In this episode, Aimee sits down with Hannah Hedrick, a movement teacher, peer-support pioneer, and lifelong advocate whose work has quietly shaped communities across the United States for decades.

Hannah’s life has been guided by service, community, and an unwavering belief in the human capacity to heal. She has created self-care and peer-support programs for individuals and families navigating HIV diagnosis and treatment, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), diabetes, polio, disability, aging, and caregiver stress - often long before systems had language or infrastructure to support this work.

Her early activism began during the civil rights movement, when she participated in sit-ins before the term was widely recognized. Over time, her work evolved from public activism into something more intimate and relational: practices rooted in presence, compassion, and the daily tending it takes to sustain ourselves across the seasons of life.

In this conversation, Hannah reflects on:

• What has sustained her through decades of service and change
• Lessons learned from peer-support communities facing life-threatening illness
• Her work in co-meditation and end-of-life support, including insights from her book The Quiet Killer
• The difference between surviving and truly thriving
• Healthy aging as a lifelong relationship with the body, not a goal to achieve

At the heart of Hannah’s work is a simple truth: awareness asks something of us - and responding requires courage.

This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen deeply, and reconnect with practices that are steady, humane, and sustainable. Not as something we add on-but as something we return to, again and again.

• How service—not titles or institutions—has shaped Hannah’s life path
• What peer-support communities teach us about resilience and connection
• Why presence matters more than fixing, especially at the end of life
• A practical Survive → Thrive framework for caregivers and educators
• Gentle daily practices that support joy, embodiment, and longevity

As you listen, consider:

• What practices help you feel grounded when life speeds up?
• Where might you choose simple instead of more?
• What does tending—rather than striving—look like in this season of your life?

At 86, Hannah reminds us that self-care is not something we “add on.” It is something we practice, moment by moment, across a lifetime.

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