Matt Schechner attended Arizona State University and graduated with a degree in Psychology. He is the author of Celebration and five other books including the novel Daring to Dream and two fitness books, Don’t Fear Fifty, and The High Intensity Way. His life’s mission is to awaken people to the powerful joy filled life that is possible for everyone to live, and to discover the great potential that lies within each one of us and use it to positively impact our world...

Great interview about Fear, Stress and Gratitude with Yogi Aaron, the co-owner of Blu Osa Yoga Retreat and the author of the book "The Autobiography Of A Naked Yogi"

Urban Monk is the name of the company created by coach Shay Vasudeva in Phoenix, AZ. She is combining martial arts, fitness and nutrition coaching to achieve the best results and meet the clients' goals. Episode #042: hpln.org/042-urban-monk-coaching/  

Michael TamEz is a Holistic Health Coach. He is teaching what is called Transformational Nutrition. That means he’s not just offering you to try another diet for a week or two. Michael is pointing at some underlying issues  and helping people to change them. That way adjustments become stable and permanent. And Michael has his own amazing story to tell you.

Alexander Heyne is the founder of the Modern Health Monk and the author of the book “Master the Day.” He has a great experience with mindfulness, meditation and martial art. But even though Alex is emphasizing weight loss and physical training, the principles he is describing are applicable to any areas of personal life and business where we may want to achieve success.   Episode #40: hpln.org/040-mindfulness-tiny-daily-habits-alex-heyne/   

John Vespasian is the author of seven books about rational living. He’s teaching people how to achieve happiness, how to deal with life when everything is falling apart, what are the keys to permanent stress relief, how to become emotionally unbreakable and how ordinary people can become extraordinarily self-confident.  Notes #39 of Healthy Positive Lifestyle Podcast hpln.org/039-become-unbreakable-john-vespasian/

Parul Agrawal is an International Bestselling Author, HuffPost Blogger, Wellness Coach, Medicinal Juicing Instructor, Engineer and a MOM. In this interview she is talking about green juicing and it's role in developing a better health for the whole family. Links to Parul's web site and juicers she's recommending, are on my site Episode #038: hpln.org/green-juicing-for-healthier-families-with-parul-agrawal  

Today we’ll talk about finding purpose and driving force in life. I see so many people who get stuck in a rut. I see those people all the time. They go back and forth with empty eye sockets, with no purpose and no hope for the better future. However, there’s a way out. This is what we’ll be talking about. Orsolya Bartalis is a coach from Australia. She is helping people to identify their goals and start moving towards their dreams. Episode 037: hpln.org/build-your-perfect-life-with-coach-orsolya-bartalis  

My guest is Steve Price, a Yoga and mindfulness teacher. Steve is a writer with many years of experience, and he is using writing as a practice. He is teaching this workshop in Phoenix. So no matter if you are interested in writing or not, this is quite interesting topic to listen to. Besides, your perspective may change after you listen to Steve. Episode #36 - hpln.org/mindful-writing-as-a-daily-mindfulness-practice   

Stress is one of the major issues in today's society. People are getting stressed because of money, personal and business life. How can we deal with it? Julia Mikk is a teacher from Ojai, California. She is specializing on helping people to deal with Stress and Anxiety. Find your Inner Peace with Julia. Download free meditation mp3's from her site. Episode 35 - hpln.org/finding-inner-peace-in-the-midst-of-chaos/  

Today we will talk about very serious topic. But relax! Serious does not have to be boring! Our guest speaker today is a conscious comedian, a teacher and an author of the book with funny name "Egos are like Farts." Yes, we will have fun. Serious fun. Are you ready? Download FREE pfd version of the book! Episode HPL034 - hpln.org/dealing-with-egos-easy-talk/  

Holidays are over, and now people start working towards their goals and Hew Year resolutions. Yes, we have another talk about setting and achieving goals. And today I have a special guest, Richard Scott, who is a world-renowned Mindset Coach, Therapist and Hypnotherapist with clientele in over 30 countries. Today Richard will be talking about setting and achieving goals. Are you ready? 

We’ve just successfully finished an amazing year 2015, can you believe that? And this is January 1st, 2016, as this episode goes out. Among many other things, first of the Year is known for starting New Year Resolutions. Yeah! We’ll talk about goals! And today I will introduce to you a great person, motivational speaker and a personal development coach Tarun Stevenson. He was certified by John Maxwell, a number one leadership teacher in the World! So that is my honor to have Tarun talk about goals and New Year Resolutions today.

A great interview with Lisa Kneller, a Yoga and Aromatherapy teacher in Phoenix, AZ. Lisa is giving great information about essential oils, their use in practice and emotions associated with different oils. Visit my notes for this episode at http://hpln.org/031-yoga-emotions-and-aromatherapy-interview-with-lisa-kneller/ In my Show notes I have links to resources mentioned by Lisa, as well as a link to her free report.

Let’s say you see yourself as 3 on the scale from 1 to 10 in whatever you want to pursue, and you want to become 9 or 10. It will take some effort to get there, some investment of time and money, it will take some education and practice. It will take level 9 or 10 investment in yourself. However if you see yourself as 3, you will never invest that much in yourself. It will look like too much of an investment to you just because of your belief level.      No we get a vicious circle. Raising belief requires actions, and people don’t take necessary actions because belief is low. That’s the reason people get stuck in life. My coach told me that there are two major obstacles on the way to success: fear and doubt. 

Today I’d like to have a very serious talk about… a toy. Yes, very serious toy. Most of people I am sure have seen it. You can google it under the name Roly-Poly Doll or Roly-Poly Toy, or under Tumbler Doll. In Russian it is very well know under the name Nevolyashka or Vanka-Vstanka. There are similar dolls in other countries. They look different, but they all have a similar feature: no matter how many times you knock them down, no matter how you throw them on the floor, they always get up. 

Today, I will introduce to you another great guest. You will hear from Paulette Bodeman, who is a great, well known Yoga teacher and a coach.   Paulette is teaching Anusara style, which is one of the modern schools of Yoga. I believe it was created by the American teacher of Iyengar Yoga style in 1997. That answers my question why I have not heard about it. I was introduced to Yoga in 1983. So at the same time when Anusara was becoming popular, I already pretty much found my style, and by the year 2000, I had reduced my Yoga practice to some basic asanas in favor of Martial Art, Qigong and couple of other Taoist practices.     But I still love Yoga, and I think of it as one of the greatest systems that have ever existed on the Earth. I love to learn new things, and I was blessed to meet people like Paulette. 

Today we will talk about mindfulness. My guest speaker is Steve Price. When I met him, he was a director and a teacher at A Mindfulness Life Center in Scottsdale, AZ. I did a video interview with Steve early this year. You can find it on my web site. Steve was talking about the Center and the practice of Mindfulness.      Recently he decided to move on. Being a writer and a yoga teacher, Steve is pursuing his own goals, he is writing and teaching workshops in North Scottsdale. So for this episode I took a part of his interview - about mindfulness only. 

   Lindsay Hunt is a Certified Nutrition Coach and a Certified Personal Trainer. She agreed to come to A Mindfulness Life Center in Scottsdale, AZ to talk about some stress related issues, and how we can avoid them.     This episode comes out both on Audio Podcast and Video Channel. You can find links to both on my web site HPLN.org    

In my previous episode I gave an analogy of a rain, meaning the rain of circumstances that keeps pouring on us non stop. We finished last time with the thought that sometimes we just have to bite the bullet and go through the rain, one step at the time. I will use the same analogy of the rain, and if you did not listen to the previous episode, I may suggest you do that so I will hopefully make more sense today.    Let’s start with several points regarding the mindset of going through the rain. Again, this is just my thought process, this is how I approach rainy day. This doesn’t have to be you.   But for me, the first question I would ask myself, is “what am I up against?” This brings us back to the previous episode where I was talking about stopping for a moment to assess the situation. So, what am I up against?     

Stressful circumstances vs. positive attitude and motivation. Where is the line to determine how far to push? Hard question to answer. This short episode is about my personal experience.

People often complain that they try meditation to reduce stress, and it does not work. Many get discouraged. What's the secret? Meditation is just a tool. If we use it properly, it works as prescribed. I am sharing my own experience with meditation.

The very first step in getting rid of stress in our life is to recognize where it comes from. Like any physical stress, emotional stress is caused by minimum two forces. One of them is often out of our control, but another one is 100% under control. If we learn how to use it, we can start getting rid of stress in our life, live stressless, happy and positive life!

In this episode we will continue talking about keeping and restoring balance in life. This time we will talk about some specific principles and techniques I've used over the decades to avoid or eliminate distractions, stress and loss of passion and productivity in training, work and life overall. Very simple and easy to use.

Today, I'd like to start discussing one of the pretty hot topics in today's fast pace high stress society. That is How to find your Center and how to gain and re-gain, if necessary, your inner balance.

There's a joke. Question: How many psychologists does it take to change the light bulb? Answer is: Just one. But the light bulb has to really want to change.   Indeed, change comes from inside. I was not a morning person either. But it changed overnight when I got a dream. I did not question what motivated me to get up in the morning. I was looking forward to training, and getting up in the morning was the way to do it. I did not have to push myself to get up, well, most of the time. I was just getting up without even thinking about it. My training was not what I did. That was how I chose to live. That was who I was.   Have I ever felt tired? Have I ever wanted to skip a training? Of course! Have I ever had to push myself to work out? Absolutely! This is when variety in training comes really handy. I was talking about it last time. My each training has been slightly different every time. Or sometimes, a whole lot different. That's why I did not feel mental fatigue from doing the same thing over and over.    Do you have to train in the morning? Not really! Do it whenever you have time. But do it regularly. I like mornings for a couple of reasons.   First, I like the whole idea of training at the sunrise or sunset. This is when Yin changes to Yan, or Yan changes to Yin. I've heard that chi, or prana, is the best during these periods of time. However, there are usually very few people training outside in the morning, while sunsets are much busier with people coming just to watch a sunset, or having picnics in the afternoon.     Second, I just like sunrises, and I like fresh air of the night.    I am not a motivational coach. I am not gonna try to convince everybody jump off their couches and start training. But today I'm gonna leave you with these humble thoughts:    First, Figure out what is it that you really want, if you don't know that yet, of course. As I was saying in my previous episode, often people go after certain things, mistaking them for something they really want. It is not always that easy to identify. That's why people go to career advisers, life coaches, personal trainers, etc. They go to somebody who can help them to identify their dreams, set realistic goals and develop a plan of action . People need clarity of the vision in order to move forward, and I am not an exception.   Second, Keep in mind, there will be things you will have to give up. I've heard people say, I am doing nothing all day long, I have nothing to give up. Exactly, they need to give up that whole lot of nothing, and start doing something, and be consistent at that.    Finally, remember, there is often more than one way to get where you want. When you picture your goal in your mind, how you get there is not that important, as long as it is legal and ethical. If you wanna get in shape but don't like martial arts, for example, do cycling. Don't like weight lifting? Go for Zumba. Don't like Yoga? Maybe Do-In is your way... But do something. If you like martial arts like I do, then you cannot Zumba your way into that. You gotta do martial arts. But you can change style. Or maybe you don't like mornings, then practice at night. Go to 24 hour fitness club.  If there's a will, there's a way. Always. If you cannot find your dream, get yourself a coach, ask for help in setting your goals. Maybe there's something out there you've never heard of, that you will like.   To find out the whole story, listen to my podcast :)PEACE!Eugene

The question about staying on the Path came up in my mind quite a few times. I have been trying to find out what motivated me. Why did I start training all of a sudden? Why did I choose Martial Arts over any sports? Why have I been staying with my training for 30 years, and I still did not lose my interest? Why did I choose shakuhachi flute, one of the most difficult instruments in the World, and I have been studying it and practicing daily for over 10 years? I was talking about all the things I have been doing in my life in one of my previous episodes. People ask me, what helped me to stay consistent? I used to say, I did it because I liked it. But what made me like it? I had to study some things about motivation, about consistency, so I could at least explain it to other people. And perhaps, help somebody to make a decision. Yep, helping somebody is one of the points I will mention later today.   First of all, we need to remember, that we are dealing with a mindset. I've seen so many people trying to simplify their lives by dividing things into black and white. In reality, look at the Nature. How much black and white can you really see around?    I can say the same about our thought process. We can define two extremes. I am talking about "I want to do" vs. "I have to do". I am not getting in a long philosophical discussions about needs, desires and suffering. No doubt, Zen monk will define totally different levels for those two extremes, comparing to myself. But like my Zen teacher said, "who is - I?" There are plenty of wonderful recored lessons made by Zen teachers, you can find somebody competent in this area. And I am just sharing my Path.    DOWNLOAD  

Today I’d like to talk about first steps I took on my Path to changing myself. Being an outcast is one thing. Getting out of it requires some steady efforts. But I think the most important is the very first step. What makes it so difficult?   First, Overcoming inertia? Yes. That very first effort to make the initial move can be extremely difficult. I think it came easy for me because the discomfort from being me was much greater than discomfort from changing. It was time to do it. I did not take time to procrastinate. My thought process switched instantly from total lack of interest to obsession with my training.   Second, perhaps fear of failure? Of course! Why would I believe I could achieve any degree of success in physical activity if I hated every second of it for as long as I remembered myself? It was later when I found out that every successful person has to go through certain number of failures. But at that time I did not know those details. Nobody told me.    Third, Fear to be laughed at? No doubt about that. Of course, the whole World was gonna point fingers at me and laugh. My classmates already did. Besides, you know if you stick your head above the crowd, then get ready to receive a tomato.    Any other reasons? Send me an email, let me know. We may discuss it next time.   Listen to the podcast to know more :)   

...So, what is Japanese garden? First of all, it is quite a generic name. There's no single design. There are many different types of garden. Some of them are designed for nice slow meditative walk. And they are called stroll garden. They do require pretty large space. They usually have a pond or even a small lake as one of the elements.   Listen to the Podcast to know more.. Download

Tea drinking in my Path   I'd like to talk about Tea and tea ceremony, and about how I personally got into tea and what it means to me. I often look at my life as a jigsaw puzzle, and Tea became one of the valuable pieces. It felt like there was a very specific place in my life for tea, and nothing else could replace it.   Tea has been part of my daily routine for as long as I remember myself. I grew up drinking tea. I grew up in Soviet Union. Our neighbors from the South were China, Mongolia, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. India was not an immediate neighbor, but our countries were really great friends. So, our friends and neighbors had tea as a big part of their culture. No wonder that it became a big part of Russian culture as well. And by the way, Russian word for tea is "Chai". I am not sure if the word has Russian origin, but it is definitely part of Russian language now. And perhaps has been for at least 1000 years. But I am not gonna speculate about etymology.   My first tea experience began with loose black tea. We did not have any tea bags, we used loose leaf black tea from India or Ceylon, which is now called Sri Lanka.  The tea tradition as I remember it, involved making really thick brew of black tea in a small porcelain tea pot. My grandma would usually preheat teapot with hot water, then put tea there, and pour boiling water. After that she would cover it and leave it alone for a while. After tea was ready, we would pour hot water in a cup and add concentrated tea from the tea pot.   Downoad Podcast Site   

Today I'd like to answer a question I've been asked many times. The question is: where do I get time to practice everything I do? Indeed, autogenic training, yoga, meditation, martial arts, Chi Kung, reflexology, tea ceremony, gardening, music, and so on. This is quite a list of activities, especially since I was going full time to medical university and learning English on my own. Yes, I did. I also learned shorthand in the meantime, which helped me a lot to write down all my lectures word by word. We did not have technology at that time, as we have it today.   First of all, let's separate two types of learning.  As babies, we learn to walk, to talk, to do all basic things we need to learn. Later we learn to read, to write, to ride a tricycle, to play games etc. This is initial learning. Once we learn to read and write, do we keep learning? Of course we do. We may not spend extra time for that, unless reading and writing is a part of our further education and perhaps part of our future career . But we constantly learn something new about our own language. I can guarantee I can take almost any native English speaker and find some words in the English dictionary that they don't know. If you don't believe me, take a tour inside the hospital and try to name every medical device you see there. Not in Latin, in plain English. Or go to the music store and name every piece you see there. Again, in plain English. We just don't need all that vocabulary in our every day life. But we can definitely learn a lot. And we do. This is ongoing learning...   Want to know more? Listen to my Podcast. DOWNLOAD  

Last year we started discussing meditation as a tool, and in the previous episode we were talking about Music meditation with shakuhachi flute, which is an ancient Zen tradition called Suizen. I mentioned some benefits of using shakuhachi flute for meditation, and one of them was vibrations. Sound is vibrations. Today I'd like to talk about various types of vibrations used in different types of meditation. This is not a comprehensive tutorial by any means, just  a quick overview of what I had a personal experience with.   Why vibrations, you may ask? Well, we cannot live, function, communicate, hear, see of feel without help of some kind of vibrations. We may admit it or deny it, it doesn't change anything. So we may as well use it to our benefit. And vibrations have been used for many thousands of years as a part of meditation, or even as stand alone healing practice. In one of my video episodes I will demonstrate some vibration techniques and exercises, but today we will just talk. Download

... Shakuhachi is a vertical bamboo flute. According to what I know, it came to Japan from China with Chan or Zen Buddhism. Shakuhachi tradition is connected to monk Puhua, known in Japan as Fuke. Fuke was walking all over the place preaching Zen, and he had a hand bell he carried with him. Fuke did not play flute, he was just ringing the bell. However, one of his disciples cut a piece of bamboo and started making sound blowing it like an end blown flute.  The instrument did not have holes yet, and the name of it was Kyotaku, which means false bell. The sound of the instrument reminded sound of the bell. This is how the tradition was born... To know more, listen to the podcast ;) DOWNLOAD HERE Have a wonderful day! Eugene 

Today I'd like to discuss one of the most popular practices, and that is Meditation. Indeed, everywhere we go, we hear the word meditation. Yoga and meditation, sitting meditation, walking meditation, just meditation, or whatever meditation that could be. Meditation became a generic term to describe the whole variety of practices that came from different religions and philosophies.      Therefore, to say "I am practicing meditation" is like saying "I am into fitness" without specifying what kind of fitness: jogging, body weight, weight lifting, other kinds of resistance or weight training, zumba, aerobic dancing, cycling, cardio kick boxing, etc. So saying I am doing meditation is just letting somebody know that you are practicing some kind of mental, emotional or spiritual fitness, whatever your program is. But that's about it. There's no word meditation in Yoga, Martial Arts, Buddhism, Daoism etc.   Download

Last time we started talking about the Path of the Water, about how soft but strong the water is. Today I'd like to talk more about this in a context of martial art application. First of all, lets define Martial Arts. I am not talking about any specific style now. What is Martial Art in general? It is often seen by many as set of hand-to-hand combat techniques designed to allow one person to defeat another person in a competition. It can be done in a form of wrestling, boxing, various styles of strikes, joint locks, weapons etc., or combination of all of the above.    Well, while there's nothing wrong with some competition, this is not what I am talking about. I am not talking about competeing and winning. Nobody wins a real fight, there are only survivors.   Download  

Today I'd like to talk about the Path of the Water. I mentioned the path of the least resistance a couple of times in my previous podcasts. How to determine where is the line separating justifiable resistance from excessive force?   I often hear people talking about "being like water" in the context of complete non resistance. But is it really so? If water was such a non-resistant substance than tsunami would not present any danger to people, and it would not cause any devastation like it does sometimes. And we cannot blame the ocean for not being like water. So, is water really that yielding and soft?.. Listen to the podcast to hear the full story   Download  

Why are we doing things the way we are doing? Who created traditions? Should we change the rules or should we adjust? This is a beginning of a long discussion..  Download  

  Today I'd like to briefly talk  about definitions of right and wrong. But before we begin, let me say a disclaimer.     First, I won't even try to fit  -- in a short podcast -- the topic which has been a source for major arguments and discussions since the beginning of mankind. Second, I will only try to briefly describe what I studied and what I believe in. Finally, Tao is something that cannot be expressed in words. Everything I say is just a reflection, a snap shot of my thoughts at the moment I said it.    Download  

Shao Dao is not just a regular Martial Art School. Instead, it is a whole philosophy in its own right. I will not even try to describe Dao in a short podcast. I will not try to describe Dao period. Everything I say is just like a snapshot of my perception of the World at the moment I said that. And the very next second it may change and turn into its opposite like Yin turns into Yan or Yan into Yin. So there is no Status Quo in life. Everything is changing constantly. There is nothing permanent except the change itself. And this may change too! How often have I seen people who were trying to hold on their thoughts thinking that they got the life by the tail? How many times have I been guilty of that myself? Trying to hold on my thoughts long after circumstances changed?.. Download  

What I cannot completely understand, is whether my holistic lifestyle was a result of my training, or was I brought into this World already destined to take the path of martial arts? Almost sounds like chicken and the egg dilemma. It can make a good topic for nice philosophical discussion. But we are not getting into it right now. I just have no other explanation for my spontaneous, absolutely no common sense decision as a young teenager, other than believing in destiny.   Download AncientSoundsOfPeace iTunes 

Well, this is the next chapter in my life - the path of Yoga. This is what I got into after studying Autogenic Training I was talking about in my last episode.   Download  

Yes, this is how this all really started. I got into Autogenic Training completely by accident, staying in the hospital. Was it an accident or preplanned event? Perhaps I will never know.. but who cares? ;) Hope you enjoy it..  Download  

My Holistic Life Story - from where I started to where I am now. We will be talking about Yoga, Martial Arts, Meditation and many other things.. Download HERE  

This is the very first episode of my new Healthy Positive Lifestyle Podcast. I am briefly talking about what we will be discussing on the podcast, topics covered, reasons I created this podcast and who may be co-hosting this podcast with me. I would really appreciate your feedback. Email us at ancientsoundsofpeace@gmail.com Ancient Sounds of Peace web site Ancient Sounds of Peace on FaceBook Download podcast here