Welcome to Baptiste Power Yoga. The ultimate wake-up call!

“So many of us are striving so hard to be better, to know more, do more, be more. We have been conditioned to believe that we are not good enough the way we are. We are afraid that if we do less, we’ll be less, so we read all the latest self-improvement books, take the seminars, follow the diets, go to the gym, but nothing seems to really get us where we want to go. We still weigh too much, worry too much, and race around searching for something that will soothe whatever it is that we see as our problem.

But I believe we all have just one problem.

Yes, you read that right: Every single one of us is suffering from the same problem. Of course, your life looks different from mine, or your friend’s or your neighbor’s. You might even think your problems are completely unique, but for those of us who feel dissatisfied with our bodies or our lives, there is only one explanation: We are not living from our authentic selves, from our truth. We are asleep to who and what we really are and can be.”

Excerpt from Journey Into Power (2002)
by Baron Baptiste
New York Times Bestselling Author
and Creator of Baptiste Power Yoga

Trust me. I've been there.

I’m 28, in a hospital room, when suddenly with great awe I’m receiving into my hands a small, soft, warm body – my first child, Luke. As I cradle him, I’m struck with a deep internal feeling that almost knocks me to the floor. At first, I don’t know what it is.

Before the birth of my son, I was all about me. Me, me, me. I was living in Los Angeles, practicing and teaching yoga a lot. Sometimes I would show up late to classes, teach from a place of being consumed with how I might be appearing to others as a teacher, being self-consumed, but life was good because I had my life set up to serve me.

But then suddenly as my newborn son is taking his first breaths in my arms, I’m almost knocked down by a deep, profound knowingness that I need to stop being all about me. That it’s time to start being about others. This boy. His mother. My students.

I had no idea how much this will eventually impact my life.

I begin showing up to my yoga classes always on time, and I led classes thinking about my students, instead of myself. Same methods, but a different energy. My classes exploded.

After a while, some of my yoga students asked if I can create a formal way for them to bring my yoga methodology back to their communities. I have no real interest in growing the business but to satisfy their desire, I say yes to a suggested affiliate model. Then, despite my lack of push or business skills, that model grows by word of mouth and by 2018, there are 92 affiliates and 100,000 people a week doing Baptiste Yoga.

And this is when I’m hit with the revelation that this thing is much bigger than myself. That it’s become a movement and our affiliates and certified teachers are leading it, not me. I’m just a guy teaching a handful of yoga trainings a year.

And I’m thinking about all this when I realize that the current business model is not designed to be up to something that’s bigger than itself.

So similar to the day I first held Luke, I know I need to make a shift. This time I need to shift the business to support the movement that wants to happen.

It’s not an easy change. I make some really hard choices about our business and about our staff, and it takes a year to accomplish. But after I do this, our number of affiliates have nearly doubled in just 10 months.

That’s the story of how we got from me, me, me to them, them, them. How we became what Baptiste Yoga is today.

At one point branding people wanted to design us a carefully crafted, expensive “brand,” but I say, “No need. Our brand is what happens on the yoga mat with sweat dripping down people’s faces, people crying, people laughing on their mats. That’s our brand.”

By that I meant, Baptiste Yoga is about supporting people in the unfolding of their humanity, their best self, their power. Baptiste Yoga is about altering people’s sense of possibility. Just like the birth of my son did for me. It shifted me from self-centered to others-centered, and when that happened it altered what was possible for me and through me. And that’s what I’ve come to see this work is really about.

Baptiste Yoga is for Anyone

In his studies and life experience, Baron Baptiste came to realize that there is a perfect process for each individual, no matter what age, weight or fitness level, and honoring that is more important than adhering to one narrow and rigid path. As such, Baptiste Power Yoga is an intuitive practice, one that does not enforce any set of absolute rules. This style of yoga follows the natural laws of the body, which dictate balance and counterbalance, control and surrender, pose and repose, adaptation and acceleration. Students get all the benefits of the more traditional methods while still leaving room for creativity and play.

Yoga can be intimidating and the traditional yoga world sometimes perpetuates this. It is the mission of Baptiste Power Yoga to make yoga accessible to anyone, from any background, looking for total physical, mental and emotional transformation. It is for everybody, no matter what level of fitness. It is purposefully challenging and active so that it can catapult students from wherever they are right now to whole new thresholds of physical and mental power.

Baptiste Yoga is a Community

Baptiste Yoga is more than just a series of programs. We are a worldwide community of teachers, students, and practitioners who support each other and grow together. Baptiste Yoga is focused on every member standing for each other. This means that when you become a part of the Baptiste Yoga family, you join a network of thousands standing for you, so you can serve as your most powerful self.

Baptiste Yoga is a Movement

Baptiste Yoga™ is practiced by people across the world and from all walks of life; from professional athletes; parents, teachers, Fortune 500 executives, and community leaders.

The Baptiste Methodology™ turns out high impact yoga teachers who become empowered leaders in their communities and who live inspired lives of contribution. Baptiste Yoga teachers, programs and studio communities bring you extraordinary resources for powerfully improving the quality of your personal and professional life.

The Baptiste Yoga movement leads leaders, inspiring a global shift in BEING. Our community is proud and grateful to have:

• Established over 80 years ago
• Trained and certified over 1000+ teachers around the globe
• Welcomed over 170+ affiliates
• Taught over one million Baptiste Power Yoga students