Empowering Women Project
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Empowering Women Project
Overcoming the Odds: Tess Swift on Health and Empowerment
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What if you found yourself battling a mysterious illness for over a decade? Our guest, Tess Swift, has bravely navigated this exact journey. In an inspiring conversation, Tess shares how a rare parasite turned her life upside down after a family trip to Thailand. Despite her background as a registered nurse, Tess faced seven years of misdiagnosis, enduring the emotional and physical toll of an unseen illness while advocating fiercely for her own health. Her story is a poignant reminder of the resilience required to navigate the healthcare system and the crucial support of family during such trying times.
As Tess recounts her experience with a traveling parasite, she opens up about the coping mechanisms that have transformed her life. From initial skepticism to embracing breathwork and cold therapy, Tess illustrates how these practices have become essential in balancing her nervous system and managing stress. Her journey with the media and the power of storytelling have not only connected her with others facing similar challenges but have also provided newfound strength and community support. Tess’s ability to turn personal trauma into a source of empowerment highlights the significance of self-compassion and resilience in overcoming adversity.
We launch 2025 with a call to empowerment and personal growth, inviting listeners to join our Empowering Women Project (EWP) community. Inspired by figures like Joe Dispenza, Tess, Jules and Dayelene discuss the transformative power of mindset and the importance of being the creator of one's healing journey. We encourage you to share this empowering experience and connect with us on social media, fostering a supportive network of women. This episode is a celebration of strength, advocacy, and the potential to inspire others through storytelling and collaboration.
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Jules and Day xx
Thank you. Stories and limiting beliefs that are holding you back from your dreams becoming a reality.
Speaker 1:Come, jump in the driver's seat and pave the way back home to her. This is a space for you to feel seen, heard, supported and accepted for who you are, who you were and who you're becoming.
Speaker 2:Celebrating you wherever you are in your journey. Sit back, grab a tea or a wine and come empower yourself with us. Jewels and day, let's grow.
Speaker 1:This podcast episode comes with a content warning. We'll be discussing sensitive topics. Please do a personal body check-in to see if you're up to listening today. Hello, beautiful humans, welcome back to the EWP.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone. We are so grateful to be back in action and welcome to 2025.
Speaker 1:Whoop, whoop. It's our first collaboration and we have the beautiful Tess Swift on today. Welcome, beautiful.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Where are you tuning in from? Uh ocean grovey in victoria yay, it's so beautiful there yeah, I'm very lucky to live here absolutely, you guys have got storms at the moment, so and we are the same up here in early, so, yeah, so excited to have you on and you're our first collaboration for the year exciting yeah, meant to be Tess.
Speaker 2:Do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself? Why have you felt pulled to come on the podcast today? What do you want to share with the world?
Speaker 3:um. So I want to share my story of chronic illness and resilience and overcoming yeah.
Speaker 1:No, beautiful.
Speaker 2:And I follow you on Instagram and it's just so powerful watching your journey and how you put in these beautiful tools to support yourself amidst everything. So kudos to you. Well done.
Speaker 3:You should be really proud of yourself thank you it's it's not easy, but it's worth it do you want to share a little bit about your story with chronic illness?
Speaker 3:sure. So I've been sick for 10 years this year. Um, I got sick in 2015 after a family holiday to Thailand and I unfortunately didn't find out the cause of my illness until seven years later. Wow, yeah, so it turns out I have an incredibly rare parasite that I got in Thailand. I'm only the 68th person in Australia to have this parasite and, yeah, like particularly the seven years leading up to actually finding out that, that's what was wrong with me. It was hell. To put it simply, you know, constantly in and out of hospital, doctors not knowing the reason why I went from a perfectly healthy 20-year-old to practically bed bound most of the time, and it was really hard learning to navigate the health system as a patient, because I'm actually a registered nurse, so you know I had a lot of experience of the health system from the other side, but experiencing it as a patient is a whole other world.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:You would have had to gain such a voice and, like, advocate for yourself so much, hey, yeah, it was really hard learning to advocate for myself.
Speaker 3:The first few years in particular, I couldn't do it. I had to have my mum with me pretty much to do all the talking, because I would just break down trying to explain what was going on, because I felt so dismissed by so many doctors that I got to the point where I physically couldn't do it anymore because you know, they blamed everything that was going on with me on anxiety or they thought I had an eating disorder, and it was just a constant battle of trying to get them to listen to me that something was wrong.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And trying to advocate for yourself while you don't know what's actually wrong with yourself would be so hard, so I'm glad that you had the supports from your family to navigate that yeah, I'm incredibly lucky to have a really, really supportive family that have been by my side through some pretty horrible things absolutely.
Speaker 2:I'm so sorry you've navigated that yeah, we're holding this space for you today, tess, thank you, absolutely we see you, yeah. So what can you talk about?
Speaker 3:what the parasite is and sort of like what your symptoms were symptoms were what happened, yeah, so, um, I didn't get sick until we got back from Thailand. Um, I started feeling a bit off on the flight home but I thought you know, we're catching a red eye flight home. I've been traveling, I'm probably just a bit run down, um and same when we got home. For a couple weeks after we got home I just didn't quite feel right. But again, I just put it down to having been overseas and then trying to get back into the rhythm of everyday life. And then it was about a month, maybe six weeks, after we got back, I woke up in the middle of the night with excruciating abdominal pain and I was throwing up and I just knew something was wrong. So I got my partner to take me to the emergency department. I got seen really quickly, which was a blessing. I didn't have to sit there in agonising pain for hours.
Speaker 3:And then they decided they thought I had appendicitis. So they took me to theatre the next day to take my appendix out. But my appendix was actually fine when they got in there. But because they were in there, they take it out anyway. What? No way, you don't need it.
Speaker 3:So if they've opened, you up, and there's nothing wrong with it. They take it out anyway what the hell?
Speaker 1:yeah, that's wild, yeah, so.
Speaker 3:I spent two nights in the hospital in Geelong when that happened, and then, um, I went back home with my parents, who were living in Bendigo at the time, so that mum could look after me, and then I ended up back in Bendigo Hospital two days later with the exact same symptoms, and that was just the start of a whole rollercoaster. Basically, yeah, a whole roller coaster. Basically, yeah, um, the parasite that I have is called nathostomiasis big fancy science word, um, and it's a freshwater parasite that is found in four or five countries, I think. Um, it's not, you can't catch it in Australia. It's not something that is found here, but particularly in places like Thailand, vietnam, those sort of areas.
Speaker 3:I caught it. It's normally caught by eating something that itself is infested with the parasite, but I actually caught it by walking through some flood water. So it was flooded. When we were in Thailand and the resort we were staying at, you had to cross over the street from where the rooms were to where the restaurant was for breakfast, so I'd walked across that. It was probably like shin deep flood water, and all it would have been was that I had maybe a mosquito bite or something as small as a paper cut, and that's how it got into my system wow, I thought it would have to like get through your nose or your mouth, or like yeah ears or something.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's insane.
Speaker 3:So it's like microscopic obviously yeah, so um, it doesn't multiply, there's only one of it and the biggest size they've seen it at is 0.4 of a millimeter and it causes that much damage. Yeah, so it has teeth, which is kind of terrifying, um, and it lives like it survives by eating through muscle and nerve tissue.
Speaker 2:I'm just in shock right now.
Speaker 3:I haven't even said a word, I'm just like I'm just like a little motherfucker yeah so this is wow, yeah, so basically it's been eating me from the inside out for the last 10 years. Oh, which is like something out of a horror movie.
Speaker 1:honestly I'm so sorry. So is there like a cure, Like is there any way to kill it?
Speaker 3:So there's one doctor in Australia that treats this parasite and he's at the Alfred in Melbourne, so I'm very lucky to have access to him, and I've had two rounds of the treatment and unfortunately it's still alive. So we're not really sure where to from here in terms of what we can do to try and kill it or whether we take the risk and leave it. But it take the risk and leave it, but it has a lifespan of 20 years, so that's another 10 years of it causing damage within my body. But unfortunately I have had some pretty awful side effects from the treatment itself. So one of the drugs that I had to have has given me liver disease um, so teetering on the edge of liver failure at the moment, and um, when I first started having the issues with my liver from that, they put me on really, really high dose steroids to try and calm that inflammation down.
Speaker 3:And then unfortunately, those steroids have led to me having Cushing syndrome, which is to do with extremely elevated cortisol levels, and it also killed my hip joints, so the blood supply to my hip joints got cut off and in.
Speaker 1:February 2024, I actually had a double hip replacement. Oh my God, honey, I'm just going to come to your big cuddle.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, what a lot to navigate just off something so small as well, yeah, and like something so mundane. You know like so many people go on holiday, so many people go to Bali or they go to Thailand, and you know you kind of hear these sort of stories of things happening, but you never think it's going to happen to you, absolutely not no way.
Speaker 1:So how did you find out that you had the parasite? Was it through blood testing, or can you actually see it on a scan like and is it in a certain part of your body? So I mean so many questions at once um.
Speaker 3:So I was diagnosed through a blood test. Um, but the only place in the world that does the testing is Bangkok, thailand of course so, um, I'd been in hospital this was it end of 2019, start of 2020.
Speaker 3:I'd been in hospital for about seven weeks at that point, I think, and my gastroenterologist decided that, you know, he didn't want to settle for not knowing what caused all my issues, because, you know, I had a massive list of diagnosed conditions but nobody could figure out why they happened. And he wasn't happy to settle for that, which I am forever grateful for. And he did a lot of Googling, a lot of researching, a lot of speaking to other doctors, found a list of you know these weird and wacky things and just decided to test me for all of them. And then so that was, yeah, 2020. But then it was nearly three years later that I got the results, because of the pandemic, so, because my blood had to be sent to Thailand. It was just as the international borders closed and there was no flights that my blood could be sent to Thailand on, so it was put in a freezer and my family and I had completely forgotten I'd even been tested to this until it was like September 2022, I think.
Speaker 3:Um, that mum calls me and she goes oh, you've got a letter here from the Alfred. And I said to her. I was like I've never been a patient at the Alfred. That's, that's really strange. I don't know how they would have my details. So I opened it when I got home and all it had was the test results and then a handwritten note at the bottom saying um, you know you've tested positive for this. Here's my phone number, please call me. So yeah, that was the start of learning about this whole parasite journey. We went up to the Alfred the next day to meet with the tropical medicine infectious disease specialist.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And we spent about three hours with him and everything just made sense all of a sudden, like mum and I were just both in tears because finally, everything I'd gone through in the last seven years made sense, like all the things no one could ever explain, all the things that were blamed on my mental health and I was, it was. It was such a bittersweet moment for me because it was like, oh my god, I'm not crazy. There is something that has caused all of these things.
Speaker 3:But, then, at the same time, to find out that the damage that it's done is irreversible was hard to hear at the same time.
Speaker 1:Absolutely honey. Oh my God. It's like you felt seen in that that moment, but then also like, if you caught it sooner or you know, covid didn't happen yeah it's all those what ifs? Yeah, absolutely, yeah, I see you. What a shit show. Yeah, yeah that's unbelievable.
Speaker 2:Like I'm still, I'm just in shock. I'm like I can't believe that you're navigating all of this and that they sent it to you in a letter, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like I think a phone call might have been appreciated, but you know, yeah, it was such like a whirlwind in the, you know, the day of getting that letter and then the couple of days afterwards, um, like, I feel like I struggle to remember what even happened in those few days because it was so much to take in and I think I disassociated for a lot of it. Um, because, because of everything that I've been through and you know all the surgeries, the hospital visits, the gaslighting and not being listened to um, I actually have been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder in the setting of going through medical trauma absolutely.
Speaker 1:and on top on top of that, your cortisol levels you said were high before, so add that into the mix as well. Your nervous system would be like holy crap.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my nervous system does not know which way is up most of the time.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because it's been just over 12 months since I was diagnosed with the Cushing syndrome and at the time when I had the testing, my cortisol is six times higher than it should be, so my nervous system thinks that I'm like face-to-face with a bear 24-7.
Speaker 1:Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What tools do you have that help you, like kind of balance it as much as you can?
Speaker 3:The biggest tools that I use for my nervous system are breath work and cold therapy. I started doing that about two years ago. My friend Kylie had been nagging me for probably 12 months to come down to a group called Cold and Conscious. She was like, oh, you'll love it. And I'm like I don't know if I believe in that sort of stuff you know, I was quite sceptical.
Speaker 3:And then one day I just thought I'm just going to go and see what it's about and from the second I sat in my first ice bath. I was converted.
Speaker 1:Like I always say to people, it sounds so dramatic, but breathwork and cold therapy have literally changed my life absolutely yeah sure, and adding in breathwork there too, like that's amazing yeah for trying it, yeah, and then you know it's called us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like I never, you know, I've seen people doing it. I never thought I would be one of those people that happily sits in an ice bath, but, um, you know, I have an ice bath at home. Now I go to our group chill, breathe, revive every Saturday and if I miss an ice bath like I can feel myself getting tense and getting more dysregulated.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Beautiful.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like when the medical system Kind of lets you down in a sense. People start looking for holistic ways and we're always so sceptical of the other side because all we know is going to doctors and GPs and stuff like that, and then eventually we find the holistic ways of healing and that's actually what heals us. So good on you for trying that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's so true and, like you know, we have this idea as a whole in Australia that you know we've got Medicare, we've got this perfect health system. But, being through what I've been through, I can tell people that our health system is far from perfect. Especially if you have a rare disease or something doctors aren't as educated on, you don't fit into the box that they like to fit, you know, certain symptoms and diagnoses into. Yeah, our health system is far from perfect. Um, and I found myself, um, yeah, going down more. You know the holistic medicine side of things because I was out of options through, you know, the traditional medical system, particularly like with my chronic pain and my gastrointestinal disorder. We tried everything and I was only getting worse and I wasn't getting better.
Speaker 3:And, you know, I sat down with my mum and I sat down with my partner and I said I've enough, I don't want to keep going around this merry-go-round that. You know. I want to get off, I can't get off. So then, yeah, then I started looking at a lot of the holistic side of things Chinese medicine, acupuncture, yeah, breathwork, yoga, meditation you know pretty much anything you could think of.
Speaker 1:And now I feel like I found a really good balance between what I need to use the medical system for and then, what works for me from the holistic world as well absolutely using both Julia's kind of like that you know how to use kind of both to. You know, balance out things in your life is what I've seen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, have you seen a naturopath or anything?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I've seen a couple of different. I found a few different naturopaths and we tried a lot of different sort of protocols that I unfortunately didn't have the best success with, but I did gain some really good insight and knowledge from them of you know, things I can do myself and changes I can make within my life um to help manage some of the symptoms that I live with every day absolutely one thing that just popped in my head and you probably already have tried it, but parasite cleansing.
Speaker 3:I always see that like yeah, so I've done two holistic parasite cleansers alongside the two rounds of treatment from the medical world, and unfortunately I just didn't have success with either of them. The thing with this parasite that I have is, you know, because a lot of parasites they can be confined to your liver or your bowel or your stomach, and the thing with the parasite I have is that it can freely travel wherever it wants, whenever it wants. Basically. So you know, one day, or you know, for a few months, it might be sitting in my gastrointestinal tract eating. It's eating its way through you know my enteric nerves and then you know, then it could move into you know my spinal cord or anywhere.
Speaker 3:And you know, yes, I'm very unlucky that this happened to me, but on the flip side of that, I'm also very lucky at the same time because some of the stories I've heard from my doctor about a couple of the other patients that he has had with the same parasite as me, unfortunately one man passed away because the parasite actually got into his brain stem and then there was another young lady who was about the same age as me at the time um, in her late 20s and she woke up completely blind one morning because it had eaten through her optic nerves. So what I live with, yes, it's horrible, but I'm still alive. I still, you know, I can still live my life as best I can um you're amazing you still?
Speaker 1:have like such a. You're still optimistic and positive and, like you're seeing, yeah oh, you're a freaking warrior absolutely yeah and like.
Speaker 3:I'd be lying if I said I was positive all the time or like you know that it was easy to try and remain hopeful and remain optimistic, because I'm not. Yeah, you know particularly times like the moment when I'm in a really severe flare-up with a couple of my conditions those are the days where I am like I don't want to do it anymore, like, and it's not.
Speaker 3:You know, it's not that I don't want to do it anymore like and it's not. You know, it's not that I don't want to be here anymore, it's that I just don't want to live this way anymore. Um, which is hard, and you know, I kind of spiral a bit when I get like this, but, um, yeah, I just have to remind myself that I've gotten through 100% of my worst days so far. So, yeah, and yeah, you know, if I can get through those days, I can get through this one, and whether it's I take the day a minute at a time, an hour at a time, a breath at a time, yeah you know, tomorrow is a new day and I'll see how I feel tomorrow yeah, sending so much healing
Speaker 1:yeah, I'm just like, I'm just putting some healing over you, some love have you been able to connect with others who have the same parasite?
Speaker 3:um, so luckily I have. Um, I shared my story with the media at the end of 2022, I think it was and my original story got shared on newscom, which then got picked up by a fair few other online news outlets, and it was actually shared in 16 different countries Wow, and it was actually shared in 16 different countries, wow. And then I got contacted by Channel 9 and went on 9 News to share my story, and then I also went on the project and from that I was contacted by probably 20 different people. I've connected with one lady who has the same parasite and, funnily enough, she lives in Geelong. Oh, wow, yeah, so out of 68 of us, there's two of us in Geelong.
Speaker 3:What the hell so um, you guys must taste good.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Apparently something in the water here.
Speaker 3:Um, it's been really nice to get to know her over the last couple of years and you know her parasite manifests in a very different way than mine, but she understands the struggle of living with this and you know she went I think she was like eight or nine years undiagnosed with this parasite um, so she understands the impact on so many different areas of your life with this sort of thing, um, and I have thankfully also been able to help.
Speaker 3:Now five people get diagnosed with this parasite um, one in Australia and then the four others are in different countries because you know they'd seen my story and they kind of resonated with whether it was similar symptoms or they'd been to one of the countries where they can get this. And then they found me on social media and you know we chatted back and forth about what they were going through, what I'd been through, and very luckily my um parasite doctor was always more than happy for me to pass on his details to people, even if they were from other countries, so they could contact him. They did telehealth with him, um, and, yeah, thankfully they were able to be diagnosed and treated within. I think the longest someone had been unwell was two or three years, so still a really long time, but it saved them.
Speaker 1:You know the extra years of suffering um through not knowing what was wrong with them you potentially have saved their life as well, because if that just went undiagnosed for so many years like they could have been like some of the other people. Yeah, one doctor, think a little bit outside the box for a patient then it's worth.
Speaker 2:It's worth me sharing my story, absolutely, absolutely. And you're turning pain and trauma into power, like you are. You know you could be literally sitting rocking in a corner to us and you may have your moments where you do so, but by the sounds of it, and what I'm hearing is that you know you are utilizing a toolkit, you found what's working for you and you are still powering through despite the struggles, like you should be incredibly proud of yourself for all that you've been through and that you're still like you.
Speaker 3:You're showing up on a podcast today yeah, I think I think myself and probably other people who have been through chronic health issues, chronic pain, um, any sort of challenges like that I think we don't give ourselves enough credit.
Speaker 3:Sometimes, like you know, I'm getting out of bed and functioning at a level that would send a lot of people to the hospital and like it's not ideal. But at the end of the day, I can't sit around waiting to get better when at the moment the likelihood is that I'm not going to get better, I'm going to have to live with the damage this parasite has done to me, physically and mentally, for a really long time. So you know, I can't sit around twiddling my thumbs waiting to get better. I just have had to learn to adapt and you know really kind of be in tune with my body and listen to my body. And you know slow down when I need to slow down, which I'm not the best at. I'm really good at telling other people to do it, but when it comes to doing it myself, not so much. But you know, it's all a learning process.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like you've learned so much about yourself in the process too, and you've gained a voice to advocate for yourself and other people, and also learning about your body more too. So it's kind of sometimes a blessing and a curse at the same time, hey.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. And you know, like I mentioned before, I'm a registered nurse. I was three quarters of the way through my degree when I got sick, um, and you know I managed to work, um, on a hospital ward for about eight months before I had to stop because of my health. But I always think to myself that if I ever get back to the point of being able to work as a registered nurse again, I feel like what I've been through and my experiences as a patient will make me a better nurse, because I can relate to my patients on a deeper level, because you know, I know what it's like to be that person lying in a hospital bed for months, weeks on end.
Speaker 3:I know how scary it is, you know facing surgery after surgery and yeah. So I feel like, even if I don't step back into a role as a nurse, just as a person, it has given me a really deep understanding of what it's like to live in a really, really vulnerable state.
Speaker 1:It brings up so much more like empathy and compassion for people. When you've navigated such big things that's like trauma and all that sort of stuff it's usually the kindest people and the most empathetic and compassionate people have been through really hard times, so that's another positive yeah, and that's what I always try to remind other people of.
Speaker 3:You know with particularly, there's so much heaviness in the world at the moment. But you know, we just have to remain kind. We have to be kind to people. You've got no idea what someone's going through behind closed doors, absolutely Like you know. You see me out and about and I'm chatting and I've got a smile on my face. But like you know little, do you know that I spent the morning throwing up and in tears because of how much pain I'm in? But you know then I'm out in the world looking like a functioning human being, so like I that I'm just always trying to remind people to just be kind to other people, because you have no idea what they're dealing with.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, we live by that.
Speaker 2:The word grace keeps coming in. Oh, that was, I got some feedback there. The word grace keeps coming into my mind. Yeah, just like constantly over and over. As you were speaking, it was like grace, grace, grace, grace. And it's like, yeah, giving yourself grace and others need to be graceful and kind to one another. Like, yeah, so powerful yeah, absolutely did you read any books, yeah, literally.
Speaker 1:Um, did you read any books or anything like? Did you like dive into personal development for mindset, like what were you like before? I'd love to know what you were like before and like, did you have to like dive into like personal development and stuff like that to gain a stronger mindset to deal with everything that you had to? Um?
Speaker 3:yeah, absolutely. Like you know, prior to um getting sick, you know I was only 20, you know my life was sort of only just starting and you know I was only 20. You know my life was sort of only just starting and you know I was just finding my feet in the adult world and you know I'd never really given any second thought to my mindset or anything like that, because there had just never been anything really that made me think about that or make it a priority in my life. Like you know, I was just living, you know, my best life as a 20-year-old. I was working, hanging out with my friends, you know all those fun things that you do.
Speaker 3:But yeah, then, as time went on, with being unwell and not knowing and then particularly finding out that for now they can't fix what's happened to me, that's when I really dove into a lot of that work on mindset and nervous system regulation. You know the power of the mind and you know to power of the mind and you know to an extent we can heal ourselves. And you know like I'm realistic about. You know I can't reconnect a lot of the parts of my nervous system that this parasite has eaten through, particularly through my, like, my enteric nervous system and my autonomic nervous system and my autonomic nervous system, but I can help rewire the neural pathways in my brain, um. So yeah, I dove into a lot of work, um, with, like, joe Dispenza.
Speaker 3:I was thinking that, as you were talking, yeah she's, she's been down the Joe Dispenser rebel, yeah absolutely and like his work is just phenomenal and absolutely life-changing. Um, I've read a few of his books and I have just started to dive into his one of his online courses, um, so yeah, and there's a lot of other authors and books and podcasts and things out there that I have dove into Absolutely relevant to myself at the moment, and try and incorporate what I can from that advice into my life, just to see you know, what have I got to lose at this point? Absolutely, I'm happy and it's like I say, I'm happy to try anything once yeah, and if it doesn't help, it doesn't help, at least I can say I tried.
Speaker 3:And on the other foot, if it does help, even if it's only the smallest bit, any change, any positive change in the symptoms that I live with every day is massive to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just you showing up for yourself and you trying things is like just got to build your confidence and stuff as well and self-belief and trust and all of the rest of it confidence and stuff as well, and self-belief and trust and all of the rest of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like if you had told me at you know, 12 months into me being unwell, that you know I would have shared my story internationally on you know online news and gone on national television twice.
Speaker 3:Now to stepping into this sort of space, and you know I'm wanting to focus a lot of my energy in 2025 on raising awareness and advocacy and getting my story out there to help other people yeah yeah, if you had told me that at the start of my journey that I'd be doing this, I would have just thought you're insane, because you know I couldn't even talk to the people in my life about what was going on let alone strangers. So yeah, absolutely well.
Speaker 1:I think this podcast reaches 50 countries at the moment, so we've broadened your horizons, but um have you written a blog or anything. Because Because I know for myself, if I was having symptoms after Thailand, I'd be Googling like yeah, yeah, so I haven't.
Speaker 3:It's something that I have been working on. I haven't published anything yet. I'm still like there's a bit of that resistance to that, and I think a lot of that comes from, you know, the subconscious ego of what if nobody reads it?
Speaker 3:like, yes, what if people think I'm stupid, like who cares just put it out into the world and it will find the right people who need it absolutely. I have shared a lot of my journey through my Instagram. Um, yeah, that's where I turned to when I first got sick, you know, just trying to find other people that were going through something similar to me that I could talk to about it, because you know as much as I was lucky that I could talk to my partner and my family and my friends. They can offer support, but it's not like the support of someone who knows what you're going through because they've been through something similar. Um, so, yeah, I turned to social media to find support and I was very lucky to, um, make some really good friends through social media.
Speaker 2:That you know a different root cause to mine, but living with the same conditions yeah, um, and yeah, I'm sort of now trying to step back into sharing more on my social media again, but not so much from that side of things, more so from, yeah, like an advocacy and awareness point yeah and it's like those people just can see you in such different light, like everyone can say, oh, I see you, you know I can hold the space for you, I support you, but until you have someone who's actually gone through what you've gone through, it's like a different type of feeling seen and heard and validated. Um, and I keep getting. What about a book?
Speaker 3:have you ever thought of doing a book about your journey and how you felt, and you know what it's been like the roller coaster that has been the last 10 years of your life, or just pulling you forward um, that is um, it's on my 2025 vision board to start the process of that, and I think my blog will kind of tie into that, because I think I can use that to help, you know, get my thoughts on paper and figure out my style of getting what's in my brain out in a coherent way. But, yeah, that's definitely a space that I would love to step into so that I can be a resource for other people.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well. You have our support. We would love to share any blogs, any books, anything. Feel free to send anything through, and if we see things pop up, we'll do so as well. Thank you absolutely. I'm curious to know Tess, what other? Because I see so many things on your social media in terms of what other things you have in your mental health. I suppose toolkit yeah.
Speaker 3:So, um, I there's a lot of things that I, I suppose I have in my toolkit to lean on for my mental health and my nervous system regulation um, a huge one for me is the water. So, whether that's the pool in my backyard, the, the ocean, a lake, a river, a puddle, like any body of water, is where I feel the most grounded, the most safe and, in a sense, the most free, because, you know, I can go and lie in the ocean and float and the weight is taken off of my body. I don't feel pain when I'm in the water. You know my prosthetic hips feel so much better when I'm in the water. So that's a really important one for me that every day I try and get myself into some sort of body of water.
Speaker 3:There's a group in Ocean Grove called Sunrise Hunters that my friend Ash set up, and it's just a big group of people that head down to the beach and we swim at sunrise, we splash around, we chat, we watch the sunrise and it's just such a beautiful way to start the day because you've got, you know, the grounding and the cleansing, and then you know community and connection.
Speaker 3:It's just, it's such a great way to start the day, and there's been so many times where I've had the most awful night with symptoms. I haven't slept at all. And then, you know, I look at my watch and I'm like, oh, it's about to be sunrise, do I want to stay in bed? And I'm like, you know, I look at my watch and I'm like, oh, it's about to be sunrise, do I want to stay in bed? And I'm like, no, I'll get up and I'll go down. And it just makes me feel so much better that particularly. You know, we're a big group of people, we're all from different walks of life, but that nature just brings us all together, really us all together, really. Um, yes, I think that's probably my biggest tool in helping my mental health, particularly because I just feel better when I'm in the water yeah, how ironic, though, how ironic yeah, I know that's how you
Speaker 3:gain, I know, that's what.
Speaker 2:I was thinking yeah, it is where you spend the most time grounding yeah, like wow yeah, it's irony at its finest yeah, I'd love if you could share that page, um, or if there's a group or something. That sounds incredible, and it's something I often want to do, but as a woman, you know, just the safety aspect comes into play for me doing it on my own. So, yeah, now that I know that there's something like that, where it's a group of people, I'd love to come and check it out on one morning one sunrise, absolutely, and you know there's always.
Speaker 3:There's always at least a few people there from the group like um. In the peaks of winter, you know, there might only be 10 of us, but then, on the other hand, in the peaks of summer, there can be 40 of us oh, that's so good.
Speaker 3:Um, new year's day this year was amazing. It was the most phenomenal sunrise and there was probably 30 of us that were all in the water at the same time as the sun came up on the first day of 2025, and like it just felt so, like you just felt so connected to the universe and you know those around you and, yeah, it's just such a powerful thing. That just started with a few people who noticed other people swimming at sunrise, and then we start talking, and then Ash has built this community from the ground up Sounds so euphoric.
Speaker 1:It sounds so similar to what Leona does here now, and it's just growing and growing and growing. It's like there's ones in major cities, if people are listening to ones called cool.
Speaker 2:To be conscious, they actually started here in Airlie Beach, which is so cool and it's gone massive, like huge so isn't the one that you were talking about at the beginning. Tess, cool to be conscious.
Speaker 3:No, so that was cold and conscious cold and conscious um was a breathwork and ice bath group Was that at Eastern Beach?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we used to meet down at Eastern Beach on a Saturday morning and now that's been taken over by another group called Chill Breathe Revive. So Steph and George from Chill Breathe Revive took over when Steve from Quantum Conscious took a step back, okay, and our community was so grateful for them, for, you know, stepping in to take over our community so that it wasn't lost and you know, something that so many of us rely on, yeah, was still available to us. So, yeah, now it's run by Chill Breathe Revive and instead of being at Eastern Beach, we're down in the Park and Fines for now instead. Okay, um, and yeah, it's just again. It's such a beautiful community that I'm so blessed to be a part of. Um, I've made some amazing friends through that community that you know. They have held me through a lot over the last couple of years. Um, and yeah, I'm just so grateful to have found my people.
Speaker 2:basically, yeah, yeah, so beautiful. Yeah, turning pain into power absolutely, yeah, you, despite everything you've been through, you do it really well, like I just couldn't imagine. I try and you know we often try to think what, how we would be in those situations, and until you're in them you won't actually know. But yeah, I'm just in awe of your bravery, thank you thank you sending a big cuddle.
Speaker 1:That's a good cuddle.
Speaker 2:10 yeah, I know, I think I need one too. Yeah, tess, is there anything else you wanted to share that you didn't get a chance to share with our listeners today?
Speaker 3:um, I don't think so nice, amazing.
Speaker 2:Everything usually has a way of just sort of naturally coming out, yeah, um. Well, I suppose we'll end with our two questions then, which are so that's the first one. If you could say something to the younger version of tess, what would you say?
Speaker 3:um, buckle up, um, and just just learn to ride the wave. You know that my life is going to look very different to you know the plan I had in my head and everything that I thought my life would look like now at 30. And you, you know, yeah, buckle up, because it's going to be a wild ride. It's going to be horrible, you're going to go through awful things, but those things have led you to stepping into your power.
Speaker 1:Yes, please Slay. And also, if there is someone listening right now that is putting off chasing their dreams, what advice would you give them?
Speaker 3:to just start. You know it doesn't have to be perfect. Just take that first step, um towards whatever it is, um. Yeah, just set yourself small achievable goals along the way and to just step into the first part of whatever that dream is for you. And you know it's going to be a process. There'll be ups, there'll be downs, but you're like it's just learning along the way amen.
Speaker 1:You can tell when someone's done personal development, when it's been an honor honestly like what a way to start off 2025.
Speaker 2:You are so powerful, so powerful, tessa. Never forget it. Honestly, please, you are. If you ever do, inbox us, because we will remind you absolutely well. Thank you to all of our beautiful listeners for tuning back in to the first episode with our beautiful guest Tess Swift in 2025. And stay tuned for all of the beautiful episodes that we'll be dropping over the course of this year. We are feeling ready and empowered and we're just so excited for what this year brings.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, Tess, for coming on. Thank you so much for having me All the best.
Speaker 2:Take care Bye, guys. All the best. You so much for having me. All about love. Take care bye guys. All about love. We hope you feel inspired to take back your power. Thank you for listening into the ewp party. With jules and day, we want to challenge you to share this party with someone you love. Let's get all women involved. Follow us us on Insta at empoweringwomen underscore project, facebook and TikTok at empoweringwomenproject.
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