In business coaching, fear is often framed as a sign you're on the right path—that growth and clarity are coming. But with cancer, fear doesn't work that way. That vortex of fear doesn't go away. It's always there. 

In this episode of Serenity Rising, Bron Watson introduces the Serenity Now cards—a deck of 52 emotion cards designed to help you name what you're feeling and find a path through. Today's focus: the emotion of fear, with the reframe of flexibility. 

Drawing on research and her own experience navigating cancer, Bron shares the powerful metaphor of the gum tree versus the willow tree.

When we meet fear with rigidity—white-knuckling, resisting, trying to control everything—we become brittle. But when we develop flexibility, we learn to bend without breaking. 

This episode includes five practical tools you can use when fear shows up, plus the framework Bron lives by: feel the feels, control the controllables, pause, reflect, respond, repeat. 

Enjoy!

Bron xx

Key Topics 

• What the Serenity Now cards are and how they work 

• Why "fear means growth" works in business but differs in cancer 

• What fear is neurologically (the amygdala as threat detector) 

• Why cancer-related fear doesn't "switch off" 

• The gum tree vs willow tree metaphor 

• Psychological flexibility and how it moderates fear of recurrence 

• 5 practical tools: breathwork, naming it, grounding, values-based action, thanking the fear.

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