My guest on today's show is a man I met in India and immediately became intrigued with when he sat down to dinner with me and a friend, and began to delve into unlocking flow states in athletes through breath work. It turns out he had over two decades of experience in coaching professional athletes towards not only cultivating a winning mindset, but also customizing their training loads to their biomechanics and physiology, then optimizing body, mind, relationship and personal environment to skyrocket the careers of the Indian professional teams and athletes he was working with. His name is Shayamal Vallabhjee, and he describes his new book Breathe, Believe, Balance: A Guide to Self-discovery and Healing  as an "out-of-the-box approach" to performance enhancement. It is one part memoir and one part guide to self-discovery - an intimate account of the lessons Shayamal learned while growing up during South Africa's apartheid era, from living the life of a monk and traveling the globe with professional athletes. Using his knowledge and experience from the worlds of science, spirituality, and psychology, in this book, he takes you through this introspective and self-healing journey. From understanding the importance of self-love to decoding the science of healthy relationships; from learning to be emotionally present in every conversation to engineering your environment for success, Breathe, Believe, Balance helps you take a deeper look at your life. Offering a scientific analysis of the human psyche and packed with useful questionnaires, his book is your guide to self-transformation and personal mastery. Shayamal is a South African born Sports Scientist, Psychologist and High Performance Coach. He hold two masters degrees in Clinical and Organizational Psychology. He grew up in apartheid South Africa, where his dream of wanting to play sports for the country faced an insurmountable opponent in institutionalized segregation. Not quite ready to quit sport, he studied Sports & Exercise Science. After returning from the Cricket World Cup in 2003 (Technical Analyst of Indian Cricket Team), he realized that irrespective of one’s academic qualifications and experience, racism was going to be a barrier to growth for people of color. To escape the pain of discrimination, he lived a monastic life for just under four years at the Hare Krsna Temple in South Africa. During that time, he discovered the close parallels between modern psychology and ancient vedic philosophy. Shayamal has since studied the various spiritual philosophies and worked to bridge the gap between spirituality and psychology in an attempt to guide his clients - the worlds best athletes and CEOs. Shayamal is a 4x TEDx speaker, a recipient of the INK Fellowship, the Australia India Youth Fellowship, Men’s Health Trainer of the Year, and Wellness Guru of the Year 2019. He serves on the Global Advisory Board of Herbalife Nutrition, Adidas Running and the UK Risk Management Forum. He has authored four book on Sports Science and Motivation and lectured at academic institutes globally for more than a decade. As a motivational speaker, Shayamal has delivered more than 350 keynotes addresses. Shayamal has served as a consultant to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa , Kenyan Athletics Team, Indian Olympic Association, United Nations Youth Forums, and on the peer review board of numerous academic scientific journals.  He has been a High Performance Coach or Sports Scientist to the South Africa High Performance and Women’s Cricket Team, 2003 Indian World Cup Cricket Team, South Africa Davis Cup Team, Indian Davis Cup Team, Kings XI Punjab (IPL), Bengaluru FC (3 x Winners of Premier League in India), Jaipur Pink Panthers (Inaugural Kabaddi Champions), St Lucia Stars (Carribean Premier League). He has been the Sports Scientist with the Indian Contingent at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, London 2012 Olympics, Delhi Commonwealth Games, and 2010 Guangzhou Asian Ga