40 Days to Personal Revolution: A Breakthrough Program to Radically Change Your Body and Awaken the Sacred Within Your Soul

40 Days to Personal Revolution: A Breakthrough Program to Radically Change Your Body and Awaken the Sacred Within Your Soul

by Baron Baptiste
40 Days to Personal Revolution: A Breakthrough Program to Radically Change Your Body and Awaken the Sacred Within Your Soul

40 Days to Personal Revolution: A Breakthrough Program to Radically Change Your Body and Awaken the Sacred Within Your Soul

by Baron Baptiste

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Overview

Make your body sleek, your mind clear, and your spirit light in only forty days with this hands-on, step-by-step guide from the New York Times bestselling author of Journey Into Power.

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 also gives us the tools to set ourselves free to live the healthy life we’ve always imagined. In the next forty days you will create a whole new way of being.

By tapping ancient wisdom and based on his own personal experience, Baptiste 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. Each week includes:

-A yoga practice to do every morning.
-Principles to cleanse your diet along with a full eating plan.
-Instructions to begin and deepen a meditation practice.
-Excavation questions to root out limiting beliefs and patterns.

Let the revolution begin now!

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780743253901
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication date: 06/21/2011
Sold by: SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format: eBook
Pages: 224
Sales rank: 814,022
File size: 19 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Baron Baptiste is the son of two of America’s yoga pioneers. He began to seriously study yoga at twelve and trained extensively in all the major traditions before creating Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga in the 1990s. 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.

Read an Excerpt

40 Days to Personal Revolution Law 1: Seek the Truth
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

—JOHN 8:31-33

A MAN WHO WAS LIKE AN UNCLE TO ME WAS A BRAHMACHARYA (A YOGIC RENUNCIATE). HE HAD BEEN THE RIGHT-HAND MAN TO THE FAMOUS YOGA GURU Yogananda for about twenty years before he went on to discover a new path. I remember when I was in my late teens I had a conversation with him that was so profound, I immediately went and wrote it down, word for word, so that I could remember it. It began when I asked him how I could get unstuck from the world of competition that seemed to create so much fear and suffering in my life.

He nodded understandingly “That particular question and a thousand others pertaining to the human predicament can be answered with one word. It’s an ancient word found in almost every spiritual tradition that is now glibly tossed from a hundred thousand pulpits every Sunday of each week. Because of such familiarity, it’s been cheapened, and its deeper mystical meaning has been lost.”

I said, “Please, tell me—what’s the word?”

“Repentance.”

“Oh,” I said, the sneer on my face making it very clear that the word had associations for me. Quite frankly, whenever I heard that word, aside from its rather distasteful religious connotation, shivers would go up my spine, and I always got the image of a magazine cartoon showing a bearded elder in a white robe and sandals walking the streets of Manhattan with a sign saying Repent! The End of the World Is Near.

He and I talked some more, and I came to understand that what he meant by repentance wasn’t that we should dwell on where we lost our way and all the ways we are bad, but rather to have the courage to face the pure, unsweetened truth of ourselves so that we can move on and grow in more honest and authentic ways. It is simply the willingness to see in full truthfulness what we need to face within ourselves and our lives so that we may get into the right alignment. As Jesus taught, it is ultimately always the truth that can set us free.

I have since come to believe that the highest form of repentence is self-acceptance. As the philosopher Carl Rogers said, “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” You can meditate and do yoga until you are blue in the face, and all you will ever be is blue in the face unless you have the courage to open your heart, face reality, admit your mistakes, and take right action. It hurts a bit, but this is what it means to have a personal revolution.

Not too many years after this conversation, I went through a personal awakening in which I started to feel like I had wasted much of my life on futile things. In the process, I saw how I had hardened my heart, and it pained me. I saw all the ways I had missed the mark. I felt like my heart was cracking open—and I cried as I saw how I’d been wasting my life being prideful, unforgiving, and ungrateful, isolated from myself and the people in my life. I was genuinely sorry about it. I was deeply sad, yet profoundly glad to see these things about myself, because I knew it was an opportunity for a new birth, a new beginning in life.

There is a Turkish proverb that says, “No matter how far you have gone down a wrong road, turn back,” and that is exactly what I did. It was painful, but also one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced. When the truth entered my heart, it was as though a thousand pounds of emotional weight had been lifted. Much karma was burned in this sacred moment. For me, this was an authentic and conscious experience of growth in my life.

That was an experience that opened something deep in me. It was as if there was a powerful energy system that broke through the membrane that was holding me back in life. Have you ever felt like “Here’s my power, here’s my energy and strength, here are my talents, here is the gift that I was meant to give”—but then there is an invisible membrane that blocks all this from shining through?

In the religious East they say that if you have done a wrong in the past, it has to be undone. And so perhaps this breaking through is needed in order to see the truth, remap your mind, and establish a new direction. The remapping occurs in the silence of our hearts. Alone and absolutely empty, we acknowledge that there is a lack of right direction and that we need to repent so that we may be rebuilt. The ego will feel that in this deep surrender life ends, but truly, it’s the point where life begins.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xi

Part 1 The Laws of Transformation: The Foundation of Your Revolution 1

Law 1 Seek the Truth 5

Law 2 Be Willing to Come Apart 8

Law 3 Step out of Your Comfort Zone 11

Law 4 Commit to Growth 15

Law 5 Shift Your Vision 19

Law 6 Drop What You Know 22

Law 7 Relax with What Is 27

Law 8 Remove the Rocks 30

Law 9 Don't Rush the Process 34

Law 10 Be True to Yourself 38

Law 11 Be Still and Know 42

Law 12 Understand That the Whole Is the Goal 46

Part 2 The Transformative Journey: 40 Days to Personal Revolution 49

Week 1 Presence 62

Week 2 Vitality 101

Week 3 Equanimity 123

Week 4 Restoration 155

Week 5 Centering 177

Week 6 Triumph 201

Part 3 After the Revolution: The Daily Practices for Living an Awakened Life 219

After the Revolution 221

The Daily Practices 224

Yoga Practices 231

What People are Saying About This

Sharon Gannon

The Bhagavad Gita tells us, in chapter six, that one of the best births, though difficult to attain, is to be reborn into a family of yogis. Baron has accomplished this difficult feat, and his reflections are worth listening to.

Ana T. Forrest

Baron's fresh and synergistic approach to yoga has excited and turned on many people who previously thought yoga had nothing to offer them. He has contributed greatly to spreading the benefits of yoga in the United States.

From the Publisher

Beryl Bender Birch Author of Power Yoga Baron's 40-day plan offers a friendly and genuine springboard into personal revolution of body and mind, showing us how to build strength, motivation, and discipline one day at a time. He connects how we practice and what we eat with how we feel — whether we're working, socializing, meditating, or playing with the kids and dogs. Just take the plunge!

Sharon Gannon Author of Jivamukti Yoga The Bhagavad Gita tells us, in chapter six, that one of the best births, though difficult to attain, is to be reborn into a family of yogis. Baron has accomplished this difficult feat, and his reflections are worth listening to.

Gary Kraftsow Author of Yoga for Wellness and Yoga for Transformation Baron creatively blends wisdom from great masters of Western spirituality with Yogic insights into the process of transformation. The result is a refreshingly simple, yet surprisingly profound manual for personal transformation. What remains is for the reader to actualize the processes he offers, and experience the Revolution.

Rodney Yee Author of Yoga: The Poetry of the Body In 40 Days to Personal Revolution, Baron takes off into newfound freedom and inspiration. He shares his formulas with all of us so directly and selflessly. Let his book take you deep into the wisdom of yourself to liberate your true nature.

Ana T. Forrest Founder of Forrest Yoga and owner of the Forrest Yoga Circle in Santa Monica Baron's fresh and synergistic approach to yoga has excited and turned on many people who previously thought yoga had nothing to offer them. He has contributed greatly to spreading the benefits of yoga in the United States.

Rodney Yee

In 40 Days to Personal Revolution, Baron takes off into newfound freedom and inspiration. He shares his formulas with all of us so directly and selflessly. Let his book take you deep into the wisdom of yourself to liberate your true nature.

Gary Kraftsow

Baron creatively blends wisdom from great masters of Western spirituality with Yogic insights into the process of transformation. The result is a refreshingly simple, yet surprisingly profound manual for personal transformation. What remains is for the reader to actualize the processes he offers, and experience the Revolution.

Beryl Bender Birch

Baron's 40-day plan offers a friendly and genuine springboard into personal revolution of body and mind, showing us how to build strength, motivation, and discipline one day at a time. He connects how we practice and what we eat with how we feel—whether we're working, socializing, meditating, or playing with the kids and dogs. Just take the plunge!

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