Auburn native Mark J. Ryan recently returned from a long and inspiring trip to Russia.

On his two-week tour, Ryan visited Moscow, Novosibirsk and St. Petersburg with business partner and friend Dr. Joe Vitale, author of books such as “The Attractor Factor,” to which Ryan contributed.

They spoke to several hundred people a day about concepts and means for improving their lives.

While in Russia, Ryan's goal was to bring a new sense of hope to the audiences he had the good fortune to address. Ryan, a motivational speaker who focuses on several topics, from spirituality to mindset and psychology to wealth and happiness, believes that where there is a will, there is a way.

Ryan said that his path to motivational speaking began in the '80s when he read “Unlimited Power” by Tony Robbins.

“I became addicted,” Ryan said. “I wanted to know where he learned everything he was writing about. So I started doing my research and reading everything I could and studying.”

This led Ryan to study in Pennsylvania, learning more and more about neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).

NLP is a model of person-to-person communication that examines the relationship between successful behavior patterns and the patterns of thought underlying them. A system of alternative therapy based on this model is aimed at educating people in self-awareness and effective communication, and to change their patterns of mental and emotional behavior.

Ryan said that he found these abilities came naturally to him. He's also found them to be helpful with others, such as his sister, who had a great fear of storms.

“I was working with my sister,” Ryan said. “I was at her house one day and a big storm was coming. Normally she had a real phobia of storms and she would run around the house and open all the windows, but after working with her for a while, when this storm came she was sitting there perfectly calm.”

Ryan said that he has since been able to apply these skills to help others overcome phobias and work through difficult emotions such as grief, and to find ways to improve their lives. This experience that has changed his life, Ryan said.

“Once you start seeing that you can change your life,” he said, “It really changes the way you think about things and the way you live your life.”

Since befriending Vitale, Ryan has helped him to open up his life as a speaker and writer, and has also introduced him to a practice called ho'oponopono - an ancient Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness.

The two, along with working on books, have also taken their message far and wide, with Russia being their most recent visit.

“I would love to go back again,” Ryan said. “Seeing the way we were able to touch people's lives and help open them up that was really amazing.”

Ryan noted that he felt a distinct sense of culture shock and a sense of real difference between life in Russia and life he knows in America.

“People didn't really seem to smile,” Ryan said. “That is something I noticed and something I tried to work on. I thought if I could get people smiling and make them realize that it was safe in that room with those other people that it could make a real difference and by the time we had finished talking, everyone in that room was smiling. You could feel a very real change.”

Ryan now splits his time between Auburn and Texas, where he has taken his ideas to the game of golf and works with many professional golfers. He feels he has several promising prospects on the horizon to take his ideas and apply them on a deeper level to the game of golf - which, in turn, he believes can help improve lives.

“Looking at a behavior or mindset that affects a game of golf,” Ryan said. “Finding that and changing it can change a whole life. Those same behaviors or thoughts that affect a golf game are the same things that affect our lives and by changing those patterns we can make a real difference in our lives.”