From Software Engineer to Happiness Coach | My Story & Season 2 Vision | Holistic Happiness Club | S2E0

Welcome to Season 2 of Holistic Happiness Club.

In this introductory episode, I share the story behind the long pause between seasons, my personal journey from software engineering to happiness coaching, moving from India to the Netherlands, and the uncertainties that reshaped my perspective on life and happiness.

This episode is also an introduction to the philosophy behind Holistic Happiness Club:
the idea that true happiness is not just a temporary emotion or positive mindset, but a deeper alignment between your inner world and outer life.

We explore:

• stress and modern lifestyle struggles
• emotional well-being
• purpose-driven living
• the hidden cost of constant pressure
• balancing ambition with inner peace
• holistic growth in personal and professional life
• learning to live with uncertainty

Season 2 will feature deeper conversations with experts, thinkers, coaches, and individuals with unique life experiences — exploring happiness, emotional resilience, mindset, relationships, conscious living, and meaningful success from multiple perspectives.

If you are a thoughtful professional, someone navigating change, or simply trying to build a healthier and more meaningful life in today’s fast-moving world, this podcast is for you.

Hosted by Akshay Tiwari.

Transcript

0:00

Hello, and welcome back to season two of Holistic Happiness Club. This is the episode zero or the introductory episode of season two. I know there has been a long delay between season one and season two, and that is why I thought of doing this introductory episode so that I can walk you through what all has happened so far and what is going to happen in season two, what you can expect, what kind of content you can expect in season two of Holistic Happiness Club. Let's begin, and let me introduce myself, and then, let me talk about Holistic Happiness Club and what you can expect in season two of Holistic Happiness Club. So my name is Akshay, those who do not know me. By education and by profession, I'm a software engineer. I'm still working in the corporate world. But by passion, I'm also a coach, a holistic happiness coach. So let me walk you through a little bit about my career. I started working back in two thousand thirteen in the software world, in the corporate world, and I was very happy with my job, and I still am happy with my job because I am driven by something. And there, there are six baseline in... I have already walked you through these baseline things, in season one. But in season two, I'm planning to do a detailed episode about what is baseline and how can you-- what they can do in your life. So one of my baselines, is, making an impact, meaning I'm driven by things that can make an impact on someone's life, on society, big or small. Bigger, the better. So one of my baseline is making an impact, and I'm happy in the corporate world, in the software world because I think, I believe that I am making an impact by writing the piece of code in the software, right? So this is my core belief, and that is why I was also satisfied with my corporate job. But after working there for seven long years, in twenty twenty, I started thinking that, okay, let me do something else. Let me do something more direct that can impact people's life, because software is impacting people's life, true, but it is an indirect impact. I'm sitting in somewhere in the cubicle. I'm writing some code. I'm developing some piece of software. That piece of software somewhere is changing someone's life. That's true. But I'm not able to see that direct impact. I wanted to do something that makes more direct impact. So that's why I, came into coaching field. I did my life coaching certificate in, 2019 from Peak Performance Academy, Mumbai. And I partnered with another person that time, and I started working as a health coach. We were working with people from all walks of life. And we were working with people who had Sjogren's syndromes, fibromyalgia, diabetes, blood pressure, depression, thyroid, and all sorts of issue, weight issues, weight loss, weight gain, all different things. And I noticed, over the period of time that these people who are going through all these issues, all these problems, their problems has started somewhere in their life when they were too stressed. So that's where this thing started in my mind, that why not n- why not nip this problem in the bud? Which means why not teach people how to deal with stress, how to deal with problems in their life so that these kind of problems, these kind of, uh, issues which comes, because of stress, because of lifestyle problem. So for those who do not know these diabetes, blood pressure, these are called lifestyle disorders because our lifestyle is so much in disharmony with nature that this problem occurs. So why not nip the problem in the bud, you know? So that's where this idea of, happiness coaching germinated, and I started drifting towards, working towards be-being a happiness coach. So, I trained myself in, various methods. I developed few things on my own based on my experience, based on things, that I had learned so far working with clients and reading different things and through my own life as well. Yeah, that-that's when I started working as a happiness coach. And as I told you, I'm still full-time working, as a software engineer. So there was little time, and there was only, so much I could do. There was only so many people I could reach. So I thought to reach more people to, spread this knowledge, or the experience that I am gaining to more and more people so that they can make a little bit better decision in their life. I started this podcast called Holistic Happiness Club. So Holistic Happiness Club is a place where we talk about happiness holistically. What do I mean by that? I see happiness as the combination of things, you know. Holistic happiness meaning looking at happiness, in the ecosystem of life where your, emotional health, your physical health, your relationships, your personal life, your professional life, and purpose-driven well-being, all of them coexist peacefully together. It is the deeper sense of alignment. It is, um, how would I say that? It is the alignment between your inner world and the outer world, inner peace and the outer success as well. Both should exist together to make you happy. So it is an everyday pursuit. It's not just a choice as it is, um, being very much popularized, uh, nowadays on social media. It is not just a state of mind. It is relentless everyday pursuit of making your life or living your life to the most fullest and optimal way. That's how I would like to define holistic happiness. I see that there are different aspects of life, and when those aspects of life work in harmony, then you achieve your optimal state. That is what I'm calling happiness, these things put together makes you a person, makes your life, and if any one of them is not going great, you are not going to feel happy in your life. So we talk about everything, be it your physical health, mental health, love life, relationships, sometimes a little bit of finances as well. Not about like how you can trade in stocks or where you should invest, but more about mindset, related to, finances. So we focus mostly on mindset related to all these things, all these aspects of a human life. So this is what we do. So in season one, when I started podcast, I tried to put out my experience. There were mostly monologues. There were four or five conversations with other people, but it was mostly monologues about things which I have learned from my own life, from the experience of coaching other people, from the experience of, learning through things and solving the problem that I had faced personally or somebody in my vicinity had faced. So that was about, season one. It was mostly monologue. But- one person can only talk so much, right? So when I realized that, I started thinking that I should bring in more and more experts of other fields so that they can share their experience, they can talk about their area of expertise, and they can give you more value so there was a need to bring in more expert, I felt. So then I started searching for more and more expert. Then life happened as, it happens with so many of us, and there were so many things because of which I could not start season two. There were so many moving parts. There were so many, uncertainties like where I am going to be next month and what am I going to do. So, I don't want to talk about, those stuffs in detail, but in totality, because of these personal un-uncertainties, I could not start season two. I moved from, being based in India to now being based in Netherlands. So I'm going to host all the, season two episodes, from Netherlands. This is one of the change that has happened. That was one of the uncertainty, which I was going through in my personal life. So yeah, that delayed the season two, but now we are all set. I will not say that all the uncertainties has, gone, but I have made peace with them . This is also another, learning experience that I can share sometime, later in this, season itself, that how, there will always be uncertainties, right? And you have to navigate through them. So somehow I've made peace with these uncertainties. And amid these I am-- I'm trying to, start with the season two again. So here in the season two, what you can expect. In Season 2, of course, as I talked that there will be more and more experts. But it is not only going to be about, listening to the conversations of different experts, but conversation itself or the field itself might be very different compared to Season 1, because here we might talk to people or the experts of the field which are very lesser-known to people. For example, somebody who's treating people through the power of yoga, not the traditional yoga that you have heard of. It's a different thing. I'll bring in that conversation, sometime later. And somebody who has built a completely different life, from the life that we all, we city dwellers know about. This kind of things are completely different and some of the subjects you might have already heard, will also be, there. Will there be no monologues? No, there will be few of them, but compared to Season 1, their frequency will be very, very less. I'm trying to bring in more and more experts so that you can listen from different, different people and, learn from them. So stay tuned and if you are a coach, someone who can contribute to people's life and if you want to use this platform, please reach out to me. I will be very happy to hear from you and I will be very happy to host you, if we get along, in terms of philosophies. So when you are reaching out to me, please, leave details about you like what have you done and what are your credentials and why you want to speak on, Holistic Happiness Club and what you want to speak about. Right? So that is it about, the introductory episode of Season 2 of Holistic Happiness Club. I hope this season will bring a lot of value to your life and I hope this season will make your life just a little bit better. I'm not saying that a podcast or an episode will transform your life, but it can start the beginning of that. And I know that very well because I have experienced that. I have seen that one spark can change your life. So stay tuned. I hope that I will bring more and more of value to you guys. Thank you so much for listening. Bye-bye. This is your host, Akshay Tiwari, signing off.