Journey Into Power; How to Sculpt Your Ideal Body, Free Your True Self, and Transform Your Life With Yoga

by Baron Baptiste

• ISBN13: 9780743226592
• ISBN10: 0743226593
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-23
• Publisher: Fireside

Summary

Wake up the power inside and turn your life around! Whether you are looking to lose weight, trying to increase your strength and stamina, hoping to sharpen your mental edge, or seeking to go deeper within, Journey into Power can take you there. Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga isn't just the ultimate workout, it's the ultimate life transformation program. In this unique and inspiring book, Baron Baptiste, one of the world's most dynamic and sought-after master yoga teachers, brings us the same revolutionary program for body, mind, and spirit that has changed the bodies and lives of Hollywood celebrities, all-star athletes, and thousands of people just like you. In his refreshing and iconoclastic style, he shows us that the key to true power is not to chase an ideal version of ourselves, but to reveal the perfect self already within. Here are just some of the benefits you can expect from using this book: Strong, lean muscles and a shedding of unwanted pounds. Laserlike mental clarity and focus. An easy release of the beliefs and habits that hold you back. An inner oasis of calm and composure. Inspiration to live authentically every day of your life. The program is divided into five parts: REWIRING YOUR MIND is where it all begins. Yoga teaches you to manage your mental and emotional states. By learning to pay attention to the signals our minds are sending, and rewiring our negative beliefs, we find ways to break free of whatever holds us back. DAILY POWER YOGA PRACTICE is the heart of the book. With the energy, enthusiasm, and clarity that have made him such an incredibly popular teacher, Baron shows us how Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga starts the positive energy moving and ultimately enables us to transform our bodies and our lives. THE CLEANSING DIET is not a strict regimen. It's about learning to listen to your body and intuition so that you can eat in the way that is best for you. MEDITATION FOR TRUTHFUL LIVING is about learning to cultivate stillness and live from the core of your authentic self. Meditation practice isn't about sitting in the lotus position -- it's about aligning ourselves with the truth that can set us free. JOURNEYING INTO REAL LIFE shows us how to apply everything we've learned from this amazing program to our daily lives so that we can experience truly astonishing results at every level. Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga is the ultimate commitment that yields the ultimate transformation. It heals, detoxifies, and electrifies body and mind at their deepest levels. You will find your true strength, your real self, and a new way to live that is both authentic and joyful!

Author Biography

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 Vinyasa Yoga in the mid-nineties. 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.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

PART 1: REWIRING YOUR MIND

PART 2: DAILY POWER YOGA PRACTICE
The Postures • Overview of the Poses •
How to Design a Practice to Fit Your Schedule

PART 3: THE CLEANSING DIET

PART 4: MEDITATION FOR TRUTHFUL LIVING

PART 5: JOURNEYING INTO REAL LIFE

RESOURCES

Excerpts

Preface "Sculpt your ideal body...free your true self...transform your life..."If I seem to be making a lot of promises to you here, that's because I am. It may sound too good to be true, but if you work the principles in this book, I guarantee you will journey into power in every area of your life. Your body will transform, you will change your destructive patterns permanently at a cellular level, your mind will be infused with life and equanimity, and your relationships will be truer, deeper, and more fulfilling.How do I know this? Because I have seen thousands of students come through my studios, Bootcamps, and workshops and with my own eyes witnessed their transformations. I have seen students arrive the first night of Bootcamps anxious and heavy with emotional baggage, but by the time they leave, it's as if they have shed a hundred pounds of physical and psychic debris. I have witnessed overweight people who come to my studios create entirely new bodies within only a few months.Countless students from all over the world who come to my programs write to me and tell me about breakthroughs they have experienced in all different areas of their lives -- even those who have been practicing yoga for years! A forty-seven-year-old woman from Seattle wrote to tell me how she experienced a physical opening in her shoulders that created a tremendous release of old stress and sorrow that she had been carrying around with her for decades. She told me she hadn't felt this free since she was in her twenties! Another student, a thirty-six-year-old woman who teaches yoga in Colorado and has been doing yoga for nearly six years, e-mailed to say that she saw for the first time how her competitive nature was interfering with her growth and her overall happiness. She wrote: "I was able to see that I can challenge myself to my new heights...that yoga isn't about competition or comparison, but rather it is about pushing myself beyond my current abilities and moving past the limited definitions of myself."People with lifelong aches tell me their pains have vanished after only a few practice sessions. Hundreds with chronic back problems experience quick and long-lasting relief and are able to resume activities they hadn't been able to do for many years. A twenty-two-year-old man who was going through a depression and did not want to take pills came to a workshop on the advice of his therapist. He stayed with his power yoga practice after that workshop, and within three months, the depression was totally gone. I have one student whose ovarian cancer went into remission after she wholly dedicated herself to a healing yoga practice.Many others are inspired to make bold and wonderful changes in their lives, from leaving unhealthy relationships to venturing into careers they had always dreamed about. A very successful thirty-three-year-old systems analyst came to a Bootcamp looking for a change in her life, and on the last day she announced to all of us that she was going home with a newfound confidence and courage to quit the job she hated and go back to school to pursue her dream. She had simply opened herself up to whatever spontaneous insights would arise, and when this plan materialized, she knew in an instant that her life was about to take an amazing, wonderful turn.But the main reason I am so convinced that my power yoga can transform people is that it happened to me. I didn't just arrive as a master yoga teacher, happy and serene, walking my authentic path. Like so many other people, I had to go through the dark to get to the light.My parents, Walt and Magana Baptiste, were two of America's yoga pioneers. My father came from a fitness background (he was Mr. America in 1949), and in 1952 he and my mother were the first to open a yoga and health center in San Francisco. They were way ahead of their time as early proponents of the whole healthy lifestyle movement. From the time I was