Quotes from Baron Baptiste

Of course we want to perform the poses with a focus on intelligent mechanics of body movement ... and push ourselves to the point of discomfort in order to create new results. But, at the same time, we want to be detached from insatiably perfecting that form and instead seek and create a depth of experience.

When you do that, you are operating from your center, from cause rather than effect.

Ultimately, no yoga teacher can tell you what you need--not in a pose, not in a diet, not in a lifestyle. They can give you the principles, but it is up to you to use your intuition to find what is right for you. You have to practice your own naturalness, and that is what Baptiste Power Yoga is all about.

I'm not teaching you anything you don't already know somewhere deep within your being. Your genetic systems are encoded with this knowledge. My role is to awaken you to what you have simply forgotten along the way.

As you surrender to the completing pose, be a yes for openness. Be a yes for being yourself. Be a yes for giving yourself over to something greater, to allowing for something new, to holding nothing back. Be a yes for the rising and falling of your chest with each breath, for that natural ebb and flow of life force in and out of your body.

Journey into Power is about excavating the amazing, radiant self already inside you. Within you is a power that is already perfect, and the true essence of seeking on this journey is accepting .

My fresh perspective provided her with a new alternative that had always been available to her; she just wasn't seeing it.

The yogis say you can never step into the same river twice, because the current is always shifting and changing. You've never stepped into this exact river before today. Not with this body, not with today's particular energy, with the specific number of bites of breakfast in your belly, with the earth tipped on its axis. Perhaps up until now you haven't had a breakthrough in this pose, but that was then. What's possible today?

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.

Yoga is a dance of dealing with what is, and allowing yourself to fully experience whatever you're experiencing right here, in the moment. In life, we so often resist what we don't like or don't want to do. Here, on your mat, is a safe opportunity to see what's on the other side of that. Physical asana is a measure of some higher possibility. Put your attention on what you want to have happen and be for it, and watch the magic unfold.

There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning. KRISHNAMURTI I

We live in a world that teaches the importance of ambition, efficiency, expediency, getting things done to produce the quickest results. It does not teach or encourage us to relax and just be where we are. In fact, if we are not crazy active and doing a million different things, we get labeled as lazy or unambitious.

All the work you've done up until now has been to lead you to this precise moment, to face precisely what you're facing.

I see a real yogi as a someone who is committed to growth and to being the best version of themselves, and, at the same time, is courageous enough to be fully present and authentic in each moment. Someone who is not afraid to get real about the whole mess of who they are - the good, the bad, and the ugly

Samadhi, which translates to 'neutral vision.' Sama means 'even' or 'neutral', and dhi means 'vision' or 'seeing.' Neutral vision means to see without judging. No appreciating nor condemning; simply looking.

Transformation comes not by adding things on but by removing what didn't belong in the first place.

the ones who get to the idea that resisting what is so is actually causing them greater emotional suffering than the illness itself. Accepting what was going on allowed them to flow with the new demands of their bodies in a much more empowered way.

When you focus on the problems, you get more of the same. What you focus on you create.

Give up the stories you've made up about what's "true" about your physical potential and just be with your breath and in your body, feeling what you feel. Give up trying to collect things in your practice. Give up the thought that whatever is happening within your body right now should not be.

The mind is a friend or it is a foe.

You have thoughts, but you are not your thoughts—and they definitely don't have to run the show. You

As Socrates said, "True learning is remembering.

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.

The Twelve Laws of Transformation 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