Let the Revolution Begin Now

In 40 Days to Personal Revolution, Baron Baptiste -- one of the world's most beloved master yoga teachers -- inspires us to transform more than body and mind: He gives us the tools we need to set ourselves free to live the healthful life we've always imagined.

In the next 40 days you will create a whole new way of being and living. Tapping ancient wisdom and his own personal experience, Baron has created a relevant and completely practical program that will lead you to the clarity of mind, body, and spirit that awaits on the other side of your revolution.

Baron's Basic Laws of Transformation, based on timeless principles of growth, serve as the philosophical underpinning of the 40-day journey and demonstrate that radical change can come from making even the smallest shift. The program itself is divided into five weeks, with the seventh day of each devoted to active rest. Each week builds on the lessons of the one preceding it and includes:

• a yoga practice to do every day
• principles to cleanse your body, along with a specific eating plan
• instructions to begin and deepen a meditation practice
• excavation questions to root out limiting beliefs and patterns

Baron ends with a section on Daily Practices for Living an Enlightened Life, to help you maintain your new state of mind and health in every moment of your life. From here you will go beyond your revolution and discover your own personal purpose and way of living.

Baron Baptiste is the son of two of America's yoga pioneers. He began to seriously study yoga at age twelve and trained extensively in all the major traditions before creating Baptiste Power Yoga in the mid-eighties. Baptiste has trained both celebrities and athletes, including Helen Hunt, Randall Cunningham, Raquel Welch, and Elisabeth Shue, and for four years he was Peak Performance Specialist for the Philadelphia Eagles. He divides his time between his yoga studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Sundance, Utah.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One
The Laws of Transformation: The Foundation of Your Revolution

Law 1: Seek the Truth • Law 2: Be Willing to Come Apart • Law 3: Step out of Your Comfort Zone • Law 4: Commit to Growth • Law 5: Shift Your Vision • Law 6: Drop What You Know • Law 7: Relax with What Is • Law 8: Remove the Rocks • Law 9: Don't Rush the Process • Law 10: Be True to Yourself • Law 11: Be Still and Know • Law 12: Understand That the Whole Is the Goal

Part Two
The Transformative Journey: 40 Days to Personal Revolution

Week One: Presence • Week Two: Vitality • Week Three: Equanimity • Week Four: Restoration • Week Five: Centering • Week Six: Triumph

Part Three
After the Revolution:The Daily Practices for Living an Awakened Life

After the Revolution • The Daily Practices

Yoga practices

Introduction Purity of life is the highest and truest art. -- Gandhi What is a personal revolution, and why do we need one?Many of us are searching without knowing exactly what we are looking for. Some of us go on a diet to lose weight and try all kinds of programs and workshops to make ourselves feel better, or perhaps we throw ourselves into our work and seek wealth and status to fill the void, but underneath, an emotional emptiness remains. No matter how much we try to gloss over that yearning with temporary fixes, it is still there, whispering the truth: that what we need isn't another quick fix, but a rather a rebirth -- a whole-life revolution.When I was born, my parents' Yoga and Health Center -- the first of its kind in San Francisco -- was already well established. Famous yogis would come and stay at our home, and we would go to India often for research. Because I was always around yoga, I just kind of picked it up by osmosis. As an adult, it became a natural way of life for me, and for years it seemed as though I was either studying under a guru, practicing yoga, or teaching.But as I acknowledged in Journey into Power, at a certain point I felt as though the yoga process was failing me. What was supposed to produce miracles in my life just wasn't. Without realizing it, I had bought into the notion that something outside myself could "fix" me. The practices were calming me down a bit on the surface, but they were not enough. Something deep down was still missing. Perhaps my body was healthy, but my soul felt empty. My relationships weren't really working, and in many ways, my life felt futile. I knew I needed something more.Many of us reach this point, yet somehow we get good at masking it. When someone asks us how we are doing, we automatically say, "Really great...things are so good...no complaints," but the truth underneath says differently. Eventually we can't fake being healthy or spiritual or pretend that "everything is just fine" any longer, and we either land in an emotional fetal position, ask for help, or both.In my most desperate moment, from somewhere deep in my soul, I asked God for help. I had heard the phrase "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and the door of your mind will open," but it took a humbling emotional pain to understand what that really meant. I asked and I knocked, and as promised, a door was opened. It didn't swing open, as I had hoped; it barely cracked an inch. However, it was as though I were living in a dark room and that tiny crack in the door provided me with the light I needed to see the truth. I finally started to see that real health means wholeness on all levels and a deep and true connection to what is most sacred: the truth within our hearts. I realized that in order for my life to really change, I needed to be willing to surrender all the parts of myself for transformation. It wasn't enough to just work my body and my life on the surface; I needed to look within, take responsibility for my own path, and completely overhaul everything from the inside out.Once I woke up and really got it that I couldn't just throw myself into the mechanics of the practice without also seeking wholeness and expect to feel better, I began to see the real gifts yoga can offer. In the end, yoga is not a magic cure-all, but the way it challenges our bodies, moves our stuck emotional energy, clears our mind, and inspires us to seek and live in truth can be a catalyst for amazing growth. The style of yoga I practice and teach, which I call Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga, is ultimately a system of physical, mental, and spiritual awakening that integrates the whole person, on every level.Ultimately, the yoga program found in this book is about developing a soulful perspective to the question that I hear nearly every day in my classroom: "How did I get myself into this state, and how