As the gentle winds blew in from the Sea of Cortez, Adi and I arose early for our first morning of Yoga Nidra training at Prana Del Mar in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The sun had yet to creep up over the horizon as we started our day at 3:45 a.m. for our morning Sadhana and as we walked to the Sun Room for our morning yoga and meditation, one glance upward revealed a sky that was shimmering with stars. A meteor shower was in the forecast so the chances of seeing a shooting star or meteor streak across the sky was a very likely possibility and I found myself staring intently skyward in the hopes of seeing one of these rogue stars make an appearance.
This is the very testament to looking to the stars in order to see magic. Prana Del Mar has magic in every grain of the sand that blankets the ground around this beautiful property. Prana Del Mar is a little hideaway in a remote part of Cabo that was created to give yoga practitioners the opportunity to recharge their batteries so that after a week of self-caring these same teachers could then return home and pour from the illustrious “cup of prayer.”
This is why Adi and I came here. To recharge. We had been giving to others by hosting gong events, 5 a.m. Sadhana each week at Adi’s Yoga Studio and even giving free health talks at Tarrant Area Food Bank to help people on their way to a healthier lifestyle. We were both tired from all that we had been doing and I knew that our ever so important “cup of prayer” was becoming dangerously low and we were running out of the necessary “juice” to share with the world. This led us to Prana Del Mar.
The weeks leading up to this getaway kept me so busy that I had little time to even consider what the coming week would bring me. I find that this is oftentimes the best way to approach a trip—expect nothing but be absolutely prepared for divine magic to occur. As we entered the Sun Room that first morning for yoga I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the facilities at Prana Del Mar. Eric, the owner, and his staff had done a remarkable job creating a space for practicing Yogis and Yoginis to escape from the hustle and bustle of the daily lives as teachers. Every detail was tended to by Eric and his staff so that each of us had only one job—fill our “cup of prayer.”
Beautiful Buddha, Ganesh, Vishnu and Krishna artifacts decorate the elegantly created yoga rooms and each room is stocked with tealight candles to add ambiance to the room. For our trip, the Sun Room had the added bonus of having 12 gongs of various persuasions standing at attention and waiting to be activated with the power of sound to heal anyone near this powerful sound current. These 12 gongs, provided by Master Kundalini Yoga and Gong Teachers Mehtab and Guru Karam, would provide the soundtrack for our upcoming week of Yoga Nidra training.
On our first morning and every morning thereafter, Adi and I began our morning Sadhana practice at 
our traditional 4 a.m. time. The serenity of the space made our practice each day extra special. After a morning yoga Kriya, Adi and I played these 12 beautiful gongs as we listened to the Aquarian Mantras and chanted out to the ocean beyond that could easily be heard crashing to the shore. For each gong crash we administered the ocean countered with its own pranic force that was easily as powerful, if not even more so. The gong is a truly beautiful instrument in that it activates a healing sound current that can strengthen the central nervous system and purify our consciousness by revealing our shadow self—to be investigated and then healed—transforming our spirit and elevating us to live as our most pure and authentic Highest Self.
Sound too good to be true? I used to think so too—until I experienced it in my own life. The power of the gong was the reason I came on this trip. After coming to understand this divine power just a little bit more, I agreed to travel with Adi out of the country to study Yoga Nidra and to learn more about how to incorporate the gong into the practice. If you had told me a year ago I would be doing this I would have had to resist laughing directly in your face. But here I was, on a spiritual quest in a desert located right by the sea, loudly playing the gong each morning and chanting until the sun rose to start a new day. A conundrum to say the least, but Kundalini Yoga and the gong have turned everything I used to believe to be true and turned it on its ear and in doing so presented me a new way of experiencing life—as a conscious participant.
This is the quest that Adi and I traveled thousands of miles to take part in—a quest of spiritual growth and divine partnership. A quest that will most assuredly lead us around the world to future events, meeting like-minded people who long to spread joy and love in every corner of the globe. You may wonder why we would do this. Because if we don’t do it, who will?
These were the thoughts that were racing through my head while we played the gong on that first morning during the Amrit Vela hours. As the Aquarian Mantras drew to a close, the sun began rising over the sea creating a majestic canvas to begin our first morning of training. I had no idea what to expect with this training, but I would soon find out.
After a quick breakfast, Adi and I settled in for our orientation with Mehtab and Guru Karam, who would be leading this workshop. Adi studied with both of these teachers during Level One Kundalini Teacher Training at Yoga Yoga in Austin. I could see she felt right back at home as we settled in for would be three straight days of extensive training.
Yoga Nidra is a practice that allows the practitioner to be guided into deep relaxation, taming the overly active mind with a calming guided meditation. The process allows for deep emotional healing and when coupled and powered by the sound of the gong it provides a pathway for the participants to release negative patterns and neurosis, liberating the self on the pathway for their intended destiny. The requirement is that the entire process is a co-creative process where both the facilitator and the participant work together through a guided meditation. The facilitator guides the participant who agrees to stay awake while exploring the deepest recesses of his or her consciousness.
The process is more challenging than it sounds because it is very easy to get so lost in it. Many people will find themselves drifting to sleep only to be awakened by their own cacophonous snore. I know this because I was one of these unlucky saps that was betrayed in front of a room full of people by an unexpectant snore blaring through the walls of the Sun Room. Less than ten minutes into Yoga Nidra and I was in La La Land, traipsing through the recesses of a dream state. I eventually awakened by my own orchestral trumpet section and then sheepishly continued the practice in an awakened state. I was only out for a moment before I regained consciousness and continued my journey.
Each morning before training, Adi and I would rise at 3:45 a.m. and practice our morning Sadhana, followed by breakfast with the entire congregation of Yoga Nidra aspirants. We would have a wonderful breakfast, sharing conversations as we all overlooked the sea watching whales breech out of the sea making their way south for the winter. The majesty of these divine specimens added to the already beautiful and divine week of spiritual growth.
For the first three mornings we engaged in many hours of training as we all formalized our techniques and in the evenings we were the recipients of Yoga Nidra led by Mehtab and Guru Karam. On the fourth and fifth day everyone was required to perform a practicum for our fellow students to earn our advanced certificate in Yoga Nidra. Adi and I led our practicum on the first day of training so that we could spend the rest of the week enjoying Cabo.
The final night turned out to be a magical night that would have seemed exceptionally cheesy had I heard about it secondhand, but because I was there to experience it I dove in head first and felt absolute joy pulsating through my body on the last night. After our final session of Yoga Nidra led by Mehtab and Guru Karam, they told everyone to get on their feet as they began playing the Turtles’ “Happy Together” and then said, “Everyone dance.”
And dance we did. Twenty-five grown, responsible adults jumped to their feet and began dancing like it 
was a high school prom as the Mexican tequila sunrise decorated the evening sky with a tableau that was painted by God Herself. To say it was divinely inspired would be an understatement. If it were a movie the entire ending credit sequence would have rolled through the entire scene. Even my most cynical side couldn’t find an objection to this beautiful moment that was like a scene from a John Hughes film. It was, in a word—magical.
The entire week was magical. For a solid week we fed our bodies, our minds, and most importantly, our souls. And why did we do this? So that we can go back to our homes and begin to help people heal whatever it is that is ailing them in their lives. We did it so that we can go spread love, hope and kindness to our communities and to bring a ray of loving light to a world that so desperately needs more love.
This is how we change the world. This is our mission. We feed our souls by doing the things that bring us that effervescent joy that is contagious and we illustrate to others that peace and joy are not only possible, but they are indeed our birthright—a birthright that we must claim by caring for ourselves, by loving ourselves and by realizing that we are the change we seek. Salvation lies in self-love and only we can claim it. Only we can activate the portal to our Highest Self, which is waiting anxiously for us to remember what we have long since forgotten: we are loved, we are protected and we are the perfect reflection of the divine.
This is conscious living. This is what love looks like. This is hope, salvation and grace all rolled up into one big yoga mat on the shores of the Sea of Cortez. This is the legacy of Prana Del Mar 2018.
Sat Nam!