Yoga Teacher Training at Yandara Yoga Institute in Baja, Mexico

Accommodation at Yandara Yoga Institute

The accommodation at Yandara is completely off the grid, promoting its ethos of mindfulness and deep connection with nature. We stayed in tents just a short walking distance from the ocean, the communal dining area and the yoga shalas where we gathered multiple times per day.

Learning yoga in Baja comes with the added bonus of experiencing it, surrounded by the raw, natural beauty of the area. That was a spiritual experience in itself. On a good day, we would be met by whales during long walks along the beach or spot stingrays skipping across the horizon.

I will never forget the day when we opened our eyes after a meditation on the beach to find a large sea turtle laying her eggs right beside us. I could only imagine it was the calm, peaceful energy of 15 people breathing in a stillness that invited her in, despite the protective nature of any mother about to give birth.

The profound state of presence, wonderment and awe that resulted from witnessing such an event is a perfect representation of what it means to experience yoga beyond the mat.

Our sangha, or community, consisted of a dedicated Ashtangi who rose every morning at sunrise to perform her daily sadhana, a restorative yoga teacher who worked with special needs students, another who taught at her husband’s military base between regular classes, a sound healer, and the list goes on.

While the yoga teacher training at Yandara stays rooted in yoga philosophy and principles of safe alignment, the infinite number of ways the teachings were expressed across such a diverse group of yogis was deeply inspiring. The course list and workshops offered include introductory and advanced yoga teacher training, a life coaching certification, Reiki, bhakti yoga and astrology.

Do you need to be an aspiring or certified teacher to visit? Absolutely not, but I would be shocked to find someone who didn’t feel compelled to serve others in some way after their experience. As I expressed to the Yandara family on my way out, this place cracks your heart open and makes you want to share it with the world.

Living Yoga at Yandara

To put it simply, Yandara is a place for exploration and understanding how yoga can fit into your life. Regardless of what certain teachers or traditions will try to proclaim, there is no one-size-fits-all for yoga. How could there be? For the infinite number of people on this planet, there is an infinite number of practices, which will continue to change and evolve as we do.

I’ve spent time in the past obsessing over the perfect alignment and sequencing, allowing perfectionist tendencies to rule and consequently limit the potential of my practice. However, there have also been times when a strict daily routine has enabled me to find health and balance in my physical body and the rest of my life as a result.

One of my favourite words of wisdom in all of my yoga teacher training, workshops and retreats have simply been to “try it on.” This motto has led me to periods of silence, fasting, intense breathwork, ecstatic dance, rigorous physical practice, vision quests, chanting and everything between.

Sure, there were experiences that didn’t quite fit right, but I’ve been fortunate to find communities of equally open-minded yogis that can share the ecstasy of a beautiful experience and can also identify approaches that don’t serve them without labelling it as the wrong way.

Yandara is one of those places. Before you make judgments or worse, limit yourself by preconceived notions, simply try it on. As Sri Ramakrishna stated so beautifully, “all rivers flow to the ocean. Flow and let others flow too.”