All the work we’ve been doing for the last 5 – 10 years has been about teaching our students how to achieve brain and heart coherence in the meditative process. The results have not only changed their biology, neurocircuitry, neurochemistry, hormone levels, gene expression, energy fields, and immune function but when developed into a skill, our students have been able to apply these principles to lead more effective lives.

In order for us to take our learning to the next level, it would make sense for us to set up conditions or situations in the environment where people might normally feel fear, self-doubt, vigilance, worry, unworthiness—basically any negative heightened state that could cause their bodies to emotionally react. The challenge then becomes an opportunity for them to rise above the stressful environmental conditions that are occurring in that present moment in order to control, change, and/or regulate their internal state independent of that environment. To varying degrees, we encounter these states every day in our lives, and when faced with adversity in our lives, we are confronted with the same choice; to come down to the energy of our environment or rise above the conditions in our environment by controlling our internal state. If we choose the latter, this is how we can begin to master our environment and our bodies.

That’s exactly what almost 1,000 people did at our first 2018 week-long Advanced Workshop in Tarragona, Spain. While this will not be the standard format moving forward, and while each event will be different, in Tarragona we set up physical challenges for our students which caused the majority of them to go further than they’ve ever gone before. Why? Because this is how we change—this is how we start believing more in ourselves, and when we do this we believe in possibility.

Your first thought regarding these physical challenges may be that they’re about muscle strength and coordination, but you’d be wrong to think this. While some degree of physical strength was certainly an element, it was not the most important one, because there were plenty of people with physical strength. What proved to be the most important factors toward overcoming the challenges were mental focus, brain and heart coherence, the ability to master the present moment, internal fortitude, invincibility, passion, inner strength, and an uncompromising will. It’s these inner qualities we witnessed that create a big heart, a stronger will, and a mind awakened to possibility—and it’s these same characteristics that make our dreams come true.

In Tarragona, we saw people overcome all kinds of health conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, Lupus, and Multiple Sclerosis. By breaking through their fears, doubts, and the voices in their head that tell them their life is too hard or they will never make a difference, many went further than they’d ever gone before. In the process, they changed their definition of themselves and their belief that they had a disease, limitation, or handicap.

If we can apply the principles of heart and brain coherence to environmental conditions that challenge us to overcome not only our environment but our body’s reaction to our environment—this is when the magic happens. Every time we overcome our body when it’s out of emotional balance and sustain coherence for a period of time, we raise the bar to some degree and go further than where we would typically go. This is the unknown, and this is where miracles happen.

It’s also what it means to stay on the path. When you have the passion and belief in yourself and your dreams, and you go further than you normally have gone in your life—that is the unknown. Thus, if you can sustain the elevated inner states while you’re there, you just might walk into your future.