Tue, 16 December 2014
People often complain that they try meditation to reduce stress, and it does not work. Many get discouraged. What's the secret? Meditation is just a tool. If we use it properly, it works as prescribed. I am sharing my own experience with meditation.
Direct download: What_to_do_if_meditation_does_not_help_to_reduce_stress.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:40pm PDT |
Wed, 19 November 2014
The very first step in getting rid of stress in our life is to recognize where it comes from. Like any physical stress, emotional stress is caused by minimum two forces. One of them is often out of our control, but another one is 100% under control. If we learn how to use it, we can start getting rid of stress in our life, live stressless, happy and positive life! |
Fri, 22 August 2014
In this episode we will continue talking about keeping and restoring balance in life. This time we will talk about some specific principles and techniques I've used over the decades to avoid or eliminate distractions, stress and loss of passion and productivity in training, work and life overall. Very simple and easy to use. |
Fri, 4 July 2014
Today, I'd like to start discussing one of the pretty hot topics in today's fast pace high stress society. That is How to find your Center and how to gain and re-gain, if necessary, your inner balance. |
Sun, 15 June 2014
There's a joke.
Question: How many psychologists does it take to change the light bulb?
Answer is: Just one. But the light bulb has to really want to change.
Indeed, change comes from inside. I was not a morning person either. But it changed overnight when I got a dream. I did not question what motivated me to get up in the morning. I was looking forward to training, and getting up in the morning was the way to do it. I did not have to push myself to get up, well, most of the time. I was just getting up without even thinking about it. My training was not what I did. That was how I chose to live. That was who I was.
Have I ever felt tired? Have I ever wanted to skip a training? Of course! Have I ever had to push myself to work out? Absolutely! This is when variety in training comes really handy. I was talking about it last time. My each training has been slightly different every time. Or sometimes, a whole lot different. That's why I did not feel mental fatigue from doing the same thing over and over.
Do you have to train in the morning? Not really! Do it whenever you have time. But do it regularly. I like mornings for a couple of reasons.
First, I like the whole idea of training at the sunrise or sunset. This is when Yin changes to Yan, or Yan changes to Yin. I've heard that chi, or prana, is the best during these periods of time. However, there are usually very few people training outside in the morning, while sunsets are much busier with people coming just to watch a sunset, or having picnics in the afternoon.
Second, I just like sunrises, and I like fresh air of the night.
I am not a motivational coach. I am not gonna try to convince everybody jump off their couches and start training. But today I'm gonna leave you with these humble thoughts:
First, Figure out what is it that you really want, if you don't know that yet, of course. As I was saying in my previous episode, often people go after certain things, mistaking them for something they really want. It is not always that easy to identify. That's why people go to career advisers, life coaches, personal trainers, etc. They go to somebody who can help them to identify their dreams, set realistic goals and develop a plan of action . People need clarity of the vision in order to move forward, and I am not an exception.
Second, Keep in mind, there will be things you will have to give up. I've heard people say, I am doing nothing all day long, I have nothing to give up. Exactly, they need to give up that whole lot of nothing, and start doing something, and be consistent at that.
Finally, remember, there is often more than one way to get where you want. When you picture your goal in your mind, how you get there is not that important, as long as it is legal and ethical. If you wanna get in shape but don't like martial arts, for example, do cycling. Don't like weight lifting? Go for Zumba. Don't like Yoga? Maybe Do-In is your way... But do something. If you like martial arts like I do, then you cannot Zumba your way into that. You gotta do martial arts. But you can change style. Or maybe you don't like mornings, then practice at night. Go to 24 hour fitness club. If there's a will, there's a way. Always. If you cannot find your dream, get yourself a coach, ask for help in setting your goals. Maybe there's something out there you've never heard of, that you will like.
To find out the whole story, listen to my podcast :)
PEACE! Eugene |
Sat, 29 March 2014
The question about staying on the Path came up in my mind quite a few times. I have been trying to find out what motivated me. Why did I start training all of a sudden? Why did I choose Martial Arts over any sports? Why have I been staying with my training for 30 years, and I still did not lose my interest? Why did I choose shakuhachi flute, one of the most difficult instruments in the World, and I have been studying it and practicing daily for over 10 years? I was talking about all the things I have been doing in my life in one of my previous episodes. People ask me, what helped me to stay consistent? I used to say, I did it because I liked it. But what made me like it? I had to study some things about motivation, about consistency, so I could at least explain it to other people. And perhaps, help somebody to make a decision. Yep, helping somebody is one of the points I will mention later today.
First of all, we need to remember, that we are dealing with a mindset. I've seen so many people trying to simplify their lives by dividing things into black and white. In reality, look at the Nature. How much black and white can you really see around?
I can say the same about our thought process. We can define two extremes. I am talking about "I want to do" vs. "I have to do". I am not getting in a long philosophical discussions about needs, desires and suffering. No doubt, Zen monk will define totally different levels for those two extremes, comparing to myself. But like my Zen teacher said, "who is - I?"
There are plenty of wonderful recored lessons made by Zen teachers, you can find somebody competent in this area. And I am just sharing my Path.
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Mon, 3 March 2014
Today I’d like to talk about first steps I took on my Path to changing myself. Being an outcast is one thing. Getting out of it requires some steady efforts. But I think the most important is the very first step. What makes it so difficult?
First, Overcoming inertia? Yes. That very first effort to make the initial move can be extremely difficult. I think it came easy for me because the discomfort from being me was much greater than discomfort from changing. It was time to do it. I did not take time to procrastinate. My thought process switched instantly from total lack of interest to obsession with my training.
Second, perhaps fear of failure? Of course! Why would I believe I could achieve any degree of success in physical activity if I hated every second of it for as long as I remembered myself? It was later when I found out that every successful person has to go through certain number of failures. But at that time I did not know those details. Nobody told me.
Third, Fear to be laughed at? No doubt about that. Of course, the whole World was gonna point fingers at me and laugh. My classmates already did. Besides, you know if you stick your head above the crowd, then get ready to receive a tomato.
Any other reasons? Send me an email, let me know. We may discuss it next time.
Listen to the podcast to know more :)
Direct download: First_Steps_in_my_Holistic_Transformation.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:20pm PDT |
Sun, 23 February 2014
...So, what is Japanese garden? First of all, it is quite a generic name. There's no single design. There are many different types of garden. Some of them are designed for nice slow meditative walk. And they are called stroll garden. They do require pretty large space. They usually have a pond or even a small lake as one of the elements.
Listen to the Podcast to know more..
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Wed, 5 February 2014
Tea drinking in my Path
I'd like to talk about Tea and tea ceremony, and about how I personally got into tea and what it means to me. I often look at my life as a jigsaw puzzle, and Tea became one of the valuable pieces. It felt like there was a very specific place in my life for tea, and nothing else could replace it.
Tea has been part of my daily routine for as long as I remember myself. I grew up drinking tea. I grew up in Soviet Union. Our neighbors from the South were China, Mongolia, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. India was not an immediate neighbor, but our countries were really great friends. So, our friends and neighbors had tea as a big part of their culture. No wonder that it became a big part of Russian culture as well. And by the way, Russian word for tea is "Chai". I am not sure if the word has Russian origin, but it is definitely part of Russian language now. And perhaps has been for at least 1000 years. But I am not gonna speculate about etymology.
My first tea experience began with loose black tea. We did not have any tea bags, we used loose leaf black tea from India or Ceylon, which is now called Sri Lanka.
The tea tradition as I remember it, involved making really thick brew of black tea in a small porcelain tea pot. My grandma would usually preheat teapot with hot water, then put tea there, and pour boiling water. After that she would cover it and leave it alone for a while. After tea was ready, we would pour hot water in a cup and add concentrated tea from the tea pot.
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Mon, 27 January 2014
Today I'd like to answer a question I've been asked many times. The question is: where do I get time to practice everything I do? Indeed, autogenic training, yoga, meditation, martial arts, Chi Kung, reflexology, tea ceremony, gardening, music, and so on. This is quite a list of activities, especially since I was going full time to medical university and learning English on my own. Yes, I did. I also learned shorthand in the meantime, which helped me a lot to write down all my lectures word by word. We did not have technology at that time, as we have it today.
First of all, let's separate two types of learning.
As babies, we learn to walk, to talk, to do all basic things we need to learn. Later we learn to read, to write, to ride a tricycle, to play games etc. This is initial learning. Once we learn to read and write, do we keep learning? Of course we do. We may not spend extra time for that, unless reading and writing is a part of our further education and perhaps part of our future career . But we constantly learn something new about our own language. I can guarantee I can take almost any native English speaker and find some words in the English dictionary that they don't know. If you don't believe me, take a tour inside the hospital and try to name every medical device you see there. Not in Latin, in plain English. Or go to the music store and name every piece you see there. Again, in plain English. We just don't need all that vocabulary in our every day life. But we can definitely learn a lot. And we do. This is ongoing learning...
Want to know more? Listen to my Podcast.
Direct download: Learning_and_Practicing_as_a_way_of_Balanced_Busy_Life.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:18pm PDT |
Sun, 12 January 2014
Last year we started discussing meditation as a tool, and in the previous episode we were talking about Music meditation with shakuhachi flute, which is an ancient Zen tradition called Suizen. I mentioned some benefits of using shakuhachi flute for meditation, and one of them was vibrations. Sound is vibrations. Today I'd like to talk about various types of vibrations used in different types of meditation. This is not a comprehensive tutorial by any means, just a quick overview of what I had a personal experience with.
Why vibrations, you may ask? Well, we cannot live, function, communicate, hear, see of feel without help of some kind of vibrations. We may admit it or deny it, it doesn't change anything. So we may as well use it to our benefit. And vibrations have been used for many thousands of years as a part of meditation, or even as stand alone healing practice. In one of my video episodes I will demonstrate some vibration techniques and exercises, but today we will just talk.
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Healthy Positive Lifestyle: Holistic Lifestyle and Coaching with Dr. Jin
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