Serenity Rising: Healing with Cancer

Zulma Williams was six weeks out from graduating with her Bachelor of Social Work - finally stepping into the career she had always dreamed of when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was 46.  What happened next was not the story most people would expect. Instead of folding, Zulma changed the question. From 'why me?' to 'why not me?' From victim to CEO of her own ecosystem. She went on to co...

What if the fear and grief you've been carrying is stored in your body right now and learning to feel it, rather than push it away, is one of the most powerful things you can do for your healing? In this episode, Bron sits down with Ben Oofana, a meditation teacher and practitioner withover 35 years of experience working with people navigating serious illness, including cancer. Trained as a teenag...

Charmain Woods was told at the age of eight that she would be drowned in a bath. She washomeless by fifteen. By twenty she was a police officer. Over the next 24 years she would specialise in child abuse, sexual assault, and criminal analysis, rise to sergeant, become aqualified criminal profiler and then retrain as a lawyer, recently admitted to the New South Wales courts. And four years ago, in...

Sally Milliss has lived two of the hardest seasons a person can face and she has faced them in opposite seats. As a young woman she nursed her husband Steve through eight years of motor neurone disease, raising their son James, then just a toddler, while the life they had planned was quietly dismantled. Years later, cancer came for her. And she handled it in a way that surprised even herself. In t...

There is a kind of stress that does not announce itself. It just hums beneath the surface of an otherwise good life, slowly draining the energy you were saving for the things that matter most. In this episode of Serenity Rising, Bron explores the two layers of healing that  have to work together if either one of them is going to last. The inner work of living with intention, and the outer work of...

What if the question "who am I now?" wasn't a sign that something had gone wrong, but the doorway to the most important work of your life? In this guest episode of Serenity Rising, Bron sits down with her long-time friend and colleague, Dr Nat Green , transformational breakthrough coach, retired psychologist, and creator of the ABS Method and Archetypes of Transformation frameworks. With over 35 y...

Three small words that carry the weight of the world when you are living with cancer. How are you? It sounds like the most ordinary question in the world, and before a diagnosis, it was. Somewhere along the way, those three words became loaded, and answering them honestly became one of the hardest parts of moving through your day. In this solo episode of Serenity Rising , Bron unpacks what is real...

What happens when a medical scientist becomes the patient? And what does "N = one" really mean when the one is you? Kate's story spans forensic pathology, integrative oncology, and a breast cancer diagnosis received alone, mid-pandemic, in locked-down Melbourne. This episode weaves science and soul into a conversation that will stay with you.   SHOW NOTES In this guest interview episode of Serenit...

Am I going to die? Did I cause this? And who am I now? In this deeply personal episode of Serenity Rising , Bron sits with the three questions that arrive after a cancer diagnosis and rarely get the time and space they deserve. Drawing on lived experience, psychological research, and hard-won wisdom, Bron explores how to stop carrying these questions alone, and how to learn to live alongside them...

In this solo foundational episode of  Serenity Rising , Bron Watson takes listeners back to the very beginning...to the diagnosis that gave birth to The Serenity Project, and to the principles that have shaped it ever since. On the 23rd of February 2023, Bron heard the words again: yes, it's cancer. But this time was different. This time, the diagnosis was an incurable blood cancer. And somewhere...

In a special twist on the Serenity Now cards series , Bron pulls two cards this week vulnerability and expectation. Most people navigating cancer or chronic illness are deeply vulnerable on the inside but rarely say what's really going on. This episode explores why expectation is the thing that stops people speaking their truth, what staying silent costs the body, and what neuroscience says happen...

In 2004, Barbara Smith was told she wouldn't make it to 50. Today, she's here to share her story and it's filled with grace, grit, and the healing power of choice.   SHOW NOTES In this moving episode of Serenity Rising, Bron Watson welcomes Barb Smith, who shares her extraordinary 20-year journey through stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Barb's story begins with a confronting diagnosis in 2004 and u...

  What happens when you walk into a café and only tell the barista what you DON'T want? You get exactly that. And what if your brain works the same way?   In this episode of Serenity Rising , Bron explores the Black Coffee Theory, a viral social media metaphor that reveals something profound about how our brains process what we focus on.    Using research, Bron unpacks why your brain can't tell th...

What do you do when "You've got this!" makes you feel more alone? When fear keeps you awake at 3 am? When rest feels like failure? SHOW NOTES In this Q&A episode of Serenity Rising, Bron responds to three powerful questions from real people navigating cancer — the kind of questions that get asked in support groups at 2 am but rarely answered with the depth they deserve. This episode tackles what h...

In business coaching, fear is often framed as a sign you're on the right path—that growth and clarity are coming. But with cancer, fear doesn't work that way. That vortex of fear doesn't go away. It's always there.   In this episode of Serenity Rising, Bron Watson introduces the Serenity Now cards—a deck of 52 emotion cards designed to help you name what you're feeling and find a path through. Tod...

In this fireside-style episode of  Serenity Rising , Bron reflects on a deceptively simple question: what does it really mean to win at the game of life?   Using the metaphor of a card game — specifically UNO — Bron explores what happens when life deals you cards you didn't want, didn't choose, and can't put back in the deck. Cancer, diagnosis, caregiving, loss — the card that changes everything....

Healing Together: A Listener Q&A  is a fireside-style episode of  Serenity Rising , created in direct response to the questions and reflections shared by the community.   Bron answers three deeply human questions that often go unspoken during cancer and survivorship.   The first explores loneliness — particularly the pain of feeling unseen or misunderstood when people say things like "you look gre...

What does it mean to walk alongside someone you love through a cancer diagnosis? And where do caregivers find their own peace when the floor keeps dropping away?   In this deeply personal episode of Serenity Rising , Bron is joined by her husband Paul Watson for a raw, honest conversation about caregiving, resilience, and finding serenity in the midst of chaos. After eight years and multiple diagn...

Do you remember the exact moment your life split into "before" and "after"? On 23 February 2023, former nurse educator and mother of five, Bron Watson, received a second cancer diagnosis. The first was breast cancer. This time, it was incurable, but treatable. In this opening episode of Serenity Uprising, Bron tells the unvarnished story of what happened between that phone call, the specialist's r...

What if the boldest move you can make in cancer care isn't acting fast — but slowing everything right down? In this episode of Serenity Rising, Bron speaks with rehabilitation counsellor, business owner, and cancer survivor Jo Muirhead about the quiet but powerful skill of pausing in moments when the medical system moves faster than the human heart can follow. Jo was diagnosed with bilateral breas...

In this solo episode of  Serenity Rising , Bron explores a place many people living with illness know intimately, yet rarely name: the space before the answer . It's the moment before results arrive. Before the appointment. Before the conversation. Before you know what comes next. This episode is anchored in one of the Serenity Now cards and invites you into that in-between space where tension oft...

You're exhausted. Not just in your bones, but in your soul. And you're tired of being told how to think, feel, or heal. Maybe you've sat in the doctor's office holding your breath. Maybe you're doing everything right and still feeling completely out of control. You're not broken. You're human. And I'm so glad you're here. Welcome to Serenity Rising Healing with Cancer, and I'm Bron Watson. This po...