Latest / The Jeff Crilley Show / Alison Canavan, International Speaker & Coach | The Jeff Crilley Show
Transcript
- Well, I think all of us need a coach at some point whether you wanna believe that or not, but all entrepreneurs have blind spots and often their team won't tell them this, their spouse won't tell them this, but if you bring in a transformational coach like my next guest, she'll help you see your blind spots that's Alison Canavan is in the studio and she's my friend. Thank you for coming on the show. Oh my gosh, I'm so happy to be here. Well, we should give a little background because you originally came from Ireland Mhmm. And you were a TV star in Ireland. So I started modeling when I was 15. Mhmm. Never wanted to be a model. I wasn't like one of those kids that was like, oh, when I grow up, I want to be a model. My dad's friend put me in for a competition. I won it. Then at 16, I represented Ireland in the Ford Supermodel of the World Competition that was in Las Vegas, which we actually just unearthed that video, which is absolutely hilarious, by the way. And I was only 16, and I remember entertainment TV. I was always very naturally inquisitive and chatting to people. And I was over asking the makeup artist and they were like handed me the microphone and they were like, would you mind like recording a little bit with us? And I remember Cindy Crawford was doing it as well. I wasn't allowed stand where all the, you know, the slot machines work because I was in '21. And then it just continued from there. So I had a mixture of radio, TV, modeling and non for profit charity work. I worked down in India with an amazing Irish charity, children that were trafficked to Go Oh, wow. With an amazing man called John O'Shea. So I was very, blessed that I got to see a lot of the world Yes. With my career and I got to just witness kind of more of a widespread view of humanity. Yes. You know, and what was really going on in the world. So yeah, I I did morning TV. I did my own shows in Ireland called Zero to Toddler Shows. Then I used to bring three or 400 people in on a Saturday and Sunday. Wow. And we would do the full three sixty. Yes. And I just got off a call on the way here. I was describing this to a girl and I said it was probably twelve, thirteen years ago. Sound healing nobody had heard of and some people might still not have heard of sound healing but back then it was like what is sound healing? So I brought people in for a full day of wellness where we practice gratitude and meditation and you know healthy, what is a healthy diet, I would fly someone in from Paris and they would talk about non toxic skincare, so hormone health, I was kind of leading the way in Ireland with that conversation. Yes. And it was and then we cleared the whole room and we would do science healing at the end. Wow. So, was incredible. Okay, well some people will watch this and say okay she's beautiful, never had any adversity, what can she teach me about transformation but you've had some low points. Oh absolutely, so first of all I'm eleven years in recovery from drugs and alcohol, you so much. At 15 I was always what we would call melancholy because I had a doctor who actually told me I was born melancholy and I was just an anxious person. So there we go. Now I teach about stories and I teach about not becoming the story somebody tells you. I believed that at a young age, yes, I was suffering and struggling. So I was put on antidepressants, then anti anxiety meds, then medication to sleep, then medication to deal with the side effects of the medication. And so then I self medicated. Mhmm. I was in an industry where 15, 16, 17 years of age, everybody was partying. I was very good at it. I'm Irish. So we are naturally just very good drinkers, you know, and I was, as we say in Ireland great crack, crack in Irish means fun. So I was the most fun like I was the person who was doing the sing song at four in the morning and everybody to the outside person they would have said but you are literally the most fun, You're the life and soul of the party. But what was happening behind the scenes was a whole different world. The next day was and the few days that followed were were horrendous. You know, the highs were quite high, but then the lows became really, really low. Lots and lots of suicidal ideation, many times wanted to leave. Mhmm. You know, planning to do it. One of the lowest points is when I had my son. I'm a single mother. I've raised my son on my own for he he would be 16 in September. Incredible child. And it is genuinely and I always start tearing up by the grace of God that I'm here. By the grace of God and by that child being gifted to me, I always say, I'm gonna tell this story, and this is the first time I'm gonna tell a story that I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get teary. And I think the reason I get teary is because I suppressed my emotions for so long. You know, we are taught that 50% of us is not valid. Where where do we get off pathologizing the human experience? Right. You know, so if you experience sadness or grief or, you know, I remember when my father died, I was 21, and the doctor handed me a a Valium. What what does that teach us? Right. God forbid you grieve because you've just lost someone that you love. Right. So we're so I was terrified of feeling. And any of the feelings that I did have, like sadness or grief or I was disappointed in myself, I I was really ashamed of those feelings. And of course then we present to experts and doctors and therapists and they say well if you can't get rid of your feelings then we're going to have to medicate them away. What does that teach us? Right. So so the only part of you that's welcome to the party and welcome to the table is the good part of you. What does that even mean? Right. Wow, this is Not the human part of you, the good part of you. Do you talk about this from the stage? I talk about this from the stage because I'm on a mission to help people feel and to understand that like we're in a world that I believe that God created us in his image and likeness which is I don't think he made a mistake when he gave us Yes. You know, grief and sadness. And you know, we are here to learn. I know that my greatest growth has come through my darkest moments. I wouldn't be sitting here today Yes. If I didn't come through those moments and I I a 100% attest my sobriety to my faith. Mhmm. Like there is I I used to pray but not sincerely, you know, and really I used to be somebody who prayed only when things went wrong. Yes. I didn't pray in gratitude. Yes. I would be like if something was going really wrong, like please help me, please help me, please help me. Right. You know, growing up in Catholic Ireland as well, our our I suppose our upbringing was very much God fearing, not God loving. Yes. And I struggled with that and I struggled with my relationship with God because of that. Yeah. And so I remember, gosh, the last time I went out, I had many low points. Everyone's like, was the time you got sober your low point? I'm like, no. But it was one of them. So the other times just weren't low enough obviously. And I spent years in the rooms of AA in New York and just never seemed to be able to get on top of sobriety. I don't know whether it's because I didn't want it enough but something, a light switch went off. My son was I'm he's 15 now, so he was a toddler, a little bit older, and I had gone out with friends and I had a rule. So, you know, a lot of people who are functional alcoholics, you know, they they're well able to play the game. And so I wouldn't go out with my friends if my mother wasn't taking care of James for the night. Therefore, I have a free pass to go out and party. I woke up, my front door was open, and I was fully clothed, And I was as usual, and anybody who struggles with alcohol will resonate with this, I look at my phone, and I'm like, somebody please text me. Text me to let me know where I was, who I was with, what I did, because I had a history of backing out. And if you were out with me and I told you the next day I was blacking out, you would be like, you were absolutely grand. I was with you the whole night. Right. And I'm like, I don't remember any of it. That is probably the most terrifying part. Wow. That that's so scary. And I got a message on Facebook from a guy who said, oh, I found you outside a nightclub on the ground. I managed to get your address out of you. I just wanted to check and make sure you're okay. Wow. And I was like, oh, shit. You know, sorry for cursing. No. I thought, I am all my child has. That could have ended so differently. And there were times before I was a mother that terrible things happened when I was when I was drinking, like really terrible things. And I got my hands and knees and I went, okay. This is it. If you help me get sober every single day, every single day that I wake up, first of all, my first words will be, thank you, and my next sentence will be, how can I serve? Wow. And eleven years, I've never missed a day. It's my favorite part of the day where I wake up and go, what are we doing today? Where are we going today? And my favorite three sentences, my prayer is, and it's from A Course in Miracles and it's, where would you have me go? What would you have me do? What would you have me say and to whom? Wow. And hand it over. Such a beautiful way to live. Oh my gosh. You're such a vivid storyteller. I could I could have you on all day long and we actually have to talk about your career. Sure. So, let's go ahead and pull up her website because again you're an international speaker, in fact we met through EO, an organization I love very well and shout out to Gail Davis who's a friend of mine. What kinds of groups do you like to speak to? Gosh, I love being on the big stage. There's nothing better. I speak on energy and I teach people about their own power and reconnecting with themselves. We're we're living in a grossly disconnected world. And I know that because I was completely disconnected from my own inner truth, inner voice, my own voice, my intuition for so long. And, you know, I love helping people understand that it doesn't take an awful lot and it doesn't take much to make a really big difference in your life, but you first got to build a relationship with yourself. Mhmm. You know, know yourself. And like spend how many of us really spend time with ourselves? Right. Like, just met. Yes. So I ask you questions, you ask me questions, that's how we get to know each other. Right. But we've got to do that with ourself. And there are people that go through their entire life never having taken the time to get to know themselves. Wow. And so then what we're doing is we're outsourcing our power because we don't really know our value system and where we stand and where we belong because we haven't spent that time with ourself. And so what I teach people is when you get to know the language of your energy, then you can begin to really build that level of self trust and self awareness is key. Wow. You know? How do I spend, save, and invest my own energy? Am I saying yes when I should be saying no? Am I saying no when I should be saying yes? Yes. You know? This is so powerful. She has a sizzle reel that you put together about eight months ago. Let's go ahead and roll that. Imagine what could change in your life if you started to go within instead of seeking all the solutions outside of you. Leading from within and mastering your energy. I firmly believe that addiction is disconnection, depression is disconnection, anxiety is disconnection, not only from ourselves but from each other and from the world around us. We live in a world that is constantly pulling us out of ourselves. We are experiencing an energy crisis as beings, and so we are burnt out. We are disconnected. We are overwhelmed. More so now than ever in history. My name is Alison Canavan, and I am an energy management speaker. I love teaching people how to reach their full potential by connecting deep within and becoming fluent in their own language of energy. I entered 15. And for two decades after that, I was in an industry that absolutely leads you as far away in your inside world as possible. And so I was constantly seeking happiness, but I was seeking it outside of myself. I was existing at best. I had lost everything from the sense of money and my material gains and I was just about to become a single mother. Now it wasn't all about me. My baby saved my life. Life. I started to talk about my depression and little did I know that this would be the beginning of one of the best journeys of my life. I started to receive tens and then hundreds and then thousands of emails from women saying, thank you. I feel the same way too. What I have people to do is reconnect to themselves in a very disconnected world. And I show people that it doesn't take an awful lot to make a big difference, and they can reconnect very quickly through the power of their next breath. Everything is energy. I want you to think about your energy as a form of currency. Well, if you don't invest in yourself and don't invest in your bank account of health and well-being, you will eventually run out of energy. The first step on this journey, it's awareness. Awareness gives you the power to make different decisions in familiar situations as you move through your day. When I start my day in peace and calm with intention, everything changes. And guess what? Everybody benefits. The people you work with, the people you love, friends, everybody who interacts with you benefits when you take care of you. Turning your attention inwards, learning to listen, to truly listen to yourself. It's not about perfection. It's about being more present. I keep a gratitude journal every single day because I know that one practice single handedly changed the way I see the world, changed the way I see myself, and totally changed the trajectory of my behavior and my patterns. Five minutes every day to train your brain to see things in a different way is the greatest blessing you will ever give yourself. As human beings, we are pretty magical creatures. And when you start loving on yourself and you start taking care of yourself and you start practicing self care and you start valuing yourself, there is nothing that you can't do. Stop the war within. If each one of us took a moment every day to connect with our heart and stop the war within, we would live in a completely different world. You are your own greatest teacher. You are your own guru. Well, I'm blown away and what I love about your speech is you're so real. So many people, know, are out there on the stage but they never really take the mask off Yes. And it sounds like you really reveal yourself. I came from an industry where I witnessed everybody wearing masks and I had the privilege of being around some of the most famous people in the world and spending time with them and getting to know them. And behind the scenes was such a different story, and I just used to think why why aren't people themselves, including me, by the way. You know, there's a lot of self inquiry and a lot of work I continue to do myself on a daily basis. But I was like, who am I really? Am I being true to myself? Am I showing up in the way that I think they want me to be? Or am I actually being who I came here to be? And I remember I was a year sober, I was on our big TV show in Ireland, Late Late Show talking about it, so nervous, probably way too early to be talking about my sobriety especially in Ireland. Not a very friendly place eleven years ago to get sober, let me tell you, like touch anything but our alcohol. And I it it wasn't like it was like, oh, amazing. Congratulations. That's not like that. So Sunday, there was a big I actually wrote my own story around alcohol, which I was really proud of. And I kept asking the editor for the cover because they used to give it to me so I could promote it on social media. Anyway, the first time I saw it was on Sunday, and there was a picture of me with a huge headline, hi, I'm Alison. I'm an alcoholic. And people are probably like, so what? That's your story. I had never seen that. I had never seen it, you know, quarter of a million people were gonna be reading this on a Sunday, and I just felt this immense amount of shame move through every cell of my body. And I said to my grandmother who was still alive, did you see the article I wrote? And she goes, who didn't? Airing your dirty linen in public. Mhmm. And I thought, oh, wow. Okay. So this this is very insightful to why we suffer, you know, as people and why we have so much addiction in Ireland. And I remember on Monday, I woke up and I woke up to a barrage of emails from all my clients canceling me. Oh, gosh. Well well done on your interview on Friday. You should be so proud of yourself. Oh, we're not we're not moving forward with this campaign or we're only choosing two speakers, not three. And I was like, my mom was like, you're a single mother. What are you doing? You need to stop speaking. And that was a moment that I thought, oh my gosh. What am I gonna do? How am I gonna pay my rent? And in that moment, I felt like I'd lost everything. I was like, oh my gosh. Have I just literally destroyed my career? It was the best moment of my life. Sometimes we can only see these moments when we look back, and there was a catalyst, a a moment of transformation in me that went, okay. Why not just be me? Why not just speak my truth? Why not just be the person I came here to be? Because they've already taken everything. Because a lot of the time, the reason we we we, you know, edit ourselves or we don't say something is because we're afraid of losing work, losing friendships. And what I learned through that was that we will never ever ever lose anything that's not meant for us when we're in alignment and connected to our own divinity and connected to God. Never. You will never lose anything that's not meant to be on your path. It's not possible. So yeah, when you start choosing alignment and when you start choosing yourself and when you start speaking with authenticity, yeah, you're probably gonna lose a lot, but you have got to let the old part of you die for the new life that you're calling in to be reborn. Wow, and you are so inspiring. I want to talk about your journal. Yes. So and we're gonna put this on the screen so people can see this. Tell us about change your day. So I realized early on, I'm a journaler and I could, I journal for about twenty minutes every morning, not everybody is going to do that. And so I had lots of different journals that corporates tried, you know, 500, a thousand people. And the main thing they said was, I did it for four or five days and never went back to it. So through neuroscience, we know that small changes make a big difference and the brain is the organ that responds well to change over a longer period of time. So we live in a world of instant gratification. Right? I want to pill, I want something to make me feel better now. Most people don't stick with things and I teach that consistency really changes everything. Wow. So gratitude, we have the science behind gratitude now. Choosing three things you're grateful for in the morning and why. We know that that changes how your neurons speak to each other. Mindfulness meditation, I've been a practitioner and teacher for decades, increases the gray and white matter in your brain and even though your brain takes longer to change, the change is longer lasting. Wow. So that's what I really would love people to hear. So this journal, I thought everybody says to me I have no time. I don't have any time. I don't have any time. And I'm like, do you have five minutes? Yes, I have five minutes. Let's start there. So this journal was designed with that in mind. So in the morning, there's three things you're grateful for, your intention for the day and three action steps. The brain loves ticking off things that you're doing. And then at the evening, because a lot of people carry energy with them day after day, you hear people like, I feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. Yes. In the evening it's kind of a little repatterning where it's kind of sneaky where I've there's a lot of work in a short period of time. What didn't go well today? What can I learn from this? I am letting go of. So you're actually doing this self inquiry, awareness work without realizing it. One of the questions that people always come to me is something that made me smile. The amount of people that come to me and say, I can't believe like when I get to that question, I'm not smiling. Wow. These are big moments of awareness. Yes. You know, why not? When did we stop having fun? When did we stop doing things that make us come alive? And so we end the day with something saying, am proud that and tomorrow I look forward to. So you're topping and tailing your day with gratitude and if you just did that. Yes. For five minutes every day, in thirty days, you're gonna see a massive difference in your energy, how you see the world, your perception, how you respond. Like, I believe the reason why we do this work is so that we can respond to our life and not react. Yes. You know, being in the world of recovery, we take personal responsibility. Look at words, respond dash ability. So, we have the ability to respond to our life. Wow. That's the whole path of personal responsibility. I'm I love this interview and I wish it could go on for a day and a half. We're we're in the final minute or so, so let's do a call to action. Why don't you talk to the CEO or the president of an organization that might need to bring you in to speak? Yeah. So I believe that if you take care of people, the business takes care of itself, You know, put people first. There is the most important thing in the world for any human being is that they feel seen, heard, and valued. And I think connection to ourselves and then connection with each other. And if we take care of people at that level, we don't have to worry about the rest. So, I teach people how to really get connected with themselves and so when when they value themselves, they value everything else in their life too. So beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing your heart and your faith with us. We're gonna end with her website which is alisoncanavan.com. Thank you so much for having Okay, that's it for now. We'll see you next time.