Bill Phillip's | Transformation

An inspired life. Fulfillment. Faith. Harmony. Health. Integrity. Energy. Meaning. A sense of purpose. Connection. Satisfaction. Peace. Inner happiness.

When I wrote Body-for-LIFE, I made a promise to each and every reader. To every man and woman who completed that program, I promised that they would experience a transformation that extended beyond just their body. I promised that they would sense a shift in every aspect of their life, in their very perception of the world. It’s now been nine years since I wrote those words, and over that time, my understanding of their meaning has evolved. So too has my vision of what true transformation is all about.

Yes, forging a fit, healthy body is a step in the right direction. However, when we also do the inner work to lift our spiritual health to the next level, it’s then we truly begin to live life to its fullest, with nothing to hold us back, and nothing to weigh us down.

That is what this book is about. If Body-for-LIFE was a how-to manual for the body, consider this a how-to manual for the soul – the individual soul of each of us, which of course extends into the collective soul of all of us… the collective soul of our nation, of other nations, and, by extension, of this entire, ever-more-connected planet on which we exist.

We’ve never needed a great transformation more than we need it now. We are at a critical point in the world today, one of those “tipping points” that people have begun talking about in recent years. Never have we all been positioned to transform in the way we are positioned right now.

I’m nothing less than ecstatic about this. I believe we are poised at the gateway of sweeping changes throughout our culture – spiritual changes. I’m not talking about any particular religion or philosophy. The kind of shift I see looming on the horizon is a rising tide of individual and collective awareness and transformation that, as the saying goes, lifts all boats in the sea, regardless of gender, race, religion, age, or nationality.

There is little question that this is a time of crisis in our culture. Forget the constant battling of politics. In politics, there is always crisis. That’s what politics feeds on – conflict and crisis, real or imagined. No, what I’m talking about are personal crises. I’m talking about a nation in the grips of epidemic levels of individual physical distress – skyrocketing rates of preventable ill health – obesity, heart disease, diabetes, depression, cancer.

I’m talking about a culture in which so many have material abundance undreamed of a couple generations ago, and yet they feel spiritually impoverished – empty, depressed, yearning for something to fill them in that place called the soul. I’m talking about a culture in which too many such people quell their yearnings with the stuff of addiction. Drugs, alcohol, sex, work, junk food, junk TV, toxic amounts of leisure, computers, video games – you name it – anything they can pour into themselves, or pour themselves into, in order to fill the void inside.

“Bill,” you might say at this point, “how can you be excited about this? A global nation engulfed in suffering, largely of its own doing.What in the world is there to feel hopeful about here?”

In a word: Everything.

Any type of transformation involves tremors. The status quo always shakes when a shift is afoot. That’s what change is about. Things typically have to reach a state of extreme distress before they are able to truly transform. That’s what all these dilemmas we see right now in our society are about, I believe. They are wake-up calls, if you will. Sometimes it’s not until the alarms begin sounding that we realize it’s a sign of something urgent – that it’s “911-time.” Well, the alarms are sounding right now. And that’s good. Because it’s time to wake up.

It’s time that the old buildings many of us have been living in, the ones with walls of misperception, denial, fear and narrow beliefs; the walls which cut us off from one another and from our own spiritual selves, those walls must come down, so they can be replaced by new “homes,” a new way of living with ourselves and each other.

That’s why I’m optimistic. I pointed toward this massive cultural shift on the final pages of Body-for-LIFE, when I spoke of America standing at the threshold, the “Gateway,” page 111:

“There is something afoot in our society,” I wrote, “a gathering force that is beginning to rise as the twenty-first century begins. People are reaching as they have never reached before. They are searching. They are hungry for hope, for meaning, for clarity, for something to believe in. And they are discovering that that search, that belief, has got to begin with themselves.

“People have had enough of fragmentation, of coming apart – both as individuals and as communities. They have had enough of conflict – of fighting one another and of fighting themselves. We have seen what happens when we separate ourselves from one another and when we separate ourselves from our selves. We have seen the decay that takes place when we neglect our bodies, and now we know that it is a metaphor for the decay that takes place in any and every aspect of our lives that goes without care or attention…

“That is what our society – and I dare say the world – is doing as this millennium draws to a close. We are transforming… People are discovering that they do have the power to change. That they do have the ability to create not only a better body, but a better life, for themselves and others…

“You can regain control of your life and change it, beginning with your body, but only beginning there.”

Since then I have followed the transformation stories of over a million people from all over the planet: from America to Canada, Japan, England and Australia, Finland, even China. They accepted my Challenge and began to truly transform their lives and the lives of those around them. I’ve traveled all over the world to personally meet many of these men and women, and each of them, in their own way, through their own individual stories, has added to my understanding of what it means to truly transform.

But as I wrote then, this is only the beginning. Caring for your physical health is a necessary step, but it’s only one step. The next step, the second of the “twin pillars” of transformation, is to turn inward, to take the same faith, commitment and determination that it takes to rebuild the health of our physical bodies and apply that to nothing less than the complete renewal of our spiritual condition.

This “Gateway” at which we now stand has been prophesied for ages, by many faiths, in many cultures. There is something that has been understood for centuries – something that has been preserved in sacred narratives and wisdom traditions throughout the world – by people who looked at the same ageless issues and questions that we are facing right now, questions of the very meaning of existence, of the purpose of life, and of how each of us, individually and all of us, collectively, might approach the way we live in order to fulfill our destiny and answer our calling.

The impetus for the coming evolutionary jump is being driven from within. It is being driven by the Divine Will itself. It seems almost certain that the great transformation will occur, one way or another. Perhaps our most important decision is whether we will align ourselves with the Divine, and consciously assist in the shift, or stubbornly resist it, failing to acknowledge our role in the process, and therefore, suffering unnecessarily through it.

Things won’t change by waiting on the same old bureaucratic system to come through. The solution is up to us. It’s our opportunity. We must “be the change we want to see in the world,” as the Hindu Spiritual Leader, Mahatma Gandhi so profoundly stated. We’ll only change the big picture by accepting responsibility for the problem and rising up to the challenge as individuals. Our personal transformation becomes the message, the example, and the inspiration which helps our families, our societies, our nations, and our world.

As you begin to walk this path, there will be moments when you may feel like giving up. Make no mistake about that. There may also be times when you question your ability to make the transformation. That’s all part of the process. Always remember this: I believe in you. I know you have the power and ability to make the change. And now, with this book, you have the keys to open the gate and discover your highest potential.

I know you can do it. I don’t “think” you can, I know you can. And soon, you will know it too. If you’re ready for the challenge of a lifetime, please turn the page, and let’s begin, again.