Podcast appearances and mentions of claudia azula altucher

Episode One-Hundred-Thirty-Two of The LIFTED Life Podcast: Idea Machine Episode 132 is inspired by the book, "Become an Idea Machine" by Claudia Azula Altucher.   You're not going to want to miss this incredible tool for thinking differently about your life. It's simple, yet powerful. We put this tool to the test and shared some of our takeaways in this week's podcast.   Episode 132 of The Lifted Life Podcast is brought to you by our MOOD Probiotics. Did you know that OVER 70% of the body's serotonin is made in the gut... ? Put a little pep in your step with our mood probiotics.   Enjoyed the show? We would SO appreciate it if you would take a quick moment to leave us a rating and review. Peace, love, and puppies!      Website: https://www.liftednaturals.com/   Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/liftednaturals/   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liftednaturals/   Twitter: https://twitter.com/liftednaturals   Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/liftednaturals

Because One Little Word Can Bring Health, Happiness, and Abundance. How often do you find yourself saying yes to the wrong things? Maybe you’re saying yes to taking on a project when you’re already overwhelmed, or saying yes to the wrong relationship, or saying yes to a time-consuming obligation that you just don’t have time for. Do you often wish that you had the power to turn them down? You aren’t alone, we’ve all been there. But learning the power of no can be one of the greatest, healthiest, and freest things you can do for yourself. Once you learn the power of no, you can let go of all those anxieties, regrets, and anger and find a life of wealth, health, and happiness! Saying no is about saying no to the things that harm you, the things that don’t serve you well, and the things that get you down. You are entitled to say no, and once you realize the power of no, you can begin to say yes to yourself. As you read, you’ll learn how to banish the noise in your life, how to go on a Gratitude Diet, and how death isn't always a bad thing. *** Do you want more free audiobook summaries like this? Download our app for free at QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries.

This post does have affiliate links. James Altucher and Claudia Azula Altucher's 'The Power Of No'.   I am a fan of Mr. Altucher's podcast and his blog.   He speaks in a very 'common-sense' way to me. I enjoy his stance on going to college and owning a home.   Truth be told, I sometimes think my voice sounds like his voice when I'm recording my own podcast. Of all the books I've read so far, in this 'Biggest Takeaways' series, this one made me emotional at times and made me day dream the most.   The parts especially when he discusses saying 'No' to situations that make you feel bad (even though we still willingly participate in these situations)and the 'Rebirth' exercise.   The last chapter was my favorite.   Specifically when they discussed reinventing yourself. These are a few of my biggest takeaways in this book. 'Being grateful is the bridge between the world of nightmares and the world where we are free to say no.   It's the bridge between the world of delusions and the world of creativity.   It's the power that brings death back to life, the power that turns poverty to wealth and anger to compassion.   I said no to killing myself.   I am still alive.' pg 24 'Every time I've lost money and love, it's because I squandered my physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.   Now, every day without fail, I do the Daily Practice to exercise the basic muscles of a healthy life.' pg 39 'Right now is the only place you'll ever be.   Choose not to waste it' pg 39 'As you reflect on this, you may want to take it one step further.   You are also the average of the five things you have around you, the ideas of five books you have your attention on, the feelings from the five movies or shows you watch, and so on.   Your immediate environment has a much deeper effect on you than you might think.' pg 58 'People who are disrespectful or manipulative early on are likely to continue the pattern.   Take them at face value.' pg 65 'You can't get rid of jealousy.   This is another emotion that is not an on-off switch; it's a dimmer switch.   You can dim the jealousy by exercising your abundance muscle.' pg 69 'Try this today.   Write down ten ideas for your job (or for someone else's job) that you think will add above-and-beyond value.   Write down the ten next steps for those ideas.   Write down the ten people you need to share these ideas with.   Write to those people.   Don't be afraid.   The worst they can do is say no.' pg 75 "I want to do what makes me feel at peace.   Even if it means sometimes saying no to everyone I love.   To all of the stories they tell.   Because that is proof that I love myself.' pg 80 'The next time someone has an opinion you strongly disagree with try this: Don't argue; it's pointless.   You will never change their mind.   Let them state their opinion.   Try to learn one thing from it.   Try to respect one angle of their point of view.   Everyone just wants to be heard.   Listen.' pg 81 'Complaining is draining.' pg 104 'At some point it doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong.   We are all brothers and sisters here for such a short time.   Consider this for a moment while thinking of the other person.   Mentally ask for the other person to forgive you.' pg 125 'Truth is a powerful armor.   Truth is the primal force behind all of nature, behind all of our needs.   Forgive yourself and the power of nature becomes yours.' pg 125 'One of the best ways to get in touch with your real self is to notice those things that you tend to passionately dislike in others.' pg 134 'If there is bad news on the TV, turn the TV off.   If someone is gossiping, move away or change the discussion.   If the negative thoughts in your head start whispering of regret or anxiety or worry, stop yourself and replace them with gratitude and thoughts of abundance.' pg 159 There is much more that I haven't mentioned.   From the few books I've covered (to date) from this blog special series, pickup the 'Power Of No' first.        Clicking on the affiliate links for this post and purchasing this book will support myself and the authors of this book. Have you read this book?   What worked for you what didn't?  Comment below.   For more check out the blog at pvpfromnj.com If you've enjoyed this, please support this podcast by doing any, all your shopping through my eBay link: eBay or my Amazon link: Amazon Any shopping through these links will be at no extra cost to you. Thank you!

James Altucher is an entrepreneur, angel investor, author, and blogger. He is the author of the best-selling book: Choose Yourself: Be Happy, Make Millions, Live the Dream. He also hosts two successful podcasts:  "The James Altucher Show" & "Ask Altucher" show with his wife and co-host Claudia Azula Altucher. James is an honest and open book with his writing. He speaks equally about falling on his face in business as much as he talks about winning and making a lot of money.   In this episode of Stories from The Influencer Economy, we talk in depth about James views on business, giving, helping others, building relationships.  We also dive into the process of how James wrote Choose Yourself, and the principles of the book. Ultimately James and his values fit into The Influencer Economy. It's an era where disruption is ripe in business and it's up to us as creative people to survive. If we want work, we have to make our own career. If we want a career we have to build the relationships with the right people. It's all on us. James has also written for TechCrunch, the Wall Street Journal and his blog JamesAltucher.com has attracted more than 20 million readers since its launch Choose Yourself on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Choose-Yourself-James-Altucher/dp/1490313370/ Ryan Williams on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ryanjwill Sign-up for our Influencer Economy email list for a FREE chapter of The Influencer Economy book:  http://www.influencereconomy.com/   .   

James spent an hour interviewing his wife and business partner, Claudia Azula Altucher. They went back to 1999, when Claudia first started to learn about yoga. She knew very little about it, but wanted a discipline that would be physical and get her into a "zone." They went all the way back to Claudia's early childhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was raised by a very loving mother, who unfortunately committed suicide when Claudia was only 17. You'll hear the pain in Claudia's voice as she talks about this tragic time in her life. Claudia eventually saved $2,000, just enough money to come to the United States. She had to leave Argentina. Life as an immigrant can be tough, yet Claudia never gave up. But she still hadn't found peace. She needed to make new choices and take control of her life. She found it in yoga. If you're interested in learning more about yoga, you have to listen to Claudia's podcast. You can listen on her website: . Follow her on and .

Welcome! Something unusual for the Yoga Podcast, this time James Altucher (my husband) is interviewing me (the Yoga Teacher) And he is not holding back, he asks about personal things (very personal), about yoga, about what brought me to it, what it did to me, what it can do for you and how it influences every moment of my life There was talk ranging the whole gamut from Patanjali to Professor Krishnamacharya and his teacher, to  BKS Iyengar to Pattabhi Jois (founder of the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga System) to BKS Iyengar to Paul Dallaghan, Jessica, Kino... everybody! And he asked me about the Periscope LIVE yoga class I offer for 30" EVERY FRIDAY - Why Periscope? Why should you go into it? How would you benefit from it? Will you like it? Is it for you? And we even talked about relationships, specifically our relationships, and the challenges that we face when working, teaching, dealing with children or step-children and god-children, to cooking and travel, to who packs the clothes and who wins at chess, every time! WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT ME I don't want to sound arrogant, I prefer to keep it on the humble side, and even that sounds arrogant, I feel I can win. So, ok, what is special about me is I keep it real, I have spent tens of thousands of dollars circling the globe in search of true teachings, good teachers of asana, pranayama, and on lots of meditation retreats. I also write books and one of them became a WSJ best-seller... Mostly I am into the flow of life, into living each moment and appreciating the subtleties and nuances of how life is always different, with every breath we take. Yoga is fundamentally a BREATHING practice.  And that is the most important part of the message for me. Hope you like it! Enjoy

Claudia Azula Altucher is an idea machine; an accomplished yoga practitioner and teacher; and a popular podcaster, author and YouTuber. Today, she brings all of this to the podcast to help you get your life on the move. She'll teach you what you need to do to clean up your life, how to get your idea muscles sweating, and why she should be the next CEO of Twitter. You canfind her online at claudiayoga.com, through her podcasts, which include Ask Altucher and Claudia Yoga, and through the Claudia Yoga YouTube Channel. Her books, including, Become an Idea Machine: Because Ideas Are the Currency of the 21st Century  are available through Amazon and, as they say, wherever books are sold. From the book's description: HOW DO I TRANSFORM MY LIFE? The answer is simple: come up with ten ideas  a day.  It doesn't matter if they are good or bad the key is to exercise your 'idea muscle', to keep it toned, and in great shape.  People say ideas are cheap and execution is everything but that is NOT true.  Execution is a consequence, a subset of good, brilliant idea.  And good ideas require daily work.  Ideas may be easy if we are only coming up with one or two but if you open this book to any of the pages  and try to produce more than three, you will feel a burn, scratch your head, and you will be sweating, and working hard.   There is a turning point when you reach idea number 6 for the day, you still have four to go, and your mind muscle is getting a workout.  By the time you list those last ideas to make it to ten you will see for yourself what "sweating the idea muscle" means.   As you practice the daily idea generation you become an idea machine.  When we become idea machines we are flooded with lots of bad ideas but also with some that are very good. This happens by the sheer force of the number, because we are coming up with 3,650 ideas per year (at ten a day).   When you are inspired by an extraordinary idea, all of your thoughts break their chains, you go beyond limitations and your capacity to act expands in every direction.  Forces and abilities you did not know you had come to the surface, and you realize you are capable of doing great things.  As you practice with the suggested prompts in this book your ideas will get better, you will be a source of great insight for others, people will find you magnetic, and they will want to hang out with you because you have so much to offer.   When you practice every day your life will transform, in no more than 180 days, because it has no other evolutionary choice.  Life changes for the better when we become the source of positive, insightful, and helpful ideas.  Don't believe a word I say. Instead, challenge yourself to try it  for the 180 days and see your life transform, in magical ways, in front of your very eyes. If you enjoy the show & would like to hear more episodes, please download, rate and subscribe through iTunes, as your enthusiasm for the show means a lot. Please comment below if you have suggestions for future episodes.

I had a chance to record this episode "live". And what a difference it makes! You can listen on  Stitcher -  I-Tunes   - Lybsin or click here if you are not sure Kino is one of those teachers that barely needs introduction because she is super famous, he has a quarter million subscribers to her YouTube channel, 679,000 followers on Instagram, 43,000 followers on Twitter and another quarter million (almost) Facebook likes to her page. She has also been on the cover of Yoga Journal many times. She is one of those very rare teachers who has gone very deep down the asana route, currently learning the 5th series of Ashtanga Yoga which is the equivalent of performing an athletic feast worth of many gold medals in the olympics, and she is a pleasure to talk to. What is Special About Kino Reading her book "Sacred Fire" her story feels like a fairy tale.  She caught the yoga bug very early on and started traveling to India in her early 20s.  Her ability in asana and her power to communicate and teach make her a great combination, so much so that she attracts massive numbers of students wherever she travels. But it was not all fairy tale. She also had to take a lot of heat from the "yoga police" which as you know by now, does exist.... I know... I can barely believe it myself but there is such a thing. She has been bashed and criticized for her outreach and for trying to expand the circle of people she reaches with her passion, which is yoga. Today the Miami Life Center is a vibrant store front on 6th street in South Beach.  It is always full of people and great energy and there are great instructors always present, with assistants.  They also have great workshops going on all the time. And the best part about Kino is that she comes with Tim.  Tim Feldman, who is also a very advanced and serious practitioner is her husband and together they created the center.  I hope to have Tim on the podcast soon as well. What We Talked About - Her beginnings with yoga... Her first class - Kino meets Govinda, her first teacher of Ashtanga - Her first trip to Mysore - Meeting Tim and the love story - The hardships of a long distance relationship - Her first Vipassana Silent Meditation 10 day retreat, and her second - Discovering body image issues around the legs and hips - Opening the Miami Life Center - It was NOT easy - The "yoga police" and how she deals with haters - The stereotypes around women being more flexible and men stronger - Not necessarily true - What took Kino a very long time to understand Books and DVDs By Kino DVD Yoga For Beginners DVD Ashtanga Yoga Primary Series DVD Ashtanga Yoga Intermediate Series DVD Introduction to Ashtanga Yoga DVD Ashtanga Yoga Third Series The Power Of Ashtanga Yoga The Primary Series [Book] The Power Of Ashtanga Yoga II: The Intermedia Series [Book] Sacred Fire: My Journey Into Ashtanga Yoga [Book] Audio CD The Mantra Collection About Kino Website Miami Life Center Twitter Facebook Instagram Tumblr YouTube Cody Online Course The Transcript Announcer:                 Welcome to The Yoga Podcast, keeping it real, with your host, Claudia Azula Altucher. Claudia Altucher:        Hey, it's me, Claudia. Thanks for listening to the podcast. I'm really grateful to all of you who've been giving me some amazing feedback. I wanted to give you a little – very quick intro to this special episode. I actually interviewed Kino in person and that was the first time I did this, because I've been doing ridiculous hours of waking up to interview people who are in Asia, Japan, Bali, Australia, and then some other teachers that are not so far, but it was never really – even though that Skype face-to-face, sometimes you are able to do it, it was different to do it at the studio. And I was also in Miami, so I was practicing in the studio, and I thought that was something that was very interesting. We arrived about half an hour early, and opening the door, there was one of Kino's senior teachers. His name is Patrick Noland, and he recognized me from prior times that I've practiced at the Miami Life Center, and we started to talk, you know, sort of introduction. Kino was doing a final exam for some students on another room, so what I found curious that I wanted to share with you is the schedule that Patrick told me he had had on that day. And I had it in a recording on my phone, but I apologize, I can't put it here 'cause the quality is really bad and I didn't want it to affect you, but he told me that on that day, he had woken up at 4:00 AM to walk his dog and then he taught, at 6:00 AM, a Mysore class all the way to 8:30 AM, then he was gonna practice his own practice – he does something serious, something really advanced. Then he was gonna go and – no, then he was gonna teach a led class. So instead of Mysore, a led class is very – he actually does the count and all the students go at the same time, and then, after that, he was going to drive to the other side of town to give a one-hour private lesson. So I thought that was very eye-opening for all of us who are thinking, "Oh, I would really like to be a yoga teacher," because I think it may put things in perspective a little. I couldn't believe the level of activity that Patrick had on that day. But anyways, we chit-chatted for a little bit, and then Kino finished her class and exams, and we started talking. And so here she is, Kino MacGregor. Claudia Altucher:        Okay, so – yeah. Okay. So before we start, Kino, I just want to say that I'm a little jealous of you. [Laughter]  Actually, not a little, but a lot, and it happened because I started reading Sacred Fire, which is a book that it feels very confidential, like you tell a lot of little stories that are not in a proper, you know, Ashtanga book, and it felt like a fairytale, like a really good fairytale. So it's the good kind of envy, but – [laughs] – at the same time, it's envy. So – but I want to introduce you to my listeners although you don't quite need that much introduction, but Kino MacGregor is an international yoga teacher. She is the author of two books, The Power of Ashtanga Yoga and Sacred Fire, and you have another one coming up, which we'll talk about soon. She's also the producer of six Ashtanga yoga DVDs. She's the co-founder of Miami Life Center, and the founder of the Miami Yoga Magazine. Now, the amazing thing about her is her YouTube channel has almost five million views, her Instagram account has 514,000 followers, and she has almost 40,000 followers on Twitter. Amazing. Kino is one of the select group of people to receive the certification to teach Ashtanga yoga by its founder, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois of India, and she was – you received this before the age of 30, which is an amazing accomplishment. Welcome to The Yoga Podcast, Kino. Kino MacGregor:       Thank you. Thanks for having me. Claudia Altucher:        I'm very happy that you not only joined me but you let me do it here in the Miami Life Center. You were just doing a final exam or something like that? Kino MacGregor:       There was a course, an intensive course, that we just wrapped up right before Christmas. Claudia Altucher:        Ah, okay, so that was the end of it and then – that was very interesting. We have some sounds of that, so… Kino MacGregor:       Yeah. Right. Claudia Altucher:        So as I said before, I'm a little envious of you. Yoga came so easy, in a way, and at the same time, not so easy. You were very young. You were 19 or so? Kino MacGregor:       I was 19 when I did my first yoga class, and it was not an Ashtanga yoga class; it was a Sivananda class, more focused on relaxation and sort of a restorative view of how to use the postures, and I did my first Ashtanga yoga class when I was 22 years old, and it was really then that I kind of committed to doing the practice more regularly. Claudia Altucher:        Right, and you said in this book that I find fascinating, Sacred Fire, that you were looking for every kind of exercise before that. You had done Zumba and aerobics, all kinds of things, but something clicked for you in the yoga right away. What would you say – what was it, do you think? 'Cause you went to a class and the instructor even said to you, "Do what you can," right? Kino MacGregor:       Yeah. My first Ashtanga yoga class, the thing that really sort of resonated for me was that the practice answered a searching, sort of a latent searching that I'm not sure I was aware of consciously. But when I did the practice, there was something that really settled inside of me, and it instinctively drew me back to keep practicing, and so that's really the first and probably most fundamental feeling to really go deeper into the yoga path. Claudia Altucher:        And then, at the age of 22, you find yourself in New York City, right? Kino MacGregor:       Exactly, yeah. Claudia Altucher:        And you were studying something in the university? Kino MacGregor:       Yeah, I moved to New York City after some years of sort of just partying and kind of losing yourself in youth and fun and this sort of thing, and I moved to New York City to join a Master's degree program from New York University, and I sort of thought, "Well, I'm gonna get my life back on track." That's sort of what I thought. I thought that I would go to graduate school and maybe get a Ph.D. and get some internships and sort of get a real job and that sort of thing. But when I moved to New York, what actually happened is that I joined a traditional Mysore-style class, and that, for me, really solidified my connection to daily practice. I never thought that I would do yoga every day. It's not something that I, "Oh, I'm gonna do yoga every day." Claudia Altucher:        I don't think anyone thinks that. Kino MacGregor:       No, yeah, I mean, some people are sort of all-or-nothing. Some people who are fitness-oriented people or they go to the gym every day or something like that, I never had any physical discipline before yoga, so it was never really like – I didn't have a daily fitness regimen or routine, not when I was growing up, or really anything. I would work out randomly or something like that. So when I moved to New York and I joined the Mysore-style class, the teacher, he said to me, "This class meets six days a week. You can come at 8:00." And there was no option to come three days a week or drop in or something like that. It was just sort of like, "You're here every day or you don't do it." So I came every day, and after my first week, I could barely move my arms, and after about a month, I had changed my sleep cycle, and after three months, I wanted to change the way that I was eating. It changed everything about my life 'cause now I had this thing I did every day in the morning, and it required me to make different lifestyle decisions and different lifestyle choices. And very quickly, after that first class, I got the inspiration to actually go to India, to go to Mysore. So I actually got that inspiration and I followed that dream, really, all the way to Mysore, to India, where I met ____, I met Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. Claudia Altucher:        But before that, I even want to point out the teacher that said to you, "This meets six times a week," he's just no ordinary teacher either, right? [Laughs] Kino MacGregor:       Right, no, this was Govinda. His name was Russell at the time, so Govinda Kai, and – Claudia Altucher:        He's an amazing teacher. He's awesome like you are. Kino MacGregor:       He's really awesome. He's really, really awesome. Yeah, for sure. Claudia Altucher:        So it's amazing, and you said he directed you to some books on – you had some struggles with food, like I think every woman in the planet. I know I do. He directed you to some books on eating, one called Conscious Eating, was it? Kino MacGregor:       Yeah, for sure. I remember, after I had been practicing for maybe a couple of months, I remember looking at what I brought for lunch for my internship, and it was just this sort of hodgepodge of things, and I remember that dessert was Mentos, and I thought, "This doesn't really seem so healthy," and I kind of read the ingredients, and I was like, "What are even the ingredients in this?" It was like sugar and Red No. 5 and Blue No. 2 and Yellow No. 20, and I thought, "That doesn't seem really good for me," and I went to my yoga teacher and I said, "What recommendations do you have for how to eat in a correct yoga lifestyle?" And he said, "Well, you could try to read this book called Conscious Eating. So I read that book and it really changed the way that I thought about things, and one of the most important takeaways from Conscious Eating was Gabriel Cousens, he sort of did this research, they cited this statistic where he said that if we took all of the grain that feeds the livestock for all of the animals that are raised for meat production and consumption and we took that grain and we fed that to people, then world hunger would end today. Claudia Altucher:        Wow. Kino MacGregor:       So if we just simply redistributed that grain, then all the people who are starving in underdeveloped countries and all the people who are homeless and starving in our own countries, we would be able to feed them all, and I thought – Claudia Altucher:        Wow. Kino MacGregor:       I just really thought there was no moral and ethical argumentation for eating meat on even on that level. I care about the environment and I care about doing the right thing morally and ethically. And so pretty much after I read that paragraph, I pretty much woke up the next day and made the choice to vegetarian. Claudia Altucher:        Wow, radically, just like – and you haven't come back to eating meat ever? Kino MacGregor:       No. Claudia Altucher:        Wow, and you're fine? You never miss the protein or the – Kino MacGregor:       Well, I don't – Claudia Altucher:        I mean, you do some pretty intense yoga moves. Kino MacGregor:       Yeah. [Laughs] Yeah. I mean, I don't miss the protein. I make a concerted effort to eat the vegetarian sources of protein, and if I'm feeling really depleted, like if I'm doing a lot of asana, I'm doing a lot of teaching, I make sure to maybe take a protein shake or something like that, that's gonna help create sort of a balanced approach to nutrition. In the beginning, I really wasn't into that. I just kinda stopped eating meat, just kinda ate whatever for a little while, but I mean, there's a lot of argumentation about which is more health-related issue, and I really think that's a personal decision that you need to figure out between you and your nutritionist or your doctor or something like that based on every individual's health needs, 'cause some people have serious health concerns that maybe they need to eat a particular food or even a particular meat in order to sort of save their life, which is completely acceptable, but I don't have anything like that. Claudia Altucher:        Right. Kino MacGregor:       I feel really good eating the vegetarian diet. I try to do the extreme version, where I was vegan for a while, and I've tried to be raw vegan for a while, and that was really extreme, and I did not feel so healthy. Claudia Altucher:        It's hard. Kino MacGregor:       Yeah, it was really difficult and I really felt sort of – I don't know – a little too restrictive. It felt a little bit almost like an addiction on some level for me. Other people do it and they don't feel like that, but I did. And so you asked me if I ever miss the protein. I don't miss protein, like, I haven't eaten meat for so long that even when I see it, it kind of – I start to think about it and makes me physically uncomfortable when I think about what that was and what that came from. Like, that was a being and it had a life, and then now it's sitting there, cooked, you know, like your thigh muscle was once attached to you and then it would be cooked and served to someone. Kind of trips me out. But what I do miss – and this is gonna sound completely random – what I do miss sometimes is the fun experience of it, you know, like a community experience of not having to be like, "Oh, do you have a vegetarian option?" or, "Do you have this?" or, you know, or you walk by and you – like, on the 4th of July in the United States and you smell barbecue. You know, barbecued vegetables also smell good, but when you smell barbecued meat and that sort of thing, none of those smells bother me, but there's a community aspect that I think slowly is starting to shift, but 15 years ago, when I kinda made that choice or 14 years ago when I made that choice, it was really sort of like a flag in the North Pole, sort of staking out new territory. Claudia Altucher:        Wow. Kino MacGregor:       And there's more options and you're sort of less ostracized for making those choices now than maybe before. Claudia Altucher:        Than back then, yes. And so is it true, then, when you got to India for the first time, I believe you were 22 or something? 23? You had no hair? Kino MacGregor:       Yeah. So one of the things that I did in my first year of practice is, when I was practicing, it seemed like this was the first time that I really began to question all the choices that I'd made up until then. Before yoga, again, I had no physical discipline. I was either an academic, or when I wasn't studying, I was intensively partying. So I sort of had this party on the weekends, study during the week, and somehow it all managed to balance itself out.   Claudia Altucher:        Typical New Yorker. Kino MacGregor:       Yeah, typical Miami Beach too, you know, Miami Beach. Kino MacGregor:       Yeah, something more typical East Coast, something like that. So what I did was, slowly, I realized, "Well – " so I was looking at my clothes and I thought, "Well, who am I when I wear these clothes? Is this me or am I trying to put on – am I trying to be the party girl or am I trying to be the studious girl or am I trying to be this girl or that girl?" So I gave away almost all my clothes and then I used to have so many different colors of hair. I used to have light blue hair, red hair, and then I had orange hair and strawberry-colored hair. I used to have all these crazy colors. I used to wear wigs and then cut it and grow it and cut it in weird ways and all these kinda strange things, and then, I don't know, I was sitting there in New York after I practiced for a little bit, and I just kinda got fed up with just READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE

Moe and Claudia Azula Altucher discuss the power of getting the mind in top shape and how to build your idea muscle daily.

Claudia Azula Altucher will teach you how to become an idea machine in this podcast.

We can do all the sitting in meditation we want, but it means NOTHING unless both nostrils are working together...  At the same time.   Did you know that?   [Click here to listen in ITunes]   This is one of the thousands of secrets I've learned from Gregor Maehle,    He is an amazing teacher.  One of the few practicing yogis living today that is willing to do all the research and write in plain English so we can all understand what yoga means.   On this episode 3, Gregor acts like a catalyst of understanding for all of us to really get it.    In this podcast:   You will hear within one hour, in a magical way,  how all branches of yoga come together to bring you into the mystical sacredness of this very moment   There is plenty of meditation out there, but nobody talks about how it connects to yoga, specifically.     Schools don't teach it... even the large and famous one...    Gregor Maehle The focus is so heavily on asana (poses) that people like me end up looking elsewhere, not in yoga itself.   I met Gregor because of his books and I am glad I did because once I started reading I could not put them down.   In fact, I have reviewed all of them here on the blog, and even created a book club around the one on Pranayama because I was surprised that someone could make yoga knowledge so accessible, clear and down to earth.   Every time I read a book by Gregor I feel the "slap in the wrist", as I have come to call it, but it is a tough-love kind of slap, the one that says:    "Don't just settle for asana! There is more to go into... like pranayama and meditation, and the mysteries beyond.   Which brings me to this podcast.   GREGOR SHINES LIGHT   Gregor wrote his fourth book completely dedicated to meditation.     To how meditation fits within the yoga tradition, as one of the eight limbs.   His point is that because schools all over the world either focus on the poses or on the meditation, there are non that actually teach "meditation as per yoga".   This causes people like me to start dabbling into Vipassana (which is great and they offer free courses but they neglect the body completely) or Shambhaa or Insight Meditation or all other denominations.   Why?   Because nobody teaches yoga-meditation.   And by that I mean, how did the yogi researches who have sat and practiced for 3, 4, 5 thousand years approach it?   How have they done it? What can we learn from them?   What happens exactly after asana?   What is it that moves the practice forward when we are "established in a practice of poses"?     Enter Gregor...   WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT IN THE PODCAST     Why Gregor has "semi-retired" to a "somewhat secluded forest" location to intensify his practice - Below is a photo of the view into the forest of where he lives now view into the forest Where the confusion stems from: The actual yoga definition of "meditation" and how it differs from, say, Vipassana The fifth limb of yoga is withdrawing the senses... Is there a way to "DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT"? Gregor says yes there is something you can DO to effect the fifth limb of yoga, he describes what that is (including inversions) The fastest way to reach higher levels into the mystery suggested by Gregor, which point to uniting both the breathing techniques with focus on the chakras The reason why inversions have gotten negative publicity lately, and how to avoid troubles with it In all mystical traditions of humankind, it was always taught that true knowledge has a physical aspect. An insight from Gregor's latest visit to Japan Why it is important to "clear" your life, from emotional issues, to clarify money issues, sexual issues etc... Otherwise the "downward energy" will pull you down, and never let you uplift. The role of food and fasting, and how it needs to be done right if attempted at all, for example he goes: "whereas if you clean out the abdomen and you would fast for a while, you just would absolutely not care at all about any of those issues" How the above does NOT mean anyone should just go ahead and try fasting. EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DONE WITH CARE. And slowly...  There is no point in rushing just because we read a book Loved when he said: "The important thing is that you do have a spiritual practice and that you do have a spiritual realization, and then abundance – material abundance will come as a result of that, but don't start chasing material abundance, because material abundance will chase you if you stop giving out a lot.  Then you will automatically receive." Gregor boldly says what is at the CORE OF HIS TEACHING: "The central tenets of yogic teaching since 6,000 years ago is that if you only practice asana, that is, posture, it is very, very unlikely that you succeed"     How to choose a teacher.  The very difficult question of finding someone who is REAL today...  And how Gregor talks about the only qualification for initiation...  And it is "self-initiation". Thank you Gregor! The one thing that took Gregor a long time to understand:  This surprised me as it applies not just to yoga but to everything.  And it has to do with "giving, everything, and doing things for others"     ABOUT GREGOR Gregor's School Gregor's Blog Chintamani Facebook Twitter LinkedIn     BOOKS (Highly recommended):   Yoga Meditation: Through Mantra, Chakras and Kundalini To Spiritual Freedom Pranayama: The Breath Of Yoga Ashtanga Yoga: The Intermediate Series Ashtanga Yoga: Practice And Philosophy   AMAZING RECENT ARTICLES:   The End Of The Guru: Part One and Part Two Here is my own related article: The Guru is Dead     TRANSCRIPT     Announcer:                 Welcome to The Yoga Podcast, keeping it real with your host, Claudia Azula Altucher.   Claudia Altucher:        Good morning.  Welcome to The Yoga Podcast.  I'm thrilled to have with me Gregor Maehle.  He is a practitioner of yoga and he has been practicing for over 35 years.  In the middle of the 1980s, he started traveling yearly to India, where he studied with various yogic and tantric masters.  Gregor has published four amazing books – two on yoga asana, the primary and the intermediate series of ashtanga yoga, one on pranayama, and one on meditation, and these books have been translated into many languages.  His teachings incorporate not just posture, but also, purification, pranayama, meditation, devotion, and yoga philosophy, and he offers workshops, retreats, and teacher trainings worldwide.  The main blog website is http://www.8limbs.com.                                       Gregor, welcome to the show.  I'm thrilled to have you.  Thanks for joining me.   Gregor Maehle:          Thanks for having me, Claudia.  It's a great pleasure.   Claudia Altucher:        That's great.  So it's 8:00 PM in Sydney, right?   Gregor Maehle:          That's right.  Yes, it is 8:00 PM here.   Claudia Altucher:        And what did you do today?   Gregor Maehle:          The day today was spent with practicing yoga and reading some yogic texts and doing heaps of meditation and doing a bit of gardening.   Claudia Altucher:        Oh, how nice.                                       [Laughter]   Gregor Maehle:          Yeah, I'm just after a tour.  I recently came back from Tokyo and I taught in Bali and on the Australian West Coast, so this is basically a bit of a holiday for me.   Claudia Altucher:        That's nice, and I saw some photographs in Facebook.  You get a large following of students in your workshops, about 60, 70 people?   Gregor Maehle:          Yes, that's correct, yeah.  Yes, that is correct.   Claudia Altucher:        Yeah, that was very interesting that you attract a large gathering.  I guess that's wonderful.  I saw that recently, you and your wife, Monica, bought some land and you are now living in a forest.   Gregor Maehle:          Yes, that's right.  Yeah, that might be part of why the phone connection is not that great because I'm not really inside of civilization, so yes, I do live in a rainforest on a mountaintop overlooking the Pacific Ocean.   Claudia Altucher:        That sounds wonderful, and do you find that the connection with nature at that level helps you with the practice?   Gregor Maehle:          Very much so, very much so, and I guess that is something that is often emphasized in the ancient yoga texts, that from a certain point onwards, it is suggested that the yogi move into nature to devote themselves more seriously to the so-called higher limbs of yoga.   Claudia Altucher:        Right.  Yes, and that's what I wanna talk about today, because, I mean, I am a big fan of your books, as you know.  I've reviewed them, I've talked about them, and they're very – they have a lot of the technique and you've done a lot of research around every one of them, so you talk about how different stages look at different parts of the practice, and you have this distilled knowledge of your lifetime work into them, and to me, it's like someone finally decided to write all of the secrets of yoga and put them in four-book form, which is a blessing to all of us.  But the one I want to focus is the latest one, called Yoga Meditation, and because I think there's a lot of confusion when it comes to meditation.  Would you agree with that?   Gregor Maehle:          Yes, there is a great confusion, and part of that is that people generally take the Vedantic and Buddhist translation or meaning of the term "meditation."   Claudia Altucher:        Right, right.  You say in this book, for example, that you've watched in amazement, a little bit, that many students are, perhaps, get frustrated with teachers that teach only the asana, or the poses part, and then they start looking on their own for meditation techniques, and then they end up maybe doing Buddhist techniques.  And that described me.  That's what I did.  So for example, I went to a Vipassana, and it's not really the yoga tradition of meditation.   Gregor Maehle:          No, no, certainly not.  If you look at, for example, into the Yoga Sutra, which is the defining text of yoga, it's many thousand years old, and there in the Sutra 3.2, for example, the sage Patanjali says that meditation that is Dhyana in Sanskrit is defined as a permanent stream of awareness from the meditator towards the object of meditation and a permanent stream of information from the object back to the meditator, which is, of course, a quite different idea of what we have in Vipassana and in Buddhism.   Claudia Altucher:        Right.  So for example, in Vipassana, they just instruct you to watch the breath and then watch for sensations in the body, and so the idea is that all stuff – all conditioning stuff will come up and you won't – you will not react to it in the same way you did before and eventually will clear up, but what I found very interesting is that you say, "Yes, you may prevent yourself from overreacting in the future – " I'm paraphrasing – "to past reactions, but it will not take you deeper into meditation as the yoga tradition does."  Am I getting that right?   Gregor Maehle:          Yes, I guess the main thing of this – about this Vipassana definition would be, Vipassana is actually something that has developed out of Buddhism, and the main difference between the Buddhism and the Vedanta, which is the Indian or the Hindu equivalent of the Buddhism, and what we teach in yoga is that according to those so-called idealistic schools like the Buddhism and the Advaita Vedanta, the world is an illusion, whereas in yoga, the world is seen as real.  So the meditator has actually a keen interest in the world, which is, for us, much more interesting than, for example, our own conditioning.   Claudia Altucher:        Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, I see.  And so this sort of concentration that you were describing or focusing on an object and receiving from the objet is actually more the way of yoga.  It's not so much observing sensations; it's concentrating on an object.   Gregor Maehle:          Yes, that's right.  So for example, we wouldn't really – I mean, you know, the yoga's very much interested in placing the body in, let's say, a perfect position, which the yogis would consider that either Padmasana, the lotus posture, or Siddhasana, a similar posture to that, would be perfect yoga positions for various reasons, but one of the reasons is that in those positions, the body can eventually become so light and effortless that we can completely go beyond the body.  That means leaving the body behind so that they can go deeper into the spiritual aspects of the meditation.   Claudia Altucher:        Now, what I've seen around from people who are interested in yoga, there's a lot of difficulty with – never mind the lotus, but just sitting down, there's a lot of curved spines, bad posture, and nevertheless, you recommend, you say, "Do not wait to start meditation.  Start trying it early on."  So for someone, say, who would like to perhaps get into your teachings, read, practice, that cannot sit in any of the four postures that you recommend, sort of like one is kneeling or the – the other one is a modified –   Gregor Maehle:          Just cut out.   Claudia Altucher:        Oh, I'm sorry.  Can you hear me now?   Gregor Maehle:          Yes, I can hear you.  Sorry about that.   Claudia Altucher:        Okay, so for someone who cannot sit easily, what would you recommend to get started with this –   Gregor Maehle:          Yes – yeah.  Okay, there's actually a so-called "meditation bench," which brings ___ in a similar position as the Virasana position, so – but you're basically sitting in a kneeling position, but you're not sitting on your heels, but your sit bones are slightly elevated.   Claudia Altucher:        I see.   Gregor Maehle:          So yeah, so that would be – the advantage of such a meditation bench is that your spine is still in the ideal double-S curve.   HERE IS THE FULL TRANSCRIPT      

Claudia is a writer, podcaster, and teacher of yoga. She is the co-author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book "The Power Of No" (HayHouse 2014) and author of "21 Things To Know Before Starting An Ashtanga Yoga Practice". Most recently on January 8th 2015, Claudia released her new book called Become an Idea Machine: Because ideas are the currency of the 21st Century. This book has become a favorite read of mine and also part of my daily routine.  Also in January 2015, Claudia created a new podcast series called The Yoga Podcast after co-hosting a favorite podcast of mine Ask Altucher (with 206 episodes released as of Feb 8th, 2015).  During our interview, Claudia opened up about a number of topics that had always fascinated me: What is it like to be producing content all day, everyday, across social channels and engaging with your audience? How does Claudia energize and sustain her creative power while working as a multi-disciplined entrepreneur? (To put things in perspective, Claudia now has over 54,000 fans on Facebook, nearly 7,000 followers on Twitter and over 2.6 million views to her blog ClaudiaYoga.com since inception. She is also very active on Quora and Clarity.) "Money can run out but ideas cannot. When you constantly generate ideas, you become unstoppable." - Claudia Azula Altucher After reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Maria Kondo just a few weeks ago, Claudia and her husband James threw away 25 years worth of personal belongings. She recalled, "We threw away 60 enormous garbage bags and the living room has been clean every since. It has a profound effect on the mind and everything you do. You gain a new way of seeing things." One immediate connection I found between Claudia and I is the practice of yoga. ClaudiaYoga.com is her official yoga portal where she discusses teaching, retreat and she encourages anyone to "ask way".  To untangle the benefits and hype surrounding yoga today, Claudia is most interested in making yoga practical and accessible to people.  She believes that it is a responsibility for those who practice and teach yoga to get it down to what is useful. Little did I know that some elements in The Power of No are based on the seven levels of yoga starting from the most basic light energy. This book helps you understand what is a compassionate no, how to say no to news coming from the outside, and eventually "you’ll be freed to say a truly powerful Yes in your life—one that opens the door to opportunities, abundance, and love." The most difficult thing to do is saying no without explanation. Become an Idea Machine is a great follow-up. Claudia's new book helps exercise and motivate people (individually and as a team) to gather and become creative problem solvers. Monkey mind doesn't have an off switch so it is important to channel our energy into something positive. Life begins to change and transform by itself when we become atomic idea generators. My favorite and also the most unforgettable moment during our interview is Claudia's advice, a universal message for wome --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/feisworld/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/feisworld/support

Ideas are not cheap  It's episode 30! Today we have on special guest Claudia Azula Altucher. Claudia is a two time best seller, and her latest book Become An Idea Machine has just been published. Claudia talks to us today about how to come up with ideas. "The Idea muscle is like any other muscle, it must be worked out." Claudia, and her husband James Altucher, make it a point to say that you need to come up with 10 ideas a day. It seems like a lot of work but it's not really. Claudia says, get it out of the way early in the morning, like going to the gym and be done. If you keep it up, you will not only have a list of ideas to work from, but you will be able to come up with new ideas at any time.Want some help with coming up with ideas?  Claudia is giving away her book Become An Idea Machine. How much easier can it be to come up with a new idea? I've always said, the idea section of Appitalize On Your Idea is both the shortest and hardest chapter. Thanks to Claudia, it doesn't have to be! My thanks to Claudia for being on the show! Links Mentioned During the Show:Claudias Home PageClaudias Twitter PageBecome An Idea Machine - Claudias book - free for you to download.For more information check out Appitalize On Your Idea.