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Turning 50 is the first milestone birthday that I’ve truly embraced. Stage 4 cancer changes your perspective. I’m not just grateful to be alive—I’m grateful to be loving life. 

As I step into 2025, I’ve chosen three words to guide my year: Confidence, Curiosity, and Creativity. These aren’t just aspirations—they’re powerful reminders of how I want to show up in my life, my health journey, and my business. 

Confidence: Owning My Remission and My Story 

In 2024, I hesitated to fully own the word remission when talking about my stage 4 breast cancer. It felt like I was tempting fate, as though acknowledging it too boldly might somehow jinx my future. But the truth is, I am in remission. And I want to celebrate that. 

Confidence, for me, means fully stepping into this truth—embracing the fact that my body has healed in ways I never expected. It also means having confidence in my business, Hurdle2Hope®, and the unique perspective I bring as someone who has navigated both MS and cancer. 

This year, I am committed to standing firmly in my expertise and experiences—without downplaying my achievements or resilience. 

Curiosity: A Mindset Shift for Growth 

Curiosity has always been at the core of how I approach my health. When I was diagnosed with MS in my early 20s, I was curious about how lifestyle changes might help. That curiosity led me to live overseas, change careers, and become a social worker. When I faced stage 4 breast cancer, I wondered whether being surrounded by nature might support my healing—so we moved to 100 acres. And I have never felt so at peace. 

This curiosity has served me well, and now, I’m applying it to my business, too. 

After my conversation with Jessica Graham in Episode 54, I realised curiosity isn’t just for health challenges—it’s essential for professional growth. Instead of feeling locked into how I thought my business would evolve, I’m allowing myself to explore new opportunities, including workshops for healthcare professionals and disability sector workers. 

The question I keep asking myself is: What if I allow curiosity to lead? 

Creativity: Finding New Ways to Support Others 

The third C—Creativity—is about thinking differently and finding new ways to make an impact. 

I’ve already created the Healing Mindset online course for individuals facing health challenges, but now, I’m expanding my focus to support the people who care for us: nurses, allied health professionals, and disability workers. Burnout in these industries is at an all-time high, and I believe my lived experience, combined with my professional background, gives me a unique perspective to help. 

This year, creativity means developing new workshops, speaking engagements, and training sessions to support those who play such a vital role in the lives of people with health conditions. It also means continuing to evolve Hurdle2Hope in ways I may not have even imagined yet. 

Bringing It All Together 

Confidence, curiosity, and creativity—these are more than just words. 

They’re a way of approaching life, health, and business. If you’re navigating a health challenge or a big life transition, I encourage you to choose your own words for the year ahead. What values will shape your path? What mindset shifts do you need to embrace? 

For me, 2025 is about stepping into confidence as I navigate challenges, staying curious about the opportunities ahead, and bringing creativity to everything I do. 

Let’s Stay Connected 

If you’re a healthcare professional, disability sector worker, or part of an organisation looking for training on resilience, mindset, and wellbeing, I’d love to connect. 

📧 Email: [email protected] 
🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/teisha-rose

SHOW RESOURCES 

The Healing Mindset Course – hurdle2hope.com/healing-mindset-illness

Episode 54: Learning from Jessica Graham: Author Being (Sick) Enough

Episode 32: Why Accepting Your Diagnosis Doesn't Mean Giving Up Hope

Episode 30: Why I Am Not in Denial About My Health Condition

Transcript Episode 55

[00:00:00]

Teisha Rose: Hey there, Teisha here and welcome to episode 55 of Wellbeing Interrupted. I'm actually recording this from my parents house. I had to come down for physio. I'm spending time focusing on my MS at the moment. My poor legs have been so through so much over the last few years and neglected.

So I'm focusing on getting myself a bit more mobile. Um, so that's why I'm down on the Bellarine Peninsula. And also it doesn't hurt because it has been so, so hot at Daisy Hill. So, , poor Andrew is still stuck in the van. But, I'm escaping for a couple of days. So this episode today is a solo episode.

Um, and It's really a follow on from my conversation with Jessica Graham, so episode 54, and it's interesting, [00:01:00] the episode, my chat with Jess, happened on the day, or the day before I left to go away for a few days, so I went away to a resort which was beautiful for my 50th birthday in January. And then there was a great deal on the same sort of room and suite.

So I went away for my, by myself for a few days and I really wanted to spend some time by myself reflecting on what has been, but also getting excited about the, the direction of my business moving forward and Part of this was prompted from my discussion with Jess because we talked about curiosity and I thought I have been very curious in my life with MS and now cancer, but I thought I need to bring that [00:02:00] to what I'm doing business wise as well and I'll also chat about My two words for 2025, I've never done this before, but I had already decided that my word for 2025 was going to be confidence, to have more confidence in really staying in remission, more confidence in what I've been through and what I've brought to my approach to cancer.

And also curiosity. and as you'll hear as I was actually recording this episode, I've also added another C word to this , not a bad C word, um, but this, um, cur now I've lost my train of thought. I added another C word, , which is creativity. , have a listen and yeah. Hear how my next. This year, 2025, is really [00:03:00] going to be guided by confidence, curiosity, and also creativity. So I hope you enjoy this episode.

 So as I look ahead to 2025 I'm more excited than ever and turning 50 has been a big deal but never before have I embraced a milestone birthday feeling So alive, you know, feeling so grateful and really looking forward to the unknown with [00:04:00] excitement. And I know some people listening to me, if you don't quite know me and you don't quite know my background, you might be thinking that this approach to the reality of 4 breast cancer, that means I'm in denial.

of the reality of this disease, but don't worry, I'm not. As I explained in episodes 30 and 32, for me, embracing the present, accepting the present, I accept I've been diagnosed with a really full on diagnosis in stage 4 breast cancer from the beginning. Also, Diagnosed with MS way back when I was 22, but by actively accepting those diagnoses, I'm having an impact on my future.

I don't know what my future holds with MS or [00:05:00] cancer, but three years ago, it's nearly three years since I was diagnosed and found out about breast cancer and there is no way when I found out it already spread to my liver and bones That I would think that going in remission only a few months later, that it would never come back or it has never come back to those organs or to my bones.

That's amazing. And I want to celebrate that. I want to embrace that. And I want to be excited about What the future holds because I don't want to not embrace and have confidence in saying that I am in remission and I want to own that and who knows as I said what will be but I am in remission and I'm going to be excited by that.

So that was my rationale for the word confidence [00:06:00] because I think I was scared to say and own that I'm in remission and And I even changed what I had on my Instagram account for Hurdle2Hope. I had living with stage 4 cancer and I was challenged to say, why don't you put in there in remission from stage 4 cancer?

So even something little like that, changing the language, that reflects me being more confident in owning where I am. So confidence was my word. Did you have a word for your year? I mean, I had never done this before, but it's interesting whenever I feel like that I'm going within myself, I remind myself to be confident.

And with that in mind, that's how I approached the start to 2025.

And I think I've taken to You know, you turn 50 and you think, wow, , I remember turning [00:07:00] 21 so clearly or 25. I was, it was the year 2000 and well, I was living in a city, Melbourne, you know, with my flatmates, we're trying to work out what to do for New Year's Eve on the year 2000. I remember all of that so clearly.

So now I think 50 makes you realize, hey, I've been here for a while, so let's Learn from what has been and have confidence in sharing what has worked. And I look back in my 20s and I must have had confidence back then because I was so sick in the year 2000. And then in 2001, if you don't know, I, Started walking again and I kept walking and I lived overseas and travelled by myself for a year and I think now, you know, what confidence, what self confidence I must have had to do that.

And changing careers. Left corporate [00:08:00] world, a career I assumed would be mine. I went off, lived in Bendigo, which is if you're not in Australia, central Victoria. I didn't know anyone in Bendigo, but I decided I wanted to do social work. So I moved up there, got a place to rent and did social work. You know, another really brave decision.

Another relapse. I then went to Romania and volunteered in Romania with children with special needs. Another really confident thing to do when you're living with MS and going to a country where you don't understand the language or you've never been there before, you know, it was so different but so amazing.

And now I look back and I just thought automatically, let's do this, let's move to 100 acres of land, let's sell our house. And fortunately Andrew was on board as well, because looking back I think, wow. This time last year, we were still living by the beach and [00:09:00] now we've sold our house. We've moved up, living in the caravan, but now I'm living on a hundred acres of land.

So I need to bring that confidence now and own that as I make decisions for my future, because it's worked in the past. And what I love about having guests on the podcast, like Jess, Jess then got me thinking about curiosity. And I hope if you haven't listened to that episode, have a listen, because I love the way they talked about curiosity.

And I realised without using that word, that's what I was doing with MS. You know, I was curious, would a change of career help my health? I was curious, would I cope with traveling and living in a country I didn't know anyone, you know, live and work in Edinburgh? Would that be a good thing [00:10:00] for me? And it was, but I was curious.

I was curious, even more recently, would moving to 100 acres of land, would that help me in this new challenge of cancer? And it has. So curiosity is so important and fortunately without realizing or without naming it that's what I've been doing. But part of me then having this time in the suite by myself was thinking how do I bring confidence and curiosity to my business Hurdle2Hope because Feeling safe, what I thought I would do in the beginning was work with others, living with health conditions.

I'm still passionate about that and I still want to support those dealing with health conditions through my course Healing Mindset, so [00:11:00] that's something I'm still doing, but I kept thinking I have been Blessed to have such a unique experience of working as a social worker, not in the health field, but with those in crisis, dealing with, homelessness, needing accommodation.

And I've also, I don't think I've been blessed, but you know, I've had to deal with two massive health challenges. I've also studied degrees in business, Psychology and then social work. Adding to another layer of insight I've accumulated. I've worked as an auditor in the disability sector. I've spoken to hundreds and hundreds of staff, so disability work, support workers, allied health professionals, [00:12:00] and I've also spoken to thousands of people living with health conditions, people um, living with disabilities.

And I kept thinking, I need to put all of this knowledge and experience to help those not just living with health conditions, but those supporting us. And that's when the third C, Creativity, came to play. And Over the last few weeks, I have tried to be so much more creative in working out what to do with this unique perspective I have.

And, um, I've created two new workshops for those, one for those working in the disability sector, for those in Australia, primarily for [00:13:00] NDIS providers. So for those not in Australia, that's for our National Disability Insurance Scheme. So people supporting us living with disabilities. And also putting together a workshop for nurses, because what I've been really sad about is in the media, there's been so many reports recently, really post COVID, I guess as well, of the burnout.

of those in the health sector, the burnout they're experiencing. And I think we can't get through our challenges without healthcare professionals. without disability workers. You know, I rely on my incredible physio so much. The reality of not being down on the ballerina and not having access to my amazing physio, you know, I'm now coming down.

It's good. I [00:14:00] visit mum and dad, but coming down to have those sessions because they make such a difference in my ability to walk, you know, so I just think. Also, as well as supporting others, I've now really confident, curious, and been creative into how I can support that broader network.

So I should say, if you're a worker in the disability sector or if you're a healthcare professional working, for example, as a nurse,

reach out to me, find out when I'm running these workshops and I'm also having them on demand as well and run at organisations. My details will be in the show notes. You can also reach out my email, connect at hurdle2hope. com, Hurdle2Hope with number 2. . And I'm also going to start doing speaking engagements. And hopefully Um, some medical [00:15:00] conferences as well because burnout in the healthcare sector is such a massive issue. I hope the perspective I can bring as someone living with a healthcare condition, healthcare, a health condition or two, um, as well as my professional expertise, that can help have an impact on this massive issue.

And if you're listening to this and you have a friend Family member who's working in the healthcare sector, support them, you know, they're doing so much and sometimes it's such a thankless, not thankless in terms of the sessions you have, um, they have with individuals and with us, gosh, I'm forever grateful, but the environment at hospitals within the NDIS sector, whatever it is, they're full on and sometimes it's, a role that is not appreciated [00:16:00] enough.

Um, so if you know someone, give them some encouragement and certainly support them because we need, we never know what in our health lets us down, and we need the support of these incredible individuals who are there helping us move forward from hurdle to hope.

Okay, so a bit of a shorter solo episode But I really want to encourage you to also be confident Be confident in your ability to get through all the challenges that you face in living with a health condition. 2024 may have been a really difficult year for you, but you got through it and that's amazing.

And, you know, give yourself praise for that and have the confidence that that [00:17:00] thing gives you the Insights, the skills to actually get through other challenges that we may face. Be curious. If we have a curious mind in approaching our health conditions, that makes life more interesting.

You know, have curiosity. Think, I wonder what will happen if I do this? I wonder, will that help my wellbeing? Be curious, have that approach to living with your health condition because in that curiosity, that is where you'll learn and grow. And then be creative. Be creative in your response to your illness.

I'm now trying to be creative in how I can help others navigate their own health conditions, but also supporting those in our wider support system. So I think if in 2025 [00:18:00] we're all confident, curious and creative, then it's going to be a great year. I've mentioned a couple of different episodes, 30 and 32.

That's where I talk about denial, acceptance and hope. Really important discussions, I think, for us to live well with our health conditions. The other episode I've spoken about is my discussion last week with Jessica Graham. That is episode 54. Otherwise, yeah, have a fantastic week and I really look forward to chatting to you again next week where I will be, introducing you to someone else who has had an incredible Hurdle2Hope story.

Look forward to chatting then.

 [00:19:00]