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This week on Wellbeing Interrupted, I take a moment to unpack my incredible conversation with Michelle Holling-Brooks from Episode 52. Michelle’s story of resilience and healing left a lasting impact, and I couldn’t help but reflect on the insights she shared. 

In today’s solo episode, I explore three key themes from our chat—labels, connection, and challenging the belief that healing equals perfection.  

Labels: Navigating Chronic Illness 

Michelle spoke about how she no longer defines herself by the labels of her diagnoses. Instead, she reframes her illnesses as experiences she is working through. This perspective resonated deeply with me. 

I’ve experienced both MS and stage 4 cancer, but these conditions don’t define who I am. Instead, I choose to focus on how I respond to these challenges. By shifting my mindset inward, I’ve been able to reclaim a sense of control over my journey—something I share in my Healing Mindset Course. 

Reflect on your relationship with labels. Are you defining yourself by your illness? If so can you reframe your illness as an experience you are having that is part of your story, not the entirety of who you are? 

Connection: Essential for Healing 

One of the most touching moments from Michelle’s story was her connection with her horse, Schedule. It was this soul-level bond that ignited her healing journey. 

For me, connection has also been essential—whether it’s with my Irish Terrier, Lori, my medical team, natural therapists or even myself. For example, when I was diagnosed with cancer, I knew my surgeon was the right person for my mastectomies because of the immediate trust and connection I felt with her. 

Healing isn’t just about finding the right treatments; it’s about surrounding yourself with people and environments that resonate with your soul. 

So ask yourself: Are you connected with your medical team, natural therapists, or support network? If not, it might be time to seek those relationships that truly support your healing. 

Healing Isn’t Perfection 

Michelle’s wisdom about healing being more than just the absence of symptoms struck a chord. She reminded us that healing is about remembering we’re whole, worthy and amazing, no matter what challenges we face. 

This resonated as I reflected on my own journey. My MS has been inactive for over 12 years, but my legs are far from perfect. And that’s okay. Healing isn’t about erasing every symptom—it’s about embracing the growth and strength that come from those experiences. 

When I was diagnosed with cancer, I initially questioned if I had failed in some way. But through practices like Reiki and years of inner work, I’ve come to see healing as an ongoing process. 

In Episode 36, I shared how grief became a turning point for me, helping me shift my focus inward and start a new chapter of healing. It’s not about achieving perfection but about building resilience for whatever comes next. 

Final Thoughts 

Healing is a journey, not a destination. Cliched but true! By reframing labels, fostering meaningful connections, and embracing the imperfection of healing, we need to embrace healing with an open mind. 

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to listen to Michelle’s incredible story in Episode 52. And take a moment to reflect on your own healing journey—what lessons have you learned, and how can you continue to grow? 

Thank you for tuning in to Wellbeing Interrupted. 

Transcript Episode 53: Healing Beyond Labels, Perfection, and Disconnection

[00:00:00] Teisha Rose: Hey there, Teisha here, and welcome to episode 53 of Wellbeing Interrupted, and this is take two. I've just recorded, I'm sitting in the caravan, recording this episode, just finished, and it didn't upload properly. The joys of being in the caravan and not having good Wi Fi. So I'm on my phone now and I'll re deliver episode 53. 

[00:00:29] So with a smile, because you know, challenges happen and we just have to find our way of moving forward. So this has been another good week for me. The festival of turning 50 continues and I've, yeah, been out and caught up with friends, family. Had a great time. Um, actually it's the first time I've really enjoyed a milestone birthday. 

[00:00:53] Also, I'm been unpacking a little bit my conversation with Michelle in last week's episode, and that's what I want to talk about today for the second time. So if you haven't listened to episode 52, I encourage you to go to that episode now. You won't be disappointed. Michelle's story is incredible. It's the type of story where your mouth is open, thinking, are you serious? 

[00:01:23] Have you been through so much in your lifetime? What I love is Michelle's insights, and there's so much to learn from her. And as I said to Michelle, I'll have her back on the show because I want to have her on as an expert, you know, not just in relation to her story, but how she's helping others in their own healing journeys. 

[00:01:49] So today I'll talk about three areas of our conversation, labels and the role labels play in living with an illness and how they maybe make healing a little bit more difficult, the importance of connection, soul connection. So not just in terms of having different connections in your support system, but having connections with people, with animals, with practitioners, whoever it is, but making sure you connect at a soul level. 

[00:02:30] And then thirdly, we talk about perfection. In terms of healing, perfection, and how sometimes focusing on healing being the absence of any symptoms or, you know, healing being, you being perfect, that's not necessarily realistic and it's certainly not helpful when you're living with a health condition. 

[00:02:57] Welcome to Wellbeing Interrupted, the podcast dedicated to exploring the transformative power of a healing mindset. I'm Tisha Rose, your host and the founder of Hurdle to Hope. Quest to not just survive, but thrive after a life changing diagnosis, then you're definitely in the right place. Living with MS and now stage 4 breast cancer has taught me a vital lesson. 

[00:03:26] In the face of a life changing illness, our mindset is everything. Each week I'll share insights, tips and strategies to help you build a happier, healthier, more balanced life. So let's begin your journey. 

[00:03:50] I'm going to read you out a list and I apologize because my pronunciation of some illnesses isn't great, but that's okay. Um, I'm sure you'll know what I'm talking about. So this is a list of all the illnesses Michelle mentioned that have crossed her path in her lifetime. Traumatic birth complications, so numerous health conditions, issues at birth, hearing problems, chronic ear infections requiring 13 surgeries, starting from 6 months of age, Eastern equine encephalitis. 

[00:04:32] Contracted at age 13, which caused significant brain swelling. Remember, she had to have her skull open to alleviate some of that swelling. Then, that led to spinal meningitis. The aftermath of that episode and being in a coma, lined paralysis from the waist down. And complete memory loss, a total blank slate of identity and past memories, then traumatic brain injury as a result of the encephalitis and Meningitis, I'm pregnant, my speech therapist will be happy with me pronouncing these, um, conditions. 

[00:05:25] Then, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, not surprised. Systematic Lupus, diagnosed at 21, impacting multiple organs and causing chronic fatigue, so that's another condition. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Lyme disease, as I said to her, mosquito, was the cause of all those health conditions early on, and then bitten by a tick, and had Lyme disease, migraines, and to top it all off, cancer, neuroendocrine sarcoma cancer, extensively. 

[00:06:07] Um, infiltrating the endocrine system. That is an incredible list, and I hope no one can top that list, because it's obviously not about that. But my goodness, and that's why I want to listen to Michelle, because Going through that with a mind where you want to learn, you want to grow, you want to evolve, you want to heal, that's where amazing insights are born. 

[00:06:38] So one of the first things Michelle and I discussed was that she doesn't like using the term labels or she doesn't like, you know, doing what I just did and running a list of all the conditions she's lived with. Instead, she likes to say, this is an experience that I've worked through, and that experience, you could be working through it, or working with it, through whatever duration of time, and hopefully that stops you from holding on to that condition, because you're not defining yourself by that label. 

[00:07:22] So, you know, I've experienced MS, I've had all of these experiences, but I'm not MS, I've experienced cancer, but I'm not cancer. So I found that really interesting, the way she articulated that, and as I mentioned, that really resonated with me, and for me, I talk a lot, my business is Hurdle to Hope. I talk a lot about hope, and for me hope is no longer being defined by your illness, because I see illness almost as this external force. 

[00:08:02] You know, early on with MS I really struggled, because I felt like I was at the mercy of a force that I had no control over. Whereas, started infiltrating my life, or, you know, I started feeling like there was hope about my future because I thought I can have an impact on my experience with MS, and that's what my Healing Mindset course is all about. 

[00:08:32] It's like, you want to get to a place where you focus inwardly, you're not always looking externally for hope, you're not looking externally for who you are, you know, I'm not looking at my symptoms or my diseases and saying, I am MS, I am cancer, and reaching that place is so important because, just try it, try listing all the things that are wrong with you. 

[00:09:06] And immersing yourself in that, and defining yourself around that, and that energy is so heavy. Whereas if you don't define yourself by your illness, it just frees you up. You know, you think, I'm having this experience, it's not who I am, and I can just, as Michelle said, you can work through it for whatever duration of time that experience is with you. 

[00:09:42] I love that concept because at the moment I'm in remission with my MS but also with cancer and I love this because I, instead of saying all the time I'm living with stage 4 cancer, I'm freeing myself up from that, I'm really owning my remission more. And thinking, yeah, this is an experience I've worked through. 

[00:10:07] Who knows, who knows what's going to happen in the future. But, I don't need to keep saying to myself, I have cancer. 

[00:10:21] The second theme I want to chat about from my conversation with Michelle. Was the role of connection in healing. So how beautiful was Michelle's story about the connection she had with her horse, Schedule? That made me, like, goosebumps, and that's, like, the type of thing that the movie is made out of. And what I like, though, about that is, she said some people kind of take it that the horse helped her to heal, that, you know, the horse did this, because when she started, she said, and referred to herself as a bit blob, you know, she couldn't She couldn't really move, um, well she couldn't move, couldn't walk, she also couldn't hear, see properly, there's all these things going on, but that connection with the horse then started her healing. 

[00:11:20] And Michelle talks about it as a soul level. And it was her soul, with her soul and Schedule's soul connecting, and that created a healing presence. And I think that's so beautiful, and thinking about it like that, I've certainly had a connection with our dog. Lori, our beautiful Irish Terrier, was only six months as a puppy when I was diagnosed with cancer, and her presence has helped me so much in my healing. 

[00:11:55] But I also want us to widen this a bit as well. And we need to make sure anyone we're surrounding ourselves with on our healing journeys, there's a connection with, you know, whether it's your medical team, do you have a connection with them? I've shared before, and there's an episode I talk about this, I'll put in the show notes about building an integrative medical team. 

[00:12:23] A team that you can trust and rely on and you're connected with. And for me, my surgeon who performed my mastectomies, I knew from the moment I connected with her, she was the person to do this because the connection was so strong. I told her, like her voice was like angelic when I was being wheeled into the surgery. 

[00:12:48] The surgery went so well, I just trusted her in such a vulnerable position, and that just reaffirmed to me the importance of those connections when we're going through such difficult challenges with our illnesses. So I really encourage you, if you're not feeling a connection with anyone on your medical team, any of the natural therapists that you're seeing, Then don't have them part of that immediate circle, because that's not going to help you to heal. 

[00:13:27] I know I've got to change my general practitioner doctor, because very thorough and we've been finding it really hard to get a doctor here in Daisy Hill, and this lady was super super thorough, but she wasn't listening to me, and she said at the end of our consult, you haven't had a mammogram for a while. 

[00:13:51] And I said, well, I've got no boobs. And I thought, she's not even listening to me. She hasn't even connected with my story. And I thought, you can't be on this journey with me if there's no connection there. So really reflect on the quality of the connections you have in your network. Are you working with professionals and support systems that really resonate with? 

[00:14:17] You, do you feel connected with them? And if you don't, make sure you find people that do. 

[00:14:31] Then the third theme of my chat with Michelle is I want you to really challenge the belief that healing equals perfection. I did an episode on this early on about healing's more than a physical experience and I was really excited that Michelle could articulate this as well because she released That thought pattern that healing means perfection, instead that healing means that everything comes into normal, and she said it was remembering that I'm whole no matter what is happening within me, and I loved it. 

[00:15:16] She said I'm always whole, worthy, amazing, and I love that, and we need to keep saying that to ourselves when we're living with a health condition, because I think sometimes we think. If we still have symptoms, like I shared in a previous episode and I've shared quite a bit on Instagram, if you see me with a walker, If my legs aren't perfect, does that mean I haven't healed? 

[00:15:45] And I've come to the realisation that no, it doesn't. My MS, my disease, it hasn't been active for over 12 years. In my 20s, if you haven't heard my story, I spent at times months and months in hospital completely paralysed and I'm so grateful. That they've recovered and no, they're not perfect, but that doesn't mean I haven't healed. 

[00:16:13] Being diagnosed with cancer has reminded me of how much healing I've done and I think sometimes I don't acknowledge that to myself enough and I was actually having a Reiki session with Lisa So visit episode 41 Um, Lisa's a Reiki master and a wealth of so much knowledge as well. And I said to her, you know, how lucky am I that I've only had hormone blockers and surgeries to put my cancer into remission. 

[00:16:47] And she said, don't forget about all the work you've been doing on yourself. And it was a great reminder because sometimes I do forget. I think it can't just be luck that my MS is inactive, my cancer is inactive, and I'm not saying, you know, do this and you'll be cured. Not at all. But I have done so much work on myself since just before the relapse in 2012. 

[00:17:17] That was when I really started shifting my focus inwardly and focusing on healing. And that was really after our decision not to have children and the grief I went through during that. And that was such a turning point in my life that I thought I need to heal, I need to connect with myself, I need to learn more about myself, and that started a whole new chapter in my life. 

[00:17:48] So again, if you haven't listened to that episode, it's episode 36, where I share all about the absolute raw grief of not having children. And what I encourage you to do is Start reframing healing. So remember healing is an ongoing process. It's worth all the time and effort to focus on your healing and we don't know what the outcome of that will be. 

[00:18:20] I don't know. I was diagnosed with advanced cancer. I don't know what the outcome of that will be. But that doesn't mean that I need to stop focusing on healing because now more than ever I know I can have an impact. on my experiences. So I'm not sitting in fear, worried about what might happen. I'm motivated more than ever to focus on my healing and whether that means, hopefully, my cancer stays in remission forever. 

[00:18:55] Who knows? But I know that whatever happens, I can have an impact on that experience and that's my motivation to keep working on myself. 

[00:19:12] So a bit of a shorter chat, but yeah, even after this, I'd encourage you to go back to episode 52, have a listen again to Michelle's story and insights, and do that by thinking about labels and how we can reframe. labels as experiences rather than definitions. So instead of just focusing on MS, cancer, whatever health condition you have, think about them as experiences you're having in this lifetime and how hopefully you can move through that experience. 

[00:19:54] Then connection, it's so important that we feel connected. If we're going to heal, then we need to connect with others, not just superficially, but have a real feeling of that connection. And if you don't, with your medical practitioners, or natural therapists, then make sure that whoever's in your support network you feel connected with, and then, I don't think I mentioned it, I did in the first recording, but not this one, also connect with yourself. 

[00:20:31] Take this healing as a time of discovering more about yourself and connecting more with yourself, that's why I go on healing retreats, that's why I meditate, that's why. I'm living at Daisy Hill is that connection and that brings in to connect with your environment as well. Because all of those connections, especially the soul connections, that will help you heal at a deeper level. 

[00:21:04] Then remind yourself that healing isn't perfection. Healing is a dynamic process. We can't control what the final destination will be. But, that shouldn't stop us from wanting to heal and working on ourselves, because no matter what challenge comes ahead, and there'll be plenty of challenges that come ahead, that we become more confident that we can have an impact on that, because we've learnt so much about ourselves. 

[00:21:39] So hopefully you've got something out of this episode, hopefully you can start doing this with episodes as well. When you go through the catalogue of episodes I have now, you know, looking at different Hurdle to Hope stories, what can you learn from other people's experiences? Then I'm doing episodes where we're talking about Expert. 

[00:22:02] We're talking to, sorry, experts. I learnt so much from Laysa about Reiki in episode 41, or recently in episode 50, Francesca from Low Key Spiritual, don't remember the name, but I love that name of her business, Low Key Spiritual, and gosh, I learnt so much from her, especially about boundaries, people pleasing as well, So remember, if we're gonna move forward with our experiences, with our illnesses, if we're going to heal, we need to be open. 

[00:22:38] We need to challenge our thinking. And what better way of doing that than listening to episodes on Wellbeing Interrupted, but really to listen to others people's stories. Hopefully you can gain some insights from what I've been through. And also from all these other people who work in the field. So hopefully have an amazing week. 

[00:23:03] I'm really crossing my fingers that this recording has worked because I don't think my voice has got another, the third recording in it, um, for the day, but yeah, have a great week and I look forward to chatting to you soon.