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…

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 t…

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 wa…

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…

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.o…

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.…

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. …

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.…

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-…

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 setti…

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 c…

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 link…

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 …

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, …

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 ab…

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.…

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 ma…

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 an…

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 f…

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…

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…

...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 …

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…

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 universi…

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…

... 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. How…

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 dif…

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 comba…

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…

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…

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 i…

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 ot…

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 [email protected] Ancient Sounds of Peace …