40 Days to Personal Revolution: A Breakthrough Program to Radically Change Your Body and Awaken the Sacred Within Your Soul
Those familiar with yoga teacher Baron Baptiste know that he trains  many high-profile celebrities and athletes. Yet his message is the  antithesis of the American obsession with wealth and fame. For Baptiste,  personal transformation is about facing the abyss of our internal emptiness  and recognizing all the ways we seek to fill the void with money, status and  material possessions. Ultimately, this program offers readers a kick-butt  chance to get started on a steadier and more lasting, internal form of  fulfillment. "In the end yoga is not a magic cure-all, but the way challenges our bodies  moves our stuck energy, clears our mind, and inspires us to seek and live in  truth can be a catalyst for amazing spiritual growth," he writes. "Ultimately the yoga program found in the book is about developing a  soulful perspective to the question that I hear nearly every day in my  classroom: 'How did I get into this state, and how can I get out?'"Baptiste divides his program into a six-week system. Each week focuses on a  theme for transformation. For instance, Week One starts with the theme of  "Presence." Baptiste suggests readers start with a daily 20-minute yoga  practice. (His asanas are all gentle, but the mechanics may be challenging  for readers completely new to yoga, although the pictures and lengthy  captions will help.) He also suggests a beginning "balancing diet" (based on  Ayurveda principles), and thematic meditations, which include a list of  "excavation questions." One could argue that this book is even better than going on a 40-day retreat  at one of Baptiste's yoga centers. The program is designed to be integrated  into your life as you live it. Readers do the yoga and prepare the food in  their homes, and contemplate the principles for enlightenment within the  routines of daily life. In this way it has the potential to be a lasting and  well integrated transformation. --Gail Hudson