[00:00] Valerie Beck: Rise, Renew,
[00:02] reconnect.
[00:03] Welcome to from the Ashes, a podcast where stories of adversity become the blueprints for transformation.
[00:10] I'm your host, Valerie Hwang Beck, here to explore the deep work of rising into your unique potential with courageous clarity and authentic alignment. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to season three of from the Ashes podcast.
[00:37] I'm your host, Valerie Hwang Beck, and I am very excited to get season three started.
[00:43] Up until now, I've been discussing a lot on rising from the Ashes, getting over burnout, overcoming obstacles in our lives. And a lot of the guests that I've had so far on the podcast have been powerhouses in really being strong,
[01:00] finding their resilience,
[01:02] and finding their path, their own way into life. And I really wanted to lean into this topic of reaching your unique potential.
[01:12] And so this season three, I'm really hoping to highlight stories where people have really leaned in to who they are as unique individuals and how that has shaped their path so that they are contributing to the world in their unique way.
[01:27] And so today's whole topic is gonna be about how you are unique and why that matters.
[01:34] Because we're taught in life that we're special,
[01:38] or some of us have been told that we're not special because everyone is special. And so which one is it?
[01:45] And my take on this, after exploring for myself what it means for us to be human beings on this planet, is that we all have one. Unique gifts, but also unique backgrounds, perspectives.
[02:02] No single person is the same in where they grew up,
[02:08] how they were raised, who their parents are, where they went to school, their ethnicity, their cultural background, their history. Right. And their age compared to everyone else.
[02:17] And it really does make for a fascinating spectrum of approaches to life.
[02:24] And oftentimes, in a lot of modern society, we actually are conditioned to think that we have to think the way that our culture thinks, or we have to go the way that our political party goes, or we have to do this because, like, we're in this hive mindset of,
[02:41] like, we have to be the same as the people that we identify with.
[02:45] And so what I really want to highlight today and have you think about is how you are actually a collection of all of your different identities and all of your different stories,
[03:00] but none of those single things are you.
[03:04] And so what makes you you is actually this ongoing way of being your ongoing discovery of self.
[03:12] So I took about two months off of this podcast because I really wanted to give myself the time and the space to dive into my own life, do a few things that are different.
[03:23] I've been really developing other programs for Club Phoenix and my coaching business.
[03:30] And I also took some time to travel. And so when I step away from my day to day,
[03:37] when I take the time to go to a different place, meet new people,
[03:41] I always change my life. I always change perspectives, and I come back so much more enriched and ready to go.
[03:50] And so I want to start off by talking about some of the lessons that I learned in the past couple of months as I was taking time off.
[03:57] And some really exciting developments happened.
[04:01] So one of the things that I actually got so much out of was doing Julia Cameron's Artist's Way, her book,
[04:11] where she has people go through two main exercises, actually.
[04:15] One is called the Morning Pages, and one is called the Artist Date.
[04:20] And the morning pages changed my life rapidly.
[04:26] So what it is is that you have to journal every morning. And it's essentially like a brain dump where you. You don't really think. You just write, write, write, write, write, and you have to fill three pages.
[04:38] I used to be so resistant to journaling, and every time that I tried to start to journal,
[04:44] you could see in my journal, it's usually like a couple of lines, and then I give up, and then I'm like, okay, I have nothing else to say. Like, what, my life, my.
[04:51] My day was great, or I struggle with this. Blah, blah, blah, blah. When you actually sit down with the intention of writing three full pages and you have to fill them, it really gets you to dig deep inside and uncover some of those limitations that you have to writing,
[05:05] which I did had a lot of.
[05:08] And,
[05:09] yeah, wow. I discovered that I have a lot of gutsy things to say.
[05:14] I stopped censoring myself so much. I allowed myself to, like, curse as much as I want in my journal because no one was going to see it. I allowed myself to complain.
[05:22] I allowed myself to visualize possibilities,
[05:26] some of which were very morbid and some of which were really, really cool.
[05:30] And knowing that, like, just because you're writing it down, putting it on paper,
[05:34] doesn't mean that you're putting it into reality. And a lot of what your thoughts are just really jumbled messes of words.
[05:42] They don't really have any significance. And so, like, if you get them on paper, you just create more space for other things to come up.
[05:50] And one of the big things that we have been grappling with in Club Phoenix in the past couple of months was like,
[05:56] what is it that we're afraid of?
[06:00] And when we clear out space for us to.
[06:04] To meditate, right? When we clearing. When we clear out space for us to just sit and we're not looking at our phones and we're not watching the TV and we're faced kind of with this nothingness that I call the void.
[06:18] What are we so afraid of in that quiet?
[06:23] Because in that space,
[06:25] in that void is actually where all possibilities come up.
[06:30] And so what occurred to me is for a lot of us, we're actually afraid to face possibility.
[06:37] And so after doing a couple of weeks of the morning pages,
[06:43] not only did I have material, I had content,
[06:46] but I also got a lot of clarity about who I am and what I want to contribute to this world. I got so strong in declaring my values, my mission, my vision, because I was telling myself each day on paper, you got this.
[07:05] I believe in you. And also, like,
[07:07] I want to live in a world where, blah, blah, blah, I want to see this happen in the world. I'm going to do this. And a lot of that self declaration was coming through.
[07:16] And honestly, I don't know if I would have been able to get that clarity without doing those morning pages and breaking through that barrier of mine of journaling.
[07:28] Once you start to make those shifts in your mind where you declare your beliefs, your convictions,
[07:36] or you start to get really gutsy with yourself, you start to get really honest with yourself,
[07:42] your life actually starts to get closer to what it is you want to create.
[07:47] So I actually ended up publishing a bunch of what I wrote in my journal or versions of it onto, like, my blog or my personal substack page for the public to see.
[08:00] And just like being like, okay, I'm. I'm a little bit afraid of what people think of what I think, because honestly, I see it as a little bit contrarian. I see some of my thoughts as being somewhat controversial and definitely not in the mainstream.
[08:16] And it's like, you know what? I need to stand for what I believe in.
[08:21] Otherwise I'm always going to be hiding behind this facade.
[08:26] I'm always going to be hiding. And if I really want to create things that I stand for,
[08:31] there's no way that I can really hold back and think that what I truly want is going to come to fruition, if that makes sense.
[08:41] So if you'd like to check out some of what I've written, I did write a recent blog post on my website, Intrepid Wellness Life.
[08:50] And so you can See, I've gotten a little bit more gutsy with what I've been writing,
[08:55] and it's definitely changed how I'm showing up,
[08:59] that's for sure.
[09:01] So as I start to show up in different ways, of course,
[09:05] Facebook and the social media algorithms strike again to change my life.
[09:10] The first time I remember this happening was when I was doing intensive yoga and I was getting really into meditation.
[09:18] I was going through a lot of my own mental health struggles. I've talked about this previously on different. Different episodes in the podcast.
[09:26] Facebook picked up that I was. It was. I was getting into meditation and I was getting into yoga. Like, I was going to yoga class every day.
[09:34] And something about Ayurveda popped up. Like,
[09:38] go to Ayurveda school. This could be your next career.
[09:41] I guess something called me to click on it, because I did. And that was the school that I ended up going to for my first couple of years of Ayurveda school.
[09:50] But now Fast forward to 2025,
[09:53] and I'm starting to be a little bit more bold and starting to talk about what I want.
[09:58] And yes, the algorithm decides to put in front of me this ad for a entrepreneur retreat for location independent businesses that's going to take place in Japan.
[10:12] And I remember being really attracted to it because it had these, like, bold colors.
[10:18] And not only that, like, of Japan, which I, you know, that's my favorite place. And also there was a picture of Ken Honda. Somehow he was looped into the thing.
[10:26] And I remember taking Ken Honda's workshop online through mindvalley.
[10:31] So I was like, yeah,
[10:32] okay, let me just check it out. Let me see. And they had this webinar, this free webinar that was going to go on in a couple of days at 6am my time is like, you know what?
[10:40] I can get up at 6am and go to this webinar. Why not?
[10:45] So, yeah, fast forward a couple of days, and I have met the CEO of the company, Michelle, and we clicked, and she saw my possibility. And I was like, you know what?
[10:56] I think I really need to go for this. I need to go to Japan and go on this retreat where I feel like I don't have much to offer, but I think there's a lot for me to learn.
[11:04] And so I said yes.
[11:08] So, yeah, big, big leap of faith on my part.
[11:11] And it did change my life. And I'll tell you a little bit about that in a second.
[11:16] But what the takeaway was for this is that if you can allow yourself to lean into the stuff that You've always wanted to do, but procrastinated, putting, putting off because of adulting.
[11:33] Take the chance to do it because that is actually what I realized I had done.
[11:38] For years I've been telling myself that I want to do. I want to travel by myself. I want to go and connect with people and like live this big life doing things to connect people globally on the wellness consciousness manifestation.
[11:53] All this stuff that I really love doing on a global scale and going beyond just local culture and without the dogma of the religion that comes with a lot of spiritual practices.
[12:05] But I never actually took those back big steps to go for it and like meet those people and participate in real life. I was always online.
[12:15] Finally when this chance came, I was like, well, they're going to be in Japan. I've been to Japan many times. You know, it's not as risky, but I still will be there.
[12:22] And I said yes.
[12:24] And so not only that,
[12:27] but I booked my ticket and I also gave myself some extra time to do some solo exploration,
[12:33] exploration in the Japanese countryside.
[12:37] So a couple of years when I was on jet,
[12:39] we did this trip to Kagawa Prefecture to go eat udon noodles. And I love noodles.
[12:46] So I was like, I want to be close enough to Kagawa. I don't really want to go and just like hang out with the people I already know. I want to like go and explore.
[12:55] I wanted to experience something different.
[12:58] And Kagawa is close enough, like I could take the, the bus across the to the island and just eat noodles for a couple of days and see what happens.
[13:07] And that's exactly what I did. And I actually found a guest, guest house kind of outside of the city where the whole idea was that you can have dinner parties with strangers.
[13:20] And the, you know, the staff of the guest house, they cook for the guests each night and we do this whole like exchange. And it's all in Japanese because the staff doesn't speak English.
[13:31] And so I was like, all right, well,
[13:34] you know, I could speak a little Japanese. Let's, let's see how this goes.
[13:38] Yeah, it was the right move, everyone. Like, it was the right move.
[13:42] The guest house I stayed at was called Soraumi Guest House and it was run by former monk.
[13:49] And the reason why he started the guest house is because he had traveled so much throughout Japan and had received such warm hospitality. He wanted a way to give back to people and like give that experience of hospitality to others.
[14:02] And it's really beautiful story and he's a really sweet dude.
[14:07] So if you ever Happen to want to go to Kagawa Prefecture in Takamatsu City. That's Sora Umi Guest house.
[14:15] So yeah,
[14:16] that was the first leg of my trip. And so even before I got to the retreat, I was already off having adventures.
[14:23] And the first night I was really shy and you know, it was very formal and everyone did their exchange, did their jikko shokai, which means like self introductions and stuff.
[14:33] But then the second night, you know,
[14:36] there were some new guests,
[14:37] busted out some sake, had some great conversation. And then by the third night we had some guests from Denmark and they had gotten to know me. Well, not the guests from Denmark, but the staff has gotten, gotten to know me.
[14:50] And they were like, can you translate? Like we don't know if we can communicate with these guys. And so by the end of night three, we were all singing by the piano with the young guys from Denmark playing the piano and just singing like Japanese folk songs and stuff.
[15:05] And everyone was really thankful that I could translate for them. And it just felt so integrated. It only took three days and I felt like by the time I had left the place,
[15:16] I was a part of it.
[15:18] And as I like pulled away on the train, I saw them like waving at me.
[15:24] It was just so heartwarming.
[15:26] So then I jump into this seven day retreat where there were 10 other entrepreneurs and digital nomads from around the world.
[15:34] It was the first time in a while I've been in such an international group and oh my goodness, it was really, really refreshing.
[15:41] These are some of the coolest people I've ever met and I met a lot of people,
[15:46] but it was inspiring because some of them were real digital nomads. They weren't really living in one place and they were just doing online work, moving from location to location and making it work and just like absorbing the world and like seeing different places,
[16:04] learning about different cultures.
[16:06] These people are very open minded and just like down for experiences. It was amazing.
[16:12] And not only that, but they were entrepreneurs too. So they're building their own businesses and very creative.
[16:22] Yeah. So I was super inspired by them. I also wrote a blog about that on my website.
[16:27] So if you want to learn more about the nomad escape, I will actually be at their Island Fest this year in Madera.
[16:35] So if you're interested in going to Madera, if you really want to explore that world,
[16:40] I highly, highly recommend it.
[16:44] So being in this retreat,
[16:46] it was super cool because not only did we click right away,
[16:52] but we spent every moment we could talking about possibility.
[16:57] Like everybody's building their own business,
[16:59] they have these great visions for their own lives, but also how to help other people.
[17:05] And like, even when we were off having fun,
[17:08] there were always new business ideas coming up, there were always collaborations. I ended up having a lot of one on one chats,
[17:14] getting some wisdom from people who have more experience, but also giving some of my own wisdom. And it was really cool to be able to give a value in that way, in a way that I feel like I haven't been able to in a long time.
[17:29] And actually I walked out of that experience remembering a huge part of myself that I had let go of.
[17:38] And I wasn't anticipating gaining this back. Honestly, I don't even know if I was quite conscious of it,
[17:45] but I was reminded of an essential personal conviction that I had since high school.
[17:52] And I think it's because I went to a really diverse high school and I was a freshman when 911 happened.
[17:59] But I had this conviction back then that I wanted to embody and promote global citizenship.
[18:09] And it's the reason, honestly, why I went to Japan in the first place to teach for three years. It's the reason why I ended up pursuing international education for my master's.
[18:19] And then when I burned out, I.
[18:21] I left this part of me.
[18:23] I lost it. I actually lost it in my years trying to heal myself when I. I actually became very insular and I had to really withdraw from the world to deal with my own burnout and depression.
[18:35] And it's taken me years to come back to the realization that, wow, like, this still really means a lot to me.
[18:42] And now that I really do feel like I'm. I'm free from burnout,
[18:47] that I have the tools not only if I. If I get burnt out again, I have the tools now to bring myself out of it. And I also can I start to identify really early on if I'm heading that direction.
[18:59] So now that I've been able to regain a lot of my resilience,
[19:03] I'm ready to step back into this vision now of embracing global citizenship and really advocating for it.
[19:10] So I wouldn't have been able to, to regain this vision of myself had I not taken these steps, had I not done the journaling to uncover what was still blocking me, had I not said yes to the things that were I was afraid of that would stretch me in so many different ways.
[19:31] For a while I had major social anxiety because of my burnout. For a while I was really struggling with financials.
[19:38] So the fact that I could invest in myself in this way and put myself out there really shows me how I was able to evolve. Evolved through the years.
[19:48] And now that I'm here,
[19:49] I can really stand in my power.
[19:52] So that brings me to the main point that you are unique. And it matters.
[19:58] No person is going to have the journey that I did.
[20:02] But every single person has the potential to have their own growth and healing journey.
[20:09] Because of who they are,
[20:13] how they were born,
[20:14] how their traumas materialized.
[20:17] How you taught yourself to survive in the world. And how your environment taught you to survive in the world.
[20:24] So I have a couple of points on this matter.
[20:28] One is my mission is to help visionary leaders. Step into their unique potential.
[20:33] That's like my personal mission.
[20:35] Because I believe that everyone has the ability to thrive in their dharma, right? Dharma being like your. Your purpose, your unique potential. But it's more than just like a singular purpose.
[20:46] Because people have different identities. Like, they become parents.
[20:50] They're. They're a householder, or they. They're a political leader or.
[20:55] There are so many different roles that you can play in your life.
[20:59] But it's the conglomeration of everything that makes you unique.
[21:04] That determines your potential and what you can contribute to this world.
[21:08] And that is forever evolving.
[21:10] But the more you are present to it and aligned to it.
[21:14] By being very settled in the self,
[21:17] the more powerful you are in that.
[21:20] So it is what you are uniquely positioned to contribute in your lifetime because of who you are.
[21:29] Every single person accumulates a different set of knowledge in a lifetime. Every single person has different experiences.
[21:37] Like a person who is. Who is born,
[21:40] let's say, in a really poor country across the world. Is going to have a different set of potentials. Than a person who was born wealthy, let's say, on the opposite side of the globe.
[21:51] And has nothing to do with if you're rich or poor.
[21:54] It's what you do with those circumstances.
[21:58] Because someone who is rich can also waste their potential.
[22:01] Someone who is poor can equally, equally waste their own potential. Because of how they react and see the world.
[22:08] And that's why you see a lot of people who are very complacent with their lives. Maybe they've had everything handed to them. And they don't. They aren't conscious of what they could do with that privilege.
[22:19] But then you also see people who have tons of resources. That are doing a lot to help the world.
[22:24] And so it's. It has to do more with how present you are. With what you can do with your circumstances. Than what your circumstances. Circumstances actually are.
[22:35] Every single person has a different set of those circumstances.
[22:42] So the second point I want to make is on how to thrive.
[22:46] In Vedic wisdom, actually, they talk about how people have this potential to thrive.
[22:53] And so the reason why it's important that you see your unique potential is because when you see it,
[23:03] you have access to a thriving life.
[23:06] More so than if you were to just live according to other people's expectations and not listen to anything that you want or anything that your soul is calling you to do.
[23:18] Because we each have different lessons to learn in life.
[23:23] If you live on purpose, by tapping into your potential,
[23:28] you are aligning yourself to what comes naturally to you.
[23:32] When you do that,
[23:34] you attract abundance.
[23:36] You attract abundance that comes from leveraging your potential.
[23:40] So resources will come more easily to you. Like money,
[23:45] time,
[23:45] relationships.
[23:47] The people that are meant to support you come in to support you, right? Because you are really leaning into what you're meant to do.
[23:54] If you're resisting what you want you're meant to do,
[23:57] you're also resisting the relationships. You're also resisting the money.
[24:02] If you,
[24:03] for example,
[24:05] are really drawn to be, let's say, a community leader.
[24:10] And,
[24:11] you know, maybe you're resisting that because your parents are telling you you need to go and become a doctor and study really hard, and you can't be social,
[24:21] but you have this pull to, like, help people.
[24:24] If you go the doctor route and you're more isolated and you're not as social,
[24:30] that part of you gets cut off.
[24:33] And so it's harder for you to go down the route where you're going to resist.
[24:37] And so that abundance isn't going to be naturally attracted to. Yeah, you may. You might make a lot of money as a doctor, but there's always going to be a feeling of scarcity,
[24:47] not only because you're going to be giving your time doing something that you maybe weren't meant to do,
[24:53] but because you're putting in so much energy doing something that you're resisting,
[24:57] you actually lose energy that you would have had,
[25:01] had you actually followed your heart to do what you were called to do.
[25:05] A lot of us experience this actually when we're doing like a, you know, like a generic corporate job and 9 to 5 or something like that. And you come home and you have to, like, you're so tired from this job that you hate that you have to, like, watch Netflix.
[25:21] And so you don't actually have time to build up your hobbies or, you know, socialize with the people that you care about, yada, yada, yada.
[25:27] And so that is that dissonance is robbing you of your abundance.
[25:33] So it's less to do about money than it is about all of the resources being able to have all of that time, right? The relationships that you would have had had you gone and done something that's more fulfilling, that's aligned with who you are.
[25:48] The third part of being, having a life of thrive by living on purpose is having joy and fulfillment. So of course, if you are. If you were meant to be that community leader and you lean in towards that, you're going to get natural joy from doing that thing.
[26:05] You're going to attract that natural abundance because you're in your element.
[26:09] And so people are going to support you in that.
[26:13] And so that then naturally leads to you being able to enjoy your life, having the fulfillment, because you are reaping the gifts of doing what you're meant to do.
[26:24] And then the fourth aspect of having a thriving life is this freedom and integration.
[26:30] It's the feeling that you are a part of the world. It's a feeling that you are integrated with everything else that's going on because life is happening so naturally for you.
[26:41] You're in your element. You're being a community,
[26:44] and you're gathering people to make a difference, and people are supporting you in that.
[26:49] And you get to enjoy being surrounded by people that care.
[26:53] Of course, you're going to feel more integrated into your world, into the universe even,
[27:00] because you see yourself as the.
[27:02] As the fabric, as part of the fabric of society. You see yourself as part of the fabric of everything in a way that makes you feel really nourished rather than out of obligation.
[27:12] That's the feeling of belonging.
[27:15] So those are the four elements of thriving, right? Living on purpose, attracting abundance,
[27:20] enjoying your life, and having that freedom and integration.
[27:24] And what this looks like for you ultimately is going to be very different from what it looks like for me.
[27:32] And that's the beauty of it.
[27:34] That is the essence of you being unique.
[27:39] What makes you happy, what works for you,
[27:43] what makes your life click, will look completely different from what makes my life click, which means that there's no one set formula.
[27:52] And so it really is about embracing what you need to do,
[27:57] knowing yourself really well in order to reach your potential.
[28:01] And what I really appreciate about this is that we're not all meant to be the same.
[28:06] Some people really thrive in being part of the herd. And there's nothing wrong with that if they have that dharma.
[28:16] Some people find genuine joy and meaning by going to church, for example.
[28:20] They wouldn't be any happier anywhere else. They. They love Living in their small knit community and they are thriving in harmony. They get to like show up for the same people each week.
[28:32] And it's that community feel that makes them feel a part of the world.
[28:37] But then there are also some people who are genuinely happy and fulfilled. Climbing the corporate ladder, let's say, right?
[28:43] Not everybody finds the corporate world unbearable, even though many of us do.
[28:50] But there are people who really get something out of it, I'm sure.
[28:54] And there are some people like me who feel the most alive when I'm connecting with strangers in foreign lands and when I'm free of the institutions that really kind of bring small communities together.
[29:07] That's just not for me.
[29:09] Everybody has a different way of thriving depending on who they are.
[29:16] So I hope that this inspires you to see your own unique potential,
[29:24] that it gives you permission to explore that. Because if you've been feeling dissonant in your life, like there's something about your life that maybe just doesn't vibe with you, maybe there's something that you feel like you've always needed to do.
[29:40] I want to leave you with three pieces of advice today to get you closer to your unique potential.
[29:46] Because getting to your unique potential is when you can start to feel real abundance, real joy and real freedom.
[29:54] So the first thing is to ask yourself what. What is one thing you've always wanted to do, but you keep talking yourself out of it?
[30:02] Is it traveling?
[30:04] Learning a new skill?
[30:06] Training for a marathon?
[30:08] Think about that one thing.
[30:10] Like, for me it was like I'd always wanted to go on this solo trip and go to one of these retreats where I'd find people who are really cool.
[30:19] Think about one step you can take today to put yourself down just a little bit closer to it.
[30:26] Write it down.
[30:27] I'm going to look up three retreats I can go on or I'm going to call a buddy to help me.
[30:37] Go running.
[30:38] Do something that's going to move the needle one point forward.
[30:43] Second,
[30:44] think of one person you already really look up to or admire,
[30:49] maybe someone that even makes you jealous,
[30:52] Someone who has the life that you want.
[30:54] And ask yourself,
[30:56] what is it about them that you really want?
[31:00] What is it about their life that you really want and what is one thing they are doing to get to their results that maybe you aren't doing?
[31:12] What is one thing that is moving their needle forward that you haven't been doing?
[31:19] Identify that one habit and try it out for at least one month and see what happens.
[31:25] And then finally, three.
[31:27] Take an honest look at what in your life feels stuck?
[31:33] Allow yourself to ask the question,
[31:35] are you living on purpose?
[31:37] Are you fulfilled in abundant and are you true to yourself?
[31:42] And if any of those answers are no,
[31:46] start to think about what is it that I really want?
[31:51] All right, I hope that was helpful if you want to take a deeper look at your unique potential and how you could get closer to it. If you've been feeling that dissonance in your life for a while,
[32:02] I actually have a quiz called the Flow State Assessment and it's online for free where you can get a full report on how aligned you are with your purpose,
[32:13] your abundance,
[32:14] your joy and your freedom.
[32:17] So if you are interested in doing that quiz, go to my website, www.intrepidwellness.life.
[32:23] check it out and if you feel compelled,
[32:27] send me an email and we'll go over the results together.
[32:30] I hope you've enjoyed today's episode on your unique potential and why it matters,
[32:36] and I hope this inspires you to go for the thing that you've always wanted to go for again. My name is Valerie Huang Beck. I'm your Vitality and Vision mentor and I'll catch you next time.
