Morning Mindfulness - A Few Positive Minutes to Start Your Day With

722-Information Age and How to Avoid Costly Mistakes Jun 01, 2021

There's an old saying, Knowledge is Power. Or I've heard a modern version: information is power. I agree to some extent. But today I want to challenge that cliche. The knowledge may, in fact, even produce devastating results if we're not mindful about what we see and hear. Let me show you how.

721 - Outside World and my Greatest Martial Art Victory Mar 23, 2021

Since most of my training is in martial arts, and I've been doing quite a bit of training staying at home, I thought I'd share with you perhaps my greatest martial art victory. It's from the past, but it is as much, and maybe even more valuable today...

720 - Dealing with Cough and Stuffy Nose Jan 19, 2020

Not a medical advice! This winter has been pretty cold. We had a lot of rain. That resulted into some waves of cold and flu in the community. Today I will talk about one way of dealing with cough I've used.

719-Precious Things We May Often Take For Granted Jan 17, 2020

We often live with this idea that we'll be there for each other forever... Why don't we start practicing Love while we're still here?

718-Almighty Obvious: Undeniable Power Of Manipulated Majority Jun 12, 2019

Humans, no matter if they are introverts, extroverts or whatever ..verts, are social creatures. Majority of us has a need, either conscious or subconscious, to belong to the pack, or a herd, and to receive an approval from our peers. And this is a foundation...

717 - When Minority Wins: Genius Design To Introduce The Biggest Lie May 23, 2019

Today I’d like to talk about one clever, I’d say genius method of dirty propaganda. I read it was created by Joseph Goebbels, famous Nazi politician and minister of propaganda. Whether this is true or not, the method is quite powerful, in my opinion, and I am sure you can see it being used nowadays...

716 - From Sublime To The Ridiculous: One Simple Way To Distort The Truth May 06, 2019

Horrifying details of the story are so disturbing that people may get emotional scars from the story itself. So painful that they cannot be erased by any logic explanation.

715 - Beware of a Rotten Fish When Ordering Your Next Serving or Truth Apr 26, 2019

"Rotten fish" is a very widely used technique, so obvious that I'm sure you will immediately recognize it even though I won't point at anyone in particular. Let's say I want to make a rotten fish. I come up with some kind of a dirty story...

714 - Targeted Truthfulness: Changing Listeners' Perception By Shaping Sincerity Apr 22, 2019

The whole purpose of military propaganda is to confuse and psychologically destroy the enemy to make them very vulnerable for easy termination. What does it have to do with Mindfulness? Everything! These techniques are used on us. Now. Practically every day!..

713 - Decision And Process: Clearing Up Misconceptions About My Path to Success Mar 25, 2019

There’s no status quo. You and I cannot freeze our state of health, state of finances, or whatever you want to freeze. The cruel truth is, everything is changing. Every second. However, there’s a good news...

712 - Campaign 50-50-25: Decision to Implement a Critical Life Update Feb 18, 2019

I survived... I was going downhill at 200 mph, metaphorically speaking, of course, and trying not to die. Until I finally got a moment to slow down, regroup, take a deep breath, look back and look at myself. And I did not necessarily like what I saw. That was when I got the idea of 50-50-25 campaign.

711-Milestone Check: Mindful Review and Setting Goals For New Season Jan 21, 2019

It has been a while since my last episode came out. For quite a long while in fact. But I promised I'd come back, so here I am. Now let me ramble for a few minutes. First of all, why did I stop? There are several reasons, and I hope my explanation will give some of you helpful hints.

710 - Attachments: Sure Way To Make Our Life Really Unbearable Mar 02, 2018

Changing direction or strategy is not quitting. There’s a difference between falling back on default program of actions and failing forward, meaning simply redirecting actions deliberately.

709 - Mindful Madness: Turning Light Off Vs Shooting Light Bulbs Mar 01, 2018

In case with the light it is so obvious! We know how to address the issue, and what to expect as a result of our actions. However, there many other things in life that are not...

708 - Overestimated Immunity: What We Think Vs What It Really Is Feb 28, 2018

Yesterday I started talking about being naive and how devastating it could be. And I’ve experienced it myself However, there’s much bigger issue that also comes out of that mindset. That’s what I’d like to remind you about today...

707 - Naive Mindset: Righteous Path To The Wrong Side Of The Fence Feb 27, 2018

But I learned a couple of lessons. One, never forget that the outside World is not my friend. This is my and my only responsibility to follow the rules. So I have to stop being naive and pay attention to what I am doing...

706 - Toughest Mindful Practice: Where Illusion And Reality Meet Feb 26, 2018

As you can probably guess, it is about mindfulness. But we will look at it from a different perspective. One of the key points in my stress management program is what I call a Controlled Tension...

705 - Breathe And Smile: Going Back To Where It All Started Feb 23, 2018

Today I want to make a trip back to where my podcast actually started. You hear this every time you listen to it, but unless you listened to the very beginning, you may not know where it comes from. So you heard it: Let’s breathe and smile!

704 - Flipped Perception: The Opposite Side Of Great Communication Feb 22, 2018

Yesterday I was talking about some really serious and quite obvious flaws in communication. Today I will continue, but we’ll look at it from a different perspective.

703 - Distorted Transmission: Do We Really Hear What Was Said To Us? Feb 21, 2018

There are several flaws in our communications I’d like to point out. One, sometimes we listen to answer, not to understand...

702 - Detailed Communication: One Of The Biggest Issues In Our Society Feb 20, 2018

Don’t know about you, but I take a personal responsibility in saying Hi and starting conversations with people. Every day. Some people look scared...

701 - Delayed Mindfulness: A Thin Line Between Response And Reaction Feb 19, 2018

Look at the water: it does nothing until we push it with a hand. Then it yields. And after we take the hand out, it fills up the space like it never happened. All interaction happens at the moment it happens...

700 - Main Reason: Connecting Causes, Consequences and Circumstances Feb 16, 2018

Our own limited perception multiplied by our ego often tells us that we know all we need to know. We are so used to cause and effect phenomenon, that we may take the most obvious sequence of events and make a statement...

699 - Daily Why: The Path Of Asking Questions About Our Life Feb 15, 2018

My talk today is about why. Why am I doing things I’m doing? Why things are going the way they are going? Do I really need to get what I think I do?

698 - Ultimate Love: The Most Powerful Weapon In Our Arsenal Feb 14, 2018

Do you know the story behind the Valentines day? Well, there are many legends. One of them is talking about a Roman emperor Claudius II...

697 - Irrational Stupidity: A Perfect Way To Ruin A Perfect Day Feb 13, 2018

Today I will talk about stupidity. Oh yes, the World has plenty of it. And I have a perfect example - me. The story I will tell you will make me look like...

696 - Genies Decisions: Tiny Details To Make Or Break Our Day Feb 12, 2018

I called this episode Genies Decisions, where I made the word Genies from Genie. There’s a famous fiction story in our country about a regular school student. One day he was swimming in the lake and found an ancient bottle win a Genie inside...

695 - Perfect Day: The Most Appropriate Moment To Change Our Life Feb 09, 2018

I know I’ve been often waiting for a perfect moment to do what I planned to do. To start a new training program, or change my morning routine, or implement some business plan. Whatever. And finally I discovered the most perfect moment to do it...

694 - Our Friends: Whom Should We Take With Us To Our Dreams? Feb 08, 2018

Even when I was a kid, I noticed a very obvious phenomenon. At that time, however, I did not know that it was so universal. But it definitely is. Let me explain what I mean.

693 - Overwhelming Goals: Mindful Planning For Predictable Results Feb 07, 2018

When I start something new I want to learn, for example, as I was changing my career a couple of times in my life, the magnitude of learning was scary. And that’s not just a simple trade.

692 - Emergency Learning Plan: Where Should I Direct My Energy? Feb 06, 2018

I see the idea of continuous learning as, let’s call it, an emergency plan. I am amazed how people prepare for apocalypse by storing water and food, but they ignore work related emergencies.

691 - Being King: The Wisdom Of An Ancient Royal Wedding Story Feb 05, 2018

I see so many people who may feel they are on the top of the world. Especially those who achieve great results. It may look like they don’t even need to worry any more about anything. They got it. They are kings in their situation...

690 - Everlasting Day: What Did We Do Today To Be Known For? Feb 02, 2018

Look at your average day. Now IMAGINE that it start repeating for you every day. All the same. For 34 years. Would you change anything you do with your time?

689 - Mindful Relativity: The Opposite Perspectives On The Same Issue Feb 01, 2018

Whoa! I’m not sure if I would ever write something like that to my parents. But I think this joke demonstrates nicely the relative nature of our happiness.

688 - Happy Disaster! The Opposite Look At The Problems In Our Life Jan 31, 2018

I understand, not everything that happens in my life I can justify right away. Neither do many other people, I hear you. But here’s the point I’d like to make today...

687 - Mindful Switcheroo: Which Burden Would You Like To Choose? Jan 30, 2018

We always want to think that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. The other people’s burden is lighter. And their life is much more successful. In reality...

686 - Reset Button: Which Options In Your Life Would You Change? Jan 29, 2018

Let’s pretend you found a magic control panel, which has a reset button. The power of the button can transport you back to any moment in your life you specify. Wouldn’t that be nice?

685 - Ordinary Life: What Does It Really Take To Feel Normal Jan 26, 2018

People have a tendency to feel bored wherever they are. There’s a concept of finding fulfillment in new job, new toy, new whatever. And then immediately after that we start looking for the next thing...

684 - Facing Forward: Discover The Real Direction You Life Is Going Jan 25, 2018

We need to make memories by living our dreams. But I’ve heard many times, if your memories are bigger than your dreams, you are moving backwards...

683 - Mindful Coaching: The Best Teaching Lesson From A Farmer Jan 24, 2018

Today I will shift gear and talk about the other aspect of the Path to success. That is coaching. I like this topic because I’ve been teaching and coaching for a while. For over 30 years in fact...

682 - Courageous Decisions: The Crucial Moments On The Way To Success Jan 23, 2018

Since I was talking about a path to success, I think I need to mention this very important topic. Perhaps, the most important on the way to achieving our dreams and goals, whatever they are.

681 - Path To Success: Two Sides Of The Same Life Story Jan 22, 2018

There’s no other way to put it then just face it. The reality is, not every pleasant path leads to success, and not every successful path is pleasant. Then how can I determine the right path?..

680 - Poor Comparison: Not Every Competition Will Help Us Succeed Jan 19, 2018

We like to compete. And some of it is OK, but unfortunately I see too much of competing that may even hurt us. I will talk about three forms of it.

679 - Mindful Creativity: Get Completely Out Of Mundane Mindset Jan 18, 2018

Yesterday I started talking about how to make mundane routine more interesting or at least less boring. I’ve used all kinds of tricks for that, because this is something we all have to do. There’s one more I wanted to add...

678 - Mundane Routines: Escape From The Boring Every Day Tiring Work Jan 17, 2018

I mentioned quite a few times mundane routined we have to do. Yes, we cannot get away from them. And I am in the bunch. However, I’ve used several approaches to perform those tedious routines. I will talk about three today.

677 - Unforgettable Knowledge: Explore The Opposite Side Of Learning Jan 16, 2018

We have a tendency to forget. And it’s not out of our head forever. We just lose it covered by the whole lot of other things. It is not always easy to predict what will stay and what will be forgotten soon...

676 - Repeating Topics: Great Wisdom Behind Boring Redundant Traditions Jan 15, 2018

Humans have a great memory. That’s why it’s possible to hypnotize a person and get to the deepest memories from the childhood. However, everything we learn gets buried under so much other stuff we receive daily, so it starts fading away really quick...

675 - Almighty Repetition: What Is More Important Than What You Learn? Jan 12, 2018

There are SOME topics I may be understanding better than other people, but that was not because I’m such a quick learner. The only thing I can take credit for is being persistent...

674 - Child’s Wisdom: Amazing Perspective From A Pure Heart Jan 11, 2018

We’re often trying to fix the World. And then we wonder why it’s not happening? That’s simple, we just need to put a man together...

673 - Ever After: The Unspoken Side Effect Of A Beautiful Fairy Tale Jan 10, 2018

I thought one day, what if ever after meant forever. When I was a kid, I thought, what would that be like to live forever? Would YOU like to live forever?..

672 - Daily Success: Putting Together A Functional Plan To Succeed Jan 09, 2018

The topic of success is rather large. I will point out a couple of things that make the most sense to me. It means, there are some things I may not be aware of or even ready for. This statement alone makes two points...

671 - Mindful Resourcefulness: The Way We Think And The Way We Do Jan 08, 2018

I can testify that when we want to do something, we find the solution. And when we don’t want to do it, we find an excuse. And in many cases those are excuses for us...

670 - Tiger's Heart: The Most Devastating Result From Improper Thinking Jan 05, 2018

Just to finish the topic about achieving our goals, I will tell you an old fairy tale from India. I read it several decades ago...

669 - Resolutions Breakdown: Avoid The Most Common Costly Mistake Jan 04, 2018

Yesterday I was talking about excessive chaotic activity, and how it can lead to losing the Path. Today we’re going to stay focused. Yes, really focused on one single goal. And you may say, that’s really good! Right? Not necessarily...

668 - Failing Resolutions: Preventing The Most Common Planning Mistake Jan 03, 2018

To recap the last episode I’ll state that - listen carefully - the resolution itself Is. A. Failure. For many people it is more of a tradition than a conscious decision to make a change. However, today I’d like to talk about the other side of the coin...

667 - New Years Resolutions: Time To Start Your Path To Success Jan 02, 2018

New Year is a great time to talk about New Year’s Resolutions. I know many people make those, and that’s great. I used to make them myself. Not any more, though. Let me explain why.

665 - Way To Go: The Best Way To Improve Our Productivity Dec 29, 2017

My coach told me, the way we do anything is the way we do everything. That means, we develop the habits in some areas of our life, that spill over into other areas...

664 - Homemade Millionaire: The Other Side Of Saving Big Money Dec 28, 2017

I am given a free will and ability to choose, and I choose to spend my resources to develop myself. Keep it in mind, my friend, the money made at work, or saved at a big sale, or collected on the street, will be gone...

663 - Fast Progress: The Other Side Of Success-Minded Philosophy Dec 27, 2017

Today I’ll be talking about success. Yes, again. But we will look at it from a different perspective...

662 - The Biggest Excuse: When We Do And When We Don’t Need To Work Dec 26, 2017

I learned from John Maxwell, who loves teaching about personal growth, I need to select 5 things I have to do every day. No matter what. Not all day...

661 - Christmas Traditions: Do You Know What You Are Celebrating? Dec 25, 2017

One of my questions was about Christmas. Why are you doing what you’re doing? I have nothing agains the tradition, all right. I have a small Christmas tree and some decorations in my house. But why is it called a Christmas tree?

660 - What I Was Created For: Our Believes, Our Reality and Our Destiny Dec 22, 2017

This is what I believe, and this is my story, all right. I believe that we were created with a freedom to make our choices. They may be extremely limited at times, but I believe we all have them. I’m not talking about reincarnation...

659 - Voice Of Wisdom: Voting For Convenience Vs Voting For The Best Dec 21, 2017

I see so many people are obsessed with me-me-me syndrome. Everything is about them. They are the center of the universe. It’s like, I’m the only person who can be a king...

658 - Mindful Rebellion: Join The Not So Popular Movement Of Minority Dec 20, 2017

Whatever I can do to leave a positive vibe behind myself, I do. I don’t see it as I have to do what society does. I see it as humankind begins with me. What am I bringing to the table?..

657 - Special Needs: Another Perspective On Raising The Next Generation Dec 19, 2017

I was listening to one of the coaches several years ago, and he was talking about his kids. His son was not doing well at school, not paying much attention to the teacher. So he got called to the principal...

656 - Perfect Job: What We Really Mean When We Talk About Our Future Dec 18, 2017

I’ve had a number of jobs, and I’ve owned several businesses so far. And I noticed, at least in my case, I start a new venture with great excitement. Yes, something mew, it’s fresh, it has big potential. And then, after a while, it becomes boring. Some things have lasted for quite a while, and some wear off very fast. Why is that?..

655 - Perception Workaround: Who Is Responsible For Misunderstanding? Dec 15, 2017

I’d like to continue the topic I started yesterday. And I was talking about intellectual bottleneck. People just may not understand whatever we’re saying. I know that happened to me quite a few times. Should I try to explain myself more clear?

654 - Intellectual Bottleneck: Discover The Limit And The Need To Stop Dec 14, 2017

There’s a phenomenon on the planet, I will call it intellectual bottle neck. We all have areas we understand good, and others - we don’t, or we may think we do, at our own level...

653 - Gentle Reminders: Simple Convenient Way To Keep Us On Right Track Dec 13, 2017

I’d like to remind you one of Murphy’s laws. It says, the details we’re paying attention to the least...

652 - Coaching By Me: The Toughest Question I Have To Honestly Answer Dec 12, 2017

I have a tough question for you today. And I know it can be really tough, because there’s no way you and I can lie answering it. That was something one of my coaches told us a while ago...

651 - Minimal Efforts: The Easiest Way To Achieve Your Dreams And Goals Dec 11, 2017

Yes, I can teach you how to simplify your path to your goals by doing this simple trick. And I will give it to you for free. I have a lot of experience, both productive and not so productive. But they all prove the point...

650 - Illusory Fulfillment: Devastating Disappointment From False Hopes Dec 08, 2017

In The phrase Somebody’s happy with the fraction of what you got, many people put their attention on the word fraction. But the key word here is...

649 - Imaginary Doors: How The Biggest Self Deception Can Ruin Our Life Dec 07, 2017

We have this imaginary door, and our mind is refusing to accept the idea that our limitations and restrictions are imaginary. There’s no wall. We don’t have to look for...

648 - Deceptive Goat: Long History Of Today’s Most Significant Problem Dec 06, 2017

Today I will tell you an old Russian folk tale about a goat. The tale is kind of bizarre, and hardly translatable in other languages. But I think it makes a point I want to make...

647 - The Toughest Summit: The Hardest Mountain I’ve Ever Had To Climb Dec 05, 2017

I am pretty much convinced that it is not challenges that stop us from achieving goals. Not difficulties. We can overcome whatever comes our way, if we really need to. The most dangerous place is...

646 - Mindful Sharing: A Simple Way To Make A Difference In Someone’s Life Dec 04, 2017

My friend, I don’t know how old you are, and I won’t ask. But I can promise that you have experience that nobody else in this world has. And by sharing that...

645 - Deceptive Kindness: Using Mindfulness To Save The Day, Or Life Dec 01, 2017

We have millions of voices surrounding us online, on TV, radio, work, coming from everywhere, sometimes even friends and relatives. Sometimes they may sound really nice. Maybe too nice...

644 - Devastating Noise: Destructive Power Of The Most Innocent Vibes Nov 30, 2017

We’re so used to high volume of emotional and intellectual noise in our daily life, that a day without it will taste like a plain food to somebody who’s not used to it. The danger of this so called white noise in our life is...

643 - The Hardest Action: What Can Make Mindfulness Training So Tough Nov 29, 2017

I’ve been learning, practicing and sharing various mindfulness techniques for over 3 decades. And the one I will talk about today is, perhaps, the hardest to master. Not just for me, for everybody I’ve met...

642 - Learning Forever: Pros And Cons Of Our Brain’s Ability To Remember Nov 28, 2017

Quite a few hears ago I watched a movie Phenomenon with John Travolta. In that movie something happened to his brain, and all of a sudden he became a genius reading several books a day, learning language in 20 minutes. Wouldn’t that be nice?..

641 - Justifiable Choice: Uneasy Decision About Right Choice In Life Nov 27, 2017

One of the frequent questions I’m asked is about controversy between chasing the dream for greater live vs. being happy with what we have. Before I answer, I tell you a tale...

640 - The Best Kept Secret: How To Get The Most Of What We Already Know Nov 24, 2017

I can recommend a couple of things. One, I can guarantee that no matter where you are in life, you can do better. This is what champions do. They strive for a little better every time. Use a coach if you don’t know how. Two...

639 - Crucial Information: The Most Important Piece Of Knowledge To Have Nov 23, 2017

I’ve heard so many times from my coach, that we have already what it takes to be successful. But we may not believe in ourselves, that’s why I see so many people just getting by in life...

638 - Secret Agenda: The Hidden Path Will Define Who We Really Are Nov 22, 2017

Before I do anything, I am trying to answer two questions: 1 - What would I think if I was on the receiving end of my actions?..

637 - Shower Story: Learning Life Wisdom In The Most Unexpected Places Nov 21, 2017

I like looking for some wisdom everywhere I go. So today is another episode of my extraordinary mindfulness, so to speak. And this one comes out of the shower. Wait, wait, I won’t say anything bad!..

636 - Almighty Pill: The Amazing Power Of Our Strongest Medication Nov 20, 2017

Have you ever wished you had a magic pill? For anything. For personal and financial success, for health, for fitness. I know many people who’d love to have it. I think the history of magic pill goes at least several thousands years back, whether it was a pill or a potion, or whatever...

635 - Right vs Wrong: When Can We Draw The Line In Our Conversation? Nov 17, 2017

No matter where in life we are, we have a tendency to compare ourselves to others, and put “right or wrong” labels on everything. This is quite obvious when people...

634 - Great Day: The Way We See Things Vs The Way They Really Are Nov 16, 2017

I often hear something like, “Oh, the traffic was horrible!” I can totally relate to that because I used to be that way too. But I realized that if I keep thinking about how bad it is...

633 - Mindful Conversations: Choose Your Words And Speak Them Carefully Nov 15, 2017

Most of us are talking a lot every day. What are we saying? Working with people, l had to train myself to filter every word coming out of me. Some of these things I learned from not so pleasant experience...

632 - Writing Backwards: Unnecessary Restrictions Of Our Daily Patterns Nov 14, 2017

Do you ever think how you sign your name? I know in most of cases I don’t. I just sign it. How about signing it with your other hand? Ok, ok, let’s do it with your writing hand, but sign it backwards. Can you easily do it?

631 - Deceptive Perspective: The Most Unreliable First Hand Experience Nov 13, 2017

Sometimes people can make life changing decisions based on this 2-dimensional snapshot of what happened. They throw assumptions and they may not even bother to come closer and see, what has exactly happened there...

630 - Mindful Freedom: The Price We’re Willing To Pay For Our Good Life Nov 10, 2017

Freedom is not free. Somebody has to pay for it. That’s why I am saying thanks to the veterans, as well as all military...

629 - Mindful Focus: What Are We Keeping Our Daily Attention On? Nov 09, 2017

Mindfulness is not a physical concentration, but rather an inner state of awareness. We know...

628 - Being A Hero: The Opposite Unseen Side Of Saving The Universe Nov 08, 2017

Have you ever wanted to save the World? I know I have. I still think I can. And many other people do...

627 - Easy Solutions: How Overthinking Can Kill Our Dreams And Goals Nov 07, 2017

Some people like cats, they just like sitting in the box. But I’ve met quite a few folks who are genuinely looking for a way out, but they only focus their attention on the closed door. They miss so many opportunities!..

626 - Holding On To Your Destiny: The Danger Of The Excessive Caution Nov 06, 2017

I recently read a quote online, and that brought to memory a story I heard many years ago. There was a method described how to catch a monkey. Some variations talk about spider monkey, but the meaning is the same....

625 - Communication Secret: The Art Of Seeing The True Meaning Of Words Nov 03, 2017

This is a conclusion of the week, and we’ll talk about communication. In my opinion, it’s failing in two areas: 1. In many cases we are listening to others to answer, not to understand. 2...

624 - Lost Meaning: We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know Until We Know It Nov 02, 2017

Sometimes I feel that our communication is going in a different wave frequency, like radio. We talk to each other, create noise, but it does not register...

623 - Reality Check: What We Really Know Vs What We Think We Know Nov 01, 2017

I see people coming up with wrong statements, wrong assumptions, and even totally bizarre facts that they think up. If not corrected, this false information may become permanent very quick. And then, which is very sad, other people start making their conclusions and assumptions based on the previous false information...

622 - Mindful Sincerity: 5 Things I Learned From The Story About Liars Oct 31, 2017

I started this week with a story, so I have another one for you today. This time I’ll be talking about children’s fairy tale. I watched the movie many years ago, and the book was called Gelsomino in the Country of Liars. The tale was about a boy who had a magic voice...

621 - Mindful Assumptions: The Inner Strength We May Never Be Aware Of Oct 30, 2017

There are people who will whine and complain about their life. But there are those who will say nothing, they just keep walking, or crawling, towards the goal. Which side are we on?..

620 - Breaking Rules: When Being Wrong Is The Only Way To Be Right Oct 27, 2017

Rules and regulations exist as guidelines for a normal day. But if somebody’s life is on the line, we may be forced to make a decision. When we have one life against just following the rules, the answer is pretty obvious. But what about making decision...

619 - Harmful Anticipation: Who Wants To Create An Emotional Tension Oct 26, 2017

Anything’s possible. But I am following two principles: 1. Most of what we hear and read, is speculation. Nobody seems to know exact details. And I believe most of so called predictions given to us after the fact are false anyway. 2. Stop worrying about...

618 - Record Numbers: Another Mindful Way To Look At Global Changes Oct 25, 2017

I think somebody is trying to point at specific numbers in whatever, climate, economy, politics, etc, just to distract us from the bigger picture. It’s like being scared of high tide...

617 - Redundant Rightness: The Other Side Of Being Perfectly Right Oct 24, 2017

We make assumptions that if we go by the rules everything will be OK. If you are dealing with people, I can guarantee that Merphy’s law won’t fail...

616 - Costly Assumptions: Sure Way To Be Wrong When We Thing We’re Right Oct 23, 2017

This topic is about assumptions. My driving case is just an example of how things may go wrong. We assume. The worst thing we can do is bet somebody’s life on our assumptions...

615 - Mindful Obvious: Important Mindfulness Technique We Often Overlook Oct 20, 2017

Let’s have a nice and hopefully funny talk on Friday. And I want to talk about Disney cartoon called “Frozen”. I don’t know if you watched it, but it’s pretty cool. There’s a funny character in the cartoon...

614 - Misleading Assumptions: My Personal Example Of Moronic Mindset Oct 19, 2017

Today I will talk to you.. hmmm.. how to say it, about being an idiot. And since I will be using my own resent example, I’ll be talking about me.

613 - Boring Success: The Real Shortcut To Great Achievements In Life Oct 18, 2017

I was reflecting today on my previous years in training, and I thought I’d share some of my thoughts. This is what I discovered to be true for me, and also many coaches told me about that. However, we have a tendency to forget about this key principle...

612 - True Winner: What Does It Really Take To Win Any Argument Oct 17, 2017

Today I will talk about how to actually win the argument. And since I am coming from a martial art background, I will introduce you to a real martial art principle of winning the fight. Any fight. Every time...

611 - Free Manure: Mindful Approach To Our Daily Life Circumstances Oct 16, 2017

I have a bizarre joke for you today. I did not understand the meaning of it until I grew up. Now I see it all the time everywhere I go. People get in a fight, in the arguments every day. For what?..

610 - Key To Success: The Most Important Component For Any Achievement Oct 13, 2017

Today I’d like to talk about the key to success. Any kind of success in whatever you’re doing. It is indeed universal.

609 - Describing Myself: What Surrounding World May Not Always Tell Us Oct 12, 2017

I still remember quite a few moments from my childhood. Not everything I’m proud of, like what I see nowadays in kids and especially teenagers. That’s talking about people around us. And most of the time what is being said is not very pleasant...

608 - Mindful Success: The Key Component That Makes People Successful Oct 11, 2017

To continue with the topics of success, I’d like to talk about one crucial component that makes a difference between successful people and those who are still struggling to make the ends meet. I’ve heard this many times, and recently I was listening to the coach...

607 - Root Of Evil: Discover The Driving Mechanism Behind Our Actions Oct 10, 2017

Yesterday I was talking about us blaming somebody or something else for our actions and especially for consequences they produce. Whether you agree or not, that’s another story. But today I have another very similar topic about so called root of all evil...

606 - Convenient Blame: The Hidden Ways To Cover Real Reasons For Events Oct 09, 2017

I have another topic today that many may disagree with. But remember, my goal is not to make you to like me. It is to make you think, because remember, assumption is the mother of all.. mistakes. Right?..

605 - Path Of Excellence: How Can We Know When We Should Do Better? Oct 06, 2017

I discovered that there’s a big difference between excellence and perfection. As I mentioned before, perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Who set the standards for the perfection?..

604 - Dangerous Puzzles: How Innocent Illusions Can Destroy Our Life Oct 05, 2017

In life we just take a snapshot of what we see, and we can make life changing decisions based on what we saw. We may be completely off, but nobody can convince us that what we saw was not true...

603 - Tricky Mindfulness: Devastating Influence Of Mindful Illusions Oct 04, 2017

...If we loose the sense of a present moment we may easily get hypnotized by this game thinking they really got a valid point. But in reality we totally miss everything...

602 - Dominating Masculinity: The Hidden Values Of Being A Real Man Oct 03, 2017

Today I’d like to talk about us. Meaning men. There’s lots of talk going on about men losing their values and becoming just male specimen...

601 - Essence Of Life: Mindful Discussion About Achieving Perfection Oct 02, 2017

The question came from a teenager. If it’s not possible to reach an ideal in life, then what’s a purpose of living? For you and I this may sound like a bizarre, but for somebody entering the reality of adult life this may be, in fact, a serious question...

600 - Best Remedy: How Mindfulness Can Help Us To Stay Healthy Sep 29, 2017

Today I want to talk about perhaps the best remedy against most of health disorders. In fact, I think it can help with most of life disorders as well. Yes, I’m talking about mindfulness.

599 - Holistic Coaching: Rules Of Nature For Overall Success In Life Sep 28, 2017

In medical filed this is very obvious. However, holistic is not just about medicine. We can use this approach in business, finances, life in general...

598 - Heal Thyself: Universal Rule For The Field of Healing And Beyond Sep 27, 2017

There’s a well-known rule, “Physician heal thyself”. I started this week talking about medicine, but this principle applies to many other areas...

597 - Do No Harm: Do We Still Have This Foundational Law Of Healing? Sep 26, 2017

The main principle of any medicine, which was reflected in Hippocrates Oath over two thousand years ago, is Do No Harm. I think it relates to any sphere of activity when we’re dealing with other people.

596 - Failing Medicine: The Most Important Rule For Successful Healing Sep 25, 2017

Conventional medicine is not healthcare any more. It is sick care. Sorry, I don’t mean to offend anybody personally. It is a system, not necessarily doctors. My friend, this is a rule number one in medicine...

595 - Leadership Talk: 2 Most Important Points For Great Communication Sep 22, 2017

Everybody likes talking about themselves. When we’re kids playing in a sandbox, it’s perfectly acceptable. However, as we grow up, we look like a bunch of grown up kids who are creating our own bubbles...

594 - Successful Stargazing: One Imperative Rule Of Productive Dreaming Sep 21, 2017

I believe the success of any dream depends on a rule that was summarized by Teddy Roosevelt: “Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground. When we look at our dreams, we may be easily carried away...

593 - Sharing Dreams: The Negative Power Of Our Closest Environment Sep 20, 2017

Today I’ll discuss another point, which keeps coming up at practically every leadership meeting I go to. I’ve experienced that more than once. But first let me ask you, do you have a dream?

592 - Choosing Love: How To Start Practicing Changing The World Sep 19, 2017

Contrary to popular belief, the change has to start with me. And it’s not Love your neighbor part of the Commandment...

591 - Baseline: The Importance Of Finding The Correct Reference Point Sep 18, 2017

In life we like to compare everything, especially things like how much money we’re making, or how much work we have to do, etc. Also most of people, including yours truly, fall into this trap as a result of commercials, sales...

590 - Ultimate Responsibility: Who Is In Charge Of Cleaning The Temple? Sep 15, 2017

Today I will make another point which is, from my experience, causing by far more resistance than the last topic. I talk a lot about it because this is one of my favorite topics...

589 - Opposite Forces: Who Is Really Responsible For The Car Accident? Sep 14, 2017

Whenever I have to drive on a freeway, quite often I observe at least one accident during my trip. Sometimes the freeway may be practically empty, and still there may be one. Usually I am trying to stay away from pointing at somebody and calling them guilty, except when I do. Well, today is the day. Let’s determine who’s guilty...

588 - Free Mindfulness: The Other Side Of The Ultimate Learning Path Sep 13, 2017

I’ve been learning, practicing and teaching various mindfulness modalities for over 3 decades, and I have done it as a community class, free or sometimes donation based, if I did it at somebody’s studio. But let’s look at this free stuff from a different perspective...

587 - Firewood Joke: Learning Mindfulness From What We Know, Not What We See Sep 12, 2017

This may be a bizarre joke. But it shows, in a bit ugly form, the problem of our society. And the problem is, we don’t listen to understand...

586 - Self Imposed Blindness: Life Lesson From A Famous Fiction Novell Sep 11, 2017

Do you like fiction? I do. I read quite a few books when I was a teenager. And one of my favorite writers was Herbert Wells, who’s known for his famous novel The War Of The Worlds. But the one I will talk about is called The Country of the Blind...

585 - Magic Temple: 3 Things To Know About Our Most Incredible Journey Sep 08, 2017

There’s a proverb about a man who was ill. His health was not good, but he heard a bout a magic temple somewhere on the mountain...

584 - Shadow Theater: 3 Very Important Life Lessons I Learned From Art Sep 07, 2017

I’d like to talk about another phenomenon that can create such a catastrophic psychological trap. And it does, for many people including myself...

583 - Understanding Causality: Discover Less Visible Side Of The Obvious Sep 06, 2017

One of the topics discussed the most often, as far as I can hear, is the issue of cause and effect. I already discussed it before, but I keep hearing it again and again in various forms and different contexts. I think this is one of the most important topics to understand...

582 - Biting Dog Syndrome: One Fake Victory Can Make Us Lose The Battle Sep 05, 2017

Life is throwing different things at us. Every day. And if we have a goal, a dream that we are chasing, quite often when we see something flying at us, we may mistake it for the real target.

581 - Music Lessons: 5 Crucial Life Lessons I Learned By Playing Flute Sep 04, 2017

As I started playing the Japanese bamboo flute and even performing in a quartet, I learned several things about music I’d love to share today. I think they really relate to our every day life, and maybe somebody can relate to them too.

580 - Power Of Context: Indispensable Component For Clear Communication Sep 01, 2017

Usually, the biggest challenge people may face after they get here is a language barrier. I did not have that problem. However, I discovered another challenge, which I call the context mismatch, for the lack of a better name...

579 - Negative Motivation: Reverse Engineering Approach To Our Success Aug 31, 2017

Some people just say they are happy where they are and they don’t need anything else. And to be honest, I am one of them too. I’ve been pretty happy with what I had. So if you are, that’s quite all right. As long as you understand the main law of Nature...

578 - Next Breath: The Ultimate Reason To Chase Our Dreams & Goals Aug 30, 2017

A man came to a teacher and asked to give him a lesson about Success in life. They met by the river. A teacher grabbed a student by the neck and pushed him under the water...

577 - Toughest Responsibility: Finding A Person Guilty For My Problems Aug 29, 2017

I made an observation that people, yes including yours truly, are actively looking for reasons why they cannot do something, or why they are suffering from something. Those reasons can be different...

576 - Outside Forces: The Most Critical Lesson I Could Get From Eclipse Aug 28, 2017

Last week we had a solar eclipse. And it was kind of a big deal for somebody. I know people were traveling to other states just to see it. There’s nothing wrong with it, in my opinion. I did not even go outside to look at it. It’s OK if you did. But there’s one thing I thought I could bring to your attention...

575 - Learning Ability: Making The Best Of Our Path Of Self Improvement Aug 25, 2017

Besides learning Math, I also got three important lessons about my learning skills. I know everybody’s different, but hopefully this will make you think...

574 - Learning Habits: We Already Have What It Takes To be Successful Aug 24, 2017

Our learning ability is the biggest blessing, but also the biggest distraction on the way to success, or any kind of personal development for that matter. Let me explain...

573 - Conditional Learning: The Most Important Factor Of Getting Wisdom Aug 23, 2017

I already said many times: don’t give advices, because smart people don’t need them, others won’t use them. Today I’d like to look at this phenomenon from a little different perspective...

572 - Warehouse Of Wisdom: We May Carry Out As Much Knowledge As We Can Aug 22, 2017

This may be a logical sequel to the yesterday’s topic. Just to refresh your memory, it was about our perspective, and how it can limit our perception. However, our perspective can be widened...

571 - Restrictive Perspectives: Destructive Result Of Limiting Perception Aug 21, 2017

Many years ago I heard a statement from somebody, who said, “I accept everybody’s opinion, as long as it confirms my own.” At that time I thought, “What an arrogant statement!” However, as I grew up, I found out that it was just a manifestation of a very well documented phenomenon...

570 - Full Price: Payment Is Mandatory, But We Can Select The Product Aug 18, 2017

Many years ago I understood one simple thing: there’s no free lunch, or free ride, or whatever you call it. Everything has a price tag. People tell me periodically that training takes time...

569 - Postpone Your Goals: Destructive Side Effect Of Positive Intent Aug 17, 2017

I was listening to my coach a while ago, and he was talking about setting goals. And he mentioned one side effect of goal setting, if it’s not done properly. Let me give you an example...

568 - Upside Down: An Unusual Perspective On Our Usual Daily Routine Aug 16, 2017

I usually practice in a place where there’s nobody around. But one day I was doing it in the park, and there were some people there. As I was standing on my head, I saw a person. Don’t remember if it was a guy or a girl, but one of two for sure. The person was walking in such a strange way...

567 - Magic Mirrors: The Simplest Way To See Yourself From Outside Aug 15, 2017

I think that famous quote, “Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye and don’t see the log in your own” is not just a cute phrase from the Bible. Our brain is so used to seeing our own reflection, then even flipping it makes a huge difference for our perception...

566 - Double Negative: Deceptive Outcome Of The Most Obvious Facts Aug 14, 2017

Our subconscious mind is always looking for two opposites everywhere, like good and bad, right and wrong, white and black, and so on. So if something’s not right, then it means it’s wrong...

565 - One Plus One: Ultimate Success Lessons Using Basic Math & Physics Aug 11, 2017

We all are trained in basic math, and we think one plus one equals two. However, if you take two combined forces pulling in opposite directions, then sum total will be zero. Many years ago a coach told us...

564 - Hidden Diamond: The Most Significant Lesson Leaned From A Stone Aug 10, 2017

The bigger challenge we have, the more we like to complain. People came up with various philosophies, whether it is about bad Karma, or punishment for our sins. Everything we say is just our belief...

563 - Magnificent Impression: Life Lesson Learned From Jewelry Making Aug 09, 2017

We all have inner value, as I was talking this week. It is important to see it, and to properly open it an polish. And in case of humans it is done through education, association and practice. But also it is quite important to find our niche...

562 - Perfect Cut: Learn How To Reveal Your Potential From A Gemstone Aug 08, 2017

Just like gem stones, we have our value inside of us. Quite often we need to look inside to find it, as I discussed last time. But we have it. However, there’s one misconception people often have, and I had it too...

561 - Discovering Life: The Meaning Of Our Path Learned From A Gemstone Aug 07, 2017

The other day, I was discussing the lessons I learned from making jewelry. Well, what can I say, I like making it. But also, I like learning something from everything I do. And this week I’ll talk about several lessons I got from gemstones...

560 - Junk Talk: One Way To Stop Wasting Our Most Valuable Asset Aug 04, 2017

The topic I’ll be discussing today is so obvious it’s not even fun to talk about it. Unfortunately, so many people are doing this, that I cannot ignore the elephant in the room...

559 - Mindful Guidance: The Most Important Tool To Affect Causality Aug 03, 2017

Today I will talk about the most important tool we can use to change the flow of cause-and-effect chain. But many people miss importance of this mechanism. Yes, including yours truly. So I had to correct myself...

558 - Fair Causality: Sincere Perspective At The Law Of Compensation Aug 02, 2017

I started this week talking about pain. I told you that I damaged my both knees in my early years. I did it almost 3 years apart, and I promised to tell you why. But before I do it, I want to talk about the law of compensation...

557 - Ode To Pain: The Honest, Cruel But Very Fair Indicator In Our Life Aug 01, 2017

I was talking about pain, and how we can get ourselves in trouble if we get too comfortable. However, like in any Yin-Yang combination, everything is good and bad at the same time. Yes, even pain...

556 - Dangerous Complacency: Devastating Results Of Being Comfortable Jul 31, 2017

The bottom line is, we get too comfortable where we are. We may start taking things for granted, totally forgetting the boundaries that keep us out of trouble. And when we cross them, and Stuff happens...

555 - Choose Your Audience: Different Perspective On Teaching & Learning Jul 28, 2017

There was one point about teaching I initially missed, and I had to re-discover it much later. Basically, my teacher said, Don’t give advices...

554 - Why Do We Talk? A Different Perspective On Expressing Ourselves Jul 27, 2017

The question today is, why are we talking? I read once that wise man speaks when he has something to say. Not so wise - when he has to say...

553 - Safe Play: 2 Silent And The Most Dangerous Enemies Of Our Success Jul 26, 2017

Success doesn’t happen overnight. But at some point we have to be willing to let the balloon fly. That is a leap of faith...

552 - Dialectic Materialism: 3 Important Philosophical Keys To Progress Jul 25, 2017

These are conclusions I’d like to make: 1. If I want to get to the quality change, I have to add quantity. More reading, more practice, more whatever routine I need to do...

551 - Deceptive Obvious: The Biggest Mistakes In The Simplest Routines Jul 24, 2017

Today I will tell you the story that can, potentially, make a huge difference in somebody’s life.

550 - Price For Being Right: An Unusual Perspective On A Popular Belief Jul 21, 2017

My martial art teacher said, sometimes you have to let people make mistakes and learn from making them, then make another enemy just because...

549 - Turning Signal: The Most Important Turning Point In Our Life Jul 20, 2017

I’m going to tell you a story in which I may look exceptionally stupid. But I hope I can make a point out of it. As I was driving today...

548 - Destructive Competition: Unnecessary Sacrifices For Our Goals Jul 19, 2017

There are some scenarios when competition may become destructive. It may destroy our goals, or even our life...

547 - Proving Yourself: Master Your Talents Or Be A Victim Of Your Ego Jul 18, 2017

While debates are an obviously active way to argue, there’s a passive way, which sometimes we can overlook...

546 - Meaningless Victory: What Is The Benefit Of Wrestling With A Pig? Jul 17, 2017

Today I’ll be discussing one of my key topics. And I consider it to be one of the main subjects because I am so guilty, it’s not even fun. I don’t know whether to be ashamed of it or to be mad at myself. But following the philosophy I’m teaching, I should be neither...

545 - Being Zen: Become More Spiritual On The Path To Enlightenment Jul 14, 2017

I came to see Zen teacher, and I saw a stone instead of a Buddha statue. This is Zen. So where’s a catch? I’t been around us all the time. We just need to stop chasing enlightenment and see it...

544 - Ultimate Learning Tool: The Most Important Advice From A Teacher Jul 13, 2017

In every area of life and business, there are levels that can be called “Black belt”. We usually see those people as teachers and mentors...

543 - Mindful Preparation: What Do You Need To Prepare For Success? Jul 12, 2017

I was blessed, or lucky, depends on what you believe, to meet some people in life who are very, I mean very successful by all standards. And they taught me a secret of success...

542 - Your Level: The Best Way To Progress On Your Path To Success Jul 11, 2017

I noticed, when I see somebody who achieved a certain level of success, I have a tendency to study what that person is doing so I could duplicate it. Unfortunately, in many cases it does not work...

541 - Dangerous Over-Achievment: Stop Hurting Your Own Progress Jul 10, 2017

I already talked about this before. However, so many people do it, and trust me, I’m the most guilty offender. As I was working out on Sunday, I had to remind myself to stop. Yes, to stop. Let me explain...

540 - Speed Of Time: The Best Moment Of Creating Something Great Jul 07, 2017

The speed of time does not change. Our perception does. I think when we were kids, we did not have much going, so the present moment was stretching to be long. Like waiting for the water to boil, or watching the grass grow. But you know, these expressions indeed reflect the secret of perception...

539 - Power Of DIN: The Practical Aspect Of Living In A Present Moment Jul 06, 2017

When I was a kid, I learned one skill that helped me many times. I learned to always do things I needed to do, whether it was a home work, or a promise to bring something to school. How? I learned what is called the DIN attitude. Let me explain...

538 - Beyond Goals: The Ultimate Purpose Of Defining Our Life’s Path Jul 05, 2017

Have you ever had this feeling when you finally reach your goal you’ve been working towards for quite long time, and you stare at the result thinking, “Is that it? What’s next?..”

537 - Next Level: The Most Important Video Game We Can Play In Life Jul 04, 2017

Have you ever played video games? If you haven’t that’s OK. I just use this analogy to explain how to progress in business. I learned it from one very successful businessman and business coach. He made this video game analogy...

536 - Mindful Games: What Level In Life Are You Playing At? Jul 03, 2017

Last weekend I was listening to one of the coaches, and he made a statement that really resonated with me. He said, “There’s a difference between playing the game and knowing how the game is played..."

535 - Essential Communication: 2 Crucial Lessons To Learn From A Dog Jun 30, 2017

I sure hope that it was a joke, not a real story. However, it demonstrates one of the major issues in our society, both business and in personal life. Especially inside the families...

534 - Stretching Days: The Most Significant Trick For Making More Time Jun 29, 2017

Would you like to have more time to get things done? Most of people I ask usually say Yes! What kind of question is that? Many years ago our teacher at school told us he had 26 hours every day...

533 - Power Of No: One Of The Most Significant Words In Our Vocabulary Jun 28, 2017

I will be talking about a very simple word that has enough power to make us successful, or miserable. It has a power to save lives. I can think about a couple of situations where it might’ve saved mine. The magic word is...

532 - Old Furniture: Unusual But Very Practical Perspective On Mindset Jun 27, 2017

I will give you an interesting perspective I first got many years ago from the book. And this past weekend one of the coaches I was listening to, mentioned the same analogy. So I thought I talk about it. Imagine that you have a house full of old furniture...

531 - Painting Birds: The Artist's Perspective On Accidents And Mistakes Jun 26, 2017

My teacher said, “Relax! We’re not making mistakes. We’re improvising during performance. Just keep going like it was supposed to happen.” And that helped to some extent...

530 - Eat Your Frog: Find Your Ways To Have More Day Out Of Your Day Jun 23, 2017

Do you do everything on time? If yes, honestly, you may skip today’s episode. I’m talking to somebody like myself, who’s a chronic procrastinator. Oh well, I have to be honest...

529 - Broken Mirror: A True Reflection Of The Surrounding Reality Jun 22, 2017

I hear people quote Biblical verses all the time. But I also hear people quote them taken out of the context. And that makes all the difference.

528 - Butterfly Mentality: Which Side Of The Path Are You Focusing On? Jun 21, 2017

Since I was a kid, I’ve heard one statement, and I’ve heard it in many different versions. It says, “Nothing lasts forever”. I totally agree with it. However, the interpretation I hear most often is conveying the message, “Nothing good is forever”.

527 - Magnifying Glass: 2 Most Important Focusing Rules To Remember Jun 20, 2017

As I was listening to my coach, he gave us a magnifying glass analogy. And I can really relate to that well, literally, so I thought I’d share it with you. The first point he made, the magnifier will magnify whatever we focus on...

526 - Two Eyes: Different Views Of The Same Issue From Different Angles Jun 19, 2017

I was the same person looking at the same object within the same time interval. So I could see both perspectives and realize how different they were. Now - and this is the key point today - If I had to make a decision based on just one eye’s perception...

525 - Daily Routine: The Most Important Key To Success Or Failure In Life Jun 16, 2017

Everybody has a daily routine. Period. If somebody’s deliberately changing the behavior pattern every day, changing the sequence of actions, the schedule, that itself is a routine...

524 - Two Lives: 3 Steps To Choose Which One Is Acceptable For Us Jun 15, 2017

What dreams have you had? Maybe as a child, or a teenager? Maybe you’re having some dreams right now? What are they? Putting all restrictions aside, if you had a chance, what would you do?..

523 - Wasted Time: One Short Step From Fantasy To Our Daily Reality Jun 14, 2017

I managed to make my commute almost zero time, functionally speaking. How? I don’t waste my time listening to the radio. I listen to...

522 - Price For Yoga Path: The Other Side Of Inevitable Life Equation Jun 13, 2017

Many years ago I was reading a book by one famous yoga teacher, who wrote that Yoga does not promise anything, like a good health, or a long life. He wrote that promising that would violate...

521 - Reality Check: 3 Questions I Am Often Asked About My Own Practice Jun 12, 2017

People are often asking questions about my personal practice. And yes, I wish I had more time to dedicate to that, but I get what I can from life. First, people want to know how my life changed as a result of my practice...

520 - Mindful Creations: Where Are Amazing Masterpieces Coming From? Jun 09, 2017

Many years ago, Zen teacher told me, people are trying to get somewhere, or achieve something by means of meditation. But all they need is to realize... Episode #520: hpln.org/520-mindful-creations/

519 - Missing Goals: Setting & Resetting Targets On Our Path To Success Jun 08, 2017

My second though was about the length of my job. It took a bit longer than I anticipated. Should I get frustrated? I’ve met quite a few people who got frustrated over some things... Episode 519: hpln.org/519-missing-goals/

518 - Shoestring Mindfulness: How Much Does It Cost To Change The World Jun 07, 2017

I did this work on a shoestring budget. For real. One penny. But honestly, there are things we can do to change the World that don’t cost even that much. Like a sincere smile, for example. Or...

Episode 518: hpln.org/518-shoestring-mindfulness/

517 - Mindful Sculptor: The Way To Create The Masterpiece Of Your Life Jun 06, 2017

Just like in carving, I cannot rush with changing myself. Tiny steps and consistency are keys to shaping my life the way I want. But if I see that the problem is bigger...

516 - Be A King: The Way To Determine How Great The Person Really Is Jun 05, 2017

Would you like to feel like a king? Seriously! I thought I might start a week with a little bit of King’s attitude. As far as I understand it, of course, not being a real one...

515 - Apple Worm: Receiving Mindfulness Lessons In The Most Unusual Places Jun 02, 2017

I’m known for my attempts to find mindfulness lessons in any situations, even when most of people don’t see it this way. Well, today’s one of these cases. Can you imagine eating apple...

514 - Mind Over Matter: The Most Powerful Tool For Achieving Your Dreams Jun 01, 2017

My coach told me, a man is worth pennies from the neck down, and millions from the neck up. Which of those parts are you using to achieve your dream?..

513 - Your Paycheck: A Simple Way To Find Out Who’s Controlling Your Life May 31, 2017

I am bringing the topic of money quite often because this is one of the biggest causes of stress in our society. Families are falling apart. People commit crimes and suicides. Because of lack of money...

512 - Contingency Plan: How Secure Are You Planning Your Future? May 30, 2017

My friend, I’m not going to beat around the bush today. What is your contingency plan? Don’t tell me you don’t have one. If you think your job is secure, remember...

511 - The Ultimate Price: Remember The Real Price For Your Freedom May 29, 2017

Today is a Memorial Day. How many people are taking a moment to remember? I don’t want to say “celebrate” because this is really not a celebration. This is remembering...

510 - Uncluttered Memory: Keeping Our Brain Clean And Fully Functional May 26, 2017

One of the keys to productivity is keeping our workspace clean and organized. But let’s look at it from a different perspective. The question is, What are we leaning?..

509 - What Do We Learn? Learning Dilemma And Future Success May 25, 2017

Do we really need to learn what we think we do? Or what the educational system tells us to learn? And this is something I cannot really help you with. We have two factors we need to consider...

508 - Intentional Learning: Define The Style That Fits Your Mindset May 24, 2017

I studied myself and discovered some ways to better memorize things. I already talked about my memorizing techniques I used to study, a while ago. But also I was finding ways to make things easier...

507 - Where Grass Is Greener: How To Decide Which Side Is Better? May 23, 2017

This is not a discussion about where the life is better. This is a reminder. For myself. I’ve made mistakes before...

506 - Free Lunch: The Hidden Destructive Power Behind Great Benefits May 22, 2017

Do you like free stuff? As far as I can see, most of people I’ve met like free things. I must admit, I like it too. And it feels really good in fact, to get something for free. Whatever that may be: free office lunch, free stuff at the store, buy one get one free, whatever...

505 - Doing Nothing: One Serious Misconception About Mindful Path May 19, 2017

when I was still studying at the university, we had a class about basics of different religions and philosophies. When we were talking about Daoism, the professor told us that the main approach in it was doing nothing. At some point I did have an impression that Daoism was a way to just sit and do nothing...

504 - Slow Down For Progress: 3 Rules Of Nature's Way Of Ultimate Success May 18, 2017

It was said, The Nature doesn’t hurry, but it has everything done on time. Everything in Nature is done when it needs to be done, and we don’t really question it. But we do question our own activities...

503 - Mindful Bloom: The Greatest Lesson We Can Learn From Nature May 17, 2017

I was listening to my coach, and he reminded us about one of the most important laws of Nature we can learn from it. But first, let me talk to you about one serious misconception I used to have, and I can see it in many people I meet...

502 - Mindful Preparation: Practical Aspect Of Digging The Well In Advance May 16, 2017

Have you heard the expression “Dig your well before you’re thirsty”? There are many variations in different languages. But the meaning is the same: do things in advance before you need it. Like many things I teach, this statement is reflecting various aspects of our life...

501 - Mother’s Wisdom: How Long Does It Take To Understand It? May 15, 2017

I hear periodically people say about their kids something like “This generation is so different!” Well, there are two things I can add to that...

500 - Personal Growth: Who Is Responsible For Making Us Successful? May 12, 2017

The question I have today: who is responsible for our growth and what’s the process? Perhaps you already know the answer. Yes, I am the one responsible for myself. How?..

499 - Sleeping Power: It Is So Easy To Miss What We Don’t See May 11, 2017

Sleep is perhaps the best way to restore our power, recharge out battery, and to repair our body. If you don’t feel good, take a nap, and sleep it off, so to speak. Well, there’s a flip side to the coin...

498 - Opposite Side Of Death: What Is Our Perception Of Inevitability? May 10, 2017

Every butterfly was a caterpillar before it was transformed. And if we look at the process, we can see it as a death of the caterpillar. However, in reality, it is a beginning of something really beautiful...

497 - Debatable Luck: The Flip Side Of The Lucky Coin We Often Ignore May 09, 2017

The professor was teaching a group of students at the Psychiatric hospital. “This young patient,” he said, “got in a really deep depression after his fiancee left him right before wedding for the other guy...”

496 - Mentality Check: Do We Have Right Mindset For Achieving Success? May 08, 2017

Not long ago I was listening to the coach, and he said something that stretched my imagination. He made me think in a way I’ve never thought before. But first, let me set up a foundation for the topic. In a business or employment world, there are two types of mentality: business owner and employee...

495 - Dream Stealers: Which Side Of The Success Equation Are You Taking? May 05, 2017

I learned some lessons in life, and I know better not to discuss my big dreams with people who most likely won’t understand them. In Matthew chapter 7 verse 6 Jesus told us not to throw pearls in front of the pigs. Those are not my words, but His...

494 - Self Centered Mindfulness: The most important person in your life May 04, 2017

Have you ever had a chance to fly by airplane? At the very beginning of the trip, the flight attendants go over some instructions. And one of them is telling us in case the plane is de-pressurized, and the oxygen masks fall out, put your mask first before helping anybody, including your kids if you have them with you...

493 - Negative Thoughts: The Most Important Success Technique To Learn May 03, 2017

Today I will talk about another very important rule the coach reminded us this past weekend. Let me tell you first, this rule is not new. I kind of learned it many years ago when I was studying Autogenic Training. There were certain sets of statements...

492 - Climbing Everest: The Most Important Mountain For Us To Conquer May 02, 2017

Point number three, and that’s the name of the topic today, the most important mountain in our life is actually not the Everest. That’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.

491 - A Single Cup - An Overlooked Amazing Benefit Of Drinking Daily Tea May 01, 2017

As I am making a free online video course about brain development and prevention of Alzheimer’s and Dementia, one of the topics I will be covering is Tea. You can subscribe on my site HPLN.ORG

490 - Distractive Magic: The Most Important Skill To Develop For Success Apr 28, 2017

Even if we know that we’re being tricked with some magic, our brain is still being tricked. Amazing! We know we’re being fooled and we are fooled...

489 - Super Knot: The Most Important Magic Trick I’ve Ever Learned Apr 27, 2017

When we fall into the trap, we get surprised: what happened? Well, we’re just getting tricked by life. Sometimes we can laugh it out, and sometimes it may cost us a fortune or even our life...

488 - Mindful Justification: Amazingly Convincing Power Of Our Mind Apr 26, 2017

One day I was listening to my coach, and he made a statement that forced me to think. I looked back at my previous life, and I found the statement to be true in many cases. Here’s what I learned about myself...

487 - Prioritizing Excuses: The Importance Of Mindfulness In Success Apr 25, 2017

We don’t have control over time, so we cannot manage it. But we can manage our priorities. We can prioritize...

486 - Deliberate Persistence: The Most Reliable Way To Master Anything Apr 24, 2017

The topic for today’s podcast actually crossed my mind this weekend after I finished my short 20 minutes workout. I did break a sweat even though my workout was not long. This is one of my teaching topics these days...

485 - Tough Decision: The Most Important Moment For Our Success Apr 21, 2017

...it dawned on me that it was the moment every coach is talking about. The most important moment for my success. And I sincerely believe, for yours too, my friend...

484 - Childish Mentality: Grow Up And Get Out Of Your Dangerous Box Apr 20, 2017

I see so many adults holding on to that most dangerous part of their childhood. That is making life changing decisions based on partial ignorance...

483 - Intellectual Regurgitation: Mindful Individuality Vs Mighty Echo Apr 19, 2017

You see, when we are born, all we have is fear of loud noises and biological reflexes. Everything else is acquired...

482 - Postponed Justice: 3 Lessons I Got From The Major Catastrophe Apr 18, 2017

When Jesus was crucified, how many people were wrong? Perhaps, all of them? So, it is possible that majority is wrong...

481 - Saying Nothing: Sometimes It Is The Best Way To Communicate Apr 17, 2017

As my coach said, often it is not what you say, but what you DON’T say is what makes a difference...

480 - Inevitable Choices: Hard Reality And Tough Games Of Everyday Life Apr 14, 2017

Have you ever played chess? There’s a scenario we called “The Fork”. That is a situation when one player makes a move, and the other player will have to lose something no matter what he does...

479 - ABC Of Life: The Undeniable Reality Of Living In Today’s World Apr 13, 2017

Today I’d like to talk about success and mindfulness from a little different perspective. The same principles though. I called it ABC of life for the lack of a better term. When I was growing up, the life was relatively slow...

478 - Real Problem: Discover And Understan The Hidden "Root Of All Evil" Apr 12, 2017

I’ve heard the statement that money is a root of all evil. I think this is one of the most misleading phrases in our lexicon for at least.. hmm… last several centuries, perhaps. Money is neutral...

477 - Perfect Job: 2 Mindful Minutes About Possible Employment Options Apr 11, 2017

Today I’d like to talk about jobs. Well, most of us have it, at least at some point of life. So we may as well talk about that. I’ve been both employee and employer, I’ve been unemployed and I’ve been an freelance independent contractor...

476 - Delusional Landmarks: Do We Know What Should We Really Believe? Apr 10, 2017

Today I will talk on one controversial subject, and some of you may start hating me. That’s OK as long as I make you think. Humans are very stubborn creatures...

475 - Know It All: My Wisest Answer To Majority Of People’s Questions Apr 07, 2017

As I grew up, people started asking me questions about life. Like what to do, how to live, etc. I did not read about that in encyclopedias. But I also became much smarter, and I can give you answers to basically any life question you may have. You may not like the answer though...

474 - Defining Leadership: 3 Main Rules Of Putting Your Group Together Apr 06, 2017

Today I will talk about putting the team together. I’ve been a part of the team, and I’ve been a leader of the team as well. And I know I made some mistakes, and they were very costly...

473 - Mastermind: The Fastest Way To Improve Your Path To Success Apr 05, 2017

I realized that because of the disconnect between me and the surrounding life, my knowledge in many cases was not practical. I was a good specialist and a very poor communicator. As I was learning about the leadership and success, I had to do what John Maxwell told us...

472 - Weakest Link: The Easiest Way For Our Successful Plans To Fail Apr 04, 2017

Many-many years ago I was reading a book about network security. No, no, I won’t be teaching you computer stuff now. The book is obsolete with today’s technology. However, there’s one example the author gave that stuck with me all these years...

471 - Protective Selfishness: The Role Of Self-Pity On The Way To Success Apr 03, 2017

Have you even wanted to be a hero? Let’s be honest. I know I have. There’s one catch, however...

470 - Reality Check: Dreams Do Come True If You’re Willing To Get Them Mar 31, 2017

In today’s society dream is often seen as something almost negative. Like, “he’s a dreamer.” Yes, I’m a dreamer. But there’re some secrets of the mindful dreaming, so to speak. If you want your dreams to come true, of course...

469 - Getting Your Map: Sure Way To Know Where You Need To Go Mar 30, 2017

This week I was talking about successful Path, and today I will talk about another quite important component...

468 - Justifiable Choice: How Good or Bad Is The Path To Your Success? Mar 29, 2017

Like I said yesterday, today I’ll talk about the third component of the Success equation...

467 - Un-Business Decisions: Who Is Setting Our Success Goals For Us? Mar 28, 2017

I don’t see anything wrong with enjoying my present situation in life. We need to be happy with where we are. However, I disagree with staying in one place. There’s no status quo. We either move forward or backwards. The Path of success does not necessarily mean...

466 - Business Path: Are You Claiming Your Right To Choose Your Path? Mar 27, 2017

The only way I see to achieve my goals, is to get outside of the box set by the system, and become somebody. Chase my dreams. I know I can. And you can...

465 - Mindful Versatility: The How And The Why Of Multiple Leaning Path Mar 24, 2017

Some of my hobbies played a major role at some point of my life. But today’s question is, how can we learn multiple things when everybody’s teaching single purpose?..

464 - Math Challenge: How Can We Fit More Productive Hours In One Week? Mar 23, 2017

The same 24 hours a day, different results. It is not a matter of having to not having time. It is about how we choose to use it...

463 - Identity Crisis: Why Am I Here And What Is My True Destiny? Mar 22, 2017

Not sure if you can relate to that, my friend. But if I can make a suggestion, don’t see yourself as a doctor, a teacher, an engineer, a cook, a musician, or whatever you do...

462 - Suffering Mode: The Reason We May Be Getting Unpleasant Moments Mar 21, 2017

I was growing up thinking that good Path has to be smooth. In fact, if it’s not going easy, then it is most likely the wrong path. Have you met anybody with similar mentality? Perhaps, I’m the only one here...

461 - Ridiculous Reality: How Good People Allow Terrible Things Happen Mar 20, 2017

Looking through the history, you can find some gruesome examples of mass extermination of people in the name of the good cause, which was either better progress or protecting the nation...

460 - Being A Driver: Who’s In Control Of Your Destiny? Mar 17, 2017

True passion does not have to be really smooth. It may cause a controversy in other people. You may be ridiculed, even by people close to you...

459 - Life Of Fulfillment: Discover The Biggest Myth About Our Happiness Mar 16, 2017

There was question I had on the back of my head, and I know so many other people have it. Do you know the question? Now I sound like Morpheus in Matrix movie. The question is, “Is this it?”

458 - Devastating Benefits: Think Twice Before Making Your Next Step Mar 15, 2017

Unfortunately, there’s no free lunch. People often look at the double income part of the deal, and they forget that there’s a payback. So, are we really winning?

457 - One Degree: How To Avoid Getting Into The Area You Don’t Want? Mar 14, 2017

I’ve been reading about this analogy many times, and I’ve been using it myself. But as I was reading a book “Delusion of Passion”, the author talked about flying airplane 1 degree off course...

456 - Illusion Of Freedom: Are We Really As Free As We Think We Are? Mar 13, 2017

Today’s question is rather rhetorical: What is freedom? What does it mean to you?..

455 - Microwave Society: The Real Dangers Of The Fast Pace Living Mar 10, 2017

The life is much faster now. We have a lot of technology to make it easier. However, here we go, there’s a flip side to the coin.

454 - Surviving Abundance: 2 Facets Of Life As Two Sides Of The Coin Mar 09, 2017

I heard a saying: “A piece you throw away during abundance equals the piece you’re missing during starvation.” When we have more, we may not even think about controlling our expenses. Just do it...

453 - My Best Teacher: How I’ve Been Getting My Most Valuable Lessons Mar 08, 2017

Today I’ll take you into the moment about 45 years ago when my mom was making cookies. I was a little kid...

452 - Mindful Promises: 3 Important Things You Cannot Guarantee In Life Mar 07, 2017

Napoleon said, “There’s only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.” And I can testify he was right...

451 - Coaching Power: The Most Important Thing We Don’t Know About Us Mar 06, 2017

I will tell you a coaching testimony that will make me look like a fool. There was a moment when I had to take a license exam...

450 - Eloquent Wisdom: 3 Most Significant Lessons On Teaching I received Mar 03, 2017

Today I’d like to do something a little different. I will talk shorter than usual. Over the years I collected some significant points on how to make myself more effective as a speaker and a teacher...

449 - Total Control: Two Opposite Sides Of The Freedom And Power We Have Mar 02, 2017

Aristotle wrote, “Whatever lies within our power to do lies also within our power not to do.” It was true 2400 years ago, it is still true today.

448 - Mindful Victories: The Most Reliable Way To Win Any Battle In Life Mar 01, 2017

Many people keep the childish attitude: they need to win the battle. To overpower the opponent. But why? We often look for the solution how to win. Are we also looking for the ways...

447 - Illusory Control: Don’t Let Perception Distort The Path To Success Feb 28, 2017

It doesn’t matter what we think and how much we know., but the gravity, for example, will be gravity. Always. For as long as we are a part of our 3-dimensional World. We don’t conquer forces of the Nature, but we can choose ...

446 - Overlooked Power: The Biggest Smallest Step We Can Ever Make Feb 27, 2017

If you are a procrastinator, welcome to the club. There’re quite a few of us in the guild. We know who we are, and we’re learning to deal with it every day. Here’s what I found that works for me...

445 - Unstoppable Success: 3 Important Lessons We Can Learn From Amoeba Feb 24, 2017

The more distractions we have, the less we’re likely to succeed. Trust me on that, I know. Are we smart enough to learn from Amoeba?

444 - Sweet Dreams: One Of The Most Common And Dangerous Goal Killers Feb 23, 2017

Most of dreams are just what it’s called: dreams. Wishful thinking. Saying “I want a new house” has the same value as saying “I want to fly to the Moon”. That’s fine! Dream on! Our dreams will remain the dreams. Unless...

443 - Inverted Mindfulness: Understanding The Correct Sequence of Emotions Feb 22, 2017

People address the emotions as the reasons to act the certain way. Like I said, I’ve done it. If you have, welcome to the club. However, the emotions are not the initiators...

442 - Uncontrollable Anger: We Are Willingly Setting Our Own Diagnosis Feb 21, 2017

There are some moments when we need to get it out. But making it a habit demonstrates our inability to handle the situation intelligently...

441 - Building Our Destiny: The Most Important Thing For Our Future Feb 20, 2017

Imagine if everything we say would be coming true. Ouch! Well, some of it comes true. We are programming our brain, and it does not know the difference between real and fake...

440 - Amazing Day: The Most Important Component To Make Our Day Great Feb 17, 2017

Count the blessings you have. I am grateful for today. In fact I think there’s one major component that makes my life great. Perhaps, the only component I need. That is...

439 - Accepting Truth: The Real Path Of Every Widely Adopted Concept Feb 16, 2017

No matter what idea you have, there will be somebody, maybe even a majority, that will call it stupid. They may even call you names. Just ignore them...

438 - Mindful Progression: The “Harsh” Reality Of Achieving Our Goals Feb 15, 2017

Today I’ll continue talking about achieving our goals. Again, I came up with this topic after listening to my coach. I’m so guilty in doing what he said not to do, it’s not even fun. But it is what it is.

437 - Ultimate Sacrifice: An Ancient Legend About Love, Sorrow And Music Feb 14, 2017

The legend says that many, many centuries ago, a Young Wind was flying at the early Spring time. And he saw a beautiful tree covered with amazing white flowers. The Wind fell in love...

436 - Roadmap To Success: Destructive Power of Dreams And Setting Goals Feb 13, 2017

Have you heard about the importance of goal setting? New Year’s resolution, etc? Well, today’s topic may sound contradicting all those concepts. But I think it gives the answer why many of those resolutions fail...

435 - Hog’s Mentality: Avoid Self-Destruction By Following This Rule Feb 10, 2017

How often are we acting like the Hog in the fable? Look around, my friend. We are killing the World we’re living in. We’re cutting, destroying, polluting and poisoning...

434 - Ultimate Submission: Incredible Power of Emotional Acceptance Feb 09, 2017

I think fear kills more lives than failure ever will. Definitely fear kills more success than anything. I remember talking to a guy who served in Afghanistan...

433 - Dangerous Helper: Complaisant Friend Can Be Worse Than An Enemy Feb 08, 2017

Two major things I learned from this fable. One, be selective who you take help from. We say, “Complaisant fool is worse than an enemy.” So be careful about whom you consider to be your friend...

432 - Misinterpreted Causality: Seeing Reality Through The Obvious Feb 07, 2017

There’s one phenomenon I’d like to discuss today. I learned about it three decades ago. I’ve seen so many people do it. I have also done it, and I know about it. Duh! And I have been a victim of it many times. Let me give you an example...

431 - Counterintuitive Mindfulness: Powerful Lessons From A Simple Toy Feb 06, 2017

Many people won't believe you because you act against their ignorant opinions. They sometimes won’t believe you even when you show the results...

430 - Illusory Success: This One Fatal Mistake May Cost You A Fortune Feb 03, 2017

Today I’ll talk about one mistake that can cost you a fortune. It can destroy your success and your carrier completely. How I know? I’ve seen so many people do it. Sorry to admit, I am one of these people...

429 - Infinite Repetition: Where Would You Like To Get Stuck In Life? Feb 02, 2017

All fantasies aside, do you know how many people actually are trapped in their life? Day in and day out, they wake up every morning, do exactly same things, go to exactly same places...

428 - Meaningful Competition: Childish Mindset Vs Every Day Reality Feb 01, 2017

I remember I had always thought about myself as non-competitive. Who cares who comes first to the finish… as long as I do. Much later I found out that I was actually somewhat right. Unfortunately, over the course of life I lost it partially getting consumed by the widely accepted theory of success. And my mistakes were really costly...

427 - Size Matters: The Hard Truth About Our Strength And Functionality Jan 31, 2017

For as long as I remember myself, there’s always been a trend among guys to prove who’s stronger. And I think that goes back to the beginning of the humankind. Perhaps, these are our biological instincts. Survival. Now men compete...

426 - Saving The World: Hidden Price Of Becoming A World Renowned Hero Jan 30, 2017

Have you ever wanted to be a hero? Have you? OK, I have, I admit. Maybe not necessarily a Superman, but perhaps a Spiderman, or even a Captain America? We had our heroes on the other side of the Globe...

425 - Being a Master: The Most Important Skills I Acquired Over Decades Jan 27, 2017

The more I was learning, the more I knew how much I didn’t know. I remember one day I was training and I asked myself, what have I really learned? I think I may be getting closer to understanding the statement that Zen mind is a beginner’s mind...

424 - Mislead Majority: Beware Of Threatening Power Of Misguided Crowd Jan 26, 2017

We, humans, have a tendency to believe something that the crowd is talking about. Their belief may become our belief, and we may not even care if it has a real foundation or it was just a delusion of one single individual...

423 - Dangerous Advices: Should We Avoid This Type Of Help At All Cost? Jan 25, 2017

As I was trying to get ahead in life, to fulfill some of my dreams, for some reason it didn’t work. I felt like I was stuck in the moment like in a fiction movie: I could not escape. I felt like Neo in Matrix...

422 - Relentless Enemy: The Biggest Destroyer Of Any Kind Of Success Jan 24, 2017

There's a big gap between the mediocrity and somebody who really made it. And somebody did. I am not talking about inherited money or winning a lottery. I am talking about self-made success in any field. One thing I discovered, people who are successful...

421 - Faith Driven: 5 Crucial Points I Got From My Childhood Experience Jan 23, 2017

Can you ride a bicycle? I learned that skill many, many years ago. You may or you may not know how to ride it. But I’d like to look at my learning experience from a different perspective.

420 - Intentional Steps: The Best Proven Way To Tackle Any Problem Jan 20, 2017

I’ve heard it from several coaches: you need to make a list of things that need to be done. Of course, with toy chemistry set the list was already there, but for business, for life, for whatever we need to do, it is suggested to...

419 - Driving Blindfolded - Catastrophic Results Of Fake Relaxation Jan 19, 2017

This is our life, my friend. We are driving forward full speed. And in many cases its OK because we know where to turn. What if life takes an unexpected turn? Well, that’s when we can lose our balance, so to speak.,,

418 - Feeding Babies: Mindful Parenting Vs Mindful Holistic Coaching Jan 18, 2017

Somebody who’s learning with me is like a baby. I cannot feed them too much. They won’t digest it. I cannot tell them every small thing I’ve gone through. I have to feed them a little bit and give them room. And I have to let them walk, and fall...

417 - Finding Fulfillment: The Shocking Truth Behind Our Dreams And Goals Jan 17, 2017

I’ve heard it many times from her and from different coaches. Success won’t make us happy. New toy, new job, new trip, new spouse, new whatever - don’t make us happy. What does?..

416 - Catastrophic Imbalance: Devastating Result From Blind Elimination Jan 16, 2017

Sometimes I see online questions like “If you could eliminate one thing in the World, what would that be?” That made me think. Well, I can sure change some things to make the World better. Instantly. All right. But on the second thought...

415 - Foremost Wish: Resting In Peace Vs. Creating Peace To Live In Jan 13, 2017

I read this quote online, actually, and I totally agree. Why are we always saying rest in peace? Why not to try to live in peace?..

414 - Mindful Timing: The Only Moment When The Real Magic Can Happen Jan 12, 2017

If you have something special to wear, why not now? If you want to do something, what can be a better day than today? Or if you, maybe, have something important to say to somebody, now is a great time...

413 - My Favorite Day: A Short Funny Story About Such A Serious Matter Jan 11, 2017

I’d like to take a moment to appreciate my life I have today. No past regrets. No future day dreaming. Just here and now. In fact, why don’t we do it together...

412 - Dumb Wisdom: Great Piece Of Advice From A Place You May Not Think Of Jan 10, 2017

What I see today, people try something, it doesn’t work, and they drop it because odds are against them. But how many people became great just because they were going against the odds? Even when nothing works...

411 - Your Element: Maximizing Your Personal Strength And Success Jan 09, 2017

The question I have for you today, are you working in your element? Do you know your strengths and weaknesses? When I was growing up, my definition of well rounded was somebody who was excellent in all areas of life. That means all qualities have to be developed. And I did not fit that description. I think that might create a bitter feeling, like I was not up to par...

410 - Successful Mistakes: Our Humble Way To Turn Failures Into Success Jan 06, 2017

People become successful by seeing opportunities where others may see disaster. But we need to give up the idea of control, we need to stay humble and be in a present moment...

Episode 410: hpln.org/410-successful-mistakes/

409 - Defining Success: The Only Road Map To Our Goals We Need To Know Jan 05, 2017

Have I lost my enthusiasm? Oh yeah! More than once, to be honest. What got me back was a roadmap. Robert Schuller had a book “The Peak to Peak Principle.” He taught it to John Maxwell, that’s how I learned about it...

408 - Winning Mentality: What It Takes To Achieve Or Not Achieve Goals Jan 04, 2017

I was listening to John Maxwell, and he said, many people think it takes a whole lot to achieve their goals. But it’s actually not. It takes...

407 - Changing Perspective: How To Define Who’s Right And Who’s Wrong Jan 03, 2017

Because we are conditioned, we are trying to find the opposite. So when we’re sure we’re right, that means, in our mind of course, that any other opinion is wrong...

406 - Resetting My Goals: My Personal New Year Resolutions For 2017 Jan 02, 2017

I am not emphasizing New Year Resolutions because I see so many people wait until January 1st to begin working on their goals. My motto is Do It Now. If I decide to do something, I will start the same day even after midnight. I don’t care. Just do it. But that’s me, I am not saying you have to do it. So I do have my goals for this year...

405 - Our Goals: 2 Minutes On Goal Setting and New Year Resolutions Dec 30, 2016

This is my last episode in 2016! Many people are making New Year resolutions. I’m trying to start them as soon as I set them as long as it is physically possible. There are some areas where I’d like to see a better result in this coming year...

404 - Choosing Vehicle: Never Forget To Ask This Important Question Dec 29, 2016

I see way too many people who make a choice in favor of Ferrari. I understand that. But I didn’t tell you about the road...

403 - Mighty Mirrors: Tragic Results Produced By Unwanted Reflections Dec 28, 2016

In our head we are reflecting each thought, especially bad ones, multiple times from every angle. Our head is like a room surrounded by mirrors...

402 - Powerful Habits: Put A New Spin On A-Chiken-And-An-Egg Metaphor Dec 27, 2016

My friend, being mad, angry, disappointed - all these are products of our mind. They cannot hurt us unless we let it happen. The emotion is not a reason for something, it is always a consequence. It does not hurt us. However...

401 - Little By Little: How The Water Wins And Stone Loses In A Battle Dec 26, 2016

People often look at any task thinking how long it would take, and it scares them. And it may stop them from starting. They forget that 1-2-3 years later they will be 1-2-3 years older anyway, regardless if they do it or not...

400 - Daily Gratitude: Choose To See Small Acts Of Unconditional Love Dec 23, 2016

This is not the first time I noticed such a fine thread connecting the events and making life run smoothly. It looks like somebody’s keeping an eye on me like a parent who lets a child to make some mistakes, but not enough to hurt himself...

399 - Real Learning: When Do We Learn Things We’ve Been Studying? Dec 22, 2016

Aristotle said, "For the things we have to learn before doing them, we learn by doing them.”

398 - Faith Walk: How Long Does It Take To Start Doubting Ourselves? Dec 21, 2016

When I set a new goal and start walking towards it, I know it takes time. So here I am, knight in a shiny armor. Ready to conquer the World. After several days in a new project I’m thinking, it’s not working! What’s wrong? The answer is...

397 - Overnight Success: Discover Secret Of Achieving Any Goals In Life Dec 20, 2016

Do you believe there’s such a thing as quick overnight success? I do. Let me tell you how you can do it...

396 - Brain Aging: How To Prevent Alzheimer’s Using Ancient Healing Art Dec 19, 2016

There are actually ways to change our lifestyle and delay or even prevent brain aging and avoid Alzheimer's. I am putting together a FREE online video course. Get it on my site HPLN.ORG/freebdc

395 - Different Opinions: Respect Opinion But Make Up Your Own Mind Dec 16, 2016

Today I just wanted to remind you about difference of opinions. This is my belief: we all are entitled to our own opinions! In fact, I think everybody should make up their own mind about whatever they believe...

394 - Getting Lost: A Different Perspective On Losing Sense Of Direction Dec 15, 2016

I came to the conclusion that getting lost is not as bad as we may think it is. What makes it unproductive is our close-mindedness...

393 - Debilitating Doubt: What We Really Know vs. What We Think We Know Dec 14, 2016

People have an idea, and it may be a good one. And way more important that just ancient music. However, somebody disagrees. And that throws people off track, they start doubting themselves...

392 - Selfish Altruism: Who Benefits From Us Helping Other People? Dec 13, 2016

Is there such a thing as true altruism? We say we like helping other, but are we helping others or are we creating positive emotions for ourselves?..

391 - Straight Line: When Long Path Is Much Faster Than A Short One Dec 12, 2016

I grew up with an idea that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Well, when you draw it on the paper, yes, I agree. But let’s picture a large rectangular field...

390 - Lying Kids: Righteous Intensions Can Create Disastrous Results Dec 09, 2016

From the very young age they learn the rule: lying is allowed. And it can be also used to avoid negative reaction from parents. Though we are trying to teach that lying is not good, we behave to prove the opposite...

389 - Convenient Opinions: What We Really Believe vs What We Say Dec 08, 2016

Convenient opinions eventually become ours even if we know that's not right. Beware of that! We catch it, like a cold of a flu. The only way to avoid it is...

388 - Psychological Trap: Devastating Power Of Popular Public Opinions Dec 07, 2016

We often have an idea, but we don’t want to voice it because somebody said it differently, and the rest of the people agreed. This popular opinion starts growing like a snowball, destroying everything...

387 - Mindful Choices: Design Your Life By Choosing Your Affirmations Dec 06, 2016

Our brain believe everything you tell yourself long enough. You will become more and more of what you tell yourself. Choose wisely!..

386 - Tough Choices: A Piece Of Wisdom From An Old Children’s Fairy Tale Dec 05, 2016

This tale reminds us that everything has a price. Our actions have a price too. We can do anything, but we cannot do everything. We have to make a choice, and sometimes not an easy one...

385 - Simple Duplication: The Power Of Sharing Positive Vibes With Others Dec 02, 2016

There’s a huge power in duplication. Can you imagine if you and I bring our positive vibes and share with somebody? Just by smiling, saying hi, saying thank you...

384 - Grandma's Wisdom: Radical Changes In Life With Tiny Attitude Change Dec 01, 2016

I’ve always appreciated somebody’s ability to turn the most devastating situation into a neutral event. Like, well, life happens. These are several steps that helped me to change my attitude from destructive to constructive...

383 - Mindful Pumping: How Much Control Over Outcome Do We Really Have? Nov 30, 2016

This is a challenging question. Can you imagine being really thirsty. Now you see an old pump, and you have no idea if it is working or not...

382 - Unsuccessful Attempts: Real Danger In Our Real Life Scenario Nov 29, 2016

Our daily activities, no matter how small, make all the difference. They are so easy to do, and so easy not to do. Nobody will notice until they accumulate enough to show the compound effect...

381 - Daily Victory: The Most Reliable Way To Achieve Any Goals In Life Nov 28, 2016

It’s great you got a dream. Dreams are free. What are you doing on daily basis to get there?..

380 - True Values: How Much Do We Really Need What We Think We Need? Nov 25, 2016

Use things and love people, not use people and love things. How about chasing love, friendship, forgiveness, compassion, gratitude, vision?..

379 - Simple Gratitude: I’m Grateful For My Past Which Gave Me Present Nov 24, 2016

I’d like to express gratitude. It’s a Thanksgiving. All my life is a result of the combined effort of people around me...

378 - Controlled Tension: Are We Always Playing Chess With Ourselves? Nov 23, 2016

Sitting and meditating on my own definitely has a lot of benefits. But that is like playing chess with myself. I win. Feeling relaxed in emotionally controlled environment is easy...

377 - Excessive Kindness: Being Nice To Each Other Has To Be Balanced Nov 22, 2016

Some people are saying that things like love, kindness cannot be overdosed. Well, let’s look at this scenario. Imagine you are driving the car...

376 - Ordinary Faith: Truly Amazing Moments From Our Daily Life Nov 21, 2016

Every step of my life is based on a total faith. I believe that what I think will happen, actually will. I live by faith, my friend. And you know what? You do too...

375 - Overlooked Significance: Important Lessons I Got From A Music Box Nov 18, 2016

Many years later, I returned to the cartoon as instructional video. You see, quite often we overlook somebody’s importance. Or even our own for that matter...

374 - Redundant Details: Destructive Power Of Major Failure Disease Nov 17, 2016

I’ve done it, and I’ve seen other people do it. We start putting our attention to the details that are literally irrelevant. Detailitis is one of the failure diseases, and I’ve been affected.

373 - Mental Clarity: The Most Important Component For Moving Forward Nov 16, 2016

Have you ever had to drive in a fog? I have. There’s one phenomenon that happens to everybody in such low visibility. And it happened to me...

372 - Sobering Reality: Life Around Us Is Not Always The Way We See It Nov 15, 2016

There was a really cold winter one time. A little sparrow was flying looking for a place to hide, when the cold wind blew, and the sparrow fell on the ground...

371 - Carrying Water: Mindful Approach To The Mundane Life Assignments Nov 14, 2016

Let me tell you a story about a small mountain village. People who lived there, hired two guys to carry water from the river in the valley. Those guys were paid by the number of buckets they were bringing every day...

370 - Own Your Life: Who Is Responsible For What Is Happening To Us? Nov 11, 2016

I see way too many people complain, look for excuses and blame somebody else for their failures. They may blame the weather, or the politics, bad luck, or geomagnetic storm. Whatever. Just to avoid personal responsibility. Relax, I’ve done it too...

Episode #370: hpln.org/370-own-your-life/

369 - Mind Over Matter: The Best Way To Overcome Emotional Turmoil Nov 10, 2016

Majority of people I’ve met, at some point of their lives experienced some degree of emotional disturbance. Yes, including yours truly. At those moment there’s absolutely no desire to do anything. I think some people define it as a state of depression...

368 - Deliberate Emotions: The Ways We Are Planing Our Daily Life Nov 09, 2016

Imagine that you are a driver. You vehicle is your body, and your dash board in your brain...

367 - True Calling: Are You Just Doing Your Job Or Fallowing A Passion? Nov 08, 2016

Ask yourself an honest question: are you following your dream or are you just going through the motions every day?..

366 - Real Teacher: Why You Shouldn't Tell Me What And How I Should Do Nov 07, 2016

My coach said, don’t run excited and tell people what to do. Do it yourself and then tell people how you did it and why it worked...

365 - Unlimited Kindness: Endless Ripple Effect Caused By Sincere Smile Nov 04, 2016

People in today’s society are often seeing the World in black and white colors. Like, things are either good or bad, and there’s nothing in between. Well, I disagree with that. But that’s another story. I’d like to talk about a side effect of the black and white vision...

364 - Contrast Mindfulness: How Do We Choose To See What We See? Nov 03, 2016

If something unpleasant happens, we may try looking at it isolated, like a single light in the middle of the darkness. And that may hurt our eyes and create really unpleasant feelings...

363 - Ultimate Nightmare: The Hardest Life Challenge For Perfectionist Nov 02, 2016

As I was growing up, I only knew 2 types of projects: those that were done perfectly, and the rest. You’re either #1, or you fail. And I was not criticizing anybody...

362 - Non-Violent Teaching: The Most Important Advice To A Teacher Nov 01, 2016

People have their own truth based on their perception of the World. Going against it is basically a crime against that person...

361 - Mindful Listening: How Much Do We Really Hear When We Listen? Oct 31, 2016

Today is Halloween. Perhaps some people might expect me do an episode about that. Sorry, I won’t. But I will talk about something that I think is more scary than this holiday...

360 - Infinite Reflections: Escape Endless Corridor Of Blame & Judgment Oct 28, 2016

Sometimes we do something we shouldn’t have done. And we start blaming ourselves. And then blame creates more negativity, and negativity starts manifesting through our actions...

359 - Deepest Desires: Protect Ourselves From Our Own Wishful Thinking Oct 27, 2016

Many years ago I read an ancient proverb. It was talking about a Demon who decided to become a Saint. So he put on a white robe and made his home in one of the caves not far from town. And he promised to fulfill anybody’s deepest desires...

358 - Overcoming Ego: How To Prevent A Danger Of Uncontrollable Pride Oct 26, 2016

My teachers told me, the skill or the habit doesn’t develop overnight. It takes time and consistency, not the quantum leap. And if you stop and lose a momentum...

357 - Being Right: Devastating Ramifications Of Our Desire To Find Truth Oct 25, 2016

Today’s topic is about something I see again and again around me. In my opinion, it is one of the main reasons why people argue and fight...

356 - Subliminal Programming: Can Cartoons Promote International Hatred Oct 24, 2016

I was watching a cartoon. Well, I have two daughters, so I can quote many Disney cartoons. I was watching one called “Barbie in Rock ’N Royals” about princess in a Pop music summer camp. If you haven’t watched it...

355 - Some Day: The Most Valuable Lessons From 'What If’s Of My Life Oct 21, 2016

Recently I was reflecting on my previous years, and I realized that my teacher was right. “Some Days” never come. Sorry to be a dream stealer! But if you are like me, if you are putting things away until some day, that day will never happen. Not until you stop procrastinating...

354 - Changing Speed: The Mindfulness Lesson We Can Get At The Airport Oct 20, 2016

People quite often complain to me that meditation doesn’t work in the middle of emotional hurricane. I know, I’ve been there too. That’s why I practice and teach moving meditation approach...

353 - Becoming A Teacher: When Do We Have Moral Right To Teach Others? Oct 19, 2016

One of the questions I hear periodically, is when is a good time to start teaching? Right now with all yoga teacher’s training, sometimes people see becoming a teacher as a line in a sand. To me, honestly, certificate is just a permission to learn on the higher level...

352 - The Ultimate Currency: How Are You Choosing To Spend It Today? Oct 18, 2016

Many years ago, one of my teachers said, that we can achieve a certain level of mastery in yoga or martial arts, or whatever. However, there’s a price we have to pay. That is our time...

351 - Mighty Dash: The Most Significant Part Of Our Entire Life Oct 17, 2016

My coach talking about the Dash. He said, when we die, we’ll have two dates on our tombstone: the date we were born and the date we die. But there’s a little dash in between...

350 - Tiny Steps: The Most Certain Way To Accomplish The Biggest Dreams Oct 15, 2016

Have you ever had a feeling that you are not accomplishing anything? Even if you are working on the subject. I noticed that one of two things may happen: either dream looks too big, or steps to achieve it look too small. Like nothing at all. I’ve experienced over-doing. I think the most noticeable, at least for me, it shows in working out. Everything hurts the next day. But I’ve learned the secret...

349 - Self-Esteem: One Powerful Step To Take Us To The Top Of The World Oct 14, 2016

A listener asked me a question about Self-Esteem. I think the question is greater than the person trying to answer it. You see, I’ve been at the bottom of emotional hole too. I had moments when I was feeling very low...

348 - Bending Rules: Disobedience That Can Possibly Save Someone’s Life Oct 13, 2016

Have you ever heard that rules exist so we can break them? No, no, no! I am not asking you to do anything illegal. The law is the law whether we like it or not. Today I’d like to discuss bending rules...

347 - Mindful Drivers: The Most Important Part In Your Vehicle And Perhaps In Your Life Oct 12, 2016

Moving forward is important. My coach told me, you can’t steer a parked car. But I think people more often than not get in trouble because of their inability to...

346 - Green Light: This Extremely Important Advice Can Save Your Life Oct 10, 2016

What does the green light mean? I think many people would answer the same way I answered: “It means GO!” Right? Wrong! Many lose their lives because of that...

345 - Unconventional Fear: An Unusual Reason Of Missing A Great Success Oct 07, 2016

Achieving any degree of success is usually associated with increased interaction with other people. Success is not built on individual level...

344 - Naked Truth Is Always Better Than The Best Dressed Lie Oct 06, 2016

Do you think my mind would be free from BS after years of practice? I think I need a few decades more. And I am not even reporting to anybody. What if I had a boss? Isn’t it what so many people do? Come up with excuses even in small things...

343 - Unlimited Fruits: An Amazing Paradox Of A Single Tiny Apple Seed Oct 05, 2016

My coaches recently, and he said, “You can count seeds in the apple, but you cannot count apples in a seed.” I looked up on internet and found this quote by Karen Jensen. It has the second part...

342 - Failing Forward: 1009 Amazing Steps Of One Successful Businessman Oct 04, 2016

Have you ever failed? Come on, don’t be shy! I have. And I’ve never met anybody who’d never failed at something. So everybody has. And everybody will. The question is not “Will I fail?” Yes, you will! And I will. The main question is...

341 - Changing Perspective: The Reason People Become Failures In Life? Oct 03, 2016

I learned from my coach that neither you nor I can pass or fail a human being. We are all individuals, and failure is an event, not a person and even not a lifestyle. We cannot define the person as a failure. What we can do...

340 - Sharing Passion: The Best Teaching Advice I’ve Ever Received Sep 30, 2016

Perhaps the most important lesson I received from him, was about personal learning. He was not coming to teach us. He was coming to practice for himself. He was not trying to convince me to come in. In fact, it took me a while...

339 - Mindful Leaders: The Most Important Quality For Leading Others Sep 29, 2016

I was listening to my coach this past weekend, and he was talking about perhaps the most important quality of the leader. And no, that was not a great knowledge, or ability to organize, motivate, develop vision or set the plan of actions. That’s not even a work ethics, even though that’s essential. My coach was talking about…

338 - Making Progress: The Most Powerful Component Of Any Success Sep 28, 2016

This is what I see people do a lot in every day life: they talk, argue, philosophize, but they miss most important component for their success...

337 - Seeking Advice: The Most Dangerous Outcome Of Positive Intensions Sep 27, 2016

If you want to achieve success, find somebody who has what you want. We cannot share what we don’t have...

336 - Mindful Growth: The Only Way To Discover And Follow Ascending Path Sep 26, 2016

“If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room.” I understand, if you are in life exactly where you want to be, and you absolutely don’t want to improve anything, this statement may not apply to you. That’s fine with me. But if you are like me, a person who is trying to improve and grow personally and professionally, then I am talking to you...

335 - Mindful Compliments: Find Your Ways To Make The World Better Sep 23, 2016

Leo Tolstoy said, “Everyone thinks of changing the World, but no one thinks of changing himself.” Do you want to live in a better more peaceful World? How about changing? Changing yourself?..

334 - Positive Responses: Who Really Benefits From Your Feedback? Sep 22, 2016

Many years ago when I started working at the university, the same one I graduated from, my boss, who was my former professor, told me the most important rule of working there. He said...

333 - Restricted Imagination: The Best Tactic To Solve Life Challenges Sep 21, 2016

Quite often the solution cannot be placed inside certain boundaries. It has to be wider, and the outline of the solution may not match the outline of the original problem...

332 - Mindful Filtering: How To Identify And Weed Out Destructive Junk Sep 20, 2016

Someone asked Socrates, “Do you know what people are saying about you?" Socrates stopped that person and asked him to use three filters. I think they are still applicable today as they were over 2,000 years ago...

331 - Ultimate Investment: Are You Paying Attention To What Matters? Sep 19, 2016

Are you investing in your health? I know, you may be a busy professional. You have no time to invest in yourself. Here’s a new perspective for you...

330 - Mastering Life: 3 Key Discoveries On Our Way To The Highest Level Sep 16, 2016

When I tell people I’ve practicing meditation, Qigong, Martial arts for over 3 decades, I often hear, “Wow! You must be a master!” And that’s what I used to think many years ago when I saw somebody who was practicing 10 or more years...

329 - Building Immunity: Prepare Yourself For The Greater Cause In Life Sep 15, 2016

Many years ago I was reading scientific history book, and it was talking about the Plague epidemics during medieval times. That was devastating. However, Plague forms a strong stable immunity. People who survived, could work with sick people without any risk of getting sick...

328 - Welcome Challenge: The Best Way To Get On The Top Of Circumstances Sep 14, 2016

Have you ever had to deal with a large problem? I mean, the one that can make radical changes in your life? Well, I have. And I’ve heard many people talking about how to overcome large problems in life...

327 - Uncomfortable Mindfulness: Great Value Of Hurricanes In Our Life Sep 13, 2016

Have you ever met somebody who likes trouble? I haven’t. And to be honest, I don’t like them either. As a kid, I’ve seen any problems as something we need to avoid at all cost. I agree!..

326 - Mindful Movements: Path To Balance And Inner Peace We Can Control Sep 12, 2016

I think most of people got out of emotional balance one time or another. I know I’ve done it, and have not met anybody who hasn’t. I won’t speak for everybody, but what I found out to be true for me, I cannot calm myself down in the midst of emotional hurricane...

325 - Parallel Thinking: Get Yourself A Free Ticket To Stress-Free Life Sep 09, 2016

In our every day life we often have a single solution for common issues. That would not be a problem if it did not create lots of problems. In reality this single mindedness is as far from mindfulness as it can be...

324 - Unilateral Mindfulness: Beware Of Your Lopsided Thought Processes Sep 08, 2016

I see people today who base their actions of the same principles as I used in my restroom story. They see or hear something, get a small bit of information, then they fantasize the missing parts...

323 - Mindful Confession: What Future Are You Creating For Yourself? Sep 07, 2016

Our brain does not have moral judgment. It will do anything we tell ourselves long enough. What are you confessing? Because whatever you and I tell ourselves, that is what we will get...

322 - Facing Adversities: Mindful Steps To Prepare For Life Disaster Sep 06, 2016

Many people, I’m sure, heard the saying “Dig the well before you’re thirsty”. I’ve heard it many-many times. However, what I found out, it became a catch phrase, and many people are saying it, but not everybody’s taking it seriously...

321 - Hidden Trap: Unexpected But Most Dangerous Enemy to Our Great Life Sep 05, 2016

The biggest obstacle on the way to success is not the toughness of the journey. It is the comfort of the present moment...

320 - Unconventional Happiness: See The Amazing When Others See Disaster Sep 02, 2016

Everything goes the way it goes. Perhaps humans are the only species that are trying to express a judgment about the Nature. And even more, they are trying to modify it...

319 - Intentional Restrictions: Stop Interfering With Your Own Progress! Sep 01, 2016

We create our problems in our heads. Most of them don’t exist, but once we start thinking about them, even trying to tell ourselves not to think, the brain will keep this image in our head and make it real eventually...

318 - Sweet Evil: Severe Offenses To People’s Inattentive Consciousness Aug 31, 2016

Satan never comes to people as a horrible looking creature. In fact, he comes as a friendly, handsome and a very kind fellow. Somebody who will deceive people and lead them into sin and of course towards what happens after that...

317 - Combat Mindfulness: Unconventional Perspective On Popular Martial Arts Aug 30, 2016

Having been in martial arts for over 3 decades, I’ve seen a lot of people who have no concept about martial arts. Let me point out one significant myth about martial arts. You can find at least 4 reasons people practice...

316 - Mindful Farming: The Most Important Time Between Sowing and Reaping Aug 29, 2016

When people talk about sowing and reaping, they often concentrate on planting the seed and then receiving the harvest. And yes, those two times are very important! But don’t forget about what’s in-between.

315 - Ultimate Success: 5 Simple Steps To The Top Of Your Next Mountain Aug 26, 2016

As I started learning about personal and business success, some of the issues seemed to be insurmountable. John Maxwell told us one rule that changed my whole perspective of success. He told us that this rule is applicable to absolutely any area of growth in life...

314 - Mindful Habits: You will do anything the way you do everything Aug 25, 2016

Vince Lombardi nailed it by saying, “Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” If you keep cutting yourself some slack, you will eventually be slacking everywhere, even where you know you should not. But there’s a good news...

313 - Basic Mindfulness: Take Your Art Of Excellence To The Next Level Aug 24, 2016

Just like martial arts, life can become very overwhelming. However, if we learn the basic principles, or basic laws, if you will, then things become very simple very fast...

312 - Constructive Criticism: The Best Way Of Helping People To Improve Aug 23, 2016

Criticism has many reasons, but most of them have Ego-related foundation. Some kind of inferiority complex. The attempt to bring others down in order to get higher in life. When I had employees, I had to learn the constructive criticism...

311 - Mindful Critic: The Most Important Skill For Our Self Development Aug 22, 2016

I’ve heard long time ago that criticizing is much easier than doing something yourself. And I agree to some extent. There are two exceptions though. I will talk about one of them today. That is self-criticism...

310 - Mindful Realism: The Most Productive Action Based Positive Mindset Aug 19, 2016

Pretend you are in a sail boat in the ocean, and the wind is agains you. What are you going to do? The optimist will say that the wind will change soon...

309 - Destructive Imagination: Are We Confusing Our Dreams And Reality? Aug 18, 2016

We often take our dream, or rather daydreaming, into the real world, and we confuse the fantasy with the plan of actions. We start concentration on and arguing about things that don’t matter...

308 - The Magic Move: The Best Response To Whatever Happens To You Aug 17, 2016

Not everything in life is easy. Some things are real, and they hurt emotionally. Life happens, my friend. And the best response I found to uncontrollable chaos...

307 - Ultimate Asymmetry: Whoever Told You This Lie About Perfection? Aug 16, 2016

When I was growing up, I had this false assumption about the beauty. For some strange reason I assumed that perfection in human body meant symmetry. Well, this may come as a surprise to you as it did to me many years ago...

306 - Yoga Teacher Training: Unbiased Perspective On Great Life Path Aug 15, 2016

There’s one phrase I hear a lot in today’s holistic community. That is Yoga Teacher Training, or YTT for short. You can get 200, 300, 500 hours. I’m not getting into details, levels, etc. Let’s look at the foundation.

305 - Deliberate Discomfort: The Best Path To The Ultimate Relaxation Aug 12, 2016

We needed to make our body comfortable in every possible situation, in any position. Once we do it, we don’t have a specific pattern any more. We become more flexible, more relaxed throughout the day, and thus less susceptible to stress...

304 - Mindful Hypocrites: Uneasy Talk About Universal Love And Respect Aug 11, 2016

We smile, hug, kiss and sing Kumbaya. We believe what we choose to believe. We preach what we think is right. But when it comes to actions, we do what’s convenient for us to do...

303 - Terminal Emotions: Uneasy Path Of Acceptance Of A Great Blessing Aug 10, 2016

The trouble you may get in life, may actually be the path to the blessing. The answer to the prayers. Even though it may not look like that at the moment it happens...

302 - Balanced Life: Significance Of Unity Between Self and Selfless Aug 09, 2016

I believe that our body is a temple for our Spirit. And whoever is not taking care of that temple is actually showing great disrespect to the creator...

301 - Mindful Enlightenment: How Spiritual Our Spirituality Really Is? Aug 08, 2016

People are practicing certain things, like meditation, yoga, whatever, with the intention to get somewhere. They are trying to achieve a certain state of mind. And I am guilty as well...

300 - Mindful Priorities: The Best Way To Get The Best Out Of Our Life Aug 05, 2016

My coach taught me one simple principle: I can do anything, but I cannot do everything. I have to make a choice, and not just in training, but in many things. If I want to achieve success in career or in business, I have to chose what’s important for my goal...

299 - Strategic Illusions: An Incredible Power Of Altered Perception Aug 04, 2016

The information we receive is gathered, mixed, twisted and concentrated in such a way, that we may believe what we see and hear is actually true. Unfortunately, many people don’t even realize they are being mislead...

298 - Garden Gnome: The Magic And The Danger Of Our Altered Perception Aug 03, 2016

We can get bits and pieces of information, and our imagination builds up the whole picture of who knows what. And we, yes, I’ve been guilty too, we don’t bother for some reason to get close to the issue and study what that really is...

297 - Adapted Reality: What Glasses Are You Using To Look At The World? Aug 02, 2016

What if I told you that when you and I are looking at the Society, we don’t necessarily see what it is. We see what our brain tells us to see. So the idiom “Looking through the rose-tinted glasses” is not far from the truth...

296 - Controlled Mindfulness: How To Identify And Avoid Fake Relaxation Aug 01, 2016

Our brain is capable of adjusting really well. Our life nowadays becomes a routine, for the most part at least. We know when we go to work , when we have lunch, when we go home, what we’re going to do, etc. So our brain identifies a pattern...

295 - Complicated Mindfulness: 3 Simple Ways To Turn Joy Into Disaster Jul 29, 2016

We live in the society that requires a lot of regulations. I got it! But people have a tendency to make very simple things so complicated. There are many reasons why, I’ll just concentrate on three today...

294 - Mindful Laughter: Let’s Get Together And Sincerely Laugh At… Me! Jul 28, 2016

Laugh at yourself, and your opponent won’t have a reason to do it. All those bullies and jokers around me were going for one thing only: my response to their jokes...

293 - Convenient Mindfulness: 2-Minute Guide To Selective Spirituality Jul 27, 2016

Most of people I’ve met follow the path of what I call, “Convenient, or Selective mindfulness”. We have a tendency to believe what is convenient for us to believe, and deny what is not serving our goals...

292 - Destructive Anticipation: Avoid Getting Stuck In A Dream World Jul 26, 2016

You see, being a mindfulness practitioner does not mean you will silence your mind. I certainly didn’t. It doesn’t mean you will know your every move. I don’t even know what will happen next second. I just believe I will have one...

291 - Unpopular Mindfulness: Reasons Why Peace & Harmony Don’t Prevail Jul 25, 2016

Why do people like scandals? Is it a chance to break all the rules in a fight? Or just a moment to shine and draw the attention? It's a good food for our ego!..

290 - Ultimate Gratitude: Thanking Our Enemies For Giving Us New Life Jul 22, 2016

Now I will make a profound statement. Humans are stubborn creatures. We don’t like changes. And sometimes God sends us little helpers, just not in a way we may expect...

289 - Being Rude: 7 Rules We Need To Remember About Personal Diplomacy Jul 21, 2016

When is it OK to be rude? And you can find tons of different answers online, from receiving unwanted attention to standing up for justice; from breaking up with another person to protecting our families. My first intention was to tell you that it is not OK to be rude. Ever. But..

288 - Mindful Perspectives: Living In The World We Build In Our Minds Jul 20, 2016

Isn’t it what we do? Many people, including myself, often create our own world in our minds based on a single perspective. And quite often people refuse...

287 - Ordinary Miracles: How It All Started The Way It Was Meant To Be Jul 19, 2016

Do you believe in Miracles? I don’t. What I mean, I believe they are not miracles, they are simply things that we are not able to comprehend.

286 - Financial Mindfulness: Truth Behind Spiritual Approach To Success Jul 18, 2016

Many so called spiritual people see money as evil. Like there’s a moral code about how much you are allowed to make. However, have you ever noticed that people who tell that money’s bad, in most of cases run out of the door daily chasing dollar bill at work, or they simply refuse to make any money, and rely on government assistance?

285 - Mindful Path: What Kind Of Stone Are You Choosing To… Become? Jul 15, 2016

I like to dream. I’ve been a dreamer for as long as I remember myself. My dreams were not always supported or understood. I might say, "I want to do this and that”, and the response was, “Yeah, right”. So, what society offers today is...

284 - Busy Mindfulness: 3 Easy Ways For Busy People To Begin Meditating Jul 14, 2016

Nowadays, we are all busy. Some are more, some are less. But unless you are a full time mindfulness or meditation teacher, in many cases it may not be easy to find time to meditate. Besides, most of people spend their training time on things like...

283 - Forced Mindfulness: A Very Dangerous Pitfall On Our Path To Avoid Jul 13, 2016

People do have a tendency to overdo what they cannot feel right away. They want to lift a bigger weight, run more miles, or spend an hour meditating on the first day of their practice. Just because they don’t feel immediate results...

282 - Glowing Happiness: The Easiest Way To Change The World Around Us Jul 12, 2016

I meet a lot of people. And very few people smile these days if I ask a simple “How are you?” It feels like many people are afraid if their face would crack if they smile...

281 - Dangerous Spot: Avoid This Harmful Situation In Life At Any Cost! Jul 11, 2016

What I learned form my coaches and teachers, I am either becoming better in something every day, or I am going backwards. I don’t know about you, folks, but I don’t like the idea of self imposed mental and physical degradation...

280 - Meditation Practice: Do We Need To Empty Mind And Stop Thinking? Jul 08, 2016

Today I will address one of the fundamental questions about meditation I get. And I’ve been talking about it more than once in different topics. But I keep getting this question from people, and I’d like to address it today...

279 - Fatal Assumptions: Fundamental Mistakes That May Ruin Our Life Jul 07, 2016

The most obvious detail can become the reason for the biggest mistake. Think about it, my friend, when you make your next assumption.

278 - Chasing Dreams: The Best Life Lesson Kids Can Get From a Cartoon Jul 06, 2016

I watched a cartoon today. What’s so remarkable about this cartoon, was that it reflected major problems in our society. While major issues can be easily recognized by an adult only, I think there’s an extremely important lesson our kids can learn. Have to learn, I should say. Because not learning this lesson can be devastating to their future...

277 - Kindness Wins: The Power Of Decision To Love & Respect Humankind Jul 05, 2016

It doesn’t matter what labels somebody puts on other people, they are people. Be nice, and it will come back...

276 - Independence Talk: American Dream From A Foreigner’s Perspective Jul 04, 2016

When I came to the US over 20 years ago, what I saw here was a freedom. The freedom to be whatever and whoever I wanted to be, as long as it’s legal, of course. This kind of freedom was the deciding factor for me...

275 - Deadly Rightness: Who Benefits From Your Decision To Be Right Jul 01, 2016

People constantly argue about something so insignificant. For what? The only explanation I can find is they’re feeding their ego. Like little treats. However, these little argument, when they accumulate, may totally destroy people’s lives...

274 - Deliberate Breaking: If It Ain’t Broke, Make It Happen! Jun 30, 2016

Have you ever heard the saying, “If it’s not broken, don’t break it”? I certainly have. I can understand the reason people say that. I and don’t advise anybody to go and start breaking things. However, there’s a couple of side effects of this philosophy I totally disagree with.

Episode 274: hpln.org/274-deliberate-breaking/

273 - Beneficial Mistakes: 5 Amazing Things In Life Created By Accident Jun 29, 2016

I grew up thinking about mistakes as something really bad. Seriously! Kindergarten teaches kids to do things right. Schools grade students on things done right way. Colleges, universities - all the same. At work people are getting write ups and they get fired for making mistakes. So mistakes are bad, aren’t they?

272 - Successful Leader: 3 Secrets Of Moving Towards Your Dreams Fast Jun 28, 2016

When I was younger, I had a major misconception about successful people. I saw success as study-study-study and then work-work-work. And to some extent it is true. The basic principle was, but the application was not. A lot of people study, but not everybody’s applying the knowledge they received to get desired results. A lot of people are working, but they are just going through motion without much productivity. I am one of them.

271 - Eliminating Shadows : 2 Major Reasons To Step Out In A Sunlight Jun 27, 2016

We have a saying, “Nothing is shining on those who are standing in a shade.” Yes, being humble is considered to be a good thing. However, how else can you let other people know what you can and cannot do, what you learned, unless you tell them?

270 - Mindful Bravery: 3 Fundamental Reasons Of Our Fearless Behavior Jun 24, 2016

Definition of courage is, basically, ability to do something in spite of the fear. I am not talking about situations when people risk their lives to save others. This is about every day bravery. It is about something we look at and think, “WOW, they must be so courageous to do it!” I want to mention three different reasons for this every day courage.

269 - Mindful Dreaming: How To Create Past Events That Never Happened Jun 23, 2016

I will continue with this mini series, and today we’ll talk about meditation on what did not happen. Well, you may say, it is called fantasizing, or daydreaming. Not so fast! Today's exercise is intentional, not just wandering around in your dreams...

268 - Changing Past: Eliminate Negative Influence Of Previous Mistakes Jun 22, 2016

Every coin has two sides. We often see the one that affects us the most. We start thinking about that. And sometimes people don’t even remember what got them upset, but they do remember emotional pain. They remember the feeling...

267 - Reliving Past: Practicing Going Back As A Mindfulness Exercise Jun 21, 2016

The word meditate means think, contemplate. It is just a generic word people picked to call a wide variety of practices. Today we will talk about meditation on the past...

266 - Destructive Feelings: Protect Yourself From Ruining Your Own Life Jun 20, 2016

Many people scream success, but when it comes to a real action, they do what they feel, not what they need to do. And I’m guilty. I know what I need to do, but well, I don’t really feel like doing it today. Can you relate?

Episode 266: hpln.org/266-destructive-feelings/

265 - Mindful Harmony: The Most Important Rule To Help Our Own Survival Jun 17, 2016

With Nature example it is easy. Now let’s take it one step further. I believe that the law of compensation exists not just on physical, but on spiritual, emotional, and other levels. Even though our ego may not like it.

264 - Opposite Values: Mindful Perspective On Relativity In Our Lives Jun 16, 2016

People have the tendency to jump into conclusions, like “this is good, and this is bad.” Good or bad for whom? Who benefits and who has to pay? Remember, somebody always has to pay in one way or another.

263 - Mindfulness Circle: Going Back To The Beginning Where It Started Jun 15, 2016

Exactly one year ago, on June 15th last year, I released my very first episode of Morning Mindfulness. So today’s episode is one year anniversary edition. I think it is a good time to remind what mindfulness really is...

262 - Mindful Rakes: Powerful Lessons We Learn From Our Own Experience Jun 14, 2016

Folks, it’s impossible to avoid every rake in our path. But doing it again is just a waste of energy...

261 - Gracious Catastrophe: Uncommon Places To Look For Our Blessings Jun 13, 2016

Something what may look totally unfair at the moment it happens, over time may prove to be the biggest blessing that could ever happen to us. But you know what, my friend? Here’s a catch how to discover the blessing...

260 - Mindful Flexibility: You Can Never Enter The Same River Twice Jun 10, 2016

The approach I learned when I was training with my teacher was opposite to that in Zen. I was not allowed to repeat the same move more than several times. I had to change and even create my own combinations of moves as my homework. And then I’d show it to the teacher...

259 - Dynamic Mindfulness: Best Martial Art Skill for New Millennium Jun 09, 2016

Most of what I am teaching, in terms of mindfulness practice, stress reduction, meditation, is based on ancient martial arts techniques. Over the years, I’ve had two major arguments against my practice...

258 - Inner Guidance: Receiving Power & Directions From Our Inner Voice Jun 08, 2016

Where can I start? I think the best place is where it all started to begin with. I mean here and now. No matter what is going on, just stop and take a deep breath. We already hear. All we need to do is just listen.

Listen to free tele seminar today by Julia Mikk. Check it out at HPLN.ORG/JM

257 - Mindful Quadrants: Be Aware Of 4 Critical Areas Of Consciousness Jun 07, 2016

I found out that we can point out at least 4 areas of life we have to be aware of. There are things we know about ourselves, and everybody else knows about us. That is called Obvious. That is our major habits, preferences, likes and dislikes, choice of music, etc...

256 - Mindful Vulnerability: How Strong Should I Look to My Audience? Jun 06, 2016

By admitting our weaknesses as teachers, coaches, leaders, we may become more vulnerable. But this is what gives us strength. We can relate to more people. We can help more people by our own example. What can you teach me if you don’t have any flaws? How can you make me a warrior if you never been hit by life?

255 - Mindful Courage: 10 Seconds That May Change Your Life Forever Jun 03, 2016

Courage is not a lifestyle. It is just a moment. Once you’re in - you’re in. But it takes courage to make the very first move and overcome anxiety.

254 - Mindful Forms: Meaning Behind Rigid Ways Of Learning in Ancient Arts Jun 02, 2016

Once the vessel is ready, the spirit will enter it on it’s own. We don’t have to worry about that. Then the form becomes redundant...

253 - Trade Offs: 2 Answers Can Buy Your Ticket To The Path of Success Jun 01, 2016

You see, we like being busy. I didn't say working, I said being busy. This is our lifestyle. We are getting trillions of bits of information into our brain every day. We’re constantly doing something. Our day is full, and our time is still 24 hours per day...

252 - Who Cares? Or Devastating Results of Mediocre Inch by Inch Living May 31, 2016

“Don’t be afraid of friends for all they can do is betray you. Don’t be afraid of your enemies, for all they can do is kill you. Be afraid of indifferent because with their silent agreement all betrayal and killing happens.”

251 - Mindful Memories: Do We Remember Things That Matter In Our Life? May 30, 2016

Today is the Memorial Day. People gave THEIR lives so you and I can enjoy ours. It’s up to us to make sure they did not die for nothing. Think about that.

250 - Destructive Success: The Hidden Danger of Achieving Your Goals May 27, 2016

When we achieve this top level dream, we accomplish it, in our mind we achieved the highest level. We lose that momentum that took us to the top. And if we stay at that level long enough, we may even become rigid. In our mind we are on the top. Unfortunately, there’s no status quo in life. We either going up or down.

249 - Rebellious Mindset: The Most Critical Mile On Your Way To Success May 26, 2016

Sometimes, the whole world may be saying whatever we do cannot be done, because nobody’s done it. Just don’t let them get in the way of those who are doing whatever the World is saying cannot be done.

248 - Brilliant Ideas: 3 Stages Every Accepted Concept Must Go Through May 25, 2016

If you come up with an idea, you will face opposition. Especially if it’s contradicting the main stream school of thought. Every brilliant idea will go through 3 stages of acceptance...

247 - Yo-Yo Mind: The Shortest Distance Between Absolute Good and Bad May 24, 2016

People make quick decisions, often without considering any circumstances and without waiting for or searching for any additional details. This is what I call "Yo-Yo Mind.”

246 - Premature Judgments: Avoid Decisions Based On Partial Information May 23, 2016

We make life changing decisions, and we judge others based on our assumptions. That may be dangerous, my friend. And I believe, it has little to do with mindfulness.

245 - Numbers Game: Remember This Important Rule On Your Way To Success May 20, 2016

I learned, no matter what I do, no matter how great my idea is, or how bad my ideas is, for that matter, out of every 10 people, on the average of course, 1 or 2 will support me. On the oner hand, 1 or 2 will deny and even criticize me. Whoever's in between will be silent observers.

244 - Positive Mindfulness: Definition of True Positive Mental Attitude May 19, 2016

Positive mental attitude is based on reality. Telling yourself “I got $10 for the remaining 2 weeks of the month, I’ll be all right” and then sitting and watching TV, is not a positive attitude. I call it “blissful stupidity”. But you can tell “I got $10, but here’s what I can do to make more”, and then just go and do it. That is a positive attitude. Positive mental attitude is defined by what we do, not just by what we say.

243 - Mindful Responses: 10 Steps To Win The Most Important Battle May 18, 2016

Physical and psychological battles are identical. People respond to emotional push the same way as physical. And that results into what we see so often in the society. Conflicts. Stress. Psychological disorders. Depression.

242 - Tiny Efforts: Changing the World by Small Daily Acts of Kindness May 17, 2016

We never know how small act of kindness can change somebody’s life. We never know what impact will it make on the World. There’s often such a thin thread leading to a global changing event. My friend, if you ever see yourself small and insignificant, try sleeping with a mosquito.

241 - Strong Opinions; How to Escape the Power of Committee of “They" May 16, 2016

Too many people will tell you, my friend, what you can and cannot do, how you should live your life. Who are “They”? How credible this “Committee of They” is? Do They have in life what you’d like to have? Do They live their lives the way you’d like to live? Did they do what you are trying to do?

240 - Educated Decisions: Credibility of The Largest Public Restroom May 13, 2016

Internet is the largest public restroom in the World. All junk goes there, and everybody has to use it. How much credibility do you give to the writing on the wall in the public restroom?

239 - Discovering Challenges: Bring Your Cow Inside Your House May 12, 2016

As humans, have a tendency to complain. We constantly don’t like something. But we often forget that no matter where in life we are, there will always be somebody who’s life is better than ours, and somebody who’s life is much worse.

238 - Ancient Wisdom: Never Become Like a Character from This Fable! May 11, 2016

Long time ago I read an ancient fable about a Fox, supposedly written by Aesop. In that fable, a hungry Fox saw a nice ripe grapes hanging down from the vine. The Fox really wanted the grapes, however it was hanging too high. No matter how hard the Fox tried to jump, he could not reach it...

237 - Judging Society? 2 Rules Can Save Us From Our Negative Imagination May 10, 2016

I think we are responsible for our own alienation. What will people think about me? They won’t care, because they’re too busy thinking, what will you and I think about them.

236 - In His Image: A Different Perspective on Achieving Great Success in Life May 09, 2016

I believe we were created in God's image. You can call it Divine Nature, or whatever you believe. But I believe you and I have some great powers inside of us, more than we can even comprehend. Would you like to receive it? First let me ask you, my friend, are you ready to receive?

235 - Mindful Decisions: One Trait That Will Earn You People’s Respect May 06, 2016

When I was growing up, we had popular kids and not so popular ones, which I was a part of as well. The problem was, not so popular kids sometimes were trying to do things to mimic “popular” ones. They might smoke, drink alcohol, and do other things that could get them in trouble...

234 - Mindful Silence: 5 Amazing Practical Benefits of Keeping Our Mouth Shut May 05, 2016

One day a young boy came to his father and asked, “Dad, what is the next thing a man needs to learn after he learns to speak?” “To keep his mouth shut,” dad answered. I read this story several decades ago, and over the years I’ve heard a number of similar statements, just in different words...

233 - True Success: Change Your Perspective on Your Achievements in Life May 04, 2016

To me, success is defined by our ability to live in a place we like with people we love. To me, it is about being able to do what we enjoy. To me, it is about seeing other people benefit from what we are doing. To me, it is about having inner peace and living in harmony with the surrounding world... What does success mean to you? Episode 233: hpln.org/233-true-success

232 - Mindful Tricks: Practical And Effective Ways to Balance Your Emotions May 03, 2016

When I started practicing mindfulness techniques over 3 decadesago, my goals were very practical. There was nothing divine orspiritual about my practice. I used it for my mind just like we usephysical training for the body. I am not saying it’s write orwrong, but it was my way. My friend called me a fakir, not a yogi.Later though it brought me to Taoist philosophy. But I still likepractical application of these techniques.

231 - Loud Talk: What Is The Most Reliable Way To Deliver Your Message to People? May 02, 2016

In today’s society, we like making profound statements. We like fantasizing, day dreaming. Let’s do that, let’s change the world. But when the reality of life hits, what happens?

Episode #231: hpln.org/231-loud-talk/

230 - Faceless Society: The Adverse Effect of Rapidly Growing Social Networking Apr 29, 2016

We become faceless. It started a couple of decades ago with forums, where people were writing whatever they wanted. They would argue, use bad names, whatever, and I can guarantee, many of them would not even have a back bone to say it in person...

229 - Mindful Success: Ancient Secrets to Boost Business Productivity Apr 28, 2016

My Grandma said, “Greedy man is paying twice, and lazy man is doing twice.” It was a nice catch phrase for a long while, until I got into my own business. How true this statement is! When I was getting busy, I would still try to do everything that was necessary, and sometimes I would cut some corners. You know what? Eventually I had to pay more for my own laziness in one form or another...

228 - Shifting Perspective: The Most Important Secret Of Delivering Message Apr 27, 2016

Have you ever tried to communicate a message to somebody, and then realized that people don’t hear you? In general, people don’t care about what you offer and what you know. Until they know it can help them and you care.

227 - Humans United. But What Really Makes Us Different From Each Other? Apr 26, 2016

You know what makes us all so different? Nothing! We are the same. We are humans. Why don’t we just start acting accordingly, love and respect each other?

226 - Life hits hard. How Does Strong Impact Change Our Shape? Apr 25, 2016

Have you ever been hit by life? I mean hard. I mean when it takes some time for you to even catch your breath after life knocks you down. I certainly have. And it is not fun when somebody pretending to be your friend, kicks you full force below the belt, metaphorically speaking, of course. What happens then?

225 - Mindful Teaching: 5 Points That Will Help People To Hear Your Message Apr 22, 2016

Loving your subject and even having passion about it has nothing to do with the ability to teach, whether 1-on-1 or in groups. It is not about what you say, it is about what they hear...

Episode #225: hpln.org/225-mindful-teaching/

224 - Crucial Mindfulness: For The Sake Of Life, Respect Unloaded Gun Apr 21, 2016

Many years ago my mom said to me, “Unloaded gun shoots once a year.” At that time I did not pay much attention to it. I wish I did. But the older I grow, the more I realize that’s true. And not just about the gun...

223 - Mindful Leader: Are You Making Community-Building Decisions? Apr 20, 2016

Jim Rohn said, “Success is something you attract by the person you become.” According to John Maxwell, Everything rises and falls on leadership. And leadership can be developed... Episode 223: hpln.org/223-mindful-leader/

222 - Unconditional Love: How Easy Is It To Love The Whole World? Apr 19, 2016

It’s so easy to love the whole World, isn’t it? When everything is going great. When life is good, even negative people become positive. Everybody’s smiling, hugging each other and singing Kumbaya. But what if the World around you begins to crumble?

221 - Unconditional Giving: Sincere Gratitude For My Ability To Help Apr 18, 2016

I truly believe that ability to give is the one of the highest forms of blessing the man can receive. God gives us a chance. He thinks we still got enough goodness in us to share with others, in spite of all of our mistakes and failures.

220 - Competitive Success: The Ultimate Plan To Achieve Your Goals Apr 15, 2016

I was listening to my coach a while ago, and he said something I have to agree with. Any success, whether in business, personal life, sports or even martial arts for that matter, is a result of a competition. He clarified that for us. Success is not about me competing against somebody...

219 - Meaningless Predictions: Don’t Let Mass Hysteria Affect Your Life Apr 14, 2016

You see, for as long as I can remember, we had some fortune tellers, who were predicting various major catastrophic events. In fact, at some point it became really popular. It seemed like there was always somebody making predictions about the end of the World.

218 - Embracing Inevitability: The Most Powerful Way To Avoid Stress Apr 13, 2016

If I am stuck in traffic, there’s nothing I can do about that. It won’t make any difference even if I get furious. For me, instead of getting anxious, I started implementing these three things.. Episode #218: hpln.org/218-embracing-inevitability

217 - Painless Success: Reduce Stress With The Most Important Word Apr 12, 2016

As I am working on my Stress Reduction online course, I thought of one skill I acquired as a kid. Perhaps that skill helped me to be straight “A” student at school. Or maybe because of that skill I stuck with Martial Arts, Taoist Yoga and Qigong for over 30 years. No, no, I am not the sharpest knife in the draw, trust me. But I developed this ability to say what I think is one of the most important words in my life. I will teach you that right now...

Episode #217 and links: hpln.org/217-painless-success

216 - Delusional Mindfulness: Sure Way To Lose Your Balance Apr 11, 2016

We just become experts in that particular Path. We run it so smooth, until life takes unexpected turn. Then we either run full speed into the wall, or completely get off the Path, or stumble upon unexpected obstacle and fall...

Episode #216 and links: hpln.org/216-delusional-mindfulness/

215 - Raising Kids: The Best Parenting Lesson From My Mom Apr 08, 2016

Are we helping our kids to become responsible adults or are we building a wall by reprimanding them for their mistakes?

214 - Determination: How collecting Cans May Forever Change Your Future Apr 07, 2016

I learned from my coach, that success comes in CANs, and failure comes in CANNOTs. Think about it. Whatever you may be doubting, like “Can I?” Yes, you can. Will you? Only you can answer that.

213 - Mindful Vocabulary: 3 Words That Can Destroy Your Success Apr 06, 2016

There’s no success that comes out of great ideas. There’s no success that comes out glorifying our own intelligence. The most genius ideas won’t work unless we do.

212 - Dangerous Overreacting: Stop Pushing Yourself Out Of Balance Apr 05, 2016

We are not paying attention to the present moment. And I am guilty too. And once we notice the change, it may be already too late. So we push ourselves into changes trying to maintain the equilibrium. And we often overdo.

211 - Overrated Dreams: 4 Steps Success Plan From My Coach Apr 04, 2016

Dream is extremely important, all right! It’s number one on the list. But we often start paying too much attention to it. We think in global categories, and we often forget, and I will quote John Maxwell, “… dream is free, but the journey is not.” It does require daily work...

210 - Professional Mindfulness: How Do We See Our Failures? Apr 01, 2016

However, precision calibrated mindset does not have room for errors. And this is how I was growing up. Everything had to be absolutely perfect! And if it was not, then it was a sloppy job. That would irritate me and seriously undermine my self esteem. My ego told me that everything I did had to be perfect...

209 - Risky Meditation: Adverse Effects of Positive Mindset Mar 31, 2016

The ego sees no difference between positive and negative to create the illusion of control and not letting go of the past, whatever that past may be...

Episode 209: hpln.org/209-risky-meditation

208 - Choosing Life: Ancient Wisdom For Making Tough Decisions Mar 30, 2016

There’s an old proverb about a peasant who saved monk’s life. The monk invited a man to his cave where he stayed. Once they got there, the monk brought three items - needle, staff and mallet - and put them in front of his savior...

207 - Dangerous Perfectionism - Learn to Avoid Costly Mistakes Mar 29, 2016

Today I’d like to discuss my observation about my own personal trait, which is perfectionism. You may or may not relate. I grew up measuring and calculating everything. I had to know exact process from start to finish before getting into anything. Thanks God I educated myself enough to recognize the downside of it.

Episode 207: hpln.org/207-dangerous-perfectionism

206 - Mindful Parents: How Do We See Our Children's World? Mar 28, 2016

We get some life experience and some wisdom, all right. However, in a process of growing up, we often forget where we came from. We forget how we saw the World as kids...

Episode 206: hpln.org/mindful-parents

205 - Your Best Weapon Against Chaos: Just Smile and Wave Mar 25, 2016

Sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of emotional hurricane when we don’t know what to do and where to get started. I’d say, start right where you are...

204 - Instant Connection: Magic Spell to Boost Your People Skills Mar 24, 2016

In business or coaching, We are trying to force-feed other people with what we think we know. And I am one of the most guilty offenders. When I started practicing Yoga, I thought everybody had to follow the same Path. Until my teacher told me, “Who said you’re right?”

Episode 204: hpln.org/instant-connection-magic-spell

203 - Happy Unbirthday to You All! Let’s Celebrate The Rest of Our Lives! Mar 23, 2016

Here’s an interesting concept I learned from the cartoon called “Alice in Wonderland”. The book was actually called “Through the Mirror”. Why don’t we celebrate unbirthdays? What is unbirthday? Any day of the year that is not your birthday...

202 - Perfect Timing: The Longest And The Shortest Second In my Life Mar 22, 2016

As we run this Circle of life, most of the time we live in one of two dimensions: dreams and fantasies about the future or happy memories and regrets about the past. There’s only one moment in between...

201 - Great Life: My First 17,337 Awesome Mornings Mar 21, 2016

A couple of days ago I saw the post on internet that said, and I quote, “… I’ve survived everything I’ve ever encounter in life. I have a 100% survival rate…” And I’ve heard it before from my coaches and mentors. Let’s talk about that for a minute.

200 - Mindful Humility: Incredible Strength Covered With Love Mar 18, 2016

Humble leaders are strong people who understand their strength, but choose to use it for the benefit of other people. They don’t think less about themselves, but they sure choose to think more about others.

Episode #200: hpln.org/mindful-humility-strength-love

199 - Mindful Sharing: How Much Do You Really Love Your Neighbor? Mar 17, 2016

Many years ago I heard a joke, about a man who had a chance to talk to God. God said, “I will give you anything you wish. But there’s one condition: your neighbor will get it twice as much.” The man answered, “Father, can you please take out one of my eyes?” Episode 199: hpln.org/mindful-sharing-with-neighbor

198 - Ultimate Selfie: The Best Picture of Our Heart We Can Take Mar 16, 2016

I read an interesting quote recently. It says, listen carefully, “I am not what you think I am. You are what you think I am.” Think about it for a second. Yes, it's just another version of famous saying “A man sees in the World what he carries in his heart.” However the former is addressing more specific topic, which is connecting with others. Episode #198: hpln.org/ultimate-selfie-heart-picture

197 - Mindful Laziness: An Unusual Perspective on Global Progress Mar 15, 2016

When I was growing up, calling somebody lazy was not the nicest label to give. I think it is still true today. But let me change your perspective a bit.

196 - Daily Meyama: 6 Components That Can Damage Our Yoga Practice Mar 14, 2016

If you practice Yoga, you should know about Yama and Niyama, first two out of 8 limbs of Yoga. But I will talk about Meyama today. Have you heard of it?

Get the book I am talking about in my notes 196: hpln.org/daily-meyama-6-damaging-components

195 - 10 Life Lessons Your Kids Can Learn From Kung-Fu Panda Mar 11, 2016

Today we’ll talk about a very popular cartoon: Kung-Fu Panda. I like it. And I am not going to debate the quality or accuracy of every small detail. But there are some concepts that really resonated in me. I think even adults can learn a lot, but especially kids because they are the primary viewers.

194 - Stereotyping: Dangerous Habit Which May Destroy Your Life Mar 10, 2016

The habit of stereotyping may become much more dangerous when we start doing it to ourselves. Like I am too old or too young, too short, too tall, too slow, too whatever. This stereotyping is practically destroying our life. Moreover, even positive, constructive stereotyping can be as damaging as negative. How?..

193 - Disastrous Assumptions: Your Free V.I.P. Pass to the Biggest Mistakes Mar 09, 2016

My communication skills used to be a total disaster. On one hand, I was assuming what people thought and wanted to say or do. But on the other hand, I was assuming how people were perceiving me. And trust me, that did not improve my self esteem...

Episode 193: hpln.org/disastrous-assumptions-biggest-mistakes

192 - Communication Barriers: Stop Creating Your Own Self-Imposed Alienation Mar 08, 2016

Being smart does not necessarily mean being a good communicator or being a successful business person. We can create our own obstacles that will significantly delay or even stop our success.

Episode #192: hpln.org/communication-barriers

191 - Destructive Miscommunication: Stop Sabotaging Your Own Success Mar 07, 2016

When I was reading John Maxwell’s book about Communication, I wanted to say, “John, did you study me as a role model for the mistakes you are writing about?” I think I got them all covered. We live in the society where neither you nor I can succeed in life without successful communication with other people. That’s why I keep talking about it... Episode #191: hpln.org/destructive-miscommunication-sabotaging-success

190 - Physical Assault: One Mistake That Can Cost You Your Life Mar 04, 2016

Listen folks, guys and especially girls! I have many friends, yoga and meditation teachers. Beautiful souls! I am teaching Qigong, meditation and Taoist Yoga too! And I teach to do everything possible to avoid fighting. But when it comes to your life vs. his, you won’t be able to yoga him into submission...

189 - Clear Connection: 5 Major Types of Communication Mindset Mar 03, 2016

I read in the book, that people use different representational systems as their primary basis for thoughts or feelings. They can use sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Even in a verbal communication. Just imagine you’re going on vacation...

Episode 189: hpln.org/clear-connection-communication-mindset

188 - Unbelievable Success: Your Ticket to Achieving Your Goals in Life Mar 02, 2016

These are four things I found out to be true for myself: 1. Neither You nor I will ever achieve the goals if they are outside our belief zone. Period. You can overcome other people’s disbelief, but you won’t cross your own boundaries. Episode 188: hpln.org/unbelievable-success-achieving-goals/

187 - The Biggest Mistake: Can It Really Get Any Worse? Mar 01, 2016

...I am an ex-military, I was trained to make decisions under pressure. However, I must admit that I’ve done some dumb things. So for me, this is the first hand experience. And I am telling you, the worst thing in those situations was trying to correct my mistakes by making another greater mistake...

186 - Real Power: The Amazing Strength of Great Teachers Feb 29, 2016

One of the students got astonished by this skill. He asked another student, “If our teacher can turn stones into gold, how come he did not become the most powerful man on the Earth?” The other student answered, “Yes, he can do it..."

185 - Stone of Knowledge: An Ancient Taoist Wisdom Feb 26, 2016

There’s an old story about stone of knowledge sitting in the ground by the intersection of two roads. Many people were walking by. Two women began to cry when they saw the stone. Two warriors met by the stone. They started fighting and they killed each other. Two landlords came up with agreement to put the border line through the stone...

184 - Mindful Business: Don’t Be Afraid Of a Barking Dog Feb 25, 2016

Many years ago I was watching a kid’s fairly tale on TV, and one interesting phrase got stuck in my mind. The guy said, “Don’t be afraid of those who speak without thinking, but be afraid of those who think without speaking”.

183 - Destructive Memories: Losing Your Power To Your Past Experience Feb 24, 2016

Dwelling on the past is like trying to drive your car while staring in the rear view mirror. It won’t take you far ahead. It may get you off the road instead. In fact, people who look back all the time, most likely will go backwards in life.

Episode #183: hpln.org/destructive-memories-losing-your-power/

182 - Creating New Destiny: What it Takes to Change Your Life Forever Feb 23, 2016

John Maxwell said, “The secret to your success can be found in your daily routine”. So what you and I do on daily basis, which is our habits, will determine how successful we become. There’s a common belief that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. However this concept is debatable... Episode 182: hpln.org/creating-destiny-change-your-life-forever/

181 - Business Networking Strategy Using 4 Types of Business Personalities Feb 22, 2016

In this episodes I am discussing 4 business personality types. Knowing this can help to develop a consistent business networking strategy.

#181: hpln.org/business-networking-strategy-with-types-of-business-personalities/

180 - Self Imposed Restrictions: The Destructive Power of Symbols Feb 19, 2016

I believe that we create our own world with our beliefs. I believe that numbers really mean nothing without our beliefs. Many of those signs come to reality not because a magic number turned out to be true, but because we set expectations...

179 - Mind Tricks: Simple and Powerful Way to Change Your Life Feb 18, 2016

We create artificial patterns for ourselves, we stick to those pattern, and we call life boring. Life is like music: every day is so different even though it may be using the same scale.

178 - Critical Timing: 4 "Good" Moments to Quit Your Training Feb 17, 2016

Many years ago I read a book by famous Bagua master Park Bok Nam. And in his book he’s talking about interesting concept. He suggested to be aware of four points in our training career, and those are 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months and 3 years. And I understand that timing is not that precise, but the whole concept made total sense to me.

177 - Great Teachers: 3 Qualities You Will Find In a Good Teacher Feb 16, 2016

So these are 3 things I’ve observed in good leaders or teachers. 1 - They've done what they are talking about. This is teaching from experience, not from books. John Maxwell said, never speak on electives in your life. Only speak about what you live... Episode #177: hpln.org/three-qualities-of-great-teachers

176 - Mindful Leadership: 2 Rules to Define Your Role On a Path to Success Feb 15, 2016

I’ve heard many times a statement from a leadership guru John Maxwell. He said, “Everything rises and falls on leadership”. When I heard it I realized what was the reason for some of my greatest mishaps. Even if I did not see myself in a leadership position, in fact I was. Episode 176: hpln.org/mindful-leadership-2-rules-to-define-your-role

175 - Dangerous Mindfulness: How Innocent Words Can Destroy People’s Lives! Feb 12, 2016

Whatever you say and think is funny, other person’s subconscious mind will take as a new reality. Mindfulness has no moral judgment, and it may work both in constructive and destructive mode.

Episode #175: hpln.org/dangerous-mindfulness-can-destroy-peoples-lives

174 - Reality Check: Who Cares About How Much You Know? Feb 11, 2016

I’ve learned a couple of things along the way. And one of them is the statement that people don’t care how much I know until they know how much I care. And that comes dow to a famous acronym WIIFM, which stands for “What’s In It For Me?”

Episode 174: hpln.org/reality-check-who-cares-how-much-you-know

173 - Mindful Parenting: Are You Making or Breaking Your Kids? Feb 10, 2016

Remember the story about Ugly Duckling. How do our kids form their belief system? From their immediate environment, their parents first of all.

Episode 173: hpln.org/mindful-parenting-making-or-breaking-your-kids

172 - Second Chance: One Moment in Life Your Future Depends On Feb 09, 2016

I’ve heard many times people talking about the Second Chance in life. Somebody might’ve screwed up in life really bad, and now they have a chance to make things right. They say, “I’ve got the second chance”. I know quite a few people who’ve been through some really tough times. I’ve been through some really tough times. Oh yeah, I can write a book about that. However, I don’t believe in second chances. Let me explain what I mean.

171 - Successful Failing: The Most Important Thing About Failure Feb 08, 2016

It took me a while to learn the difference between excellence and perfection. And here’s one thing I’d like to mention today. Did you know that a flying missile is off about 95% of the time? That’s right! The missile that has a very precise target is 95% failing!

Episode 171 - hpln.org/successful-failing-the-most-important-thing-about-failure

170 - The Ultimate Planner: There’s No Detail Too Small to Plan Feb 05, 2016

We are known as analytical, self-disciplined, and very organized. We follow instructions. And we are very compliant, in most of the cases at least. We like to plan everything, and there’s no detail too small to be given a considerable amount of time for planning.

Episode 170 - hpln.org/ultimate-planner-no-detail-too-small

169 - Steady Walker: You Can’t Stop a Man Who Doesn’t Stop Feb 04, 2016

Phlegmatics are known as steady personality. We may be a bit slow, so please stop running circles around us waiting for the answer. It may take a while before we give it to you, but it will be well thought out.

Episode #169 - hpln.org/steady-walker-man-who-doesnt-stop

168 - Inspiring Hearts: Life is a Big Party Every Day Feb 03, 2016

Fast paced and people oriented are those we call sanguine. They love having fun, and they love to party. If there’s no party around, they will make one. They are very easy to communicate with. They don’t know the word “stranger”.

Episode 168 - hpln.org/inspiring-hearts-life-is-a-big-party-every-day

167 - Dominant Player: PROs and CONs of Explosive Personality Feb 02, 2016

if we know strengths and weaknesses of people we are dealing with, we can give them roles where they can maximize the use of their strength. It will benefit you, and most important, it will benefit them.

Episode 167: hpln.org/dealing-with-dominant-player-choleric

166 - True Human Love: A Precious Gift to Give, Not to Talk About Feb 01, 2016

My friend, I meet so many people talking about love, forgiveness, acceptance of the past. And that sounds so wonderful, until… they have to give somebody gift of love at their own expense. What happens to their graciousness then?

Episode 166: hpln.org/true-human-love

165 - Mindful Journey: The Hardest Step to Success You’ll Ever Take Jan 29, 2016

As I said before, I’ve been in martial arts, yoga and similar studies for over 3 decades. I used to jog years ago, and sometimes I go to the gym. Besides that I’ve owned several businesses along the way, and have embarked on numerous projects. So I qualify to talk on this subject, but also I observed and listened to other people, and I read some books about that. I believe, the hardest step you’ll ever take on your Mindful Journey is... Episode #165 hpln.org/mindful-journey-hardest-step/

164 - Lifetime Journey: Are You Taking Advantage of the Inevitable? Jan 28, 2016

I remember my teacher said, 10 years later you will be 10 years older whether you practice or not. Today, looking back at those years, I can assure you, that 33 years later I am 33 years older. So my teacher was right, ha ha! One thing that helps me to keep going with training is a mindset that... Episode #164 - hpln.org/lifetime-journey-are-you-taking-advantage/

163 - Art of Reprimand: 6 Rules to Make You a Better Parent or Boss Jan 27, 2016

Have you ever been reprimanded by somebody? Like your parents or boss? Have you ever had to reprimand somebody? I’ve been on both sides of the fence. And I’ll be honest, I don’t like either one. But I’ve also seen people who could hit you really hard, but it was almost pleasant. Like a massage for the ego. So today I will talk about the art of reprimand. Episode 163: hpln.org/art-of-reprimand-6-rules/

162 - Changing paradigm: How to Achieve Impossible Goals Jan 26, 2016

My coach told me, “Stop asking yourself a question, Can I do it?” Because our brain may answer not in a way that will benefit us. Instead, I am asking myself a question, “How can I do it?”

Episode 162: hpln.org/changing-paradigm-achieve-impossible-goals/

161 - When in Rome, Or the Other Side of the Famous Quote Jan 25, 2016

I am sure most of you have heard a saying, “When in Rome, Do as Romans Do.” In Russian we have a saying, when living with wolves, howl like one. It basically means the same: blend in with traditions of the place where you live. But have you thought about the flip side of this famous statement?.. Episode 161 - hpln.org/when-in-rome-other-side/

160 - Develop Your Best Conversation Skill: Become a Master of Communication Jan 22, 2016

Communication is so crucial for any business and for personal life. So unless you plan to move to the desert island, I’d suggest you learn how to to connect to people. And here’s a skill I found to be the most crucial when I am talking to people. That skill is… Episode 160 - hpln.org/best-conversation-skill/

159 - Communication Rule: Am I As Important As I Think I Am? Jan 21, 2016

Last time I started talking about communication mistakes I’ve made. Today we have another one, and it’s a biggie. Oh yeah! The question is, how important am I? Especially if I study a lot, get more degrees than a thermometer. Gosh, I’m smart. For sure I have to be leading the conversation. Right? Not quite. Episode 159 - hpln.org/important-communication-rule-about-me/

158 - Communication Mistake Number 1: Don’t you hear what I say? Jan 20, 2016

When I was growing up, I had never been a popular kid. Total introvert, homebody, a certifiable nerd. I won’t go into full story today, but you can imagine that even in such a slow pace 20th century, relating to people was the hardest thing for me. I had straight “A’s” at school, and I read every book I could find in the library on a subject I was studying at the university. But I did not have any friends. Do you know anybody like that?

Episode 158: hpln.org/communication-mistake-number-1/

157 - Prerequisite for Success: What do You See in the Mirror? Jan 19, 2016

To become successful, I need to grow myself, but I need to have a self esteem before I invest into my education, but self esteem comes out of success. You see how it circles around? Not easy to break out! Trust me, I’ve been there too!..

156 - Achieving Success: How to Excel in Any Area of Your Life Jan 18, 2016

I was listening to John Maxwell, and later I bought his book, called “15 Invaluable Laws of Growth”. In this book he’s talking about number one law responsible for any kind of success, whether financial, business, spiritual or personal. That is the Law of...

Episode 156 hpln.org/achieving-success-in-any-area-of-your-life/

155 - Successful Business Plan: Secret Formula and 3 Vital Components Jan 15, 2016

As my coach told us, “set the strict rules, but develop a soft implementation plan.” It works for setting goals, for developing business systems, for communicating with a team, etc. We have to develop flexibility, whether we are driving in the car or moving towards our goals.

154 - Core Values: Importance of Predictable Moves in Unpredictable Environment Jan 14, 2016

I read a great book by Terri Savelle Foy called “The Leader’s Checklist”. She is talking about setting core values. She’s talking about acronym TIES: Timeliness, Integrity, Excellence and Smiles. Those are her core values. Do you have yours?

Episode 154: hpln.org/core-values-importance-of-predictability/

153 - The Hardest Life Saving Lesson we Can Learn from the Worst Enemy Jan 13, 2016

We forgive others not because they deserve forgiveness, but because we deserve peace.

152 - 5 Essential Life Skills I Wish I Could Borrow From a Cat Jan 12, 2016

Have you noticed that cats don’t waste their energy? They like having a good time, all right, but if they don’t like something, they’ll ignore you and whatever you have to offer.

Animals can teach us many things.. well, I’m talking about myself here. Just got to be smart enough to learn.

151 - 2 Very Important Lessons about Life I learned from the Nature Jan 11, 2016

I have this tendency to trust people, to give them a chance. And unfortunately I’ve been stung by those who I thought were close friends. Almost drowning in the River of Life, I’d think, WHY? And the answer is in the fable: because this was their Nature.

150 - Mindful Goals: 3 Crucial Steps on the Way to Great Success Jan 08, 2016

Do you know what you really want? I met so many people who can talk about their goals, but that’s not what they are looking for. Let’s say for example, I set goal to make more money. Why? To buy a new car. Why? I can’t care less about cars! I just need to get from point A to point B faster and safer. Why? And this can go on and on, until we get to the bottom of it. Find your real reasons behind what you do.

149 - Deceptive Mindfulness: How to Avoid Costly Mistakes in Life and Business Jan 07, 2016

I made some decisions that later I looked at thinking, “where did that come from?” It came from the delusion, programming caused by the environment, close friends, media, whatever, Matrix perhaps. And our mind can rationalize anything we do, because at the moment we think of that idea as the greatest thing in the Universe. Is it?

148 - Mindful Planning: 3 Simple Steps to Make Your Day More Productive Jan 06, 2016

Yesterday I promised to elaborate on prioritizing and categorizing daily tasks. This is what worked for me really well, especially when I was going to the university full time, training 3-5 hours a day and reading the whole bunch of books at the medical library. Busy enough? Oh yeah, I studied English on the top of that. By myself mostly. I would begin with setting priorities. Not numbers as usual, but rather, identify immediate need, must do, should do, want to do, like to do, wish to do...

147 - Habitual Mindfulness: 5 Simple Steps to Return into the Present Jan 05, 2016

Perhaps the main and most important concept of Mindfulness is being in the present moment. However, our mind has this habit of drifting away from NOW into the past or future. And I am guilty too, I admit. With multiple projects in life, we simply forget to be present. I am giving you 5 simple steps that help me to develop a habitual mindfulness.

146 - Passing Judgment: 2 Simple but Powerful Thoughts to Get You Out of Trap Jan 04, 2016

Have you ever been judged for things you’ve done? Or for something you were accused of but have not done? Now, what about you judging somebody? Passing judgment is a natural human response to everything. Even if somebody is judging us, we immediately return the favor: like, how dare you judge me? I’ve been on both sides of the fence, and trust me, this is a trap you don’t want to get into, regardless which side you’re coming from.

145 - How Often Do You Speak the World's Universal Language? Jan 01, 2016

Many years ago, my teacher said to me, if you take all the languages in the World, every song, every piece of music, they all sound so different. However, they all have a common denominator. They have a component that is universal to all of them. That component is silence. You remove the silence, and all that music and languages will become just a white noise. It won’t make any sense.

144 - How a Simple Four Legged Stool Can Stop a Giant Dec 31, 2015

Quite often people don’t succeed not because they are weak, but rather because they have too many choices. And that is paralyzing their actions. Trust me, I’ve been there too. And even now sometimes I find myself staring at this metaphorical four legged stool or chair.

143 - How to Make Great Decisions in Life and Business by Flipping Coins Dec 30, 2015

Today I will suggest we throw a coin. Shall we? You can use a coin in case you need to make a very important decision, and you have two seemingly equal options to select from. This is where coin comes into play. (This is not a play, but rather a psychological trick... try it!)

142 - Five Simple Steps to Overcome Analysis Paralysis (Over thinking) Dec 29, 2015

Many years ago I heard a saying, “If you have one clock, you know the time. If you have several, then you’re always in doubt.” I totally agree! I see people get stuck in so called analysis paralysis.

141 - Find Simple Life and Business Solutions by Cutting the Gordian Knot Dec 28, 2015

I often see people who are so fixated on finding the ends of the rope and untying the knot. I’ve done it too. While this may be a good exercise, I think the knot can be solved easier by thinking outside of the box, or using the legend’s terminology, by cutting the knot.

140 - Religious Holiday Story, or How I Received a Permanent Cross Mark Dec 25, 2015

Today I just want to share an old story about what happened to me many years ago, when I was 12. At that time I was spending summers at my grandma’s house. She was keeping rabbits. People had them to eat. I don’t think I could ever eat a rabbit I was watching growing up. But my job was to cut the grass and bring to feed rabbits, and I was using a sickle to do it. Yes, just like the one on the Soviet Hammer-and-Sicke emblem. So one Sunday I went to cut grass, and I cut my finger all the way to the bone. No, it did not really hurt. In fact, I was curious to look at my own bone... Listen to the rest of the story...

139 - 5 Easy Steps to Get Out or Workload Paralysis and Start Moving Forward Dec 24, 2015

Have you ever experienced a Workload Paralysis in your life? I certainly have. That is when people have so many things they need to do, that the brain just shuts down. Like, I don’t know where to start. It’s a total mess, chaos. Those are moments when I have to remind myself that I am not Clark Kent. But I can do things one at a time. And I will get them done, if I keep going of course.

I am talking about some tips that helped me.

138 - Reset Goals You Didn’t Reach and Refresh Your Dreams Dec 23, 2015

The year is basically over. Christmas is coming in two days. And today I’d like to address specifically the topic about how to reset the goals we did not reach. I’ve done it myself many times. And I had to reset. Here’re some things I've learned about resetting goals.

137 - Sowing and Reaping: Practical Application of this Fundamental Law Dec 22, 2015

I think many people have heard the concept of sowing and reaping. I am not going into discussion of the Biblical origin of this particular saying. Whatever you believe, it doesn’t matter. You may believe in Karma. The fact is, whatever you give, you will get back. And I think this is something that comes in mind when we hear about sowing and reaping. But there’s more to that than just return on investment. I think this may be quite interesting to entrepreneurs.

136 - The Third Law of Isaac Newton and Immediate Reciprocity in Our Daily Life Dec 21, 2015

The third law of Newton says, “For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction.” Yep, this is basic physics. You push on the ground with your weight, and the ground pushes back with equal force. They are equal, that’s why you are not sinking or flying up. I think this basic physics law is applicable to our every day communication and dealing with the World around us. I call it “immediate reciprocity.”

135 - Easy Way to Bring Peace: Talk to People, Not About People Dec 18, 2015

A lot of gossiping comes as a result of low self esteem of the person creating the gossip. These people are looking for the approval from their friend, like, look at him, he’s bad and I am good. And when friends agree with the statement, that creates a really positive emotion to feed the ego.

134 - The Other Side of Coin as an Alternative to Being Judgmental Dec 17, 2015

My teacher taught me to look at every action, every event from a different perspective. We jump into conclusions based on our own experience. But what I learned from my teacher, we’ll never know the whole story behind the other person’s actions. So stop judging...

133 - I Would Love to Be Right, but Who Says I Am? Dec 16, 2015

What I am trying to do in my classes is to give people options. There’s more than one Path to the top of the mountain, and they all may be right. However, my Way may not work for you. I believe everybody has to find their own Path, and also be flexible enough, just like water, to adjust the course if necessary. I’d love to tell you that my secret Path is the best one, but I know by now it’s not. It’s just something I chose to walk and enjoy.

132 - Stop Making your New Year Resolutions NOW! Dec 15, 2015

People wait until New Year, or next month, or Monday, or when stars align, or when numbers on the clock are set in Fibonacci sequence, whatever, I don’t know what they’re waiting for. If you want to do something, do it now. Today! Don’t wait until the whatever mark you set.

131 - Adding Value to Others as a Way to Get Anything You Want Dec 14, 2015

There’s a very famous quote by Zig Ziglar that says, “You can have everything in life you want if you just help enough people to get what they want.” Also John Maxwell, for example, an amazing leader and a teacher, every time asks himself a question, “What can I do to add more value to people?”

130 - Programming Information Into Long Term Memory Dec 11, 2015

Today is part two of discussion about my memorization techniques. Yesterday I mentioned flash cards and my way of using them. One of the main issues I’ve discovered is that people forget the info as easy as they remember. And I was not an exception.

129 - Practical Mindfulness: My Way to Memorize Random Info Dec 10, 2015

Previously in several episodes I mentioned my method I used to memorize some random information. I did not use it to memorize text books, maybe you can try. But I used it to learn English on my own. I had to memorize lots and lots of words. I used it to study Latin when I was at the university. I learned shorthand. Yes I was writing all my lectures 25-30 years ago using shorthand. And you know what, I can still write, even though I got a bit rusty since I haven’t used it for several decades.

128 - Mindful Changes: Walking Away From vs Walking Toward Something Dec 09, 2015

Do you know why are you making the change? Yes I understand we always come up with a reason why we do what we do. We can rationalize anything. But really, will the result justify the effort?

127 - Paradox of Learning: Rigid Way vs Having Fun for Us and Our Children Dec 08, 2015

Everything we practice is a combination of opposite approaches: like Yin vs Yang, Deduction vs Induction, learning old vs inventing new. This is how we progress. When it comes to learning, we have different approaches too. I’m not talking about visual vs audio, like we are use to. I am talking about what makes us interested to learn.

126 - Mindful Reflection: Make Your Every Day Count Dec 07, 2015

Many years ago my teacher told me to take some time at night to reflect on the day I was about to complete. And this is what I’ve been doing for quite a while. In our school it is a form of meditation on the past.

125 - We Always Leave Forever. It’s impossible to return Dec 04, 2015

I’ll start today with a Quote by Max Frei: "I am leaving forever, and everybody's always leaving forever. It’s impossible to return: somebody else is always coming back instead of us..."

124 - Moving Forward: Today is the First Day of the Rest of My Life Dec 03, 2015

Almost everybody I’ve met has a habit of dwelling on the past. We worry about whatever happened yesterday, or a year ago, or even last millennium. How about that! Indeed, everything that happened before and including year 2000, is a last millennium. Why do we keep thinking about that?

123 - The Art of Living Now. We Cannot Change the Past Dec 02, 2015

So many people I’ve met in my life have past they wish has never happened. And you can count me in. Yes, I have things in my past I wish have never happened. But past is past, and we cannot change it. We have to live with it. There are several things I’ve used to deal with my memories.

122 - Amazing Simplicity of NOW: Grass is Always Just Grass Dec 01, 2015

I remember many years ago I’ve heard the statement that all genius things are very simple. People have an incredible ability to make things difficult. Every second we have numerous options we can choose from. But our mind often does not like to stay in the present. We start thinking several steps ahead, creating basically an infinite number of possibilities. If we are not careful, this can build up really fast, and we get trapped in our own thinking.

121 - Under-appreciated Present : Incredible Power of the Moment Nov 30, 2015

One of the phenomena of human mind is that we constantly return in the past. We’re thinking about what happened or what could’ve happened yesterday, a week ago, last year, etc. Also we may be fantasizing about the future. My personal approach is based on the belief that everything has time and place.

120 - Mindfulness at the Dead End: Continue vs Return Nov 27, 2015

I’ve read the story about a man who sold his mine literally for pennies. He gave up when he was several feet away from diamonds, and his successor got the richest diamond mine in South Africa. So, how can we determine, should we keep digging or should we turn back?

119 - Thanksgiving Gratitude: Two Minute Message From an Immigrant Nov 26, 2015

Many people think that Thanksgiving is an American holiday. Well, it is now. But don’t you forget that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in the US in 1621 by pilgrims, who were in fact immigrants from Europe. So actually it is an immigrants’ holiday, whether you like it or not, which later became a US Federal Holiday. But I think regardless of whose holiday this is, it’s a great time to express Gratitude.

118 - Business Mindfulness: Decision to Become Successful Nov 25, 2015

Many people may already know how to be successful, but they are not. Why? For the same reason people don’t work out even if they know working out is good. Knowing the path and walking the path are two different things.

117 - Practical Mindfulness: How to Avoid Emotional Breakdown Nov 24, 2015

My teacher said, “Don’t be too hard because hard can be broken. Don’t be too soft, because soft can be bent. You have to learn to adjust according to the situation. Once you become flexible, you’ll be virtually undefeatable.”

116 - Perspective on Revenge as a Way to Restore the Balance in Life Nov 23, 2015

Revenge is not restoring the balance. No matter if I hit my opponent back one second later or one year later, I am late. In martial arts timing is everything. My response has to be right on time to stop the opponent or to step aside. If I have to hit him to restore the balance, so be it. But if I miss — I miss. If I get hit, and the opponent is walking away, running after him is not restoring the balance. It is initiating a new attack. Basically, an ego trip.

115 - Uncontrollable Thinking: Mindful Ways to Calm our Mind Nov 20, 2015

I think many people, including yours truly, have experienced moments when thoughts are getting out of control. Something is boggling our mind, and we cannot stop thinking about it. What can we do? Meditation often does not work in such cases. It may actually aggravate us instead. So I would suggest physical activity. Sometimes the best solution is find a punching bag and beat the.. whatever.. dust our of it. And that’s OK. That was what my teacher suggested.

114 - Twisted Mindfulness: Achieving Zero or Opposite Results Nov 19, 2015

When we are using positive affirmations, they need to be kind of assertive, positive and articulated in a present tense, just like it is already happening.

113 - Mindfulness Blind Spots: When Affirmations Go Wrong Nov 18, 2015

Usually I see two major mistakes people make during self-talk. One of them is using a negative form of positive affirmation. Let’s say somebody is making a statement, “I don’t smoke any more, I don’t want to smoke!” This statement definitely has a positive intent. The person is trying to stop smoking, pretty obvious. However, let’s look at the mechanism of action.

112 - Power of affirmation: how to make self-talk work for ourselves? Nov 17, 2015

Many years ago I read the book called “What to say when you talk to yourself” by Dr. Shad Helmstetter. The author was stating that 75% of conversation is actually a talk to ourselves. I believe him. We are constantly talking to ourselves. I already started this conversation in my previous episodes, and today I will give you a couple of practical advices I’ve learned so far.

111 - Mindfulness and Self-fulfilling prophecy: Double Edge Sword Nov 16, 2015

When kids are born I believe they have no concept about what their life should look like, other than basic human needs and the fear of loud noise. As we grow up, we absorb the belief system of those who are around us most of the time, beginning with parents, then school, and so on. At some point that becomes our belief system, and we don’t even question it. I am not saying this is right or wrong, it is what it is. Our belief system determines what we do, what profession we choose, what path we take in life, and so on. You’ve heard perhaps, that our thoughts affect out words, our words affect our beliefs, our beliefs affect our actions, our actions form our habits, and our habits create our destiny.

110 - Mindful Children: What is a good starting age for meditation? Nov 13, 2015

There are quite a few discussions going on today about teaching kids to meditate. One of the questions that comes up is when is a good time to start teaching that? I guess it depends on the teacher, type of meditation etc. However, I’d suggest to pay attention to a couple of points. 1. Don’t try to force children to meditate. Remember, their attention span is different. Also, they don’t see any health benefits, any philosophical ideas etc. They like to play. 2. I think the most important is the example set by parents.

109 - Walk into Calmness: Walking Meditation can save your day! Nov 12, 2015

When I say the word meditation, majority of people, at least those I’ve met, imagine somebody sitting on the mat with eyes closed or maybe even rolled up. Some people have really funny ideas about meditation. However sitting is just a small part of the family. I do teach several different techniques in my classes in Phoenix, AZ. But today I’d like to talk about specific type, which is a walking meditation.

108 - Energy Preservation: What does it take to get from Point A to Point B Nov 11, 2015

I choose to believe that it takes the same amount of collective energy to get from point A to point B in life. Basically, this is one of my interpretations of the Law of Energy Preservation.

107 - The Greatest best kept secret of yoga and qigong Nov 10, 2015

I met quite a few people over the past three decades who told me they tried Yoga, meditation, Qigong or similar practices, and it just did not work for them. Is that possible? Yes it is. And today I’d like to share with you a secret about how to make this practice work for anybody.

106 – Who’s Programming Our Children for Success and Failure? Nov 09, 2015

by our words and action we may be programming our children to fail. Even if they go to college, get a nice job, and do OK from the society’s perspective. But in reality all they do is join the army of people who walk with empty eye sockets back and forth between home and job, and who never get their dreams fulfilled. Sorry, I am getting a bit emotional here, because this was not the future I came to the US for.

105 - Running for your life - Simple and effective jogging program Nov 06, 2015

Today I will talk about jogging. Yes I used to jog at some point of my life for a couple of years. As a child, I was not in sports. However once I got in martial arts, I realized I needed to do something about my worse then average physical condition. So I found in a scientific magazine an article about jogging. Running marathons became very popular in early 80s. It had charts and very clear program. And being a nerd, I loved charts and numbers...

104 - Kiddo’s advices: Live in harmony with Nature and with Yourself Nov 05, 2015

Many years ago I heard about a man in Soviet Union by the name Porfiriy Ivanov. Quite an interesting person, a healer and a teacher. He called everybody “kiddo”, so after his death his followers called his system “Detka”, which means “Kiddo” in Russian.

103 - Autogenic Training, or how Adversity changed my life forever Nov 04, 2015

The Autogenic Training was created by German psychiatrist Dr. Schultz. That is basically a set of affirmations designed to bring our body and mind to the state of relaxation. It has absolutely no religious or philosophical component.

About my journey:http://hpln.org/autogenic-training/

102 - Mystery of Human Longevity: Genetic trap vs. Wear and Tear Nov 03, 2015

Most of our body cells are getting replaced on a regular basis. Some cells live several days, others - several years. And some cells, like neurons for example, never replace, as far as I know. I am not going to speculate on scientific topics today. The question is, if our cells are getting replaced, why are we aging? Our skin is being replaced on regular basis, why is it looking older with age?

101 - Best Healing Systems: Amazing Benefits of Qigong Nov 02, 2015

The word Qigong literally means Skill with Energy. Qigong is the art of dealing with internal energy by using movement, breathing and imagination. Quite often Qigong and its predecessor, Tao Yin, are called Taoist Yoga. Indeed, there’s quite a bit of similarity in some exercises, and definitely the state of mind is similar. It is about finding the balance. Qigong is one of the parts of Chinese famous immortality system, known as Internal Alchemy.

100 - Tough choice: Helping people to be healthy and happy vs. being a doctor Oct 30, 2015

Conventional medicine in the US has less and less to do with helping people to be healthy. Oh, am I stepping on somebody’s toes right now? Sorry, but let me repeat it again: conventional medicine in the US has less and less to do with helping people to be healthy. Let me clarify a couple of points before you fire your arguments at me. First of all, I am not talking about doctors as humans. I am not saying that they don’t care. I met a lot of doctors of various specialities, and many of them are wonderful people. They care. So please don’t take it personal. I also met quite a few sloppy medical professionals. I think this will be true about medical care in any country. So this is not a characteristic of American healthcare. Second, advanced technology makes it possible to save people’s lives in such ways that 20-30 years ago doctors would not even comprehend. That is amazing, I salute them. They are able to get people up and running again. However, remember about Yin-Yan in everything. Remember in my last episode I was talking that everything has a price.

099 - You and your health: Price is mandatory, Interest is optional Oct 29, 2015

When I began my training over 30 years ago, one of the main questions was “Why?” Why bother with Yoga? Why worry about nutrition? Why this, why that, and so on. The answer I was giving then, and this is what I’d like to talk about today, everything has a price. The only difference is, are you prepaying now and enjoying the benefits, or are you choosing to enjoy now and later pay with interest?

098 - Unconventional mindfulness: Being selfish for the sake of others Oct 28, 2015

I heard about being selfish for the first time from my Yoga teacher 30 years ago. The idea was simple: you have to take care of yourself enough to stay healthy and not to become a burden to your family when you get old. I know we cannot control many things, but everybody is capable of doing their best. Loving the whole World is great! But nobody will come take care of your body or your mind for you. That is on your shoulders. Moreover, I am totally convinced that things like self-care, self-improvement, personal growth are our direct responsibility.

097 - Mindfulness and Emotions: Simple Way to reduce Stress Oct 27, 2015

Have you seen people having emotions? Any emotions? Have you paid attention to how you respond to emotions? Clenching teeth in frustration, clenching fists in anger, curling your toes in anxiety, making serious face during some serious talk. I’m sure you’ve seen it. Some of those reactions are very obvious, and they are called body language. Some of them we can feel as butterflies in the stomach, or numbness in the knees, and so on.

096 - The ultimate art of relaxation: Learning from your Heart Oct 26, 2015

I like talking about heart when I teach relaxation. And I don’t mean it in metaphorical way. I am talking about the heart as anatomical part of the body. Huh! Have you ever thought about how heart is working? Well, perhaps you know that heart never stops. All life! Never takes time off, vacations, even weekends. It is working all the time! How is it doing that?

095 - Climbing the mountain: Principles of setting your goals in life Oct 23, 2015

I think all kids have dreams. I sure had mine. Did you? Dreams are great! I still have lots of dreams. However, most of dreams will never come true unless we turn them into clearly defined goals.

094 - Help your goals and dreams come true with a Magic Wand Oct 22, 2015

Often people have an idea in their mind, but if you ask them to articulate it, they get some kind of a mental constipation. Goal is not clear. And if you are shooting at nothing, you will get it every time.

093 - The most important question to ask on the Path to Success Oct 21, 2015

Yesterday I was talking about question “What?” as opposed to “How?" Today we’ll talk about what I think is the most important question to answer on the way to achieving any goals in life.

092 - Mindfulness on the Path to Success: What vs How Oct 20, 2015

I’ve heard a statement from several different coaches, and I read it as a quote from some of the most successful people in history. It basically says, If your dreams don’t scare you, they are not big enough.

091 - Mindfulness, Goals and Power of Visualization Oct 19, 2015

What visualization does, it creates in our mind an image of exact goal we are trying to reach. Whether you are playing basketball or golf, throwing darts, shooting the gun, or trying to achieve some life goals, business or personal, career, fitness, or whatever, it really helps to imagine yourself achieving these goals, in your mind, first.

090 - Hello, weekend: My personal relationships with wine and alcohol Oct 16, 2015

Well, of course, being a Russian, I have to like Vodka. Right? Wrong. I don’t know if I like it or not because I’ve never tried vodka. In fact, I never tried any alcohol in my life. Even beer.

089 - Changing element as a way to communicate and win an argument Oct 15, 2015

Now let’s look at every day life. Let’s pretend I have an argument with a person who loves to scream. Most of the time subconsciously, my opponent will try to pull me into the screaming zone, where he is a pro, and I am a guest.

088 - Paper-Rock-Scissors and the Art of Mindful Communication Oct 14, 2015

There is an ancient game that exist in many countries. In the US it is known as paper-rock-scissors game. Perhaps everybody knows it. But today we will look at this game as a manual to our daily communication.

087 - Mindful Communication: Aiki - The Art of Blending Oct 13, 2015

Another martial art method I’d like to discuss today is known as Aiki - blending with your opponent. Sometimes it is described as being like water. You are being the water, flowing with your opponent. This is not becoming like your opponent. This is being flexible. Look at the water. You can pour it into the cup, and it becomes cup. But it is still water. It just changed the shape.

086 - Mindful Communication: Best action - Do nothing Oct 12, 2015

Have you ever had somebody throw at you some totally bizarre accusations that just don’t make any sense? I’ve experienced that before. In this case the best tactics in my opinion is to do nothing.

085 - Mindful Communication: Time to Withdraw Oct 09, 2015

We’ll talk about another martial art tactic move, which is withdrawal. Unfortunately it is misunderstood quite often. In the western culture, running away is not a good thing. This is not what big boys do, is it? What I am talking about today is not running away from the conflict. It is exercising your right to exit the battle.

084 - Mindful Communication: Reasons to fight back in a conflict Oct 08, 2015

Fighting back is the last alternative when nothing else works, when this is literally a question of life and death, or perhaps a question of some serious health issues, and there are no other winning options. And please, don’t just go with the first reaction. Think, count till 10.

083 - Daily Mindfulness and Martial Arts Principles of Communication Oct 07, 2015

Martial arts are about developing inner balance. Yes, there’s interaction with a partner that some people perceive as fighting. However I’ve been observing every day conversations - at the store, or at the office, or just between neighbors - that have much more violence then any of the martial arts I’ve seen.

082 - Mindful Self-Talk: Be careful what you ask yourself! Oct 06, 2015

Our brain is a very complex computer. It is a controlling device of a very complicated machine which is our body. Our brain has no moral judgement or common sense. Our mind does, but not the brain. So, if we ask ourselves “Why I am feeling tired?”, trust me, our brain will come up with a very elaborate and logic explanation.

081 - The Path of Learning: Single Mindedness vs Jack of all trades Oct 05, 2015

I’ve been practicing Yoga, Martial arts, Tao Yin, Qigong, Taoist and Zen practices and many other things. Not that I am practicing every discipline one hour a day. There will be not enough hours in a week to study everything. But all this knowledge helps me to develop a better picture and understand how one philosophy relates to another.

080 - The best talk of our life, or what’s wrong with this picture? Oct 02, 2015

Why don’t we just love each other? Why don’t we say some good words of appreciation now? Don’t wait for the right moment, because the right moment may be one day too late. Think about that.

079 - Physical training: The best fitness system in the World Oct 01, 2015

So, what’s the best fitness system in the world? That’s easy to answer: the best system is the one aligned with your goals and your personality type. Ultimately, that’s the one you will stick with. If you don’t know, get yourself a coach. I can recommend a couple if you need.

078 - About teachers and students: Who is who? Sep 30, 2015

Here’s my point: we all walk our Path. Our Path may cross somebody else’s Path. They may interlace or go together for a while until they part. We learn what we can and we share what we know. This is life.

077 - When the student is ready, or who will be your next Teacher in life Sep 29, 2015

Perhaps many of you have heard the saying “When student is ready, teacher will appear”. I agree with that. I’d like to combine this statement with another one: “When you know how to listen, everybody is the guru.” So is it the teacher who appears, or is it just me who finally recognizes the teacher?

076 - Life worth living, or having $200 million in the bank Sep 28, 2015

I see so many people every day go to work they cannot tolerate. People spend money they don’t have to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t even like. What for? People have the ability to make an issue out of nothing, argue about things that are so irrelevant that they don’t even remember the topic of conversation one day later.

075 - Stop running circles if you want to get to your goals Sep 25, 2015

I’ve heard from many coaches that success happens when the opportunity and preparedness meet. I learned from John Maxwell that many people are saying, "when I get the opportunity I get ready.” And that is one of the biggest mistakes. That’s one of the reasons people fail. You don’t get the opportunity and then get ready, you get ready and then get the opportunity.

074 - Awaken your inner Superman Power & Discover your strength Sep 24, 2015

We are educated, programmed, trained and conditioned to perform certain tasks in a certain way. While we are growing up we are literally learning the ropes. Any alternative thinking inconsistent with the main trends in the society, often gets ridiculed. As a result, many people don’t even know they have a huge potential. They are supermen inside capable of much more then they think they are.

073 - The Best Vehicle to Reach Your Goals in Life Sep 23, 2015

You may think you have the best vehicle in the World. Nothing wrong with that. It may actually be the best vehicle for the job it was created for. However, if you goal is to get to Hawaii, for example, you may get disappointed trying to drive your Lamborghini across the ocean. I don’t think you even need a coach to figure out that you should change your transportation in that case.

072 - Jumping Fleas or The best way to create your own limitations Sep 22, 2015

If we have some kind of an invisible ceiling above us, maybe it is a job that does not allow us to reach our potential, or maybe some other circumstances, life, family, etc., or maybe it was a series of failures that caused a lack of belief, then if we get a real opportunity we may not believe that there’s no ceiling above us. That ceiling was just an imaginary limitation we have in our mind.

071 - Goals and Obstacles: What are you focusing on? Sep 21, 2015

This what happens in our every day life. Distant objects represent our goals, and the finger - obstacles. If we concentrate on the obstacles, we loose the sight of our goals. Well, they may be still there, but they are not clear. However, if we keep our eyes on the goal, the obstacles become blurry. We still see them, but they are not really in the way.

070 - The Lives we change and the Stories we are changed by Sep 18, 2015

I met so many people who surround themselves with a wall of fear and doubt. I can see it, I recognize it, because I am one of them. And if you are inside your wall too, I can tell you from my own experience: people need what you have.

069 - Finger pointing at the Moon Sep 17, 2015

I read about a temple in Japan that has a statue of a finger pointing at the Moon instead of a Buddha statue. That is just a reminder: don’t worship the finger. Quit staring at it. Look at the Moon, that is where the finger is pointing at.

068 - Convenience of ADHD or devastating power of the society? Sep 16, 2015

Hundreds of cable channels, almost unlimited growing information on the internet, available on the smart phone. People look at their phones several times a minute. No wonder that this constantly changing images in front of our eyes have such a hypnotic effect on us.

067 - Our Learning Capacity and Grocery Store mentality Sep 15, 2015

I’d like to discuss today what is called a “grocery store” learning. When we go to the grocery store, we buy several items we come for, and perhaps something that catches our eye. Something we may remember to buy while we are there, or something we think we may need as long as it fits the categories of stuff we buy. Here’s a key phrase: We only buy stuff we came for, and perhaps something that catches our attention. The longer we go to that store, the more we discover what’s there.

066 - Manners and Habits: the ancient tale about Wise Pig and eating Sep 14, 2015

I have to follow laws and rules of the society I am in. This goes without saying. But when it comes to my personal habits, those that don’t affect anybody in any way, nobody tells me how to do things I want to do. If I don’t like the tradition, I won’t follow it just for the sake of following. That’s just me. But you may want to spend a couple of minutes thinking about that too. You never know what you may discover about yourself.

065 - Why are you sharing your opinion? Are people ready to hear that? Sep 11, 2015

Many years ago my teacher told me, “Don’t give advices. Smart man does not need them, and not so smart won’t use it.” He also taught me that people often much easier forgive us our failures and mistakes, than being right. He said, it is often better to let people make their own mistakes and learn from them, than get yourself an enemy just because you happened to be right.

064 - Mindfulness and Wishful thinking: Beware of undesirable desires! Sep 10, 2015

Universe does not grant us our wishes immediately just to protect us from our own wishful thinking. In reality our desires may not be that desirable. They may even be scary sometimes.

063 - Who is your real friend, or success vs. failures Sep 09, 2015

A friend in need is a friend indeed… I think many people know this old saying. Yesterday I was talking about crabs in a bucket, and today I’d like to take it one step further. I will discuss the other side of the coin, so to speak, even though I may step on somebody’s toes.

062 - Friendly distractions on the way to success: Crabs in a Bucket Phenomenon Sep 08, 2015

What it is, if you put a crab in a bucket, it can escape pretty easy. Crabs have claws, they can easily crawl out. What happens if you put several crabs in a bucket? Well, people say that crabs pull each other down and don’t let other crabs escape.

061 - The most important Secret of Success in life Sep 07, 2015

I think Labor Day is a great day to talk about a very important secret: how to be successful in life, in business, in training, in whatever you do. Yes, there’s a secret. I learned it from John Maxwell.

060 - Pitfalls of mindfulness: Negative power of positive thinking Sep 04, 2015

positive emotion may become bitter, negative, and even depressing. The person get a mix of bitterness with the self-blaming for not doing anything. Unless...

059 - One Secret of NOT feeling well, or When mindfulness goes wrong Sep 03, 2015

Our mind has an amazing ability to talk us into or out of any condition. And our body will respond according to the symptoms we program into our brain. So stop looking for the things you don’t like, because you may find them eventually.

058 - I’ve never been bitten by a shadow of a barking dog Sep 02, 2015

Fear can be overcome. But the only way to do it is by action. My teachers and my coaches told me, “every day do something you are afraid of.” It does not have to be a whole lot, but I try to do something that stretches me out of my comfort zone.

057 - How we can miss a chance of a lifetime searching for a blessing Sep 01, 2015

My friends, how often are people running around and looking for the opportunity, or for the chance? We’ve heard famous “Ask and you shell receive”. What happens when we do receive? Will we recognize the blessing if it does not always look the way we expect it to look?

056 - Life changing thoughts about Robin Hood Syndrome Aug 31, 2015

I am sure most of people, if not all, are familiar with Robin Hood story. I remember it since I was a kid. Fun story, many movies were made. But today I’d like to discuss what I call "Robin Hood Syndrome".

055 - How should I plan my day or Do I believe in horoscopes? Aug 28, 2015

Did you read your horoscope for today? I usually don’t. But let me read yours.

054 - Five Powerful Life Changing Lessons I learned from Martial Arts Aug 27, 2015

I see so many people constantly in a hurry. As a result they keep spinning the wheels, they get tired and frustrated, and often they don’t even accomplish much. After three decades in martial arts, there are several principles I'd love to point out today. I think they are very important both for martial arts and for every day life.

053 - Mindful living: Leave the place better than it was Aug 26, 2015

“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” What a powerful quote!

052 - Perfect Imperfection: Find your own way to change the World Aug 25, 2015

My friends, how often we create an image of perfection in our mind, and we get so upset if how we look and what we do does not reflect our own imagination. However, our images are so limited. We don’t know the bigger picture.

051 - Which Martial Art Is Better? Aug 24, 2015

I’ve seen fights initiated by this question. I’ve seen internet conversations literally exploding, overloaded by quite aggressive pleasantries. Perhaps every early Chinese martial art movie is based on a single statement: My Kung-Fu is better than your Kung-Fu. And the rest of the movie is just a long fight, which is so appealing to the macho spirit of masculine half of the society. That would be all right. I like watching those movies too, like a nice fairy tale. But they also create a serious question people have been asking me for years. Which martial art is the best for self defense?

050 - Directional Mindfulness. How do we find what we are looking for? Aug 21, 2015

No matter where you are, there will be good and bad. All depends what are you looking for. We will find what we expect.

049 - The Secret how to Make your own World beautiful Aug 20, 2015

What World are we creating for ourselves and those around us? Can we see the best when odds are agains us? I know I’ve been guilty. How about you?

048 - Some trick our brain is playing on us. What is real? Aug 19, 2015

We have the ability to program our brain. I am not aware of possibility to make structural changes, like to grow back an amputated arm or leg. But I believe that any functional or reversible disorders are programmable, from feeling tired, scared, depresses, to eliminating many conditions, including early stages of cancer.

047 - We have the Power of Life and Death. How are we using it? Aug 18, 2015

We have an amazing power, a key to happiness and suffering, even life and death. We can talk ourselves into or out of practically any disease. Good news - it is totally up to us. Bad news - it is totally up to us.

046 - Is Qigong real or are we just fooling ourselves? Aug 17, 2015

So, is Qigong real? Or is it just a form of a self hypnosis? I can easily feel my hands getting warm and heavy, you cannot argue with that. But is it real?

I get this question from people periodically.

045 - What is the Cause and what is the effect in the Causal Chain? Aug 14, 2015

When I have to look at causality in my life, I am trying to dig to the deepest link I can identify and control. I cannot control much the time needed to get from point A to B, but in most of cases I can control at what time I leave point A. And if I can’t, then what’s the next link in the chain I can adjust?..

044 - Escaping vicious circle: How to avoid self-imposed torture? Aug 13, 2015

...I began practicing meditation in 1982. My perception at that time was that meditator has to stay cool all the time, like un-emotional or un-disturbable, so to speak. And if I couldn’t keep my mind still, I was taking a guilt trip. In my mind, all my meditation training was useless. This would actually pull me down emotionally. A little bit, but still every time it happened it was affirming my own faults...

043 - Life and Zen of sailing: Learn to use your winds Aug 12, 2015

People often sit and wait for the good wind that helps them to get from point A to point B in life. "Oh, if I only had this or if I only had that.”

I’ve done this myself more times than I like to admit. But the truth of the matter is that it's irrelevant if circumstances are against us. It is not even that important if we are going through the storm. As long as you know how to sail you can use any wind to your advantage.

042 - Shifting the balance: The power of dissociation Aug 11, 2015

There one weak link we may easy overlook. That is our friends. Especially childhood friends. Or even relatives. We know them, we trust them. We are so used to socializing with them, and we may not even realize that they can be the biggest source of harmful emotions. And since we trust them, we don’t set any guard to protect ourselves.

That’s right, my friend. If you step on the Path of Mindfulness, if you are trying to develop a positive mental attitude, if you set and try to pursue your goals, you may notice that your positive attitude is literally getting neutralized and overpowered by negative emotions from the people closest to you.

041 - Mindful Q&As: Why did I stop practicing Yoga? Or did I? Aug 10, 2015

I started practicing Hatha Yoga in 1983, and had been teaching since 1986 until about 2008. The number one reason I stopped was time limitation. In 1980s and early 90s I could practice one hour of Yoga and four hours of martial arts every day. But I don’t have this luxury at this time. Since the foundation of my practice has always been martial arts, I chose to take that Path.

040 - Mindful Life Coaching with Jin: Master the mouth-gate to your life Aug 07, 2015

We are so programmed by the society to say negative things that we don’t even think. And if we say them, then we program our brain to say and to hear that. As I said before, our brain does not care. If you say you are not doing good, guess what? You won’t. Brain will make you feel not so good even if you were doing great. Now you get a vicious circle. The only way out is to start saying positive things even if it sounds weird first.

039 - Mindful Life Coaching with Jin: Master the ear-gate to your life Aug 06, 2015

Our brain does not have moral judgment. It simply believes what it hears long enough. There’s an old saying I heard as a kid: “Tell a man 100 times he is a pig, and he will oink.” So, what are we allowing to go into our ears? You might have heard the saying that our success is found right between our ears. And we are responsible for programming what is there. And if we don’t, then somebody else will do it for us.

038 - Mindful Life Coaching with Jin: Master the eye-gate to your life Aug 05, 2015

Our life is a sum total of what we put into our brain. There’s so much junk around us: internet, TV, news, you name it. There’s something constantly in front of our eyes. What is it?

One of my coaches taught me to learn to control three gates to my life. Today we’ll talk about one of them: the eye gate.

037 - Creating a Vision board as a first step towards achieving your goals Aug 04, 2015

Our mind has ability to draw our attention to whatever we are thinking about. Moreover, if we don’t possess what we’re thinking about constantly, our mind will find ways to get it. I think this phenomenon has been used in every religion and philosophy I am aware of. It is also used as the main mechanism for personal transformation and achieving goals. Any goals, basically.

036 - Mindful Goal Setting: Are you mindful about your goals? Aug 03, 2015

My friends, there’s no such a thing as drifting without a goal. If I go for a stroll with no specific destination, then my goal is just to have a walk. If somebody is drifting in life, then it was their decision, conscious or unconscious. However, this can be changed practically at any time. This week I will talk about that. Until then, answer one questions for yourself: are you honestly in life where you want to be? Financially, Spiritually, Health-wise, etc.

035 - Stop waiting for good things to happen Jul 31, 2015

What I found out, in most of cases we are given a freedom of choice. If I like to see the World a better place, I better become the change I want to see. If I want something better in my life, in most of the cases I have a choice to make it happen. If I like a better job, it is up to me to get it. How? I will talk about it in my episodes about personal growth.

034 - Mindful Gratitude: For All things say Thanks Jul 30, 2015

I’ve learned many years ago a simple mantra: for all things say thanks. Not just for things that are pleasant. Not just for something we like. And the reason I am grateful for everything, is that I doubt I will ever know the alternatives.

I’ve learned not to complain about things I don’t have, but be grateful for the things I do have. I may not have something I like, but somebody somewhere is happy with much less than what I have.

033 - On the Path of Mindfulness: How to know if you have enough? Jul 29, 2015

The teacher said, “Always do the best you can, take what’s available of what you want, don’t say YES or NO, study what can be studied and know the balance in everything. This should be enough to understand the rest."

This is a foundation of the Middle Path the way I am trying to follow it. How do we know when enough is enough? I know, my border line has been changing for the past 30 years. And it keeps changing.

032 - Daily mindful life: Perfectionism vs Excellence Jul 28, 2015

Perfectionism often gives up easily on things that cannot be achieved with a straight line approach. As a kid, I did not do many kid’s activities, maybe because I was not perfect at them, and I was so afraid being criticized by other kids. So I’d rather do something that I was sure I was perfect at. And I rejected everything else.

Perfectionism is an Ego trip. It sets unrealistic expectations and blinds people not letting them see other opportunities.

031 - First step to calmness: Accept yourself the way you are to know where to go Jul 27, 2015

Einstein wrote, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing that it is stupid."

Remember, whatever you learn to do, there will be always somebody who will do it better than you. Except one thing: nobody will ever be better than you in being you.

030 - Mindful Learning: Who is your teacher? Jul 24, 2015

My friends, we are going through a life-long learning experience. Everybody and everything in our life can become a teacher. We will never have a deficit of training material and examples. Just look around and pay attention.

The main question is what are we learning?

029 - Learn to deal with your inner Child Jul 23, 2015

I like comparing our mind with a child. When we tell kids not to do something, they will either do it when we’re not watching, or it may create a conflict.

The same happens to our mind. Sometimes we may get a thought. Especially a negative thought. And it just stays in our mind, we cannot get rid of it. The more we try not to think of it, the more we think. Like, don’t think about pink elephant.

028 - The danger of rituals: When traditions become redundant Jul 22, 2015

I see so many people following traditions not even knowing why they do what they do. It does not necessarily mean bad. Many schools have very structured approach. They have been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. I’ve been learning several very structured traditions myself. But I'm always trying to figure out how each element of tradition came about and why. Is it still relevant today?

027 - Are we relaxing for real or are we just fooling ourselves unintentionally? Jul 21, 2015

If you are on the Path of mindfulness, if you are developing your mind, body & spirit, there’s one the most significant, in my opinion, question you have to answer: are you just fooling yourself unintentionally?

026 - Mindfulness for Stress: Why Meditation does't Always Help to eliminate Stress? Jul 20, 2015

One of the main issues I see today is that we live in a fast pace “microwave” society. We want everything yesterday. Many people look at meditation as a headache pill: take it now and it starts working five minutes ago.

025 - Mindful Path of the Water: Gentle Persistence Jul 17, 2015

Water. Look at it: it is soft and flexible enough to run around even tiny obstacles, but it is powerful and persistent to create a Grand Canyon.

024 - Do You Know What You Are Doing? Devastating Power of Intent Jul 16, 2015

We do things mechanically, we trust our previous experience, and subconsciously we expect a certain outcome. But what if we miss something?

- BANG! - we throw ourselves out of balance by using our own intent. This may cost us a lot, and not just money.

023 - Mindfulness and Flexibility: Linear vs Lateral Thinking Jul 15, 2015

There’s a concept of lateral thinking. It suggests that we explore all possible solutions. Even sometimes they may sound like total bizarre. You don’t have to go in depth, just think so you exercise your creativity. Or at least you may be able to identify and prevent possible problems if only you ask yourself one question: "what if…?”

022 - What Does It Mean To Be Like Water? Jul 14, 2015

In my classes I am teaching about being the Water. What am I trying to get out of it? To me, being like water means don’t over-react, don’t resist, be flexible, take any shape you need, but still be who you are.

021 - The Trap of Certainty. About the Strength of Water and Stone Jul 13, 2015

I've seen large boulders the water pushed out of the way. So, what may happen to the rock? I would answer, it depends on the shape and size of the rock. Also, are we talking about still water, slow river or fast stream? What is the shape and inclination of the river bed? There's a big chance that the powerful stream will push the rock out of the way. For how long? For as long as the force of the resistance is less than the strength of the water.

020 - What is a Good Time and Place to Meditate? Jul 10, 2015

I used to think that I need a specific place and specific time to meditate. I used to get up as early as 4:30 in the morning for Yoga and meditation practice. I love practicing at the sunrise. There’s nothing like sitting in Lotus posture on the top of the hill at 5 AM, breathing fresh air and watching the sun going up. I still love it! I must admit those memories are still inside my head like a standard of training for me. I also love the ocean. All this is great! Gardens, mountains, waterfall, sunrise, sunset are amazing for practice, if you have them handy. What if you don’t?

019 - What is Meditation and Mindfulness? Do you know what you are practicing? Jul 09, 2015

The word meditation is used in the West to describe variety of techniques from different traditions and religions. And if we are not careful we may fall into stereotyping without any knowledge to support out conclusion.

018 - Christianity and Meditation: Can They Go Together? Jul 08, 2015

Do you practice meditation? I am sure you do even if you don’t know that. Even if you are against meditation, you still do practice it under a different name.

017 - Can We See The Elephant? Mindfulness and imagination.. What Do We Choose? Jul 07, 2015

My humble advice for today is, don’t jump into assumption. If you want to make an educated decision about anything, study it before you decide. Partial idea may be worse than total ignorance.

016 - Mindfulness and Reality: Do You See What You Think You Should See? Jul 06, 2015

I’ve seen so many people who learned about martial arts, yoga, meditation and even secret agent stuff from movies. They think it is real. And they refuse to accept that TV is showing nicely choreographed moves designed to capture viewers’ attention.

I used to try to rebuttal before, but I stopped doing that over 20 years ago. Believe whatever you believe. Trying to change somebody’s believe is not a part of my philosophy. All I am trying to say today is that intelligent people make educated decisions.

015 - Who Creates Our Stress? Jul 03, 2015

What people often miss here, is that in order for us to feel strong and burly, we do fight with ourselves. We clench our fists and teeth, we get tense. And just like with arm flexing, we put our own force against ourselves.

I understand, this is a natural reflex. It was built in us as a part of survival mechanism. We do need physical readiness when we feel danger. However, this mechanism was not designed to be used all day every day, like many people do.

014 - Good Wellness System vs Not So Good Wellness System Jul 02, 2015

My short lesson for today is, be mindful of what you are doing to your body. Golden rule I try to follow, is any artificial restrictions to what is natural to our body, will eventually lead to breakdown. Period. I’ve learned it from other people and, unfortunately, from my own mistakes.

Good systems have no restrictions against what is natural, they are tailored to individual needs, and they don’t push people too far outside the comfort zone right away. Everything has to be done in small steps.

013 - Pendulum Effect: The Key To The Balance Jul 01, 2015

Pendulum will appear to be in balance if we hold it off-centered, but it will stay that way for as long as we hold it. And if we let it go, it will swing.

The key to the pendulum effect is that it will not just swing to come to the center again. It will swing to the other side, way past the middle point. As I call it, pendulum will over-correct. And it will swing back and forth for a while until it finally returns to the balance.

012 - What Is Stress And What Are We Fighting Against? Jun 30, 2015

Stress is normal. It is a part of our life. This is how we live, move, function. This is how we exist. We cannot get rid of stress in life.

What people feel and refer to as “stress” is some kind of a unbalanced forces. When I teach my stress management course I don’t teach to get rid of stress. You cannot.

011 - Is Carrying 1000 Pounds On Our Shoulders Too Hard? Jun 29, 2015

When we are relaxing, on the bed, in the chair, on the beach, in the spa, on the massage table, wherever, and we feel sooooo relaxed, the air we are breathing is pushing on us with the pressure 14.7 psi. That is over 2000 lbs. per square foot. Now, calculate the square footage of your own body, and you will get the number of pounds pressing on our body 24/7 all your life. We all get that, and we all are OK with that.

Why are we not complaining?

010 - Be Mindful of Your Mindfulness. You Will Find What You Are Looking For Jun 26, 2015

As Goethe said, “A man sees in the World what he carries in his heart”.

This is what I wanted to talk about this morning. Are you mindful of your mindfulness?

009 - World is A Mirror. You Will Get What You Send There Jun 25, 2015

One of the principles I teach in my classes is the principle of the Mirror. Just imagine yourself standing inside a big round room, and all walls of this room are covered with mirrors. And you are standing in the center. What do you see in those mirrors? Yep, you see thousands of your own reflections.

008 - Mindful Glass of Water Every Day Jun 24, 2015

When I started practicing Yoga in 1983, one of the advices I was given was to start and finish my day with a glass of water. Not juice, definitely not soda. A glass of clean pure drinking water. Since then I have been following this advice for over 30 years. Yes, drinking glass of water is the first thing I do after waking up and the last thing I do before going to bed.

007 - Small Daily Mindful Steps: Are You Paying Attention to What Will Change Your Life? Jun 23, 2015

There’s a phenomenon known as Compound effect. I read in the book called the Slight Edge that compound effect is a result of doing small, tiny things, every day, or is a result of not doing small things every day.

006 - Mindful Kindness: It Doesn't Cost A Dime To Change The World Jun 22, 2015

Slow down, my friend. Look around. What you do today may or may not change the whole World. But the simple act of kindness can change the World for somebody.

Think about it for a few seconds.

005 - Five Minutes of Non-Judgmental Mindfulness… Or At Least Two? Jun 19, 2015

What makes a day a good day or a bad day? That’s simple. We do.

As my teacher told me, “What’s wrong with the present moment if we don’t think about it?”

004 - The Power of Now: You Only Live Each Moment Once Jun 18, 2015

When you wake up in the morning and look outside, do you see the same picture? Do you hear the same sounds? It is possible, if you window is just 3 feet away from a brick wall, and is completely sound proof.

It is also possible if you built an imaginary wall around yourself, and you simply don’t see the surrounding World. Because I don’t believe it is possible to have two identical days, or even two identical seconds. Clouds will be different. Birds will be different. Flies, butterflies, bugs, crickets will all be different. My friends, every moment is unique, unless you are staring at the imaginary wall around yourself.

003 - A Visit with Your Body: An Amazing Way to Bring More Love Into the World! Jun 17, 2015

Inner smile and a visit with your body are two very powerful exercises in Chinese Internal Alchemy, a legendary Taoist immortality system. Try it!

002 - Inner Smile: Few Seconds A Day That Can Change Your Life Jun 16, 2015

You are the Wizard of your own life, and Internal Smile is your Power Field you put on to create the Magic of mindfulness. So don’t underestimate its power!

001 - Introduction to Morning Mindfulness Jun 15, 2015

Start your day with short two-minute positive message.This episode is about my new Morning Mindfulness Channel

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Morning Mindfulness – A Few Positive Minutes to Start Your Day With

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