Editor's Note: Listen to Baron Baptiste's talk during this year's Hay House World Summit until May 26th. 2016. Everything In Life Is A Yoga Pose. Sign Up here for FREE.

There is nothing you need to change.

There is nothing you need to fix.

There is nothing you need to figure out. 

If you’re anything like the thousands of students who have stared blankly at me when I’ve said those words, you’re probably wondering how you’re supposed to evolve if I’m telling you that there’s nothing you need to fix. I mean, you’re here to transform, so why would I be saying that there’s nothing you need to change?

Here’s why: because there is a fundamental difference between changing form and total regeneration. We always want to fix something outside ourselves, rearrange the pieces, repair whatever we think is “wrong.” We can change jobs, relationships, cities, and circumstances. And yes, maybe for a while that gives us some relief. But no matter what we do, where we move, or who we’re in a relationship with, changing the form of something is temporary, and fix-its never work in the long term (as we already know). Unless we transform our way of being from the inside out, it all ends up being and feeling the same, because we’re still showing up with the same mind-set. As Albert Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
Transforming Our Inner Substance

When I was in my 20s, I went through a period where I was working around the clock and feeling pretty burned out. I was teaching 22 wall-to-wall, packed group classes a week in Los Angeles, plus dozens more private sessions. At one point, I went to Hawaii to rejuvenate. I traveled thousands of miles, arrived on my favorite island of Kauai, and went down to the beach. I sat there on the beautiful, white sand, taking it all in: the crystalline blue ocean and the perfume of the fragrant flowers all around me. Now, I thought, I’ll find some peace.

It was paradise . . . but there was only one problem. I was there. My surroundings had changed, but all the heaviness in my head, heart, and body had come right along with me. It was then that I realized the profundity of the Zen saying, “No matter where you go, there you are.” We’re always seeking something outside that will help reinspire us, but going to work on our circumstances is rarely the answer. The only shift that can awaken and renew us is the one that comes from the transformation of our inner substance.

If you took a banana and turned it into a mango, that wouldn’t be transformation—it would be change of form. But if you took a banana and turned it into a banana that tasted like a mango, that would be transformation, because the new fruit would look the same but possess entirely new qualities. Transformation means housing a different quality and substance inside the same form.

When you undergo a transformation, your environment, situation, and immediate circumstances are all the same. How you feel, see, listen, think, and act are what have been altered, and who you are and how you relate to the individuals and things in your life is what shifts. Imagine feeling completely renewed, without having to change a single thing about your physical reality. The beautiful thing here is that by transforming the way you relate to life, circumstances around you will ultimately shift as well.

Baron Baptiste's popularity as an international presenter and best-selling author is exemplified by his creation of a wildly popular yoga practice that is without boundaries-a methodology for personal revolution.