell them what you are experiencing or brainstorm with them

Rest
– Take a shower or a bath
– Sit down with some music and a hot drink
– Grab a coloring book and color
– Meditate, sit in silence, or pray

Contact Info:

• Website: https://biancapaigesmith.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/biancapaigesmith/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@biancapaigesmith

Image Credits

Photos 1, 2, 5, 6 – Three Region Photography

Photo 3 – Kathryn Butler

Photo 4 – FullOut Creative