The Waves Within

“You can choose how to ride a wave and prepare yourself, but the ocean teaches surrender and impermanence...”

(Photos courtesy Jane Chen.)

As the sun rises, Jane Chen glides into the ocean off O‘ahu’s South Shore, the rhythm of the waves her morning meditation. She’s surfed for 10 years and moved to Honolulu last year to make it part of her everyday life.

“Surfing taught me to let go of control,” she says. “You can choose how to ride a wave and prepare yourself, but the ocean teaches surrender and impermanence. Everything is constantly changing. In the ocean, I feel that viscerally — conditions change moment to moment with winds, tides, and swell direction. You have to be focused and present, and you can’t be attached to outcomes.”

Few who spot her in the lineup would guess that Chen once led a global medical tech company, was named to Forbes’ Impact 30 list, delivered a TED Talk viewed more than 1 million times, and caught the attention of President Barack Obama and Beyoncé. Behind the headlines, though, Chen was drowning — consumed by self-doubt, childhood trauma and pressure to prove her worth. That version of her no longer exists; today, she’s the woman balanced on her surfboard, grounded in who she’s become.

In her memoir, Like a Wave We Break, published in October, Chen shares how losing everything she’d built became the beginning of something greater: the journey toward healing, self-compassion, forgiveness, and finally feeling enough.

Born in Taiwan and raised in California, Chen seemed destined for impact. After earning graduate degrees from Stanford and Harvard, she co-founded Embrace Global, a social enterprise that created an innovative infant warmer designed to prevent hypothermia in premature and low-birth-weight babies. Compact, reusable, and requiring no constant electricity, the device offered lifesaving warmth to more than 1 million babies in developing countries.

But the same drive that fueled her success also pushed her toward exhaustion — and, eventually, collapse. When Embrace nearly shut down in 2018, Chen’s sense of purpose faltered with it. For the first time, there was no achievement to hide behind.

So she packed a surfboard and suitcase and booked a one-way ticket to Indonesia, where she immersed herself in meditation retreats, healing rituals, and months of solitude. She ultimately landed in Hawai‘i, where she began to put her reflections into words.

“When I came out the other end, I wanted to share what I learned for anyone who has been through something similar,” says Chen. “In many Asian families, we have similar struggles but don’t talk about them openly. As I’ve shared with Asian audiences in Hawai‘i and on the mainland, many people have told me, ‘That’s my story, too.’ That makes me even more determined to put it out there, even though it’s scary and very vulnerable.”

The book’s dedication reads, “For the little one in each of us who ever felt like they weren’t enough: You are enough, exactly as you are.”

Chen elaborates: “I have a theory: if every little girl felt safe and loved, we’d live in a different world. That applies to the inner child in each of us. When we think we have to prove something, we operate from fear and ego. When we feel safe, secure, and loved, we can treat others with love and empathy, and that ripples outward. I want to help bring about a more peaceful, harmonious society, and I believe it starts with compassion for ourselves.”

At the time of the interview, the book launch was less than two weeks away. Naturally, Chen felt a little nervous — about its reception and about allowing the world to witness her at her most vulnerable. But nowadays, she’s quick to ground herself and feels solace in knowing that her soul is on those pages — and that, she says, is enough.

“At its core, the book says, ‘You are enough. You don’t have to prove it,’” explains Chen. “We live in a world that defines us by achievements, titles, or likes. That external focus can lead to toxic behaviors — workaholism, burnout addiction. My message is, ‘You are enough just as you are.’ When we believe that, we gain the resilience to get through anything.”

Like a Wave We Break is out now in print and audiobook, recorded by Chen herself.

(Photos courtesy Jane Chen.)

Like a Wave We Break traces Chen’s journey from loss to self-acceptance.