Some days it feels like no matter how much we try, the weight of loss, stress, or just everyday demands won’t let us catch our breath. But strength isn’t built in big leaps; it’s in the small daily choices— the way we move, eat, rest, and show up for ourselves. When life knocks us off course, there’s always a way back through routine, resilience, and the right kind of support.

After decades as a teacher and school administrator, and through seasons of grief and healing, Ann Tirrell became a wellness advocate and biohacker focused on balance, longevity, and self-care. Her journey shows how fitness, food, nature, and gratitude aren’t just practices, but lifelines that make thriving possible.

Listen as Ann and Kimberly dive into aging well, addiction and loss, the role of movement and nutrition, the power of morning rituals, and why resilience is the real secret to lasting health.

02:36 Biohacking Basics: Aging with Intention

05:58 Eat to Thrive: Food as Medicine and Biohacking Routine

07:39 The Value of Habits

09:19 Move with Meaning

15:36 The Biiohacker’s Toolkit: Sugar, Sweetness, and Electrolytes

18:32 The Roots of Self-Care

22:39 Growth Through Adversity

30:46 Daily Steps After Trauma and Loss

35:23 What Support Group Really Means    

38:46 Catching Up with Mimi

Books

📖Grid: Once in a Lifetime You Get to Start Over by Dr. Kimberly Hubenette

📖Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! by Dr. Kimberly Hubenette (COMING SOON)

 

Thank you for listening.

To keep my podcast alive,

Wanna buy my dog Dakota a bone?

• https://buymeacoffee.com/livelovesurvivethrive

05:42 “Life goes on and we don’t forget, but we move on.” —Ann Tirrell

06:32 “I have always looked at food as being either medicine or poison, and the choices you make around what you put in your body, as far as nutrition, will make a difference.” —Ann Tirrell

07:30 “Biohacking: bio is you’re a biological being, and the hacking part is the choices you make in what you put in the body.” —Ann Tirrell

12:55 “It’s being intentional and dedicated, and the rewards are, I’m more alert, I feel good.” —Ann Tirrell

14:07 “As you get older, people need more protein, because… that helps maintain your muscle.” —Ann Tirrell

17:44 “It’s a lifestyle. It’s not something that you force yourself to do.” —Kimberly Hubenette 

17:56 “These have become habits of my life, and when I first started, I had to be very intentional. Now, that’s what I do. I don’t think about it.” —Ann Tirrell

20:51 “I think about what I can do for myself so that I’m the best I can be for the people I love.” —Ann Tirrell

23:14 “You can handle things in life if you’re taking care of yourself, physically and mentally.” —Ann Tirrell

26:01 “In life, there’s always a blessing. If you dwell on the awful, terrible part of it, you might miss that lesson in the moment of crisis. Don’t do it alone. Seek out support.” —Ann Tirrell

31:14 “Number one, always take action. Number 2, always have a routine.” —Kimberly Hubenette

32:22 “No matter how prepared you think you might be, still the day comes and they’re gone.” —Kimberly Hubenette

35:20 “Hang around with people who are going to give you a better life.” —Kimberly Hubenette 

37:21 “You got to take care of yourself — that’s number one.” —Ann Tirrell

37:56 “It is what it is, and I can only do what I can do, and part of that is taking care of myself.” —Ann Tirrell 

Ann Tirrell is a seasoned educator, wellness advocate, and lifelong learner who has spent more than three decades serving in public education as both a teacher and administrator. Recognized for her mentorship, leadership, and unwavering dedication, she has guided students and colleagues alike with a focus on resilience, self-care, and the value of supportive communities. 

Passionate about health and vitality, Ann embraces nature and active living—whether hiking the trails of Sonoma County, cycling through scenic landscapes, or enjoying time in the Sierra Nevada mountains and along the California coast. She is also an anti-aging biohacker, adopting practices like carb cycling and other innovative approaches to maintain balance, energy, and mental clarity.

As she transitions into retirement, Ann is excited to begin her next chapter: sharing her journey of wellness and growth, deepening her family connections, and inspiring others to live with purpose, vitality, and joy.

Beyond her career, Ann is a devoted wife of forty years, proud mother of two sons, and “Mimi” to her cherished granddaughters.

 

Kimberly Hubenette: Welcome to the  Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! Podcast that helps you embrace life’s challenges, grow through adversity, and discover your true potential. I’m your host, Dr. Kimberly Hubenette, anti-aging dentist, widow, Author and inspirational Coach. I live by the “Can I” philosophy of constant and never ending improvement, and I’m here to help you do the same. Each week, we’ll dive into real conversations, powerful stories and practical tools to help you heal, grow and thrive. Whether you’re rebuilding after loss or ready to step into a more purposeful life, this space is for you. Let’s grow, evolve and thrive together. 

Good morning everybody. I’m really keeping it, and I’m here in beautiful Cabo San Lucas, and we’re doing our Grief Journey 101 Wellness Retreat. Today is the second day, and we’ve had so much fun so far. I’m so excited to share with you my friend, my guest, and my colleague. Her name is Ann. She’s a young, 68, going on 40. I look up to her. She’s a mentor of mine, and I would say that I totally think about things that she talks to me about. She really pays attention to life, and you’re going to really enjoy what she has to say today about her life. I met her about 10 years ago in a meeting that we went to, a poly chiropractor friend of mine. We are biohackers, which means that we’re looking into anti-aging things that we can do to become more efficient with our lives. And before I get into that, I’m going to have her say hello, introduce herself, and then explain more about this type of a life at Live, Love, Survive, Thrive!, my podcast. Something that we ask all of our guests is talk about how they live, love, survive and thrive. What makes it unique to them, their special way of doing that. And we’re living in Pablo San Lucas today. It’s such a beautiful day. I am going to share my screen with you guys, and let’s go ahead and say hi to Ann. 

Hi, Ann. 

Ann Tirrell: Hey, great to be here. 

Kimberly Hubenette: Yes. Isn’t it so beautiful? When I invited you to come to Cabo San Lucas and said that we were going to Pueblo Bonito, what kind of thoughts did you have about our journey? 

Ann Tirrell: Glad to have a little escape from the routine and everyday life, and enjoying focusing on myself and being with you, enjoying. It’s just so gorgeous even with the probable weather, it’s been a lot of inspiration

Kimberly Hubenette: Being together, talking about life and friendships, and our journey together, we’ve been reminiscing about how long we’ve known each other and helped each other out with life changes. You were there when Mark was sick. When you saw the trends rushing down the journey and cast away, you’ve helped me through a lot. You sent my friend, and you actually made a point to be with me in those hard times. Sometimes I didn’t know that I was feeling what I was feeling, and then you came over to be my friend. It’s a little emotional. 

Ann Tirrell: It’s hard to imagine the loss for you, and I really couldn’t do anything to change what was happening. But I knew being there for you was what I could do, and I’m glad that it was helpful. I’m still here for you. Life goes on. We don’t forget, but we move on. And I think I’ve had a lot of loss and tragedy in my life, so I guess that I’ve learned from that. I’m glad it was helpful. 

Kimberly Hubenette: I’ve always looked up to you because you are vivacious. You live life down to the fullest, and you take really good care of yourself. When we met, we were introduced to a company that was into wellness and biohacking. And I don’t know, maybe you can explain that better than me. 

Ann Tirrell: Well, you don’t want to get too complicated with it. I have always looked at food as being either medicine helpful or poisonous. And the choices you make around what you put in your body, as far as nutrition, will make a difference. And the company had other tools I could add to my belief, I guess, and in how I take care of myself and what I put in my body. They call them supplements, and that’s great. That is a good name, because it supplements what you should be doing every day as far as the nutritional choices that you make. Over time, I learned that there are certain foods and ways of eating throughout the week that give me more energy than other ways of eating. So I think that’s really something that I’ve embraced as a habit. So the biohacking is you’re a biological being, and the hacking part is the choices you make in what you put in the body.

Kimberly Hubenette: You’re vivacious, you have a lot of energy. You’re always asking me to go hiking and do all these things. You’re going with your family, your grand babies, camping and doing all these outdoor activities. Because where we live, Sonoma has over 68 different regional and state parks, and national parks close by. It’s a beautiful area to be. But as far as to be living, loving, surviving and thriving, like my podcast thing, I look up to you. What are you doing now? Before, you were drinking smoothies in the morning. And then you told me, you always suggest certain things to me, different apps, different names. Okay, Kim, you should try this. I explain stuff to you too, what I do. But I love listening to you because you always have, even at my darkest moments, sometimes I would just be able to go walking with my dog or whatever, but not exercising. You had a routine. What inspires me the most is that your routine is not really hardcore. It’s just a routine, a daily routine that gets you out looking.

Ann Tirrell: I think the biggest thing for me as I evolve is exercising. I just call it moving. We call it exercise. Making it something that you can fit in your day, I think that’s the most important part for people. It’s not something that you have to carve out time to do. So in the morning, I used to do Pilates. I did that for a number of years, and it was just a routine I found from a gal online. She had a little video during covid when I was working from home, desperately wanting to keep myself healthy, and I did that for a number of years. And then I read somewhere, feel like you’re sort of plateaued, or your exercise is, I’ll use the word boring, and also for your body, changing what you do is helpful in moving to another level. So I found chair yoga. I’d heard about it before. And I thought, oh, they always show these older people doing it. And I thought, well, it must not really be that strenuous. But I found a great little app, and it has a little video, and it goes through each movement while you’re doing it. It’s six minutes all the way through it, and then you can do it another time for a longer 12 minutes. So less than 15 minutes in the morning. I felt that the first couple days, I really felt it because it was making me move differently than what I was doing before. So that was the change I was looking for, and it fit in the time frame in the morning. Before my breakfast, I would do that. And again, it’s also a routine. I can do that. I don’t feel like I have to eat before it, and then wait and then do it. I just do it drinking my coffee, and then I go and eat breakfast, and I’m off to work. 

Kimberly Hubenette: Because you still have a career. 

Ann Tirrell: I’m at the end. I’ll be retiring. That’s the end of the school year. But the other part of my daily routine is, before lunch at work, I can schedule my time. So I can have a 20 minute period for a break, and I go out, put walking shoes on, and I walk, come back. And after that, I eat my lunch. So that’s every day. Sunday sometimes, I don’t do it. I’ve been very active, but I haven’t been doing that. And that was intentional because I just thought, well, sometimes it’s nice to take a break. We’ve been super active. The first day when we were coming on the plane and doing all that moving with traveling, we had a gazillion steps. If I move, I have a watch that shows how I’m moving throughout the day, and that was off the chart through that day. And yesterday with what we did, I walked along the beach, and I went in the water and swam five times, I guess.

Kimberly Hubenette: You’re more active than me. 

Ann Tirrell: Well, it kept calling me in. I wanted to enjoy that so I think it’s being intentional and dedicated. And the rewards are, like you said, I am more alert, I feel good, and then I pair that with how I eat every day. And that’s a whole nother story. The way I eat now, it’s something called carb cycling, which causes my metabolism to stay revved up all the time. It has helped me lose some added weight that I had. And when I go off it and I’ll eat differently than my plan, I feel kind of luggage and dull thinking. 

Kimberly Hubenette: But you avoid carbs a lot? Or did you still eat carbs? 

Ann Tirrell: I eat carbs every day. It’s just one day, I eat a very low amount of carbs. But I have an increase in fats. I’ll have a little bacon that day or avocado, and then the medium carb day. It’s the same thing, only a little more carbs. A piece of toast with eggs in the morning, and maybe sweet potatoes with dinner, or something like that. And then the high carb date is just a little more carbs, but it also has very high protein. That’s the other thing. And as you get older, people need more protein. I’m not sure why. I just have read about it, and it is something that helps maintain your muscle, your limb. I know why. Because as you get older, your muscle mass starts decreasing. So that helps mitigate that, I guess. But I do notice that when I go off the way I eat, I’ll just get really luggish and dull. So it’s not hard for me to stay on it, because I like the way it feels. 

Kimberly Hubenette: It sounds to me like you’re eating everything that you want, pretty much. You said bacon, avocado, toast. Has there been things that they say you cannot? 

Ann Tirrell: I avoid sugars, and I lost any kind of craving for sugary things. 

Kimberly Hubenette: That’s a good point because sugar is a poison. 

Ann Tirrell: It really is. Especially too much of it. As you know, it rots your teeth.

Kimberly Hubenette: I mean, come on, I’m a dentist. I don’t want to eat sugar either. Anything that you eat turns into sugar, except for water. And if you’re having some substitute sugar, that helps too, but it has to be a good substitute for sugar.

Ann Tirrell: I use monk fruit. For a long time, I used to like stevia. But the monk fruit is, I don’t know, I like it. It has a really good taste in my coffee, and that’s about it. If I have iced tea, I might put it in there. So there is another little trick, a little bio hack that I do besides the supplements at lunchtime, I’ve been very, almost religious about it. When I eat my lunch, I have water with an electrolyte tablet. So I have an electrolyte drink, so it kind of replenishes from the exercise and the walking.

Kimberly Hubenette: You mean like the time that you go on high, like when you go to REI, you find the little–

Ann Tirrell: It’s a tube that has these tablets, and they kind of fizz in the water. I like that. There’s better ones than others. This one’s pretty high quality. It has a sweet taste, but it’s not really super sweet. It may use a natural sweetener, not sugar. You know how to check that. I don’t think it has sugar in it, but it has something that makes it kind of sweet, and it’s kind of effervescent. And I commute 40 miles to and from work, so I don’t want to drink coffee. After 10:00 o’clock in the day, I don’t ever drink any caffeine because it causes me to have difficulties falling asleep. So the electrolyte drink at lunch is my way of boosting myself. So when I leave work, I’m kind of awake during the commute, which is a good thing. 

Kimberly Hubenette: You drink plenty of water too, right? 

Ann Tirrell: Yes, yes. Actually, I drink probably two cups of water in the morning when I get up. 16 ounces, I just chug it. And I have 16 ounces at lunch. And then before I leave work, I have another big tug of water.

Kimberly Hubenette: It’s like a lifestyle. It’s not something that you force yourself to do. You feel good doing it, right?

Ann Tirrell: I feel good doing it. And it’s a habit. I think that’s the other thing. These have become habits of my life. And when I first started, it had to be very intentional. Now, that’s what I do. It’s almost like I don’t think about it. 

Kimberly Hubenette: When do you think you started becoming intentional about having to do all this? Or had you always been doing them? Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve been doing this. Do you remember an age range that you made yourself be intentional about looking at your health in this way? 

Ann Tirrell: I think the exercise part was always there because I was always an active child. I did sports. And when I went to college, I wasn’t doing the sports as much, so I joined (inaudible), which is hilarious in San Diego, one of the Jack LaLanne. I think I did it on my birthday. It was a birthday gift for myself. And I’ve always done something. I remember before I got married, I used to have this little mini trampoline after I had kids, I know I have it somewhere. I probably still have. The Jane Fonda Workout page. 

Kimberly Hubenette: Oh, goodness, she’s still looking good. 

Ann Tirrell: I had that when I had kids. I’d put that in, and while they were playing, I’d be listening to Jane and doing something. I’ve always found something to try and help me. But I think during the covid, and I was my age, I’ve had grandchildren come into my life, and I want to be healthy and have people talk about the lifespan. I really want to have a health span that is high quality. I’m going to get older, can’t do anything about that, but I can do all these other things to help me have a quality of health span. So as I get older, I’m not able to do things that I want to do. I’ve had some learning. Trying to say no to things that I used to love to do. For instance, this is a funny story. The other thing is that my husband and I, we cycle ride bikes pretty regularly, and that’s something that’s a very common thing between us. I joked with my husband and said, when I’m older, we bought different bikes. He has a 10 speed bike, I have a mountain bike, and then I have a little cruiser bike. I ride with my granddaughters and I told them, probably the last bike I’ll have is an adult tricycle. I still could do stuff. It’ll be safer. I think that that’s the part that I think you’re hitting on is that I think about it. I don’t sleep, walk through life, and I think about what I can do for myself so that I’m the best I can be for the people I love. I think that’s another thing a lot of people, especially in what I do in education, is giving a service kind of job, and you have to really work at thinking about yourself and being a mother. That’s the other thing. 

I think we were talking about some of the things that I learned through a trauma in my life with my son, that was a really big wake up call that I had to learn to know what I could do, what I should do, what I could control and what I can’t. And I think a lot of times, especially for mothers, there’s a tendency to give too much in the wrong ways. Rather than looking, I just need to take care of myself, physically and mentally, so that I can better serve the needs of others. That’s something I learned, and I’m very grateful for. Another thing is, I don’t think this is really a biohack. I forget where I learned it, but I’ve heard it in a couple of different sources. Before I get out of bed, I try to think of three things that I’m grateful for. I think one of them said the day before, what were three things that you were grateful to have happened, or that you did? And then I get out of bed, and I think about my mental health because there are times when I forgot that, and look at life a whole lot differently when you have a more grateful outlook every day.

Kimberly Hubenette: A lot of our listeners, maybe they’ve lost a loved one, or had trauma, or they’re trying to move forward with their life, we kind of skipped over that part of it. I wanted to talk to you about health, but you’re not a stranger to having lost a loved one even in your life too. 

Ann Tirrell: Tragedy is gonna happen. It’s part of life. And again, you can handle things in life if you’re taking care of yourself physically and mentally. I’m not a real religious or spiritual person, but as I got older, I have thought that maybe having some, it’s weird to say spirituality, but some more philosophical outlook in life. As I said, I’m not a really religious person. But having more of a middle group. I’ve been listening to podcasts when I’m commuting, of a Buddhist monk, a couple of different ones, and I really like their philosophy around light and that being the middle road is one of their tenants, not too extreme, one way or the other, having a balance. I think it’s the balance of life. And then I think the other part was when something comes up, I’ve learned to ask, how it’s affecting me thinking, what can I do with this problem? And I said, with your loss, there wasn’t anything I could do about what had happened, but I knew that I could spend time and comfort you. And I think that’s really important during traumatic things. And when my son was suffering with addiction, it was devastating for the whole family. And as a mom, I had to learn that it was his problem. I didn’t cause it to procure it. And slowly but surely, that experience strengthened my knowledge that I can love him, but I have to let him find his recovery. I couldn’t recover. He had to do the recovery. And that in a way was probably one that I could look at it as like, oh, God, that was a horrible thing that happened. I look at it now going, wow, I really came out of that as a stronger person that I look at when I was, what they call enabling him. Because I thought that I could save him and do this, help him and learn that that was actually making it worse. I’m a stronger person now. 

I think you asked me what happens if they relapse? I know that I won’t react the same way again. I’m stronger, and I have a better mindset towards it. So in tragedy in life and anything failure, there’s always a lesson. There’s always a lesson that’s important to me. There’s always a lesson for you. If you dwell on the awful, terrible part of it, you might miss that lesson. So I think that’s a big, big part of my attitude in life. And I think I’ve said it a bunch of times to you, life is what it is. And accepting it as it is. Then you can ask those questions. Now, what do I do? What can I do? That sort of thing. It really gives you much more calm, and dare I say serenity. That’s my attitude in a nutshell. I’m talking about it now like Ann’s got it all sussed. I get tired. Things happen. I don’t always react in the calm way that I want to, but I certainly don’t beat myself up about it. I just go whatever. I blew it. I’m moving on. I probably should have not done that while I was tired or hungry. There’s usually a reason why you’re behaving badly. And I think another thing is choosing people that I spend time with. That’s a very important thing. I think we were talking about family members and stuff, or friends. I don’t have a ton of friends. But the friends I do have, there isn’t a moment that I go, wow, what a drag being hanging around with Kim. Never doing that again. And I think that’s a very important thing. It’s a little more difficult with work. I have work colleagues that I would probably never be friends with, but I have to work with them. The nice thing is I could go home, forget about whatever it is that I don’t care for. And luckily, I don’t have terrible workmates. But I’m just trying to say there’s been, throughout my life, there’s been times when I have to work with this person, but I certainly wouldn’t seek them out as a friend. 

Kimberly Hubenette: So there’s choices. You’re going to retire maybe in five years? 

Ann Tirrell: No, I’m going to retire this June. 

Kimberly Hubenette: What’s life going to be like for Ann after this? I think you said that you might have some fun doing some yoga retreats or something like that. 

Ann Tirrell: I was thinking that, because I always get this response from people like, wow, you’re in such great shape and all of that. And you’ve said it inspired you. I thought, well, I could probably do that. I worked for many years as an educator and administrator in public education so I can easily engage people and things. That would be kind of fun. It would be fun to do that. And absolutely will spend time helping my son and his wife with their daughters, from my grandkids. They live nearby, and I know that working parents always need some help. I enjoy doing that. And probably doing more active things with my husband again like we did when we first met. We still do it, but we’ll be doing it more. And my daughter-in-law has a business, and she needs some help doing things like the background stuff. She’s the front person and does the sales, I guess, is the best way to put it. And the background stuff takes time. And so my husband and I had a business before I went into education, and I have knowledge and understanding of bookkeeping and that sort of stuff so I told her that I would work part time. We’re gonna try that out. I told her, let’s try it. Well, I’ll work as a probationary and we’ll see how you liked having me work for you. I’m her mother-in-law, and she’s the boss so it’ll be a new facet of our relationship. We’ll see how that goes, whether or not I want to do it, that sort of thing. And I don’t think it’d be much time. I remember a while ago, I kept saying, what am I going to do when I retire? So it’s kind of just evolved and happened. 

Kimberly Hubenette: If you have a take away today, a few things that you do every day, what would you tell our listeners, the ones that are wondering what they’re gonna do after they’ve lost their loved one, or they’ve had trauma and try to take action? What I hear from you is that, number one, you always take action. And number two, you always have other things that you want to tell.

Ann Tirrell: In the moment of crisis, don’t do it alone. Seek out support. I did that when I was having a crisis with my son. And for three years, I was part of a family support group. I can’t say enough about how helpful that was. Because even though I was a very mature person, you don’t know what you don’t know. I guess it’s a great way to put it when a crisis comes because it’s not like, oh, you’re living your life. You’re like, oh, when my son becomes totally addicted and ruins his life, I’ll know exactly what to do and how to behave. Or when I’m in the middle of my career and marriage and my husband dies, I’ll know exactly what to do. Well, he probably won’t. 

Kimberly Hubenette: No matter how prepared you think you might be, like for me, it was a chronic illness that I passed away from. We planned things we knew, but still the day comes. 

Ann Tirrell: And they’re gone. They’re wildly addicted, and there’s nothing you can do. That’s the first thing that I realized when I joined that family group. Almost within the first 15 minutes of the first meeting, I didn’t cause it, I can’t cure it, I can’t control it. It was like, bang, enough. And those were the other people in the group. And then the other thing that I heard was we love them so much that we make the mistake of enabling them. And actually, I remember that some guy in the meeting said, well, you might as well just go out and buy the drugs for him if you’re going to let him stay at home with you. And I thought, oh, my god. So there’s that sort of thing. I know that not everyone has the same challenges I had, but any challenge like that, it was so debilitating for me. I think I’m pretty sure that I became clinically depressed, and that’s because I was sitting on my own, trying to struggle with it on my own. It caused tension with my husband, of course. And as soon as I started hearing the voices of other people, other parents who had gone through what I was going through and how they dealt with it, what happened for them, it presented opportunities in my mind for dealing with it. I think that what I’m saying is if you are struggling and you are in pain, don’t do it alone. 

I can’t say enough about support groups. I did hear a number of times, if the group doesn’t seem to click for you, there’s other groups. The group I found worked and clicked. It was easy to do. It was a Zoom meeting. I think that is probably one of the most important things to do. And I remember that my boss at work was going through a terrible medical problem. She kind of commented when we were walking somewhere how she was struggling with it. And I just turned to her and I said, are you attending some support group? I said, there’s a lot of other people that are going through what you’re going through. And she goes, I hadn’t thought of that. I said, well, you might look into it. Could be very helpful. And a few months later, I saw that she seemed a little happier. And I thought, well, maybe she did that. Maybe she didn’t. I don’t know. 

Kimberly Hubenette: Because you don’t know what you don’t know. And people or your friends, or your colleagues, you trust them. Hopefully, you hang around with people that are going to give you a better life. 

Ann Tirrell: Friends and family are one thing for support. Choosing friends who are comforting you with it are important. A support group, though, is another thing through crisis that is so important. Because oftentimes, your friend and for instance, my little sister, she was sympathetic to a point of what I was going through, but she couldn’t relate. But the people in the support group, they knew how I was feeling. That’s the difference there. You need both. But you need to understand that some of these other people, your family and friends who aren’t experiencing what you’re going through may not be a supportive view. But the support group, it’s filled with people who have suffered exactly what you’ve gone through, and you start speaking the same language. There’s a difference. And I see the power of connecting with people who have gone through the same crisis. So in other words, whatever your trauma is, whatever you’ve dealt with, find a group that is going through the same thing as yourself. Especially if it’s affecting you as much as it was for me. And then also, take action with your health, and keep on moving with your health too. That was one thing I kept hearing, to take care of yourself. The people who I called the veterans survived it one way or the other. Either they were able to survive the continued active addiction with their child, which I was amazed. Or they survive the active addiction and the child recovering, you got to take care of yourself. That’s number one that I kept hearing. That’s when I think that I started. I found that gal with Pilates, so I started doing that regularly. And then walking every day, it just kind of evolved, and I started to become stronger physically and mentally. And I know now that regardless of what crisis hits me, of course, I’ll be devastated. But my long term work response will be, it is what it is, and I can only do what I can. What Ann can do. 

Kimberly Hubenette: Yeah, that’s your motto. Say it again. 

Ann Tirrell: It is what it is, and I can only do what I can do. And part of that is taking care of myself. And I think what you’re doing here with this podcast is another facet of helping people with the recovery of trauma or crisis. It is kind of a recovery. It hits people in a lot of different ways. I think I was talking about something in my childhood. There’s some people who don’t talk about it. That’s not healthy. When something terrible happens and it’s an emotional trauma, just to bury it is not healthy. We can have full podcasts on that one.

Kimberly Hubenette: I really thank you for accepting and saying yes to me interviewing you on my Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! podcast. I hope that everybody listening will be inspired by your story and the things that you do in life. And this is not going to be the last time that I’m going to ask you to join my podcast because you have a lot of things to share. 

Ann Tirrell: I don’t mind if people want to catch up with Mimi, that’s what I’m called now. I’m not on social media anymore, so maybe I’ll change that. I think that was another part of my health. With all the other things that are going on in the world, it just made it easier for me.

Kimberly Hubenette: But you never know. If you catch up with Mimi, you might find her somewhere walking down the road, hiking.

Ann Tirrell: Or talking about the new shoes. Shoes are important, you know? I talked about a lot of things, but there are a lot of little details that I have done to help me keep going. Thanks Kim.

Kimberly Hubenette: Thank you so much. This is Kimberly Hubenette here in Cabo San Lucas, enjoying our wellness and our retreat. Today, we’re going to get our massages and eat a healthy breakfast, so I am going to sign off for now. I hope to see you guys soon, and I’ll see you then, Live, Love, Survive, Thrive. 

Thank you for joining me on this episode of Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! I hope our time together has inspired you to embrace life’s challenges, find the courage to overcome obstacles, and create a life filled with love, purpose and fulfillment. If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast. Your feedback means the world to me, and to help us continue to bring you stories and tools to empower your journey. And if you have a story of resilience, transformation or thriving after adversity, I’d love to hear from you. Reach out to me directly at livelovesurvivethrive@gmail.com. You never know, your story might just be the inspiration someone else needs to hear. 

To learn more about me and my work, visit my website at www.drkimberlyhubenette.com. While you’re there, be sure to check out my current book, GRID: Once In A Lifetime, You Get To Start Over, a guide to rebuilding and rediscovering life after loss. Get a sneak peek at my upcoming book, Live, Love, Survive, Thrive!, a powerful companion to this podcast, and a heartfelt roadmap to reclaiming joy, resilience and meaning after life’s toughest seasons. You can also connect with me on social media. Follow me on Facebook at authordr.kimberlyhubenette. Follow me on Instagram with the same name, and subscribe to my Youtube channel at Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! for more inspiration and insights. 

Remember, you have the power within you to write your story and thrive beyond your wildest imaginations. Keep relearning to live love, survive, thrive every single day. Until next time, I’m Dr. Kimberly Hubenette, and this is Live, Love, Survive, Thrive!