Living in the Unknown: Trauma, Identity & Finding Serenity in Life’s Hardest Moments

There are moments in life that change everything.

Not gradually. Not gently. But in an instant.

This week on Growing Tall Poppies, I’m joined by someone incredibly special to me — my dear friend Bron Watson — and this is a conversation that will stay with you.

Bron is a nurse educator, entrepreneur, mother of five boys… and someone who has faced not one, but two life-altering cancer diagnoses.

But this conversation isn’t just about cancer.

It’s about identity, uncertainty.
It’s about what happens when life forces you to stop… and ask:

“Who am I now?”

🌿 Bron’s Story

Bron shares being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017 while running an intensive business program — a moment that forced her to confront just how much she had been sacrificing her own health to keep everything going.

She made the difficult decision to shut down that part of her business… with no plan B. Then in January 2023, after years of unexplained low neutrophils, Bron was diagnosed with incurable multiple myeloma.

What followed was chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant, and stepping into what she describes as both a “marathon”… and a “pool of uncertainty.”

And yet, through all of this, Bron has found a way to live — not just survive.

🌿 In this episode, we explore:

• What it really feels like to have your life turned upside down overnight 
• The moment Bron realised her way of living was no longer sustainable 
• The identity crisis that follows trauma and major life disruption 
• Why “doing all the work” doesn’t always mean you’re truly living in alignment 
• The nervous system impact of chronic overgiving, overdoing, and being “the strong one” 
• The concept of “the pool of uncertainty” — and how we learn to stay afloat 
• How grief and gratitude can exist side by side 
• The power of “A = A” — and why we need to stop catastrophising the future 
• What it actually means to live in the moment (beyond the cliché) 
• And Bron’s deeply grounding reminder:
   “Be where your feet are.” 
• What Serentiy really means and how to LIVE IT 

🌱 Connect with Bron Watson

🌐 Website: https://serenityproject.com.au
🎙️ Podcast: Serenity Rising
📱 Instagram

 Facebook 

 LinkedIn: 

Bron's Husband Paul joined us on Season 2, Episode 54 and shared more around Bron's journey from a Carer's perspective. Listen here 

If this episode resonates with you then I'd love for you to hit SUBSCRIBE so you can keep updated with each new episode as soon as it's released and we'd be most grateful if you would give us a RATING as well. You can also find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/drnatgreen/ or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DrNatalieGreen

Intro and Outro music: Inspired Ambient by Playsound.

Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be deemed or treated as psychological treatment or to replace the need for psychological treatment.

Transcript

Dr Nat Green 0:04

Welcome to Growing Tall Poppies, thrive After Trauma. I'm your host, Dr. Nat Green, and I am so excited to have you join me as we discuss what it means to navigate your way through trauma. Or significant challenges and not just survive, but to thrive after it. This is a space for people who've been through trauma or adversity, have done some healing, and know they're meant for more than just coping. This podcast is about post-traumatic growth, not getting back to who you used to be. Rather, understanding who you are now and learning how to stand tall without shrinking, forcing, or abandoning yourself. Here we explore identity after adversity, integrity and visibility wounds, nervous system wisdom. And what it really takes to move forward. In a way that feels aligned, embodied, and true, you'll hear a blend of deep solo conversations and powerful guest interviews with people who have lived this work, not just studied it, because growth doesn't come from pushing harder. It comes from understanding how you adapted. Honoring your nervous system and gently updating the old agreements that no longer fit the life you are ready to live. If you're ready to stop hiding, stop performing, and start owning who you are becoming, then you are in the right place. Let's grow tall together. I'm super excited today to bring you our next guest on the Growing Tall Poppies podcast. It's my absolute pleasure and privilege to welcome a very dear friend of mine who I've known for a few years now, like just a few decades, and honestly, I'm so excited to have her on here and for you to meet her as well. She does have a considerable trauma and adversity history, and through those, she has found her calling and is a wonderful example of a tall poppy. Constantly shining her light brightly despite her adversity. So let me introduce my beautiful dearest friend, Bron Watson, to you all. Bron Watson is a nurse educator, entrepreneur, and was founder of the Social Coach, which is recently retired and her latest, most amazing project, the serenity Project. With decades of experience as a registered nurse and educator, Bron has long been drawn to spaces where care, communication, and connection matter. In 2012, she founded her first business empowering business owners to share their voice online with authenticity and purpose. And over the past decade, her work has supported absolutely thousands of people to show up in life and business within intention and impact. And I'll get her to talk more as we go through today around the Serenity Project. So let me start by welcoming you, Bron.

Bron Watson 3:41

Oh, look. Thank you for having me, my beautiful friend. Uh, finally we are here.

Dr Nat Green 3:46

It's been a little while in the making.

Bron Watson 3:48

It's been a while, but here we are.

Dr Nat Green 3:51

All right. So let's start with, you've given us a brief introduction of who you are and what you are doing in your world now.

Bron Watson 4:03

Wow. Okay. So as you've all just heard, I've come from, I've actually had a dual career in both nursing and in marketing. So there are different times over the past. Three decades that I have worked in those spaces, and obviously in the last 14 years I've run my own business and each one of those seems to have had these learnings to get to me where I am. So in 2017, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. And full fledged mastermind program. In terms of my business, we were mentors and you know all the things, right? Workshops, retreats, the Mastermind, we're doing all of the things, and then suddenly you get hit with a diagnosis of breast cancer with no plan B. So we went through all of that and I thought I'd done all the work. Nat, I thought I'd done a lot because I remember. It was probably not even a month after the diagnosis of breast cancer. We've had the mastectomy. We are now starting chemotherapy. Someone said to me, if nothing changes, Bron, you know it's gonna come back, don't you? What are the many, many traumatic things that people feel they need to say to you when you're having these crises? Mm, so I was terrified that my life as I lived it, remembering I'm a mother of five boys who've got beautiful, Paul my husband and gave my heart and my soul to my family, to my community, to my business at the cost of my own health. That was the biggest learning going through there. So. Needless to say, I shut down that mastermind overnight after my second diagnosis of cancer. Now, the reason why that happened was because, uh, four hours after getting outta hospital out of a cancer institute following chemotherapy, chemotherapy for breast cancer is brutal. Mm. And it really is. And here I am on a Facebook Live delivering what I say. I am going to deliver.

Dr Nat Green 6:08

Mm.

Bron Watson 6:08

To my people. And I caught a glimpse of myself, right? And I'm thinking, oh, who's that in shock It's me. I'm bald, I'm bright round red faced, and I'm on a Facebook Live to my community. And I thought, and I, and I remember distinctly catching my eye and looking at myself and pointing, going, do you wanna die? You keep this up girl and you are gonna die. And that epiphany was so great. I didn't know what that epiphany meant at the time, other than I literally shut down that entire part of the business with no plan. B five children, husband, the whole thing that goes with life,

Dr Nat Green 6:56

God.

Bron Watson 6:56

And going, now what am I gonna do? And I morphed. Into running Facebook workshops of all things locally. Never wanted to work locally, as you well know.

Dr Nat Green 7:05

Yep.

Bron Watson 7:05

And I morphed because I had to work. So we are learning, we're we are, we are working on myself.'cause I finally, you know, had the sledge hammer out to go, Hey Bron, time to wake up And remembering it's, it's an identity crisis at the same time, let's be honest. Mm-hmm. Yep. Who the hell am I now? And then we hit to February, 2023, and I hear the words again, Bron. You have cancer, you have multiple myeloma, which is a blood cancer, and no, it's not curable. Oh, what does that mean? Mm. Well, Bron, you know, we've got X amount of years left on this planet, 54 years, age five children, and I went. What, how is this possible? And all I prayed for at the time, all I wondered was, please, please give me time. Please gimme time to process.'cause I never had time with a breast cancer diagnosis. Thursday mastectomy following Wednesday. What happens again, Bron, we're starting chemotherapy. Next week you're gonna be needing a, a bone marrow transplant. You'll be in hospital for a month in Sydney because it's very, very dangerous. What, how could this possibly be? So thank you universe. Thank you. Whoever you wanna believe Smack. Here we go again. Now what? And that's the story, right? And that's where Serenity Projects. So finding My Serenity. So I, the Serenity Project, I am the beta testing and you know, back, we've been friends for a very long time. I've been wanting to write a book for a very long time. I thought I'd be writing a book for women in business. Mm-hmm. I actually wrote my first chapter in 2016 in the uk.

Dr Nat Green 8:46

You did, didn't you?

Bron Watson 8:47

I did. Right. And I found it two years ago, and it was as if I was writing to myself now yet I'd written it, I don't know how long ago. Very terrible with maths. So where that's come about now is when when you're in that space of. Absolute trauma and absolute crisis. Yeah, that's one. A. Not the time to make big decisions other than your life preserving. Insert your ways of treatment. And for me, I embrace these. I don't wanna call them lessons because that's just bullshit. They're not lessons. To me, it's these challenges in life, the adversity as it comes. Mm-hmm. And go, well, how do I wanna live? How do I, how do I live through this without. Just, you know, growing vegetables and making sourdough like, I'm not fulfilled. So, you know, because it's, you know, stop. No, no, that's not who I am. Mm. So that's where we get to having this conversation because you know, when you are standing at a time when you have such something so great in front of you. You have not even a split second to decide if you are gonna go, man, if I'm going out, I'm going out with Well, I'm going out my way.

Dr Nat Green 10:20

Yeah.

Bron Watson 10:20

Versus, oh, well. Okay. Well, well, if that's it, we are done. No, we are not done. And that's where Serenity Project comes, which is God grant me serenity to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. And I always talk about, you know, God, universe, source, and then a Dennis right? Dennis. Mate, Dennis, you and Dennis give me serenity here. And so to me, serenity in that space is the courage.

Dr Nat Green 10:52

Yeah,

Bron Watson 10:53

the courage to make a decision. When you don't know what the answer is, you don't know what's coming next. You don't know what un uncertainty. I live it every single day. When you're in that space, uncertainty can either push you down.

Dr Nat Green 11:07

Mm-hmm.

Bron Watson 11:08

Or we embrace it. So that's where I talk about grief and gratitude in this literally butting up next to each other. How is it even possible? Yeah. So here we are. That's how we get to here we are.

Dr Nat Green 11:19

Goodness.

Bron Watson 11:20

Sorry for my long-winded answer.

Dr Nat Green 11:21

Oh no. It, it was amazing. And I think let's, you know, that was a, a very big. As you said answer, but there's so many layers in there that I'd really love for us to break down because as you said, and she did say it in passing, oh yeah. I'm the mother of five. She is the mother of five. Amazing boys. So all boys, yes, you did hear right. Bron has five beautiful boys. So Bron was already extremely busy. Doing all the things, being the most amazing mom and wife to her beautiful husband, Paul. So really busy, and then had her business, all the things. And then as she's very clearly and beautifully shared, she did get a breast cancer diagnosis and. Life took a profound shift. So that was 2017, wasn't it?

Bron Watson 12:24

Mm-hmm.

Dr Nat Green 12:24

The first diagnosis. And then, you know, I, I did, I was privileged enough to walk alongside Bron and see that terrible. You know, experience and her, at her lowest of lows with the treatment and then allergic reactions to the chemotherapy and, and it was a terrible, terrible time to then get herself back on track.

Bron Watson 12:51

Mm-hmm.

Dr Nat Green 12:52

And really get to a place where you were thriving again, weren't you?

Bron Watson 12:57

Oh, look,

Dr Nat Green 12:57

it was going well.

Bron Watson 12:58

Yeah. The social coach was the best it ever been. Literally the January of when that diagnoses. Came the second one. The second one. Um, yeah, it was, yeah, we were going great.

Dr Nat Green 13:11

Yeah. So again,

Bron Watson 13:12

you know, and, and I was going great too, right? Let's just clarify exactly. I was going great too.

Dr Nat Green 13:17

You were, you were healthy. I thought I was. You were. Well, yeah,

Bron Watson 13:20

I felt well.

Dr Nat Green 13:21

You had no indicators of there being anything else wrong.

Bron Watson 13:27

No, and you know what's interesting? It was just that my GP I'd had low neutrophils. So if everyone knows anything about bloods, neutrophils, a part of your white cell count. Neutrophils are the things that fight infection. And I just had low neutrophils for five years and I just put it down to the chemotherapy being nuked with the breast cancer. Mm-hmm. And my GP said, you know Bron, I think we should just get a hematologist to check that. So we go, we go to the hematologist, he does all the bloods. I go back to see him, he tells me, ah, great. Don't need to see your Bron. You are perfectly fine. Awesome. Cool. To four days later to ring me. And go, you know, those two blood results that went back that I had no concern about. Well, they're really bad. What does that mean? He knew I didn't, this was the 14th of January, 2023. Yeah, and I was in the middle of onboarding a team member at the time, literally onboarding. So I had to get off the phone of hearing that and go back and keep the onboarding going. And I did. I did it. It was almost like this set, this fragmented, let's use that word again, that fragmentation between forward facing Bron, and then the Bron here. And, um, it was very, it was so surreal to, and then of course you start to Google, oh,

Dr Nat Green 14:54

yes,

Bron Watson 14:54

don't do that. Never

Dr Nat Green 14:55

Google,

Bron Watson 14:56

don't Google it because terminal blah, blah, blah. And I'm going, what, what is going on here? And, you know, trauma, major, major, major trauma. Again, again.

Dr Nat Green 15:07

Mm. And again, not, you know, not even related.

Bron Watson 15:12

Related

Dr Nat Green 15:12

to the original diagnosis? No. So here we are, another cancer, but this time an incurable, as you said, incurable, incurable blood cancer. So it's that whole, oh my God, another one.

Bron Watson 15:27

Yeah. What's

Dr Nat Green 15:28

my treatment? What's this? How do I manage all the things? Because by then you had even more to deal with'cause you had the business, still the boys, and. Uh, then faced with a very different treatment path, wasn't it? So can we, can we talk a little about that? Because I know Yeah. It wasn't just going and having some chemo. It was you have to pack up your life and move down to Sydney.

Bron Watson 15:57

Yeah, it was, you know, and I think that's where. Because of my past as a nurse educator, remembering I know exactly what's going on and no, I'm not a hematology nurse. I didn't understand the blood side of it, but as a patient, I did. And to have to deal with. I knew because I was so familiar with the cancer process and the, the hamster wheel of when you get into it, that that's where I was looking at, you know, oh, you've chosen that treatment, have you? Mm. Because there's obviously, there's this big divide between alternative. And Western medicine. And that is where I'm going. Hang on a minute. It's just treatment. Why do I have to decide? I shouldn't have to be put in a position? I'm already in a position of crisis. Mm. And now you're telling me I have to decide. And so the, my doctor said to me at the time, Bron ready? This is a marathon. And I actually had an appointment with my specialist yesterday and I said, do you remember when you said to me, he said, we are now three months, sorry, three years. Three years post-diagnosis, and one month from that diagnosis. I said, do you remember when you told me it was a marathon? And I said, I'm tired of running. No answer. And I said.'cause cancer markers, Bron, you know,'cause what they do, because science tells you it's this and that's what they believe.'cause that's what western medicine, it has its place. Mm-hmm. It's the silo. And I asked him some silo questions and I shouldn't have, because the answer I got was, you know, Bron, well, you know, one day we're just, you're just gonna come for an appointment and there's gonna be a shock. We're gonna be going back into to active treatment again. Oh, well thanks. Is that your answer to my marathon question? And that is why I became the Serenity Project. I'm the project. What could I do that was within my control, within this massive beast? Of what we call cancer treatment and you know, it's, there's so much you can't control and you can choose, right? Go choose. It doesn't matter how, what you choose, as long as you choose the right path that is right for you. I know people, I spoke to a lady who's not choosing stem cell transplant because she's so fearful of it. I said, well, I've had one. She said, what? Said, yeah, I've had a stem cell transplant. So, just so that you know, guys, what that means is that they, they harvest from you, your baby stem cells, which come from your bone marrow.

Dr Nat Green 18:44

Mm,

Bron Watson 18:45

clean'em up. And for myeloma, they give you the bastards back. I said, I don't want mine. Can I have someone else? And she said, well, if you have someone else's, you've got a really, really high risk of dying. Ah, damn it. Okay, I'll have my own back. You go into hospital, they give you a horrendous, it's actually the strongest chemo in the world. Yeah. It's called Melphalan. 24 hours to the minute they give you your baby stem cells back through a PICC line. So you know. What you know all about PICC ones? Mm, sadly. And so they give it back to you. And then what happens with that, that mouthful and that chemotherapy is that it literally kills off your entire white cells. So you have 0.00 no white cells and. I remember when I was heading into that space, I literally, and I'm not re not overly religious, but I remember that I felt like I was walking into the valley of the Valley of death. Mm-hmm. And I was thinking, what does that mean? It was like a rebirth. They call it, they call it rebirth. Mm-hmm. Oh, it's my first rebirth. I don't do that. People get cakes and balloons and all. They have parties. It's my rebirth. It's my second birthday, and I am grateful for other people to do that. That is not something that I do.

Dr Nat Green 19:58

Mm-hmm.

Bron Watson 19:58

So this marathon, um, is a marathon of uncertainty.

Dr Nat Green 20:04

Yes.

Bron Watson 20:06

Everybody has a marathon of uncertainty. It's just that a lot of people, most people don't. See it and don't know, they're don't even know if they're running. Whereas I was like, dumped on. You know, one way to look at this right is imagine you and I, Nat, we're standing on the side of an ocean pool, it's fabulous pool. Someone comes along and goes, get in there, Bron, get in that pool. I hate cold water, hate swimming, and now I'm in this pool. Swimming. That's the pool of uncertainty. Yeah. And someone else can have a pool of uncertainty such as, I wanna start a business, I wanna take back some control for me. They're gonna go, oh, I love swimming. Oh, I think it might pop in Bron's in the pool. Can't be that bad. Mm, lovely, lovely dive in the pool. But they're great swimmers. They're, they swam at, they did all the lessons, whereas I didn't do the lessons. You know, I remember in year seven that there was the 50 meter race. I think I swam like 20 minutes and got 20 meters, and I got out. I'm not doing this crap.

Dr Nat Green 21:17

Love it.

Bron Watson 21:18

Never been in a, I've never been in a swimming race since. Right. So people who know me, I hate swimming, but I'm in the pool of uncertainty.

Dr Nat Green 21:24

Mm.

Bron Watson 21:25

And I am not allowed out. You will not be getting out. You're gonna just keep swimming. Whether the waves go off, they're

Dr Nat Green 21:33

gonna pushing you back in and pushing you back in.

Bron Watson 21:35

They're gonna push you back in. So I, what the marathon does for me, remembering this is just for me and my experience, this is not anybody else's experience, is that I gotta learn to like swimming. I don't wanna swim, right? I'm tired of swimming. So what do I do when I get tired of swimming? That's where I find my serenity moments, because if I looked at the whole thing, it's too overwhelming. Whereas I look at the small things I can do, the courage to find the things I can do, and the wisdom to know the difference. And you know, it's a lot better than it used to be. And I'm still facing this. The pool of uncertainty, nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. So for those who have had adversity and whether they got pushed into the pool, living through uncertainty is absolutely doable. When you spend the time to develop skills that you never thought you'd need, to be honest, AKA. Swimming.

Dr Nat Green 22:40

Swimming. Yeah. And I, I love that analogy so much. It's, it was a brilliant way to describe it. And I know, you know, there is that pool of uncertainty. You know, it might get, be a larger pool, it might be, you know, the edge of the i ocean bath pool might fall down and you might end up out in the ocean, you don't know. Yep.

Bron Watson 23:03

Correct.

Dr Nat Green 23:03

And I think,

Bron Watson 23:04

well, I'm in the ocean. I, and yeah. You don't wanna be in the ocean, but it's just that I see my ocean. You don't see yours yet, and I hope you never do.

Dr Nat Green 23:13

Mm. And I do. I think that your whole attitude and the way you approach this is, you know, it's so, and I know you don't like this, but inspirational in that you have, you know, you've hated it, but. You've got two choices. You fight it and keep going and hate it, and, and you're miserable for the rest of your life, or you embrace it and work out well. How do I make the most of it? And I think, you know, I'll get you to explain it even better, I'm sure. But how did the Serenity Project come about?

Bron Watson 23:54

Well, it came about before cancer. Okay. So it came about and. I'm not gonna say where I had to go. We, we chose to go to London for some treatment for our family.

Dr Nat Green 24:07

Yep.

Bron Watson 24:07

And I first heard the Serenity Prayer and it just made sense and we were facing adversity at the time and I thought that I would bring that mindset because that's what we called it. Mm-hmm. In actual fact, it's a way of life to women in business. And I wrote a chapter, as I said, I wrote 5,000 words, 5,000 word chapter of a book in it for what? And I was calling, I used to call it in search of Serenity. And then I didn't. And then of course the cancer came and I think about it, serenity was still, I knew Serenity. Was my place. What I didn't realize is that it's just a moment in time. So when I say serenity, it's search of serenity. A serenity is a moment in time.'cause that literally is all we have guys. Yes. Is when you have a serenity moment, which is that stillness that that place where you are at ease with yourself. Without looking back. Mm-hmm. And sure as hell not ruminating and projecting to the future.

Dr Nat Green 25:25

Yeah.

Bron Watson 25:25

cause projection is the killer of everything. Mm-hmm. That when you have a moment,'cause this, this is one thing that I, I always finish my own podcast with, which is when the moments a serenity moment join together. And that's those serenity moments make memories, and that is how we make everyday count, because they love to tell you, Bron, you've gotta make memories. Make your own memories. Don't worry about mine. I'm sweet. I'm great. Why?'cause technology changes make, make your own. Mm-hmm. Memories.

Dr Nat Green 26:00

Yep.

Bron Watson 26:01

I would get, and I get offended with that. Don't tell me to make memories. I'm living every moment. Thank you very much. Mm-hmm. You worry about yourself. I'm Akay. So that's where that came from, because. And the lesson for that came with my mom having a diagnosis of dementia. And if you've ever had that experience of watching somebody, they call it the long goodbye for a reason, because every time you see them, you're seeing a little bit more and a little bit more, and. There's a foot in reality, then there's a foot in their own reality.

Dr Nat Green 26:33

Yeah.

Bron Watson 26:34

And that gap changes as I know. You know, Nat? Mm-hmm. But what I, I wrote an article at the time because remember Master's education, blah, blah, blah, and I read an article around dementia and it was about the moments, which is when we are caring for our, our family and our friends. And as a nurse, when I'm looking after people with dementia. It's about the moment because that's all they have. They literally only have the moment. Exactly. So don't try to correct that person to Bron. That's not quite how it was versus well, that's not, you know, I think we should do this. No, no, no, no, no. Focus on the moment because that is all we have and that is what Serenity is about, is that stillness of time in the moment. This is a moment right now because the moment

Dr Nat Green 27:19

absolutely.

Bron Watson 27:20

Then another moment, then another moment. Mm-hmm. And when you learn that gift, and it's a gift, it is of appreciation where grief and gratitude coexist. Doesn't mean I'm not sad guys, doesn't mean I don't cry, doesn't mean I don't feel sorry for myself. Absolutely, I do.

Dr Nat Green 27:36

Of course you do. Yes,

Bron Watson 27:38

but I can't fix that. And for Mrs. Fix it over here. Been a tough journey not being able to fix things.

Dr Nat Green 27:45

Mm.

Bron Watson 27:45

I fixed problems. I was miss, I literally called Mrs. Fix it.

Dr Nat Green 27:50

You were, you were.

Bron Watson 27:51

So, I, I, I dunno if that's answered your question. No,

Dr Nat Green 27:55

it has. I hope it did it. Oh, definitely has. And I think, you know, this whole. I think two things that really stuck out when you were talking for me then were, you know, the serenity and being really clear on why you moved into the Serenity Project and that really that living in the moment that we all have these moments and it's what we choose to do with it. And I think for our listeners who've experienced trauma and are moving into post-traumatic growth, that. Don't try and focus on what's happened in the past where you've been, you know, rushing to be who you want, who you used to be again.'cause that person isn't, isn't there in the same way? No. It's really around living in the moment and making the most of every moment. Now, another thing, Bron, that I wanted to talk to you about is that you've shared a lot about, you know, the. The various parts of you. You know, the nurse, the nurse educator, the business owner, the mom of five boys, the wife, all the things, the owner and developer of the Serenity Project, and you're also a podcast host. And Yes,

Bron Watson 29:19

the hell was I thinking there? Like, wow.

Dr Nat Green 29:22

Oh, you know, that's so much

Bron Watson 29:23

work. No one told me that bit. But anyway, moving on.

Dr Nat Green 29:25

But, and, and Bron and I just did an interview just before we got on today on, she interviewed me for her Serenity Rising Podcast and, and I'll definitely share that when it comes out. And I think one of the things that gets really clear is you've got all these parts of you, what about. Who you are and the impact of your identity as you've gone through all this change. Do you wanna talk a little bit about that?

Bron Watson 29:55

Sure. So that's obviously immense change and it, I didn't know that I needed to do that until it was thrust upon me. Mm-hmm. So nursing was around. Caring for people. If you ask nurses why do they start? Because they wanna care for people. They wanna be able to give. So you give to the best of your ability. And my goal back then was that my patients, when I came on shift, they were way better. They were, when I say better, their pain was under control. Their position of their literally in that eight hour or 10 hour shift. What is in a better position. Mm-hmm. If that was my goal. And so it was all about that person, not about me. So I wanted to, I had to be the, I wanted to learn to be a, a good nurse, but that's what I put values on. Then of course, the mom and the wife and the, I wanted to be the best. Mother for my children. And I remember my very, my best friend who died at 32, Jamie, we would talk about how we wanted to improve on the previous generation. We wanted to be all the things that our families and our mothers and our parents weren't.

Dr Nat Green 31:11

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Bron Watson 31:11

So then you become this perceived, what does a good mom do? Well, she irons everything, doesn't she? And she, yeah, sure. God. The things, the pressure I put on myself. Um. And what that did though is by doing everything and sugarcoating for my children, what that did was it, uh, it, it took away their ability to make a mistake because I was too busy controlling the situation because I knew, you know, was growing up with your kids versus now there's no sugar coating. And Ollie, if your shirt's not ironed, you know where the iron is. Knock yourself out. And he does. Versus the old Bron would've gone, oh, let me, I'm not, I'm using something so simple, but I want people to understand that my identity, I thought I was being the best version of me. Mm. All I did though was look after everyone else and then try to control the situation.

Dr Nat Green 32:12

Yes.

Bron Watson 32:13

Yeah. And then business owner learning with the mentors, doing the things, growing, growing, growing. I would be more vested in my client's businesses than they were.

Dr Nat Green 32:22

Yes.

Bron Watson 32:24

And then I learnt that pretty quickly that I, I needed to be guided and governed by their ability. But because I have my, my top strength in life is strategic. So I can see exactly where they wanna go, and I can see how they can get there. I'd be more invested than they were. And then along came Cancer, which is now, Bron, it's time to learn your lessons here because you can learn your lesson from whatever adversity comes. Mm-hmm. It's a choice. It is literally a choice. It's, and I choose, it's not a silver lining. There's no, there's, you know, it's just a shit show. I call it the shit Show 2.0 because it's a shit show. But. But I also don't have any blame and shame, which is what happens when people have these adversity. It must be my fault. What did I do? What did I eat? Oh my God.

Dr Nat Green 33:12

Mm.

Bron Watson 33:12

You know, must be because I was codependent. I da, da. No, no, no. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. It's about bad shit happens to good people.

Dr Nat Green 33:20

Yes,

Bron Watson 33:21

that's as far as when I look. When I look back, I did the best I could with what I had, and I didn't have the toolbox that I have now. But I made the decision that I was going to learn to put things in my toolbox. Mm. And I don't even know if I've answered your question. Yes. I don't think I did.

Dr Nat Green 33:38

Yes. Well, well, I think you, you've showed us a lot of insight into who you were, who you are, and as you move through, so you had to morph, you had to change, you learnt as a result of the cancer. Shit show 1.0.

Bron Watson 33:55

Well, I, well, I chose it is a choice and shit.

Dr Nat Green 33:56

Show 2.0 2.0.

Bron Watson 33:58

Yeah. That a lot of people stay in victim, just so you know. People stay in victim. Mm-hmm. Your yours are my favorite word. When I say victim, what it means is, um, victim would be someone who, oh, it's why this have to happen to me? You know that damn doctor, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that your brain only believes what you tell it.

Dr Nat Green 34:19

Yep.

Bron Watson 34:20

It really does. So if you inside, if you say the words to you out loud, and if you in your head go, oh my God, what's wrong with me? There's something has to be wrong with me. You know, you got cancer twice. What the hell? What have you done? Who? What? You know the old saying, you know, did you run over, you know, a person here? Yes. Or did you walk under a black cat? Yes. Mm-hmm. No, I didn't walk under a black cat. Bad shit happens to good people.

Dr Nat Green 34:44

Yeah.

Bron Watson 34:45

That's my belief for me, and I am not wasting any more energy on that past. What I'm interested in is now, and the way I talk about that, Nat, is it's like we're playing basketball. You and me run. Imagine that, right? That be interesting. I used to play basketball. I used to play, I actually played a lot of basketball. So you and I are on the court. I'm in the center. You're a guard. We miss the shot. So Coach pulls us off and we can either talk about the what's just happened and pull it apart, or we can focus on the next play. Not the whole game, not next season, not next year, but the next play, because that's the important thing. How are we gonna play the next play? Well, Nat you do this and I'm gonna do that. And how, because do you see the difference? Absolutely. That's where I believe from identity. Did I lose myself? I, I actually liken that to the old Bron because this Bron was always there. Mm-hmm. I just didn't slow down or stop enough to go, Hey,

Dr Nat Green 35:50

exactly

Bron Watson 35:52

I, what's in here? What's in here, Bron? What is gonna bring you joy, old fashioned term again, but what's gonna bring you joy? And that is where in your world, Nat, when you're talking about post-traumatic growth, when you talked about going from minus five to zero, the traumatic crisis stage, and then from zero to five, which is the post traumatic stress at ground zero. This is ground zero because your gut never lies.

Dr Nat Green 36:19

No. And as, as we've talked about and, and as I share it fair bit on the podcast, it's about tuning into our gut brain and our heart brain because when we go through something traumatic and really challenging, we are often just in our heads trying to work out how to cope, how to go through, how to do the next thing. And we disconnect. Mm-hmm. To keep ourselves safe, but all of that, as we know, gets stuck in our nervous system. Yes. So the things that are stuck in your nervous system from years of being the strong one, keeping everything together, me the same, doing all the things and ignoring our own needs, and ignoring, connecting to ourselves and our gut and our heart space. We've paid a price for, but it's never too late to recognize that we're always only one decision away from the next step, the next best choice, the next best, whatever it is. And that is who we become. And you know, the Bron you are now is so different to the Bron pre cancer.

Bron Watson 37:38

Mm.

Dr Nat Green 37:38

And isn't that a great thing?

Bron Watson 37:40

I'm so grateful. How do you be grateful for cancer? I'm not grateful for cancer. No. I'm grateful that I had enough wisdom and courage. I'm still learning guys. I call it the path of healing. You're never there. It's always on the path. Yeah. Um, and understanding that you don't know the answers and you dunno how things happen. You know, Kerry Chinner taught me when you follow these things that I know I will. I just dunno how you let go of the how you just know. I will, I know 100% that I will continue learning this stuff. I don't know how. I dunno when. I dunno why. So I think that's the, the key is to listen and you can't listen if you're racing around looking after everyone else.

Dr Nat Green 38:33

Correct.

Bron Watson 38:34

And then the brick comes or the shovel on the back of the head, such as what's happened to me. And I'm grateful for that. I wished it wasn't so dramatic and I wish it didn't have the long-term consequences. But I have made peace with what I cannot change. Mm-hmm. And technology and science and all of the things will be there to help me no matter what that path ends up looking like.

Dr Nat Green 39:01

Yeah. And if you spend your whole time in that head, brain, worrying about that path, you, you miss every one of the moments.

Bron Watson 39:10

Everyone. So I have this thing where I call it a equals A, um, which means that something happens, it's a moment in time. Something for me, might go to the Cancer Institute, and I have my doctor. So you know, like that moment in time, like for example, if I go speak to my doctor and he just flippantly throws out, well, we've just gotta wait for the shock, Bron, that kind of comment, you know. What it means in the moment, because what happens in life is that we bring meaning to a situation that wasn't really part of that situation. And it's based on our values, our beliefs, what we learned at school, what's happened in the past. So, because I have had nasty diagnoses and I'm gonna, oh my God, we're gonna get another one. I'm gonna get another one. Versus. A equals a the moment in time, which is just these blood results and it's just these blood results don't attach all of the meaning.

Dr Nat Green 40:06

Yeah.

Bron Watson 40:07

And making it into an Oscar winning performance.

Dr Nat Green 40:10

Mm-hmm.

Bron Watson 40:10

Of catastrophe versus Bron, it's just a equals a. And I consciously tell myself that

Dr Nat Green 40:17

I

Bron Watson 40:17

love because in here. The brain, it'll start going, oh my God, we are protect, we've gotta go into protective mode here, Bron's. In a crisis, she needs quick, quick crisis meeting. Let's get the shitty bitty itty committee together. We've gotta have a crisis. No, we don't. It's not a crisis hasn't happened. Yeah. And that only comes when you wake up your head and your heart and your soul. You call intuition. It's my soul to me. Yeah. Putting to my belly.'cause I feel that that's where it is. Mm-hmm. That's just my personal belief. Mm-hmm.

Dr Nat Green 40:45

Yeah.

Bron Watson 40:46

Um. And I think that's so important is to not give meaning to something that is not real.

Dr Nat Green 40:54

Exactly. Yeah. And again, it's that future worrying about what may or may not happen. You can't change it, so.

Bron Watson 41:02

Mm-hmm.

Dr Nat Green 41:02

A equals a, A does not equal ZA

Bron Watson 41:05

equals does not equal Z, it does not equal B, C, D, E, F, G.

Dr Nat Green 41:09

I love that

Bron Watson 41:09

so

Dr Nat Green 41:10

much and yeah,

Bron Watson 41:11

so that's a Kerry Chinner special, you know? Um, and when you find yourself ran, when your brain's ruminating and it's gone off onto the Oscar winning role mm-hmm. You consciously say, Hey, back it up. Thank you so much. Committee. We got this crisis committee crisis averted. Literally, I tell myself that.

Dr Nat Green 41:28

Absolutely. So you've shared so many pearls of wisdom and I'm aware that, you know, we need to probably wrap it up soon. Is there anything else that you could share with our listeners that would help them as they navigate their post-trauma or adversity experiences or around their identity?

Bron Watson 41:48

You know, my favorite saying, and I can never even remember who said it, that's how good I am. The memory is be where your feet are. Be where your feet are and if you necessary, literally, when you are finding yourself in one of those moments, I want you to do this. Do a Bron, right? You look down, ah, there's my feet got pink toenails, and you're standing on the wooden floorboards with no shoes on. Mm-hmm. Okay. Can you feel that? Can you feel it? Yep. Can you feel your feet tapping? Be where your feet are? Not in the past. Not in the future, but literally where your feet are

Dr Nat Green 42:28

in the present right now, in that moment. I love

Bron Watson 42:31

that in the moment. That's it.

Dr Nat Green 42:32

Brilliant.

Bron Watson 42:33

That's it. That's as simple as it gets.

Dr Nat Green 42:35

Yeah. Ah, what a powerful, what a gift you've given us, really. And, and absolutely. Nailed it. Spot on. I love that. So, Bron, as we move to wrapping up this conversation, where can our listeners find out more about you and find you online?

Bron Watson 42:54

Alrighty. So obviously Serenity Project is uh, serenity project.com au. Um. There's a newsletter there, which I would suggest if you're interested in anything I'm saying and thinking, well, I've got nothing to do with cancer, but it doesn't matter. You just put it into your own adversity, obviously online LinkedIn, socials, Facebook, Insta, Bron Watson is what it's called. Mm-hmm. Um, any question on the website, there's actually a little thing called little box there, and you can actually leave me a voice message and I reply to every single one of'em. So any questions? Happy to answer.

Dr Nat Green 43:28

Fantastic, and we'll put all of that in the show notes. Of course. Now, Bron, and I didn't give you forewarning about this, sorry, but I do like to finish every episode asking one question. What do you think your youngest self would think of where you are now and what you've achieved?

Bron Watson 43:52

My younger self will go is saying to me, Bron, you are amazing. I'm so proud of you to learn what you are learning and this is what we are here for. And I thank you for doing that for yourself and for everyone who's listening. And that's what my younger self would say. Rock on Bron. Well done you.

Dr Nat Green 44:22

Oh, she most certainly would.

Bron Watson 44:25

And you know, sure can, yeah. Rock on Gen X, but literally,

Dr Nat Green 44:28

yeah,

Bron Watson 44:29

rock on because it takes courage and I'm very proud of myself. Remembering I am, I do have a prognosis. I do have a number that I was given that I did not ask for. So no matter what, just keep doing the beautiful things that you are. That's what I say.

Dr Nat Green 44:49

Mm. I love it. So be where your feet are and live in the moment.

Bron Watson 44:57

Absolutely.

Dr Nat Green 44:58

That's what we've got

Bron Watson 44:59

very

Dr Nat Green 44:59

wise was it's Exactly. That's all we've got, and thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your story and. Where you're at and, and everyone please head on over to the Serenity Project because honestly we all have so much to learn and check out the Serenity Rising Podcast and I'll share that on my socials as well. So everyone can hear us having a bit of a chat.

Bron Watson 45:25

Yes,

Dr Nat Green 45:26

again,

Bron Watson 45:26

yes, definitely. And thanks for having me. I'm really, really grateful to you, my darling friend.

Dr Nat Green 45:32

Thank you. Love you so much. Thanks Broni.

Bron Watson 45:34

You too.

Dr Nat Green 45:35

Bye for now Thank you for spending this time with me on growing tall poppies. My hope is that today's episode has offered you something more than insight, that it's helped you feel a little more connected to who you are now, a little more trusting of your body, and a little more permission to stand tall without shrinking or forcing yourself forward. Post-traumatic growth isn't about fixing yourself or returning to who you once were. It's about understanding how you adapted, honoring your nervous system, and gently choosing what no longer needs to come with you. New episodes of growing Tall poppies are released weekly. Every Tuesday, and I'd love for you to continue walking this path with us as we explore identity after adversity, integrity and visibility wounds, nervous system wisdom. And what it truly means to grow forward, grounded, aligned, and embodied. If this episode resonated, I invite you to subscribe, follow, share it with someone that you feel might need it, or simply take a quiet moment to reflect on what's ready to move forward. For you. You can also find me on Instagram at Dr. Nat Green on Facebook at Dr. Natalie Green or over on YouTube at Dr. Nat Green. And remember, you don't need to rush and you don't need to hide anymore. Stay connected, stay true, and keep standing tall like the tall poppy you are. I'll see you in the next episode. Bye for now.