The Yogi Code: Seven Universal Laws of Infinite Success - Hardcover

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Yogi Cameron first started practicing Yoga in Paris at the Sivananda Ashram in 1987 while living a supermodel's life as the face of Versace, and the muse of Madonna and Elton John. He moved to India and studied the Yoga principles and Ayurveda for over a decade before coming to America to teach westerners the power of The Yogi Code. He has been featured on The Dr. Oz Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Today Show, Extra, and Martha, amongst others. He has also been featured in The New York Times, Men's Journal, The Wall Street Journal, The London Times, and ELLE magazine, and he is the author of two previous books and is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, Mind Body Green, Thrive Market's Website, and Sharecare, a health portal which is part of Dr. Oz’s outreach program for health and lifestyle experts.

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The Yogi Code

Activate Your Yogi Code

You don’t need any special qualifications to become a yogi. You don’t need to be part of an exclusive caste, club, or group. You don’t need to drop your current life and relocate to a hermit’s cave. All you need to do is start where you are.

The yogic life chooses you—you don’t choose it. It requires an open mind-set and a yearning from deep within your soul, something within driving and pulling you in a certain direction that you have no real control over. Everything that happens in your life is a prelude, drawing you closer and deeper onto the path even if you are currently in a whole other seemingly unconnected world or lifestyle.

Lahiri Mahasaya, the great kriya yogi, had an office job as an accountant and later was posted at a mountain military site, as recounted in the epic stories told by Indian guru and yogi Paramahansa Yogananda in his beautiful book Autobiography of a Yogi. It was there that he met his guru, Babaji, and went on the yogic path, creating a lineage and legacy of generations of yogis in India to this day. Every bit of his life had been preparing and leading him to take that journey. He was a regular person living a “regular” life just like you.

In my own trajectory growing up in Iran, who knew I would end up on the yogic path as a yogi? I was living a “regular” family life with my mother and father when the revolution and war began in 1979. My mother rushed me out of the country to avoid being deployed to the front lines at the age of twelve. I landed in England, and within a few weeks was placed in a boarding school, even though I could not read or write English. My mother immediately returned to Iran to be with my father. I was on my own, dislocated from home and family, until my parents could find a way to safely leave Iran. I wouldn’t see my father for four years and only saw my mother periodically when she could come and visit a couple of times a year.

I continued from boarding school to college for a year and then dropped out and headed to London to try my luck at any job I could get. I was nineteen, and my family was not pleased with my decision; they worried I would stay adrift. However, within a few weeks, while I was walking down one of London’s hippest streets, a modeling agent scouted me. I soon ended up on the catwalks of Paris, Milan, and New York.

I traveled the world for twelve years, working and becoming friends with some of the most famous people on the planet and landing exclusive jobs, like appearing in Madonna’s “Express Yourself” music video and being on the covers of fashion magazines like Vogue and GQ.

Never in my life would I have guessed I would become a model and be named one of the most famous supermodels of my time. It would seem my life had reached a pinnacle and couldn’t get any better. The life of a supermodel is probably regarded as the most exciting, carefree, and glamorous life anyone can live; you make lots of money and people revere you as a beauty symbol. Life couldn’t get much better on the outside. But what about the inside?

What I didn’t know then was that I was at a crossroads, and the next chapter of my life was about to begin. Everything before had been preparation for something beyond my imagination—destiny would lead me to the extraordinary.

*  *  *

I had traveled from New York to Cape Town, South Africa, for a fashion show for Versace at Nelson Mandela’s home. Upon my arrival at the hotel, I saw my friends and fellow models Kate Moss, Christy Turlington, and Naomi Campbell, and a few other well-known faces. It was like any other day on the job, nothing out of the ordinary.

We were scheduled to meet the president at the Palace Gardens the next day as well as prepare for the fashion show. That morning the atmosphere was both calm and electric as we stood in the receiving line and moved one at a time, as security didn’t allow people to gather around Mandela. When it was my turn, I approached him to shake his hand. To know a person you look at their face; to know their soul you look into their eyes. I gazed deeply into Nelson Mandela’s eyes. I don’t remember what we spoke of; I just remember his eyes, sensing a silent exchange.

The gathering was over a few hours later, and we proceeded to a dress rehearsal and fitting. The house of Versace makes high fashion in a very colorful and extravagant way, so I knew it was going to be a spectacular event. I was excited and looking forward to the fun. Later that evening, there would be a private party.

When I woke up the next morning, something felt different. I couldn’t place it, but I felt something within coming to the edge of my awareness. Before I could explore any further, I was distracted by the day’s events. The show was amazing, and the glamorous after-party was filled with VIP guests from all over the world. It continued until the morning, and after a couple of hours of sleep, I was on the plane and headed home. Three days had gone by like a flash.

Back in New York, I reflected on my time in Cape Town. I recalled all the amazing moments, extreme excitement, beauty, glamour, and fame. And then I remembered meeting Nelson Mandela. Here was a soul who had it tough all his life; he courageously fought for freedom and basic human rights. He went to prison for twenty-seven years and came out smiling. In his eyes that night, I saw that his soul had always been free, although he had spent years in prison. I didn’t see those walls being a hindrance; on the contrary, the prison was part of his soul’s evolution. The prison had given strength to his soul to master a freedom that could not be taken away or lost; it did not control the spiritual freedom he had within. I came to see and understand that this experience of imprisonment and liberation was part of all of our paths—the need to be spiritually free and find our purpose.

I had arrived at a crossroads sparked by meeting Mandela and reflecting on his life. From my viewpoint as an observer, I wondered where I fit in. I started to see how on one side, I was living my outer beauty. It was an exciting life and fulfilling on many levels, especially for sensory pleasures. It was a life that very quickly met most of my desires. I thought: Maybe this is why I’m seeing my life differently now. Have I had all my desires met? What more is there to achieve in fashion? On the other side, I felt something more powerful pulling me toward it, but I didn’t know what that journey was yet. All I felt was its undeniable force, which I wasn’t quite ready to surrender to.

So what was my purpose? This was the question I was exploring at this new crossroads in my life, and I had to decide which path to take. I decided to alight from the fashion ride at the next stop, but without knowing my true destination. What I was sure about was I needed to get off. I couldn’t control the “wherever,” but I could control the “whenever,” so I took that action right away.

I retired from modeling, and after a few years of wandering and searching, I ended up in India training in the sciences of yoga and ayurveda. Ayurveda is the traditional Indian medicine that comes from the oldest books of knowledge: the Vedas. And now, some fourteen years later, I live part of my life as a yogi in a rain forest in India and...