Ep. 86: Thriving with Disability, Healing, and Joy w/ Hannah Wallace
[40 MIN LISTEN]
How Hannah Wallace is Changing the Narrative on Disability and Spirituality
What does it really mean to thrive when life looks nothing like you imagined?
In this powerful conversation, I sit down with disability activist, podcast host, and spiritual teacher Hannah Wallace. Hannah is the host of the Finding Grace Podcast and the speaker behind the TEDx talk Surviving with Disability. She shares openly about living with a disability, breaking free from the myth of being “fully healed,” and finding joy even in the messiness of life.
Hannah’s story is one of radical honesty, resilience, and deep wisdom. Together, we talk about what it means to integrate light and shadow, the power of sustainability in your healing journey, and why choosing joy daily can change everything.
If you’ve ever felt broken, “behind,” or like you weren’t enough, this episode will remind you that you are whole — just as you are.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Why “perfectly healed” is a myth (and what real healing looks like).
How to thrive with disability and become an advocate for yourself + others.
The surprising truth about the self-help industry and how to reclaim your power.
What it means to integrate your darkness and your light — and why both matter.
Hannah’s “choose life” moment and how it deepened her joy.
Hannah’s courage, humor, and honesty are a reminder that joy isn’t found in perfection — it’s found in choosing life, moment by moment.
If her words inspired you, be sure to check out her TEDx talk Surviving with Disability and connect with her work online.
And don’t forget — my new book Powerhouse is available for preorder now!
Episode transcript:
This is an auto-generated, unedited episode transcript. Please excuse any tyops.
Welcome to The Life with Liz Podcast, the place to be if you wanna go from invisible to vibrant in your life, and embrace the power you didn't know you had inside of you. I'm your host, Liz Fleming, business owner, mom, military spouse, entrepreneur, founder, CEO, and life coach, who is passionate about helping ambitious women like you step into their power and their purpose on purpose so they can experience as much joy, success, satisfaction, and abundance as humanly possible.
Now without further ado, let's dive right into this episode.
00:05:06.960 --> 00:05:12.029 Liz Fleming: Hello, Hannah Wallace, thank you. So much for coming on the life with Liz podcast. Today.
43 00:05:12.550 --> 00:05:15.249 Hannah Wallace: It's my pleasure. It's really great to be here, Liz.
44 00:05:15.250 --> 00:05:20.289 Liz Fleming: Yay, and you are in the United Kingdom.
45 00:05:20.290 --> 00:05:23.399 Hannah Wallace: Yes, that's correct in Devon. In Plymouth.
46 00:05:23.400 --> 00:05:40.389 Liz Fleming: So. So we strategically set up this interview, given the time difference and we made it happen. I'm so so honored to have you here. Why don't you go ahead and just tell the audience a bit about who you are, and then I'll kind of dive into the story of how we got connected.
47 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:59.670 Hannah Wallace: Amazing thanks. So much so. I, like Liz, have a podcast called Finding grace. And I've been on, should we say a spiritual journey ever since I was a teenager, and it wasn't till many years later everyone kept bugging me to kind of get out there, start sharing my stuff. So I started a podcast.
48 00:05:59.710 --> 00:06:24.269 Hannah Wallace: blog, and, you know, began writing and doing. And then the other aspect to me is is that obviously the disability, the activism and actually like merging the 2 together, showing that, you know, because the funny thing about the spiritual side is there tends to be a separation between that and the disability kind of the activism side. So actually, for me, it's been about bridging the 2 and
49 00:06:24.630 --> 00:06:41.890 Hannah Wallace: kind of making space within that space to showcase disability to show difference, because we're still not seeing a lot of it. So for me, it's getting out there. It's sharing my stuff, sharing my, and actually like letting people know that whatever's going on in your life, you can be seen.
50 00:06:41.890 --> 00:07:02.829 Hannah Wallace: even if you're different, even if you have a lot going on. And I think as well. You know, we're all on different healing journeys, and I think for me it's really important to let people know that this idea of being perfect healed, fully done. Shall we say I really want to like, knock that on the head, and let people show up in the way
51 00:07:02.830 --> 00:07:27.819 Hannah Wallace: that they are, and show people. You don't have to be perfect to be doing this kind of thing. And I think for me that's really, really important. And I think about, you know, 25 years ago I wasn't seeing anybody that wasn't kind of in that more perfect state. So it's really good. Now that you know, we have social media in the way that we can share more freely as well, which is great.
52 00:07:28.180 --> 00:07:38.649 Liz Fleming: Yeah, I love that. And you're you're so passionate about it. And that's that's what makes all the difference with telling your story and helping others
53 00:07:38.900 --> 00:07:59.590 Liz Fleming: thrive in their own lives regardless of circumstance. And that's what really stuck out to me in your Ted talk, which is how how I found out about you. We have a mutual friend, Caitlin Kerhart, and she had posted it on her Instagram stories, and I instantly watched it, and I was just so blown away by
54 00:07:59.840 --> 00:08:08.149 Liz Fleming: the content, the delivery! It was just so beautiful. Would you love to tell us a bit more about about the Ted talk for those who haven't seen it yet.
55 00:08:08.150 --> 00:08:25.289 Hannah Wallace: Yeah. And I would love people to watch it and share it, because I feel like what you said about delivery. For me. It was very important to be able to include my story, but also how people could action and also the reality of what's happening in the world. So yeah, I
56 00:08:25.850 --> 00:08:46.389 Hannah Wallace: got invited by someone who I knew, and my sister was like the Tedx is coming to near near where they live, and she said you should apply. So I applied, and it was good for me to get. Actually, you know, we talk about comfort zones. I feel very much, you know. I always speak about health and healing because I got sick at 17.
57 00:08:46.390 --> 00:09:02.700 Hannah Wallace: But I don't specific. I haven't been so specific as I did in the Ted talk about community disability activism. So it was a really good challenge for me to be able to go and draw upon all the skills I have with everything else I was doing. And to do this Ted talk
58 00:09:02.700 --> 00:09:20.399 Hannah Wallace: and delivering a Ted Talk is very, very different than anything I've ever done before. It is the most kind of intense experience, but brilliant, you know, even having to remember that Ted Talks, we didn't have a proper teleprompter. We just had some word prompts, and
59 00:09:20.790 --> 00:09:28.399 Hannah Wallace: and also the structure of it. It's not just, you know. I love getting on my podcast free talking. I love coming and doing things like this.
60 00:09:28.630 --> 00:09:35.659 Hannah Wallace: that was literally, you have your moment, so you've got to nail it. It's so different than anything I've ever done.
61 00:09:36.460 --> 00:09:49.000 Hannah Wallace: So it was. It was great, and it was really good, I think, for me to be able to shift into that space and challenge myself in that way and be able to share my lived experiences
62 00:09:49.770 --> 00:10:04.599 Hannah Wallace: from years of lived experience and be able to show people the different things they can do, but also in a way, because I think there's very much this idea in activism that it has to be angry, that it has to be forceful. I wanted it to come across in a way.
63 00:10:04.610 --> 00:10:26.639 Hannah Wallace: a powerful, impactful, but also in a kind of more. You know the context of my podcast finding grace, but also in this way that it doesn't have to have that force behind it, but it can still be really impactful and guide people so that you know, maybe you haven't thought about these things. If you're not going through something I recognize for a lot of people.
64 00:10:26.650 --> 00:10:40.649 Hannah Wallace: They're not necessarily going to be thinking about these things. The people in my life have only thought about it because they've had that lived experience with me. So I wanted to go out there and share that on a bigger scale and be able to break it down for people.
65 00:10:40.750 --> 00:10:42.820 Liz Fleming: In a different way.
66 00:10:42.820 --> 00:10:51.800 Liz Fleming: Yeah. And it it came across so naturally and listeners the title of her Tedx is the it's thriving with disability, right?
67 00:10:51.930 --> 00:10:53.570 Hannah Wallace: Surviving with disability. Yeah.
68 00:10:53.570 --> 00:11:01.099 Liz Fleming: Yeah. And so Hannah really unpacks not just her experience, but how society is
69 00:11:01.740 --> 00:11:12.860 Liz Fleming: kind of lacking and serving this community, and what we can do to to further support you all. And I really and some of the examples that you gave, you know, and it's
70 00:11:14.010 --> 00:11:29.789 Liz Fleming: serving those who are disabled has always been as a business owner something that's been top of mind for me. But I feel like, after your talk. I'm just kind of scraping the surface of what's possible and how I can support this community. But some of the examples that you gave, for example, like
71 00:11:29.970 --> 00:11:52.480 Liz Fleming: when you want to go out to dinner, and there's no, there's no wheelchair access, you know that that makes a huge difference, or if there is, you know, the access elevator, and it breaks right. There's all of these different intricacies that the average person, especially those in service, like, don't consider and think about. And
72 00:11:52.540 --> 00:12:08.260 Liz Fleming: I just the way that you delivered. That in your talk was really just was my kapow moment, and that's why I was just so honored to to have you on and talk through all of this, because a lot of my listeners are business owners.
73 00:12:08.260 --> 00:12:23.149 Liz Fleming: Most everyone listening is a woman who is on this like divine spiritual healing journey, which is also something I want to chat with you about, too, because you're in the female empowerment sphere, and as
74 00:12:23.320 --> 00:12:27.070 Liz Fleming: not just a woman, but a woman in your position with a disability.
75 00:12:27.980 --> 00:12:51.839 Liz Fleming: I just see so much light in you and your content. And I love this line that you have on your website. I believe in the importance of integrating our darkness with our light rather than bypassing our darkness. And I want to unpack that a little. So do you want to, because that's something that I also fully believe in. And just to see it in writing from you was
76 00:12:51.990 --> 00:12:53.629 Liz Fleming: was really powerful.
77 00:12:54.950 --> 00:13:17.230 Hannah Wallace: Thank you so much. And just to go back to what you said before I touch on that. You know the the simplicity of you know me having to highlight that even going out to dinner has a potential disadvantage, you know, like just 2 weekends ago, I went out to dinner in a restaurant in London, in Notting Hill, and there was no ramp to get in.
78 00:13:17.510 --> 00:13:40.560 Hannah Wallace: and the disabled toilet was packed up with stuff in, and they obviously had to resolve things. But it was like before I even got in there. And I think that it's highlighting to people that there's already sometimes a disadvantage. And this isn't me being negative going out there. I think it's really important as well that if we witness that, or if we go somewhere and we see someone struggling
79 00:13:41.290 --> 00:14:00.700 Hannah Wallace: actually use that to use your own voice, because the thing is, it's great me using my voice. But when you've got other people who aren't in that position using their voice to. That's when a difference really gets made. And I just like want to say when. And I think I highlighted in the talk that when people have advocated on my behalf
80 00:14:01.146 --> 00:14:08.569 Hannah Wallace: it has made a massive difference, because they're able-bodied. And I think it's making that impact. So I just want to like kind of highlight that for your listeners.
81 00:14:08.570 --> 00:14:09.100 Liz Fleming: That's.
82 00:14:09.280 --> 00:14:16.509 Hannah Wallace: The simple impact that you can make by doing that. Now, going back to integrating your darkness and light.
83 00:14:16.740 --> 00:14:35.150 Hannah Wallace: I think for many years. I. You know I got sick, very young, and I think for many years, as anyone knows who's been on the healing journey. It's up and down. It's not linear. It's all over the place. It's messy. I felt a bit broken. I felt like it felt like this, never ending thing.
84 00:14:35.380 --> 00:14:57.119 Hannah Wallace: and it was almost like I kept trying to. If I could get here if I could, you know, get there. You know this idea that when I'm healed it was almost like I was denying those parts of me, because it seemed like it was wrong, you know, from from all the things I was reading, and I was doing everything you could possibly imagine in the alternative sphere
85 00:14:57.630 --> 00:15:03.540 Hannah Wallace: in regards to healing. And it was only when I started to have those Aha moments of
86 00:15:04.400 --> 00:15:14.899 Hannah Wallace: you're okay as you are, what would it be like to be in this space of being able to bring both of those things forward? What would it be like to know that it's okay
87 00:15:15.430 --> 00:15:20.449 Hannah Wallace: to turn that light on in the darkness. And I think when I started to shift that.
88 00:15:20.600 --> 00:15:34.489 Hannah Wallace: and I started to move into the space where I was no longer afraid of those dark aspects that we have, the shadow aspects that we have, and that I stopped thinking there was something wrong with me, and I think there's a huge
89 00:15:34.540 --> 00:15:53.249 Hannah Wallace: thing for us all to to really reclaim our power and take our power back and to stop, you know, labeling ourselves as a problem. It doesn't mean that we can't go and do the healing. It doesn't mean that we can't invite miracles. It doesn't mean we can't open our kind of self and our heart up to miraculous things.
90 00:15:53.880 --> 00:16:07.919 Hannah Wallace: But life is happening. It's up and down anyone that's lived long enough on this planet and lived life enough and been through enough. We all know that it's not, you know, pumpkins and roses. You can do all the right things
91 00:16:08.150 --> 00:16:17.510 Hannah Wallace: and things are still going to go wrong. You're still going to have experiences that aren't great. Things are still going to happen sometimes in your body.
92 00:16:17.770 --> 00:16:18.200 Liz Fleming: Hmm.
93 00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:22.910 Hannah Wallace: And I think we have to stop punishing ourselves. And I went. You know I had. It took me years
94 00:16:23.230 --> 00:16:51.549 Hannah Wallace: to get to that point, because it was a very different time back then, I think now, with with the way the Internet is, you know, we have the negative side. But the good side is when people are speaking out. And I think about the younger versions of me. If I'd been able to hear somebody saying, it's okay. What you're going through. You're not broken. There's nothing wrong with you to like, you know. Yes, things are not ideal in some way, but I think it would me taking my power back.
95 00:16:51.630 --> 00:17:06.209 Hannah Wallace: And so that's why it's been so important for me to be able to show people they can bridge that gap, and they can show up perfectly and perfect, and actually your light will shine even brighter when you honor, and you integrate those parts of yourself.
96 00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:25.399 Liz Fleming: Yes, I, 100% agree with this. It's something that I often talk about, too, on my podcast. And my content. I feel like my podcast has gotten so dark because I'm so passionate about addressing that darkness and going deep into your shadows and letting yourself
97 00:17:25.400 --> 00:17:37.359 Liz Fleming: feel all of your emotions and seeing them as a gift, and not this. You know this punishment, to have these to feel sad, to feel angry, to feel remorseful. It's it's
98 00:17:37.360 --> 00:17:59.219 Liz Fleming: your body is having a physical response to something in your environment. It's trying to tell you something. The message is within. So I love. When I saw that on your website. I was just like, yes, it's like she gets it, you know. It's it's you cannot have the light without the dark. There is no possible way, and I love that you talk about
99 00:17:59.620 --> 00:18:22.430 Liz Fleming: people getting. They can often get fixated on on this idea that they're broken and they're not. And I think the self-help industry loves to make us think that we're broken so they can sell books and stuff. But I feel the same way, Hannah, like your your healing journey is lifelong. There's no
100 00:18:22.470 --> 00:18:37.529 Liz Fleming: someday it's just you're in the present moment, and you're making your way through each moment, and sometimes those moments are going to be elevated, and sometimes they're going to be neutral. And sometimes they're going to be really, really low down in that darkness.
101 00:18:37.890 --> 00:18:45.560 Hannah Wallace: Absolutely, and I think it's a really good point. Look, I have read hundreds of self-help books. I've listened to things I have done
102 00:18:45.730 --> 00:18:48.080 Hannah Wallace: crazy crazy like
103 00:18:48.200 --> 00:19:02.759 Hannah Wallace: you could like. I sometimes even laugh at the versions of myself, and don't get me wrong. There are still things that I do to help myself and support my body. You know I received a health diagnosis last year that was really not ideal, like on top of everything.
104 00:19:03.620 --> 00:19:17.439 Hannah Wallace: And actually, the great thing, you know, for me to be able to share. That is the work that I had done on not denying my shadow, and that negativity allowed me in that moment when I received that diagnosis.
105 00:19:17.580 --> 00:19:20.669 Hannah Wallace: That yes, it, you know, like I say, it was an ideal.
106 00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:26.759 Hannah Wallace: But I wasn't afraid. I wasn't ashamed. I was like, do you know what? I'm still going to live my life? I'm going to choose my life.
107 00:19:26.760 --> 00:19:50.890 Hannah Wallace: There are some things I can control and some things I can't control. But I'm going to look at what I can do, how I can live. And you know, feelings come up. That's okay. It's human, and I think that was testament to all those years of work. It was almost like clearly part of my my journey. Whatever you know, was set out my soul's path was to experience these more extreme things.
108 00:19:50.930 --> 00:20:13.069 Hannah Wallace: and to show people how to live within the space of them, and to not be afraid, and for us to not be just sold off to the self-help personal development industry. I think it's using it in a healthy way, right? And unfortunately it becomes unhealthy because we get desperate, because, you know, we might read a book, or we might see somebody online. And we might be thinking.
109 00:20:13.230 --> 00:20:24.919 Hannah Wallace: or I'm doing everything I've been told to do, and it's not working. And I think we need to take our power back. Take the shame back and be. That's okay, not. Everything is going to work for you that worked for someone else.
110 00:20:25.070 --> 00:20:25.560 Liz Fleming: Right.
111 00:20:25.560 --> 00:20:39.309 Hannah Wallace: You can do all the right things, and it's still not going to work, because we all have different pathways. Our souls are making different choices. So I think it's about just being kinder and more compassionate to ourselves as well.
112 00:20:39.720 --> 00:21:01.270 Liz Fleming: Yeah, a hundred percent. And it's for me it feels twofold. Tell me if you feel the same. But number one is like allowing yourself to thrive. Number 2 is just trusting, like you have to just trust the natural unfolding of the path, and see where that leads you, and just
113 00:21:01.660 --> 00:21:05.229 Liz Fleming: listen to your heart. I think I know me personally with.
114 00:21:05.550 --> 00:21:18.689 Liz Fleming: I've also read a lot of self-help, and I had a couple years there where I was coming at it from that desperate energy of like, Fix me, fix me. I'm doing all the things and none of it's working. And I reached a breaking point where
115 00:21:19.030 --> 00:21:30.049 Liz Fleming: I knew I just had to listen to my intuition and my heart. And that's when things really started to happen. And I think that's what you're getting at here, too, right.
116 00:21:30.260 --> 00:21:45.700 Hannah Wallace: Absolutely that is, you know, that was the real Aha moment when you know, actually. And I've shared this before many, many years ago, probably about like 10 years into my healing journey, maybe 9. I was seeing a therapist, you know. I was paying this woman.
117 00:21:45.800 --> 00:22:04.239 Hannah Wallace: and she turned around to me and said, I think we need to stop. Stop. I think you need to just have some fun. I think you need to live. I think you just need to to let go. I think you're doing everything you can. And you need to stop chasing this. And that was a really profound moment to me, because up until that point
118 00:22:04.790 --> 00:22:11.329 Hannah Wallace: someone who I was paying different. Many different practitioners were all kind of
119 00:22:11.990 --> 00:22:38.250 Hannah Wallace: if it wasn't working what they were doing. There was this implication that I was doing something wrong, and I think that's where it becomes slightly toxic. And you know it becomes toxic when you know. Maybe someone's listening to something or reading something, and and like what you said. You got so immersed in that that self-help field that you you it broke you, and I think it does. And I think what she said about choosing life having fun.
120 00:22:38.620 --> 00:22:47.159 Hannah Wallace: It really stuck with me, and I had it took me, you know the crazy thing was, I realized I was so wired.
121 00:22:47.320 --> 00:23:06.819 Hannah Wallace: And you know, if we go back to the wire, and we know our patterning always comes from childhood how we're driven, how we achieve things! All of those things! I realized I'd become so wide to become the best healer, the best healed version of myself. It was like I took it on as a full time job, and it actually was becoming ridiculous.
122 00:23:06.820 --> 00:23:30.979 Hannah Wallace: And I had to unpack that. And I you know I'm always honest with people. It took a long time to reclaim my joy, and it took a long time to not always feel guilty. If you were just having fun and doing. Oh, but people are going to think I'm not trying to get better. People are going to think this having to really turn down that noise and having to. Really, you know, zone back in on yourself, and like what you said about listening to your heart.
123 00:23:31.150 --> 00:23:52.050 Hannah Wallace: listening to life and listening to, you know. Do you have a choice to choose yourself? Because we don't? We don't always think about choosing ourselves. We spent so long growing up, thinking we need to do this, that, and the other, in order to be what what is perceived to be successful. And then we go on and we reach all these different levels.
124 00:23:52.080 --> 00:24:07.870 Hannah Wallace: And I think we just need to like we need to check in with ourselves. Is this what I truly want? Because it's not about what we think we want. It's about what we truly want. And often what we truly want is different to what we think we want, and that doesn't. It's not served up
125 00:24:07.930 --> 00:24:12.830 Hannah Wallace: through somebody else's bias, through an Instagram post, through
126 00:24:12.980 --> 00:24:19.950 Hannah Wallace: a Tiktok is what's truly going on with you, and when you own that you will change your life.
127 00:24:21.240 --> 00:24:42.490 Liz Fleming: Totally what was you keep mentioning like the Aha moments. And it's funny, because that was one of the questions that I came up with like, when was the Aha moment for you when you decided to start telling your story in this way? And I know you said, you started your podcast in 2018. But was it much before that? Or.
128 00:24:42.640 --> 00:24:44.300 Hannah Wallace: So. So
129 00:24:44.500 --> 00:25:12.870 Hannah Wallace: I've been kind of helping people for a long time like talking and always being the kind of go to person. And then actually, I went to a publishing writers workshop, because kind of a friend was like, oh, you know, you should come along to this, and you know what I thought. I thought you know, I'd been through a big breakup at the time, and I just thought, and people kept on saying what you should be sharing this stuff? Why are you not sure? And I think I was just like it was I was still in that mindset of like.
130 00:25:12.910 --> 00:25:27.289 Hannah Wallace: why is anyone going to listen to someone who's not healed? You know. It was even though I was living my life differently. I was then thinking, Oh, if you go onto a more public platform, and I think in the end, my friend, who went along to this writer's workshop with me.
131 00:25:27.720 --> 00:25:45.380 Hannah Wallace: she actually never really intended to. I think it was kind of like her just being like, come on, let's let's get you in there. So we did it, and and I didn't go to kind of win the prize. I decided to submit something, because I knew they gave feedback, so I made a deal with myself. I thought if I get feedback.
132 00:25:45.380 --> 00:26:02.030 Hannah Wallace: and they kind of are positive about that feedback. I will start thinking about doing something seriously. And I was with kind of a group of us that kind of formed, and we all kind of waited for our feedback. My feedback was really good. So I was like.
133 00:26:02.500 --> 00:26:20.389 Hannah Wallace: Okay, you know, this is something. So I joke about this to people. When I think about implementing an idea, I always have to kind of sit with it. If I know I'm going to do something. I'm going to do it properly, consistently. I'm going to show up. So I thought, I need a plan.
134 00:26:20.500 --> 00:26:33.549 Hannah Wallace: I need this to feel safe and good in my body and nervous system it needs to become. You know, the I need to be living that version, the embodied version, before I start doing this so it doesn't feel like it's separate from me.
135 00:26:33.770 --> 00:26:43.339 Hannah Wallace: And so that kind of started in 2,017. But the the voices of you should be doing. This was going on for years, you know, previous to that.
136 00:26:43.770 --> 00:26:44.280 Liz Fleming: Yeah.
137 00:26:44.280 --> 00:27:06.170 Hannah Wallace: So then I just thought, Okay, great, I'm going to make a website, I'm gonna you know, start a blog. And then a friend of mine in the industry she was like, come on, let's get that podcast. Going. And she knew I had contacts. She was like, Look, you've got contacts. You've got people that will come on. And so I did it, and so.
138 00:27:06.250 --> 00:27:27.490 Hannah Wallace: and I did it at my own pace, because I thought the energy I need to come at this from needs to be my energy that I want to actually show up. As so, it's not about being a fast track process of me, you know, fast tracking myself to some kind of high success. I'm just going to let this take the process. I'm going to show up. I'm going to do the work.
139 00:27:27.730 --> 00:27:38.360 Hannah Wallace: and I'm just going to let this grow. And I think when you do that, you start showing up. And then that led. You know I used to go. I go to this festival. I've been going for 20 years of my mind, body, spirit.
140 00:27:38.730 --> 00:27:43.090 Hannah Wallace: and it was a real you talk about an Aha moment. A couple of years ago
141 00:27:44.070 --> 00:28:06.710 Hannah Wallace: I ended up being invited to speak there, and being the 1st kind of disabled person that like, should we say physically in a wheelchair that they'd asked to do that? And that was a real life. Oh, wow! And previously, just before that, you know, a few years before that my mum and I'd been, and we'd gone to a workshop, and she'd said to me, You know, you could be doing this.
142 00:28:06.890 --> 00:28:34.519 Hannah Wallace: and I was like, Okay, you know. And it's then I was doing so. It's been a gradual process. But it's been a case of me showing up also. The really important thing for me was, I have worked so hard on finding balance and equilibrium within my health and wellbeing. The most important thing here is is that I maintain that balance. So rather than me, thinking I need to be working on someone else's level, I have to do this to work for me.
143 00:28:34.520 --> 00:28:46.099 Hannah Wallace: and by doing that I can show the people they can do it. And I think that was a really important energy to come at it from, because there's so many. You know. We know this. When you're in this kind of world.
144 00:28:46.180 --> 00:28:52.689 Hannah Wallace: there's so many how to 10 steps do it this fast. You can change your life in a month.
145 00:28:53.520 --> 00:29:00.419 Hannah Wallace: So I think it's just really important. You know, we can take on board. We can take ideas. We can be inspired.
146 00:29:00.750 --> 00:29:07.699 Hannah Wallace: but it needs to be sustainable, and for me it had to be sustainable. And how I'm doing things
147 00:29:07.790 --> 00:29:35.019 Hannah Wallace: are sustainable right now, and I want, and I want. That's what I continually try and show people that by tuning into your version of sustainability you can make things work for you, and my sustainability is going to look different to yours, Liz, you know one of my friends is like a powerhouse she's super successful in terms of. We're talking like very, very publicly powerhouse doing doing. Book deals one after the other.
148 00:29:35.870 --> 00:29:56.139 Hannah Wallace: but we just honor each other in our different levels of sustainability. And rather than me, thinking I need to be like her. I'm doing my version, and and we kind of joke about it that it's really good, that there's somebody showing that other side that you don't. It's not about following others. You can be inspired, but it's about following yourself
149 00:29:56.250 --> 00:29:58.270 Hannah Wallace: and coming back to yourself.
150 00:29:59.060 --> 00:30:01.189 Liz Fleming: I'm so happy to hear that you're
151 00:30:01.440 --> 00:30:17.949 Liz Fleming: teaching other people this because it's so important. And I wish that more people, regardless of if they're male or female. I wish that more of them put themselves first, st and didn't see making themselves as a priority as something that was
152 00:30:18.360 --> 00:30:32.169 Liz Fleming: bad. You know I feel like it has such a negative connotation like, if I put myself first, st that makes me conceited, it makes me selfish. It makes me greedy. We go down the self-sabotage rabbit hole. I know, because I was there. It wasn't until I started.
153 00:30:32.610 --> 00:30:33.650 Liz Fleming: you know.
154 00:30:33.770 --> 00:30:52.270 Liz Fleming: developing, like you say, my own version of sustainability like looking out for me as the number one, and what I can handle what my capacity is energetically, spiritually, physically, emotionally. It wasn't until I got really honest about that that I could kind of recalibrate. And
155 00:30:52.600 --> 00:31:13.189 Liz Fleming: you know, for example, right now I'm in with. I have 2 young kids a 3 and a half year, old boy, and about to be 2 year old, little girl, and I work from home, and my husband's in the military, so I'm in a season of life with my businesses, where I am just allowing it to naturally unfold, and I'm allowing the pauses to land.
156 00:31:13.310 --> 00:31:17.746 Liz Fleming: whereas old me, who, before I became a life coach.
157 00:31:18.430 --> 00:31:30.490 Liz Fleming: pr, Liz, for 20 years was like, Go, go! I'm only successful if I'm at the top, and I'm working all the time. But me. Now, Liz awakened. Liz is
158 00:31:30.660 --> 00:31:45.259 Liz Fleming: just seeing the power and the strength, and exactly what you just said, the sustainability and what it means for me, not for you or for someone else, or my friends or my family. It's for me, because when I operate
159 00:31:45.460 --> 00:31:50.640 Liz Fleming: fully right, when I'm feeling good, everyone else benefits from that.
160 00:31:51.260 --> 00:32:11.970 Hannah Wallace: Absolutely, and you know I grew up with a dad that worked away. He was in the merchant navy, so not the military. So he was away for like 6 months at a time. So basically, you're in the situation my mum was in. You are a double parent. That alone, Liz. Even if you were doing nothing else having to do. That is so. You're single parenting a lot of the time.
161 00:32:11.970 --> 00:32:27.139 Hannah Wallace: And so, you know, it's really good that you've really chosen yourself in that way, and you're making your work fit. You're in the flow, and I think that's the thing. And then it's showing people that it's possible to be sustainable. And you're not having these massive highs and lows
162 00:32:27.524 --> 00:32:35.989 Hannah Wallace: where you're not in, you're not in alignment with yourself. And then, if you're misaligned and you're not in alignment with yourself.
163 00:32:36.440 --> 00:32:49.290 Hannah Wallace: it will start to show up in so many different ways. So I think you know you need to celebrate yourself regularly, I know, having growing up with a mum who had 2 kids very similar age. My sister and I are about 18 months apart, so fairly similar to you.
164 00:32:49.650 --> 00:32:50.255 Liz Fleming: Wow!
165 00:32:50.860 --> 00:33:16.920 Hannah Wallace: It's hard, it's hard, and you know, like, I say, you know, you've got to thank Pat yourself on the back at the end, especially with young children. I think I think it's really needed, because, as you would know, becoming a parent life before, you might have been stressed about things. But you're suddenly in this world where you have kind of control, but no control. When you've got 2 young kids like that. So I think it's really good. You're sharing in that way, and you know
166 00:33:17.130 --> 00:33:17.800 Hannah Wallace: it.
167 00:33:17.910 --> 00:33:23.459 Hannah Wallace: It it helps people heal. It helps people see things from another perspective. Right?
168 00:33:24.020 --> 00:33:38.190 Liz Fleming: Yeah, thank you so much for saying that it's not something I have thought too much about. But hearing it out loud is just, it's nice. It's like, Oh, yeah, that is being a mother is important, you know, providing for others is important.
169 00:33:38.190 --> 00:33:55.380 Liz Fleming: And ironically, motherhood is like what got me into my self healing journey, like I had a profound moment in postpartum, and it just kind of unfolded from there. And that's just a great reminder to hear from you of kind of that whole little
170 00:33:55.580 --> 00:34:01.399 Liz Fleming: journey that I've been on. I have to ask. Do you know your human design?
171 00:34:02.050 --> 00:34:09.379 Hannah Wallace: Oh, my God! I think I think I'm a generator. I have had it done before. I think I'm a generator. I think I'm a generator.
172 00:34:09.380 --> 00:34:31.739 Liz Fleming: Okay, I'm a generator, too. But I asked, because when you're talking about your Aha moment and the writer's workshop, you said that it takes you time to like. Consider your options and and make a decision. And in human design that's like an emotional authority. So I was just so curious of like. Oh, I wonder, I wonder if she's
173 00:34:31.969 --> 00:34:44.979 Liz Fleming: thought about this? Because my human design and this is like a whole other episode, I'm gonna do. But my human design like helps me hear my intuition and make decisions in the moment. So it was just kind of a quick sidebar. I wanted to ask.
174 00:34:44.989 --> 00:35:03.859 Hannah Wallace: I love it. I'm pretty sure there was definitely some emotional led authority, and I think I've had to really learn to listen to that rather than jump into things, and to really trust that if you ask me about astrology, I could answer you a lot more questions, and because I understand myself very much through that way.
175 00:35:03.860 --> 00:35:04.540 Liz Fleming: Yeah.
176 00:35:04.540 --> 00:35:16.720 Hannah Wallace: But it. But it it does. When you learn about these things, it's so empowering because it. You can take your power back and optimize yourself through these through knowing these things right?
177 00:35:16.720 --> 00:35:45.590 Liz Fleming: Yeah. So I was going to ask, too, like in your in your trainings, I'm not sure if you work with clients, or if it's solely the podcast, and content right now. But is that kind of what you teach people like? I'm always introducing as a coach, like tools to use as guides, like human design, or astrology, or breath work or reiki. You know. I just like to toss stuff out that's worked for me not to prescribe, but just to like guide. So is that kind of what you do, too.
178 00:35:45.590 --> 00:35:48.240 Hannah Wallace: Yeah, definitely. And I read Tarot. And I've done that for.
179 00:35:48.240 --> 00:35:49.310 Liz Fleming: Oh!
180 00:35:49.310 --> 00:36:04.990 Hannah Wallace: Yeah, I've done that for like 20. God, yeah. Well, since I was a teenager, really, tower and oracle and yeah, so. And I've done like you kind of have to just learn that. But I have actually done like an oracle card training through my friend Kyle.
181 00:36:05.510 --> 00:36:30.580 Hannah Wallace: But yeah, like for me. It's it's like what you said about guiding people to use different things and helping them figure out what it's going to work for them. And do you know what? If something isn't resonating or isn't working like? Just that's okay. I really think people need to really open up to this idea that if you do something and someone's like, Oh, you're blocked. That's why it's not working for you.
182 00:36:30.870 --> 00:36:35.700 Hannah Wallace: You've got a limiting belief, or maybe it's just not the right thing for you.
183 00:36:35.700 --> 00:36:36.140 Liz Fleming: Hmm.
184 00:36:36.140 --> 00:36:44.209 Hannah Wallace: And I would love people listening to tune in to the things in their life they're maybe doing or the things they're pursuing and be like.
185 00:36:44.400 --> 00:37:08.010 Hannah Wallace: maybe it's not just right for me, like, how profound is that, you know, because I think when we get down a spiritual path, we can 100% over spiritualize everything, you know. I remember many years ago I had a sore throat, and a friend of mine who's who's in the industry. I was like, Oh, my God! I think there's something wrong in my throat, Chakra and I was just going down this rabbit hole of things, and and she was like.
186 00:37:08.190 --> 00:37:30.490 Hannah Wallace: have you actually thought you've just got a throat infection? Just take your stuff, and it's going to get better. And it kind of like took me back to the humanness of getting into my body and just being like, yeah, okay. And it did it kind of like by me. Not over, because I think we can go down those and don't get me wrong. It is important sometimes.
187 00:37:30.550 --> 00:37:56.249 Hannah Wallace: Sometimes it's listening to ourselves and just being like, maybe I just need to kind of do what I've got to do move forward. And it's going to be okay. I really needed to hear that. And I think back to that moment when she was like. Maybe it's not any of this stuff, she said. I think your throat is fine, mate. And I was like, Oh, really okay. And it was. And because she's so deep down the rabbit hole herself, I wasn't expecting that, but it really helped
188 00:37:56.500 --> 00:38:17.060 Hannah Wallace: somebody mirroring that back to me, and I think it's just important as well for us in those moments to kind of hear that. And you know, and make those choices that sometimes there's no limiting belief. There's no block. It's just not right for you. It may be in that moment, and maybe you can come back to it, and it'll be fine. But really ask yourself those questions.
189 00:38:17.560 --> 00:38:36.400 Liz Fleming: Yeah. And that is so profound to be able to have that strength and harness, that awareness. And knowing yourself enough to be like, I tried this. It's not for me, and instead of forcing yourself, just let it go. You're supposed to follow the good feelings right? We're not meant to suffer so. I think.
190 00:38:36.420 --> 00:38:37.340 Hannah Wallace: Good thanks.
191 00:38:37.340 --> 00:38:52.569 Liz Fleming: Yeah. So I think if we're, we're truly here to thrive and to love and experience joy, then that starts now, it can literally start right now, like you just have to make a decision like you made a decision all those years ago to say, you know what
192 00:38:52.770 --> 00:39:09.490 Liz Fleming: this is, my circumstance, but it doesn't define me, and this is my situation. I'm going to be an advocate for myself, but I'm also going to share my story, to be an advocate for others, and that my friend Hannah is a power move, and it's just so phenomenal that the world has people like you.
193 00:39:09.810 --> 00:39:18.759 Hannah Wallace: Yeah. And do you know what? Last year you know, we joke how the universe makes us practice things. When I got told on the phone. You know.
194 00:39:19.050 --> 00:39:33.590 Hannah Wallace: I was told I got Parkinson's right. This blew. My, you know. I mean, it's kind of like mind blowing to be told that. But the weird thing was, I got off the phone because it was delivered in quite a harsh, you know, medical way as they are, and
195 00:39:33.900 --> 00:39:39.400 Hannah Wallace: I kind of was not expecting it, but there was a possibility that was always going to be the case.
196 00:39:39.930 --> 00:39:45.849 Hannah Wallace: and it was like something came over me in that moment, and I got this kind of very profound message of
197 00:39:46.010 --> 00:39:50.810 Hannah Wallace: you. Have a choice, Hannah. You either give in to fear, or you choose life.
198 00:39:51.480 --> 00:40:13.480 Hannah Wallace: And this was before I made the phone calls to my mom and my partner, and, you know, had to tell them, and it was like I chose life so deeply in that moment. I couldn't have done that had it not been for the years of work, and me showing up for me and choosing life, had I have not done that. And I, you know, sometimes we think when we're doing stuff
199 00:40:13.600 --> 00:40:25.049 Hannah Wallace: we think, is this really working? Is this really helping? Trust me? It's not about necessarily the gratification or stuff you're getting in the moment it's when you're in moments like that.
200 00:40:25.540 --> 00:40:26.190 Liz Fleming: Hmm.
201 00:40:26.190 --> 00:40:44.550 Hannah Wallace: That you really understand the work is working. And you really understand how you've been showing up for yourself, because I've been able to navigate through that journey in a very different way than what I would have expected, and been able to really show up for myself, and really objectively be able to look at things and continue, you know, and
202 00:40:44.740 --> 00:40:49.510 Hannah Wallace: go on and do a Ted Talk, and continue to live my life
203 00:40:49.650 --> 00:40:53.950 Hannah Wallace: in that aligned way. You know. Of course I've added a you know.
204 00:40:54.050 --> 00:41:00.450 Hannah Wallace: being on this journey. I've added a few things in to support myself, as you can imagine. But
205 00:41:00.770 --> 00:41:22.590 Hannah Wallace: I've chosen life, and I've chosen myself, and I think it's had that really profound impact on me of the importance of that. And you know it's like the universe says to us, and it was like, Now I'm really going to show you what it is to actually have to live this and and and for me to get that mirrored back. That I was able to do. That
206 00:41:22.820 --> 00:41:34.610 Hannah Wallace: is is a profound thing, and you say it was kind of like I had that Aha! Moment years ago, and then had this second Aha! Moment, which was kind of like. It was profound, for sure.
207 00:41:34.840 --> 00:41:44.790 Hannah Wallace: but it was also part of the integration from years of doing stuff. And and you know, for me to be able to continue to live my life and show up and be like.
208 00:41:45.150 --> 00:41:52.659 Hannah Wallace: okay, you know that whole broken thing. This is different. It's gonna there are some challenges this may present.
209 00:41:53.090 --> 00:42:03.920 Hannah Wallace: but I can still show up. And actually, you know doing that Ted Talk was was a really good way to show up, because, you know, I had to show up on that stage
210 00:42:04.030 --> 00:42:22.640 Hannah Wallace: with the tremor that I've got and just do it. And actually, you know, the ironic thing for me is and I've shared this with a few people is that when I got to choose the edit of, you know, just to check before they submit it to Ted. My concern was not being in a wheelchair or having a tremor. It was because I thought I'd pronounced a word wrong.
211 00:42:23.370 --> 00:42:32.089 Hannah Wallace: and you know what what the profound thing in that is is the integration that I'd had that I was okay, owning myself as I was.
212 00:42:32.750 --> 00:42:44.490 Hannah Wallace: and it was actually me thinking about that. I said something wrong, but I think that reflecting that back to your listeners is to know that we'll always there are things we'll integrate, but then we'll always look for something else.
213 00:42:44.690 --> 00:42:46.969 Liz Fleming: Hmm yes, always.
214 00:42:47.130 --> 00:43:00.789 Hannah Wallace: Always, but you know, to be able to show people that I chose life in that moment. And I think since that moment it's deepened this year I've connected even deeper with life, and and choosing myself.
215 00:43:01.020 --> 00:43:17.320 Liz Fleming: I love. I love to hear all this, Hannah, thank you for sharing. You are such an inspiration, and this was such a beautiful conversation. I'm so excited to share it with the world before we go. Is there any final words of wisdom you'd love to leave with my listeners?
216 00:43:17.940 --> 00:43:20.000 Hannah Wallace: Oh, I love this question because I asked this question.
217 00:43:21.240 --> 00:43:34.140 Hannah Wallace: great! I love this. I love being put in this spot. Say Spotlight here. So you know. What I'd like to say is, you know, from from the conversation we've been having here. Choose yourself.
218 00:43:34.350 --> 00:43:46.770 Hannah Wallace: get in your body. Does this feel safe in my body and my nervous system. Choose life, choose joy, and live in joy. Do you know what? No matter. We don't know what's around the corner. We can do all the right things.
219 00:43:46.880 --> 00:43:50.969 Hannah Wallace: and things are still going to happen that are going to knock us sideways.
220 00:43:51.100 --> 00:44:18.220 Hannah Wallace: But if you live in joy you will live your life differently, and I don't say it. I know this because I'm doing it. So I'm giving that wisdom, you know, from somebody that is having to live that daily, and, you know, to be really tapped into that present moment. Because I think we can easily get lost in the abyss of everything. So yeah, practice, practice, presence, practice, joy.
221 00:44:18.680 --> 00:44:20.790 Liz Fleming: I love that, and for
222 00:44:21.260 --> 00:44:27.449 Liz Fleming: for someone in your position, physically, with all that you're going through to hear you
223 00:44:27.690 --> 00:44:48.510 Liz Fleming: like, have this beautiful smile on your face. You're glowing and telling people to live in joy because you're living in joy. You know what that's like. It is so empowering. And I just. We're so lucky to have you here to share your story, and I'm so excited to see what what else comes through for you and for everyone.
224 00:44:48.510 --> 00:44:57.920 Liz Fleming: I've linked all of Hannah's information in the show notes, including the link to her Ted Talk, her sub stack, her website, her Instagram. All the goodies are down there. So please
225 00:44:57.920 --> 00:45:07.300 Liz Fleming: definitely go watch her, Ted, talk. It is going to give you a lot to think about in the best way, and I think that does it for us, Hannah, until next time.
226 00:45:07.650 --> 00:45:09.709 Hannah Wallace: Thank you so much for having me on Liz.
227 00:45:09.710 --> 00:45:10.970 Liz Fleming: Thank you.
Did that go by too fast? No worries. You can always find me over at elisabethfleming.com for more information about my programs, events, and how you can take your learning further with me. If you loved this episode, leave a review. It helps more than you know.
Thank you so much for tuning in. I'll catch you next time.
Connect with Hannah:
Watch Hannah’s TEDx Talk: The key to thriving with disability | TEDxTamworth
Hannah’s Website: hannah-wallace.com
Hannah on Instagram: @thehannahwallace
Hannah’s Substack + Finding Grace Podcast
Connect with Liz:
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YouTube: @mslizfleming (You can now watch select podcast episodes over on my YouTube channel! Nothing fancy, just me on video, keepin’ it real.)
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