Saturday Selection – An Interview with Alice Chan

Last Saturday, I introduced you to my friend, Alice Chan, and her amazing book, REACH Your Dreams: 5 Steps to be a Conscious Creator in Your Life. If you missed it, be sure to click here to read all about this transformational book.

This week, I’m thrilled to share Alice’s soulful interview with you! She is one of my dearest friends, and sharing her wise words here feels amazing. I had several aha moments when I read her responses. Alice has such a beautiful soul, and I feel truly blessed that she shares her wisdom so generously. After reading this interview, you’ll see why I love her so much.

Alice was born in Hong Kong and raised in Macau. When she was just 16, she left for college in the United States, a journey that culminated in her receiving a doctorate and becoming an award-winning professor at Cornell. She then spent a decade serving as a market research consultant. A near-fatal car accident in 2008 woke her up, and she realized that she needed to switch things up a bit – she wasn’t living her soul’s purpose. And so she began to tap in to her higher self to hear what her purpose was. She always knew that she wanted to help others, and now she is truly living her dream of doing exactly that. Her book, REACH Your Dreams, delivers a road map to help each of us find our own life purpose and take steps towards living a fulfilling life.

You write about how REACH Your Dreams came to you through divine guidance. Can you talk a bit more about this experience – did it come to you as a feeling, words, or in pictures? Was the entire program laid out right away, or did it take time to sift through it and make sense of it all?

REACH came to me while I was sitting in my friend’s car while visiting Sedona, Arizona. The acronym came really clearly to me first, as intuitive “hits” often come to me in words. What each letter represented came to me next fairly effortlessly. Then, when I realized what REACH would stand for – Release, Envision, Act, Celebrate and Honor – these five components really felt complete to me as a conscious living system.

We both share a similar writing style and each describe it as though we are taking dictation from the universe. Even though it took some time after you felt called to write REACH, when you consciously committed to doing so it flowed out of you quickly.

I think so many of us have experienced this bottling up of our energy because we are afraid of what will happen when it comes out. Because you have been there and come out the other side with an amazing book, can you talk about how it feels to have surrendered to the universe?

The almost three months that I spent writing my book (while holding down a consulting practice) were the most exquisitely beautiful time of my life co-creating with the universe. On the weekend that I wrote the Celebrate chapter, I was so in the creative flow, and the energy was so enormous that I was physically unable to contain it all. I started having a headache and had to stop writing for a few hours. It was incredible! If I could spend the rest of my life writing and creating like that, I’d undeniably be the happiest woman alive! It’s a real gift to have experienced how easy and thoroughly enjoyable it was to create through divine download. I know I won’t ever write the same again, and the many years of academic and business writing are history! And, you’re absolutely right about surrendering being critical. Can’t force it, can’t schedule it, and being in total receptivity is the key.

Thank you so much for sharing your vulnerabilities by talking about the personal blocks that you came up against with writing REACH – not feeling qualified enough, not wanting to give up your financial security, etc. These are all such valid, relatable points that so many of us go through when we are called to reach for our own dreams. Can you share a bit about your process in pushing through these fears?

Almost dying on December 30, 2008 is the ultimate driving force behind not letting fears and self-doubt keep me hiding indefinitely. The near-death experience I had while unconscious in the hospital gave me an unwavering sense of conviction that my time in this life wasn’t up, yet, and that I still had a mission to fulfill. That near-death experience has become the compass in my consciousness ever since. I also honored the human part of me that needed to take progressive steps toward fulfilling my life’s mission, instead of making one gigantic leap that I wasn’t ready to make. Last, but not least, I also made it a priority in my life to cultivate a spiritual practice and to participate in continuous spiritual studies, which helped me build faith and learn to surrender. I believed – still do – that as long as I keep saying “yes” to what I was called to do, the universe would never, ever leave me stranded.

You write in detail about this near death experience in your book. For those who haven’t read it yet, could you share a bit about this experience?

I was unconscious in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital when I sensed a very bright light all around me. I felt wrapped up from head to toe in an extremely comforting, protective and warm cocoon of love. It was the most loved I had ever felt in my life before then and since. While being held by this immense love, a knowing came upon me that I almost died. That knowing didn’t come with any fear or other emotions; it just was what it was. All was exactly in right order and as it should be. I also felt a very strong conviction that I was kept alive because there was more for me to do in this life.

I love how you realized through pushing through your fears that your own life experiences and journey of awakening qualified you to write REACH. I truly believe that we each are experts in more than we realize, and we have so much to offer to the world. What do you think are steps we can each take to honor our own wisdom?

I think that most of us suffer from some form of “I’m not good enough” at some level. It’s just the way life works that we learned to feel this way since we were really little. Our message, our purpose for being here in this life, tends to be obscured by layers of unworthiness that need to be healed and released. So, we could all practice being mindful of whatever disempowering feelings we have that keep us from getting our message out. Know that those feelings come from our fear-based ego, while our message is our divine purpose. Cultivate a spiritual practice, whether it’s meditation, journaling, yoga, or a combination these and other activities, keeps open the channel to our inner wisdom.

In the Release section, you talk about letting go of outdated messages and subconscious program that is keeping us from moving toward our dream. What was the hardest limiting belief/message for you to break through? How did you do it?

It’s again the belief that I’m not good enough. Even recently, when I was doing some meditation and contemplation work, the part of me that’s a scared little girl waiting to be rescued was revealed to me. This is despite having spent years releasing limiting beliefs, especially the tenacious ones that are grounded in my childhood of feeling unwanted and unworthy as a girl born into a traditional Chinese family that couldn’t have too many boys. As I wrote in my book, I fully realize and honor the fact that beliefs are like an onion. Until the top layers are removed, the inner, core ones can’t be revealed and released. So, I just continue to do my deepening work and peeling away layers of really old messages keeping buried beliefs of unworthiness. I really believe in honoring the human experience. I’m constantly learning and growing, and I’m grateful for every breakthrough or even the slightest “aha” moment.

In the Envision section, you talk about keeping a vision board – which I am a huge believer in! What would you say is the most meaningful thing that you actually manifested as a result of putting it on your vision board?

My vision board, which was created a few years ago, really represents the long-term vision for my life. So, most things haven’t materialized, yet. One meaningful – and fun! – thing did happen last year. On my board, I have the picture of a cruise ship sitting in the middle of a body of really blue water; no shoreline was visible. Last year, I took myself on a Mediterranean cruise to celebrate turning 40. It was my dream trip for more than 5 years, so it was literally a dream come true! On the day of my actual birthday, we were in Santorini. The ship was too big to dock by the shore, so it did where the water was deep enough. At one point, I was at a winery on the island overlooking the water where the ship was visible. What did I see but the picture on my board! It was so surreal!

It was vague and unclear for most of my life, until the epiphany in Sedona when I received the download of REACH. Since I was a child, I had the desire to become a helper of some sort when I grew up. After the inability to handle Organic Chemistry killed my teenage dream of becoming a medical doctor to save lives and alleviate pain, I thought for sure that my calling was to become a research professor. That was met with a rude awakening when I got clinically depressed as a rising academic star during my tenure as an award-winning researcher and professor at Cornell University. From that, I stumbled into more than a decade of being a market research and business consultant – hating myself for most of those years for “selling out.” That segment of my path didn’t fit the psychological picture of the personally meaningful work of a helper I felt sure I was born to do. That was until I stopped to realize that the consulting profession is a helping profession. When it all came together while writing my book, I realized that everything I’ve done and experienced is part of fulfilling my life purpose. If I hadn’t felt lost for many years, I wouldn’t know how to relate to those I was born to serve. If I didn’t have the professions I had, I wouldn’t have developed the speaking and teaching skills I need to fulfill my life’s mission.

You are an inspiration to me of someone who lives in faith. How do you stay strong and calm? How do you stay in this higher self rather than allowing your scared self to take the reins?

Thank you for the kind words, Jodi! I’m human just like everyone else, which means fears and doubt do come up, no matter how much work I’ve done on myself to release limiting messages. The good, the bad and the ugly are all part of the human experience after all. What I will say is that, compared to a few years ago when I didn’t have a regular spiritual practice, I’m now much more conscious of making choices to listen to my inner wisdom instead of my fear-based ego, which is like a little child who doesn’t know any better. I rely on my daily spiritual practice and continued studies in deepening my consciousness to help me choose, as you put it, not to let my scared self take the reins.

There are so many people who are in the position you were in just a couple of years ago: working in a career that pays well, gives them credentials and stability, puts their degrees to use, but at the end of the day doesn’t fulfill them. Because you have gone through it and are living life on the other side of it now, what advice can you offer to someone who wants to move toward their dream life but is afraid?

I’ve learned that, unless the pain of staying in the status quo is greater than the fear of going toward the unknown, it’d be easier to stay unfulfilled but safe. Ultimately, there’s no magic pill to swallow that will give us extra courage. Instead, it’s up to us to work on building faith. The fear we feel comes from not knowing where we’ll end up if we leave the comfort of the status quo – even if we may be unhappy in it – or the path to our dreams. However, all we really need to remember are two things: (1) If we take progressive steps toward whatever calls to us, the path will reveal itself to us; and (2) the universe always, always has our back. Until we take the first step, the steps beyond that will remain a mystery. It’s like Jack Canfied teaches – when you take a cross-country road trip, you’re only able to see the stretch of road ahead of you. If you don’t drive, you won’t see the next stretch of road and the next stretch after that. If you keep driving, it will take you to your destination.

Why do you think so many of us need such an abrupt jolt to wake us up and put us back on our path? Do you think it’s possible to find our way without physical and/or emotional trauma and pain?

First of all, I don’t think we’re ever truly off our path. Being off or taking detours are only human judgments we make of the choices we deem “wrong.” In the grand scheme of things, everything we do ultimately is part of our journey in this life – the labyrinth concept I talk about in the Honor chapter. Having said all that, we do have free will as human beings to choose to linger in parts of our path that are safe but unfulfilling and don’t ultimately serve our soul’s purpose for being in this life. For some of us, we have very strong intellectual capacities and active rational minds – and perhaps have also learned from early life experiences that we needed to be in control to keep ourselves safe. When that’s the case, the voice of our inner wisdom has to cut through a lot of mental chatter and static to get our attention. That’s what ultimately produces the big jolts and dramatic wakeup calls, such as my near-fatal car accident. If we work on raising our consciousness and tuning into our inner wisdom, we don’t have to court major trauma to get our attention.

I get the feeling that the REACH program is a continual process – I like that it isn’t a 30-day plan or a 7 ways to fix your life system. It feels more grounded and more realistic. If I understand it correctly, it’s something that we continue to come back to over and over again, but not in a drudgery kind of way – more in a self care kind of way. Do you envision us going back to it each time we have a new dream and starting the program again?

You can most certainly do the program over and over again, as needed. You may also find that some components are useful to practice on an ongoing basis. For instance, I still find myself learning more and more about honoring my life and myself, independent of having a specific dream to fulfill. The more I’m able to honor my life and myself as a co-creator of my own experiences, the more open and magnetic I am to the magic of life and what the universe has in store for me. Also, as mentioned in another part of this interview, the longer we’ve lived, the more likely it is that we have layers of old beliefs to release. So, again, whether there’s a specific dream involved, the Release tools in the program can be used over and over again.

If you had one gift that everyone would receive as a result of reading your book, what would it be? How would you like it to impact their lives? How would you like to serve?

The one gift I’d like everyone to have is to become (more) conscious of the fact that we create our own experiences in our lives, whether or not we are aware of the thoughts and beliefs that create them. Think about how powerful that makes each of us – the fact that by practicing conscious living, we aren’t victims of circumstances, our experiences make sense, and we have the power right here and right now to compose the life of our dreams! To be able to provide everyone with tools to do that is literally why I’m still living and breathing. In that sense, REACH is the start of this segment of my life’s journey to fulfill my mission for being in this particular human body suit (i.e., to inspire and help you self-empower to live passionately and joyfully in love and grace, always honoring who you are and where you are in life).

In your book, you offer many wonderful meditation exercises. I know that you start each day by meditating and setting an intention. Can you talk about your process and also any changes you have noticed as a result of doing this?

Absolutely! I start each morning with a silent meditation of 10 to 15 minutes, followed by contemplation and journaling. My routine is sometimes tied to whatever spiritual coursework  I happen to be doing. For instance, right now, I’m in the midst of a 30-week program based on the book, Gifts from a Course in Miracles. Every morning, I meditate, contemplate and journal on specific concepts, like illusions, identity, ego, self, etc. Whether course-related or not, this daily practice that lasts anywhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour total helps me connect to my inner wisdom and lends perspective to happenings each day as nothing more than parts of the human experience. As a result of this practice, I’m able to recognize choice points when things happen that challenge my human self (e.g., to choose to be compassionate instead of being angry at someone who’s unkind because I recognize their action out of fear, or to choose to surrender instead of trying to force something to happen when the timing simply isn’t right). I’m able to appreciate the present moment as it is even when it’s objectively unpleasant, instead of wanting to shove it down or run away from it. I’m a lot calmer, accepting and patient than years ago, before I had a spiritual practice.

We both write about staying open to notice everyday acts of grace in our lives. Can you share with us a particular moment from your own life where a synchronistic event – a universal miracle – took place?  

Since most of this interview is pretty serious about life purpose and such, let me share a fun, light-hearted synchronistic event. It took place when I was still recovering from the accident I mentioned above. I hadn’t regained my strength, and work was all I could handle on a day-to-day basis. After long months of that, I started getting tired of feeling poorly; I wanted to thrive again. At the end of one work day, I didn’t feel like going home, which was really unusual for me, especially around that time. As I was wondering where I might go, I got a “hit” to have dinner in the bar of a nice restaurant that I’ve never eaten at before. I did that, and when I got up to leave, a handsome gentleman, who had been eying me across the bar, followed me out of the restaurant to introduce himself. We continued our conversation at a nearby wine bar and had desert at yet another nice restaurant. It was a very fun evening that matched my desired emotional and mental state at the time. I was ready to re-emerge from survival mode and live fully again.

In your book, you beautifully thread excerpts from other personal growth books that have helped you along your journey. If you had to choose just one that was pivotal for your own growth, which would it be?

I would choose The Big Leap by Dr. Gay Hendricks. His classification of different “zones” in which we choose to live is brilliant! Most importantly, our life purpose is what he calls the “Zone of Genius” in which only a minority of us lives. Instead, many objectively successful individuals choose to stay in their “Zone of Excellence.” After all, what’s wrong with being excellent?! The problem is that excellent is simply what we do well but nothing else. It doesn’t light us up nor does it fulfill our soul’s purpose. We’re all called to say “yes” to our “Zone of Genius” and allow it to unfold in our lives.

In each interview, I ask three questions from our Soulful Journals. Here are the three that I chose for Alice:

What is one experience from your childhood that you’re especially grateful for? Write about how it felt at the time, and in retrospect, how it affected your life.

There was a short period when I was in secondary school that I got into selling stickers to other kids. It started as a hobby of collecting and trading stickers. Before I knew it, kids started offering me money for stickers I had that they wanted. One day, I was short on stickers and went to a store across the street from my school to get some. To my surprise, I was able to sell those at a profit, even though anyone could have walked into the same store and bought the same stickers at cost! At the time, it was fun for me to be able to make some extra pocket money, since I got a very small allowance that I never spent.

This childhood experience was meaningful to recall when I ventured into self-employment two years ago. It was symbolic that, just because someone could buy the services I offered elsewhere, they’d want to buy from me. This childhood lesson also applies to the message in my book. Even though many of the concepts in my book aren’t necessarily new, the inspired creativity with which I put together the program based on divine guidance makes it attractive to those I’m called to serve – just like the kids who wanted to buy the stickers they wanted from me, not just some random store.

Who or what do you live for?

I live for experiencing and expressing in more and deeper ways what I came into this life to do. I’m learning more and more each day that it boils down to a choice between love and fear – and all of their derivatives (i.e., compassion, graciousness, gratitude, etc. for love and jealousy, insecurities, anxiety, etc. for fear). And, I very much look forward to the unfolding of all the ways love can be harvested within my own heart, expressed and experienced in this lifetime.

If you had the chance to speak knowing the entire world was listening, what would you say?

Honor yourself just as you are, not when you’re better in some way. Whatever way you feel less than worthy or inadequate is nothing more than human judgment – yours and/or others. Whether you like or accept yourself or not, you’re creating your life from your beliefs about yourself. Similarly, honor your life, including where you’ve been, what you’ve done, and where you are and what you’re doing now. If you dismiss your life, why would it honor you with pleasant experiences? Bless the things in your life that are good and be grateful for them. As Oprah said, “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”

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Thank you so much, Alice, for being such a wonderful friend and for sharing your wise words here today. You are a true inspiration. So much love to you!

To order REACH Your Dreams, please click here. You can also download the companion workbook on her website for free!

Be sure to join Alice on her *FREE* call on Monday, November 28th! She would be honored to help you step into 2012 knowing that you’re heading toward more joy, passion, and purpose in your life! You can sign up here.