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Last year, I had the opportunity to attend Wanderlust Whistler, where I yoga piled with complete strangers (thanks Eoin Finn!), danced and jumped evenings away with Michael Franti and MC Yogi, made some new friends and walked away with a new found respect for yoga and what it can bring into my life. I also learned that there were more than a few things I just had to bring along for the ride.

YOGA MAT AND STRAP
This time around I would leave The Mat at home and travel lightly with The Pure Mat 3mm held together with the Loop It Up Mat Strap. Bonus: if I’m in a bind, the mat strap can double as a stretching belt.

NO LIMITS TANK
It has a built in bra for support, flowy circle mesh coverage and the style has major street appeal to pair with my favorite denim cutoffs.

WILL CROP
My go to bottoms for any outdoor yoga moves are crops and the Will Crop flows easily from street to sweat. The convertible waistband allows me to choose the look I want: high-waisted with the Energy Bra, alternatively a loose tee or tank half tucked into the folded down band. Even the length of the crops allows for further customization – roll the hem of the pant once or twice to achieve a true capri look if you’re a shorty like me (5’2”!).

LIP BALM
Mine has been Smith’s Rosebud Salve forever and I’d love to find one that has sunscreen and isn’t drying. If you have a favorite you’d like to recommend, please share it in the comments section below!

WATER BOTTLE
H20 is your friend. Always. Every outdoor event planner in the world should take note: watering stations are genuinely appreciated by attendees and Mother Earth.

BAG
I didn’t need a lot with me as I navigated each day. Some snacks, money, water bottle, iPhone and my hotel key. This year’s aptly named Festival Bag will hold all that and more.

SUNSCREEN
Like H20, this is also your friend.

SUNGLASSES
No-brainer.

ARM PARTY
So fun!

DRY SHAMPOO
This is no longer a dirty little secret. I always stash a travel-sized bottle in my gym bag or purse if I know I might be getting a little sweaty but don’t have time (or the energy) to wash my hair.

HAIR STUFF
High buns and ponytails will always be my go-to but I love finding fresh (and EASY) ways to keep my hair away from my face in downdog. Check it:

Roll it up in the Bang Buster Headband (I LOVE this one. I’ve been able to achieve beach waves every time. Best post yoga hair, ever.)

The Milkmaid: pull hair into two pigtails, braid and wrap the ends up and over the top of your head with bobby pins. Imperfect braiding and fly-aways are welcome (you don’t want to actually look like a milkmaid).

Meet Elizabeth Crisci, an ambassador at our Westport, CT store and our Wanderlust Vermont host. She’ll be sharing her story across our channels and live tweeting at @lululemonlive.

The coolest part of Wanderlust and yoga in general – the journey. You show up at the studio, at a big white tent, on the top of a mountain, on a hotel room floor, in your living room. This summer we’ll be sharing our yoga story with the hashtag #justmymat. 

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Summer is fast approaching and for some, that means barbecues and beach time. For me, it means Wanderlust Vermont - my all-time favorite weekend of the year!

This is my third year attending Wanderlust as a student but my first year as a teacher. I’m so incredibly honoured by this opportunity and I just can’t wait to share this experience with you through @lululemonlive.

With so many teachers, classes, and everyone bringing their very best, how can you possibly choose? Now that I’ve been to a few festivals, I’ve learned the art of scheduling my time but for Wanderlust rookies, creating a weekend schedule can be overwhelming.

Here are some tips for creating the perfect itinerary:

Be careful of overscheduling
You’ll need to put your physical self through multiple classes a day so balance it out with some speakeasy talks, meditation, or a gentle hike to break up your day. This will help you tip your scales more toward bliss than ouch!

Challenge yourself
Are you eyeballing an Inversions workshop thinking, “But I’ve never even tried handstand without a wall!” Well, now is the time. The teachers at Wanderlust are some of the best and the energy of the festival is just the boost you need to try something that scares you.

Get a blend of familiar and new faces
There are so many teachers that I look forward to seeing again, but Wanderlust is all about meeting a new teacher and falling in love. The lineup at Wanderlust was hand-selected to bring a diverse offering of awesome teachers from the local area. Be sure to add a few workshops that catch your eye from someone you’ve never practiced with.

My can’t-miss workshops:

Strength and Compassion, The Practice of Being a Woman
Teacher: Elena Brower with Tiffany Cruikshank and Schuyler Grant.
Each an amazing teacher in their own right, I can’t wait to check out what they create together.

Stalking Your Fear
Teacher: Ana Forrest
This will be my first practice after leading an 8 am hike. Ana is known for her challenging asana practice but this all-level workshop can help anyone let go of the tension caused by fear and start the festival with an open heart and mind.

Becoming a Miracle Magnet
Teacher: Gabrielle Bernstein
A new face at the festival this year but you may have read one of her books (be sure to read Spirit Junkie). Gabrielle believes in miracles and has made it her mission to show you that you can believe in them too. Gabrielle is also giving a Speakeasy Talk, an awesome way to introduce yourself to her work.

Sunset Meditation Hike
Teacher: Garth Stevenson
He is an amazing musician as well as a teacher of meditation. Garth is leading several hikes at the festival, any one of them will be a delight.

Hooping and Slackline
Give yourself a chance to check out something new. Hoop dance and Yoga Slackers’ workshops will challenge you in a totally new way, and may just open up your traditional practice.

These are just some of the things I’m most looking forward to but there’s so much more to explore. What are you most looking forward to?

Until next time! Namaste.

Yoga on top of a mountain (NBD), at Wanderlust Whistler 2012.

Last August, I had a conversation with someone who was nervous about attending her first-ever Wanderlust - the yoga and music festival that has four North American stops in summer 2013.

“I don’t think I’m advanced enough to go,” she said. “Doing that much yoga is scary.”

Seeing as the yoga festival season is now upon us, I thought it was a good time to address her concerns in this blog post in case any of you have similar thoughts when you think about the possibility of attending all-day back-to-back classes at a Wanderlust festival near you.

wanderlust is for everyone

This is what I told my friend. Firstly, you need to know this: Wanderlust, just like all yoga, is for everyone. In any given class there are things you can physically do and things you can’t. Everybody will breathe together, everybody will move together, and if you need to take a time out in Child’s Pose at any time, nobody will judge you. Whether it’s your first class or your 5,000^th, you’ll fit in.

Various stages of handstands, Wanderlust Vermont 2012.

yes, you will be sore

Doing a lot of yoga will make even the most hardcore yogis feel muscles they didn’t know they had. Pro tip: when you build your schedule, balance your classes with meditations & speakeasies. Also, stay hydrated. Rest. Listen to your body, and if it’s telling you to go to the market place for gelato, do it.

like music? they’ve got music

At night, the yoga mats get rolled up and the musicians come out to play. Each festival has a different line up. There is no better way to cap off a day of yoga-ing than under a summer night sky with a community of like-minded folks, many of which will have Total Yoga Hair.

Michael Franti at Wanderlust Whistler 2012.

Don’t go to Wanderlust if you already know everything about yoga you need to know. Don’t go if you’re looking to get uninspired, because that is guaranteed not to happen. Oh, and don’t go if you’re not a little bit nervous about it. Wanderlust can crack you open and teach you whatever you need to learn, but only if you’ll let it.

#justmymat

The coolest part about Wanderlust Festival and yoga in general is that it’s a journey. You show up at the studio, at a big white tent, on the top of a mountain, on a hotel room floor, in your living room. Sometimes you don’t know why but you do it anyways. Join our community this summer and share your yoga journey, whether you’re attending Wanderlust or not. We know your mat has stories to tell.

We’ll be celebrating community with updates from each Wanderlust Festival here on the blog, written by a local host who will share their journey with you. Coming soon: meet our Wanderlust Vermont local host & storyteller, Elizabeth Crisci.

Wanderlust Festival has four festivals in summer 2013:

Vermont, June 20-23.
Colorado, July 4-7.
California, July 18-21.
Whistler, Aug. 1-4.

Learn more at http://wanderlustfestival.com

Stratton Mountain, Vermont: June 20-23

Copper Mountain, Colorado: July 4-7

Squaw Valley, North Lake Tahoe: July 18-21

Whistler Mountain, British Columbia: August 1-4

Attention early birds: you have until March 26th to take advantage of the advance ticket pricing on 3 and 4-day passes! More info here: http://wanderlustfestival.com

If you want to get an idea of what you'll experience, check out our musical ode to Wanderlust Whistler, filmed at last year's festival in BC!

Are you getting your Wanderlust on this year? Which location are you excited for? See you there!

It took four days of sun, surf, and yoga at Wanderlust O’ahu for our former educator Fallon to experience the true meaning of her tattoo and to redefine her connection with the ocean.

Aloha!

Yogis and yoginis of Wanderlust O'ahu were given a beautiful gift. A gift of experiencing the North Shore and finding the true spirited meaning of "aloha".

Over a year ago, someone shared with me the definition as "to breathe the essence of life with compassion". As a yoga teacher, I felt like I had been presented a seed, a singular expression of what all the work I was doing on and off my mat was about. So, I got a tattoo, "aloha" in morse code on my inner arm as a daily reminder.

Then I came to Wanderlust. I played with Baron, shook with Shiva, and felt all of Eoin's hammock enlightenment on the Kahuku terrace overlooking the breathtaking Pacific. I took surf lesson and rode more waves than ever (kooky as they may have been) and got reconnected with the ocean. Her salty residue in my hair, her beads of sand in my bed and her voice of waves continuously crashing. Class by class, more definitions were shared and then sitting on the floor of Surfer Bar listening to surf legend Gerry Lopez describe the intense relationship between yoga and surfing, my other great love, I redefined my relationship with my own tattoo.

Not only did I want to breathe life in the way I had understood it, but the spirit was in me - I began to truly understand what it means. Wanderlust O'ahu was the pinnacle of my two great loves, yoga and the ocean, and Aloha is more than a greeting. It is a way of life, a spirit of love and open hearts. After 4 days of exploration on and off the mat, I have a new great love, Hawaii, and I can't think of a better threesome to be a part of!

Fallon's experience sounds like complete bliss to us! What adventures are you going on this year to feed your body, mind and soul?

today i'm grateful for...

It’s a question I began asking myself every day, as a way to reflect. I wasn’t surprised after a few days of this practice to find myself noticing things in a whole new way and appreciating them like never before. What I didn’t realize was that by doing this every day, I was becoming, well, happier.

I began this daily habit when a friend of mine introduced me to an app she and her business partner were developing: 1THINGapp.com. It acts as a gratitude journal where you can either keep the things you are grateful for private or share them anonymously with the world. Every day, one of the ‘gratitudes’ that have been shared are illustrated by an artist.

"Sun Saluations" illustrated by Mike Ellis

I was so moved by this project with 1THINGapp.com that I wanted to pose the question with the Wanderlust community in Whistler. After all, yoga is the ultimate celebration of gratitude. I had created a “Before I Die” wall in Vancouver earlier this year and was astounded by the way people engaged with the wall.

Photo Credit: Dana Ramler

Inspired, I created a spinoff for Wanderlust. A giant blackboard with the words “Today I’m grateful for…” was set up in Whistler village. Buckets of chalk were left out and people were invited to share what they were grateful for that day. Each morning of the four-day festival, the wall was cleaned and put out and every day by lunch it was full. The responses were incredible. Grateful for everything from loved ones, sunshine, fresh clean air and new adventures to health, dreams coming true, mountains and freedom. People shared and the wall was bursting with gratitude.

Photo Credit: Dana Ramler

What I find most incredible about these projects is the impact of seeing the gratitude of others and its effect on me. I am continually touched, moved and inspired by what people are appreciative of and further inspired in my own life of things to be grateful for. It’s like gratitude is contagious!

Thanksgiving (a day dedicated to sharing gratitude) is coming up but we can’t help but wonder about the other 364 days of the year. Take a moment, pause and reflect. What are you grateful for today? And maybe try sharing it with the rest of the world, you never know who you’ll inspire!

Watch our recap of the festival:

And check out a few photos highlighting what we got up to!

At Wanderlust Whistler 2012, we:

made new friends in the forest

learned how to fly

met a rasta dog

turned a field into an outdoor yoga studio

danced to michael franti

reached out and touched people

celebrated after the sun went down

filled the gratitude wall every day

did yoga on paddleboards

hung out with ambassadors

threw our hands in the air

got hooped

got janet stoned

closed the weekend in the best place possible: on a mountaintop

To everyone that came from near and far, who tuned in via livestream, and who shared the weekend with us: thank you. See you next year?

More photos of downdogs and dancing are in this Facebook album.

Susanne Conrad helps people achieve happier personal and professional lives. At lululemon she's known as our Director of Possibility and has been inspiring and coaching us for as long as we've been making black stretchy pants. We couldn't be more thrilled to bring her Wanderlust Whistler speakeasy to anyone with an internet connection on August 24.

event lowdown

What: Play Big: Create Your Unique Legacy, a one-hour interactive session lead by Susanne
When: August 24th at 10 a.m.
Why: Get inspired and learn about tools to help you create a life you love!
Where: Watch the recap video of this livestream here:

get to know susanne

what was your path to get you where you are now?

When I was a young and a single mother in my 20s, a book I read by Shakti Gawain prompted me to write down my first vision statements: to have the time to be with my children during vacations; to have choice and flexibility in my work; and to be paid to be creative. I remember holding on to some of those ideas as if they were my lifeline. Over a period of many years, they did indeed airlift me out of what would have been a monotonous, cubicle lifestyle. Also in the 1980s, when I worked as an environmental analyst, part of me knew that thoughts and feelings and words could be just as toxic as benzine or mercury or plutonium. I never took the time to write what I was sensing until much later in life--mainly because I thought other people would think I was crazy or that I was't credible. Now, 25 years later, I see that the idea of relating thoughts to toxicity was a valid one. That was the voice of my intuition guiding me all along. What's gotten me here now is that I spend more of my time listening to my inner voice than I do denying it.

what can we expect from your speakeasy at whistler?

Participants can expect a very direct, real interaction between myself and them. Questions my workshop seeks to explore: what do you want your legacy to be? What do you want to live to see? Who do you want to be on the journey of your own life? My workshop will host a multi-dimensional dialogue between myself and the audience about how big we are allowing ourselves to be--in this life and on this planet. Each participant will receive a gift of an igolu Scout book to guide them on their journey post-Wanderlust.

what is a goal you are working on (or one you recently accomplished)?

By Dec 2016, I address 10,000 people annually. One of the things I am most excited about is the upcoming opportunity to reach hundreds of potential goal-setters using Skillshare online hybrid class technology through a class I am teaching in October entitled "Author YOUR Life with Goal-Setting." I love reaching new audiences through these new mediums.

The underlying motivations for this goal are very dear to my heart. It is essential that young people create the healthy images in their own minds of the world they want their children to inherit. While my training as an environmental analyst might seem on the surface to better suit many of the problems the world faces today, I truly believe it is critical that younger generations begin to harness the power of their superconscious mind so they can live in freedom and choice about their own lives. This training will define the difference between someone who lives to fulfill their own goals versus fulfilling the goals of another.

how to participate in susanne's speakeasy on august 24th

1. Join us in real life at Wanderlust Whistler
2. Come back to this blog post
3. Visit our livestream channel
4. RSVP to our Facebook event so it's in your calendar, and invite your friends!

learn more about susanne

Visit Susanne's twitter and Facebook page to learn more about what she's up to.

the countdown to wanderlust whistler

I’ve been counting down the days until Wanderlust since I found out last winter it was coming to Whistler. My home is going to be transformed with yogis, musicians and likeminded individuals for 4 days. Here we’re used to seeing people carrying around their skis and snowboards, so yoga mats over the shoulders will be a whole new vibe!

what i'm excited for

1. Seane Corn is teaching a Detox Flow workshop that combines a vinyasa sequence while learning about living a healthy life. It will be great to be hear how to put your health first while being led through an amazing detoxifying practice.

2. I’m not sure if I’m excited or scared, but the Intro to Slackline Yoga workshop will be pretty cool. I’ve been practicing in the park by my house and walking on a slackline is a challenge in itself. My goal is to be able to rock a crow on the slackline by the end of Wanderlust!

3. Being led through an inversion workshop by Chris Chavez with Todd Boston!

4.ONE BODY UNITED! On Friday night, Michael Franti and Seane Corn will be extending an invitation to all of Whistler to join them in Olympic Plaza for one hour of music and yoga. Bring your mats and get ready for a party because it is going to be a wild 4 days in Whistler!

the ultimate apres area

lululemon Whistler is transforming our front patio into The Front Yard. There will be live music, healthy snacks and drinks, free wifi, and a yoga mat concierge to drop off or clean your sweaty mats. It will be the ultimate après yoga spot, as well as a place to connect, hang out and talk about your favourite workshops.

local tips

Between workshops, make sure you set aside some time to head up the mountain. Take the Whistler gondola up, check out the peak, take the Peak to Peak gondola over to Blackcomb and hike up to the Fitzsimmons look-out for some awesome views. Being up there is like being in heaven. Make sure you bring some comfy shoes, lots of water and your mat for the ultimate Tadasana.

Now, a little secret for you… Whistler is surrounded by some beautiful lakes. The closest to the village is Lost Lake. If you walk towards the Fairmont in the upper village you’ll see Lost Lake. From there hop on the Valley Trail, walk down to the lake and follow the path all the way around to the first dock. Once you’re there, clothing is optional! I couldn’t think of anything better than skinny dipping in the lake after a long weekend of down dogs and handstands.

Come say hi to us at the Whistler store and the Front Yard all Wanderlust weekend lawn for more hidden secrets and any question you have about this amazing weekend!

Rameen Peyrow was lululemon Whyte Avenue's very first yoga ambassador and 10 years ago opened the first yoga studio on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton. This summer West Coasters can practice with Rameen at Wanderlust Whistler, where he'll be sharing the teachings of Sattva Yoga with festival-goers.

who are you?

I am the founder of Sattva Yoga and the Sattva School of Yoga.

yoga influences

My influence comes from the original root of where yoga began. From a very young age, I have had a meditation practice that has been influenced and inspired by the rishis of the east. I also had an opportunity in my early 20s to study with Sri K Patthabi Jois for seven years in my 20s, which was one of the most beautiful and most important times of my life.

In 2002, I was authorized to teach by the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute (AYRI), a blessing given to very few individuals.

what is sattva yoga?

Sattva means purity, harmony, balance, joy, intelligence, wisdom. Sattva is the quality that yogis point their attention towards, making liberation possible. The practice was born out of one question, one seat and one mantra. The question is, Who am I?, the seat is meditation and the mantra is OM. The practice is dedicated to inspiring practitioners to attain a balanced state of being and live from a place of inspired potential.

how sattva evolved

Over the years, I combined the practice of postures and breathing, Hatha Yoga, with the meditative practices of Raja Yoga (concentration, meditation and absorption).

This self-inquiry style of teaching gives the practitioner a platform to learn the key tools that are necessary to becoming self reliant and confident on his or her spiritual path and path of self development.

Learn more about Rameen on his website or the Wanderlust Whistler website.

what style of yoga do you teach?

Vinyasa Flow, Hatha, Restorative, and Prenatal.

how did you get started with yoga?

While completing a BA in Cultural History and Eastern Philosophy I discovered BKS Iyengar's "Light on Yoga" in the library. Completely intrigued, I signed the book out and started a home practice. Two years later I found myself travelling in India and studying yoga - this was 16 years ago!

who/what are your biggest teachers?

Wow, this is a big question. Some of my most influential teachers to date are Mary-Jo Fetterly, Crystal Pite, Rhoda Pitcher, and Christine Selda. The deepening of my yoga, art, dance and ceremonial practice has been such a powerful teacher in my personal awakening and curiosity of body-mind-spirit integration. My greatest teacher to date has come with the birth of my amazing daughter, Desa Rose, who is 19 months old.

other than yoga, what are you passionate about?

Dancing, painting, ceremony, sailing, gardening, spending days with my family in nature, going on retreats, travelling.

what sort of classes are you planning for whistler?

I am really looking forward to teaching four very different classes that will draw upon my training and background in vinyasa flow, meditation, pranayama, and shamanic practice. I am so excited to be working with musicians such as Shaman's Dream, DJ Drez, DJ Urn, and Steve Gold. I am also leading a hike that includes meditation and shamanic ceremony at the top of the mountain.

whose classes are you excited to take at wanderlust?

Seane Corn, Sianna Sherman, Chris Chavez... I would love to practice with everyone if I could!

one thing people don't know about you?

I have sailed across the Atlantic Ocean.

Learn more about Mara on her website or go here to learn more about Wanderlust Whistler.

At a recent class we took with Danielle to celebrate the Seawheeze kickoff, we laughed so much we didn't even realize what a killer workout she was giving us until the next day. We love Danielle and wanted you to get to know her too, so we asked her a few questions.

what style of yoga do you teach?

I teach Vinyasa flow, meditation and the occasional dance class.

where and when did you take your first yoga class?

I took my first yoga class in 2000 at the Meridian Club in Los Angeles. It was a Hatha class and I was surprised at how difficult it was for both mind and body. It took me a couple of years to appreciate the meditative benefits to the practice.

what can we expect from your yoga class?

You will most likely start sweating early on in the class. I find that there is nothing more perfectly sequenced than Sun Salutations A&B, although I will deviate from that sequence from time to time. I am pretty honest and try to share from my experiences and what I’m working on at the moment, e.g. sometimes my practice is about patience; patience not only with how my body is unfolding or not unfolding but how I’m reacting to my mother, partner and children. I try to expand my own awareness off the mat.

who are your teachers?

My main teachers are my two daughters, ages 5 & 7. They teach me to be light, playful and appreciate little things like a simple picture drawn from crayons or the kid’s meal at Subway. They will occasionally surprise me with profound wisdom. My youngest, Gabrielle, saw me grieving over my aging mother and said “Don’t worry mama. Baba (grandma in Japanese) will be born again.” My other teacher is my husband Scott, who introduced me to meditation about 12 years ago. I continue to learn from my parents, yoga students, and teachers of meditation and Vedanta, Deepak Chopra and davidji.

what kind of classes are you teaching at wanderlust whistler?

I will be teaching a variety of vinyasa flow classes and guided meditations, some classes accompanied by Steve Gold, chants and drums.

what's a random fact about you?

I’m half Japanese.

other than yoga, what are you most passionate about?

Food. I like to cook.

Danielle's teaching a variety of yoga and meditation classes at Wanderlust Whistler and is also speaking on a panel called "Transformation: How I Came to Yoga" with Eoin Finn and Amy Ippoliti. You can also find Danielle at the Chopra Center in Vancouver, where she teaches and is the Studio Director. Her personal website is: http://daniellemikanagel.com/

danne's festival recap

Well, (gulp)...I guess this is it. I’ve twisted until I couldn’t twist anymore, opened my hips more than they ever knew they could be opened, and inhaled and exhaled in more ways than I knew possible. I’m full of good (vegetarian and organic) food, good drink (enhanced with probiotics), and more beautiful memories and experiences than I can count. I guess I should probably say it out loud so I can start to believe it’s true, so here goes: Wanderlust Vermont is over. Wicked. big. sigh.

the last hurrah

To put off the inevitable sadness that’s about to ensue, I’ll share a few of my favorite Wanderlust memories from my final hours at this little slice of yogi heaven:

1. Jammin’ out to Ziggy Marley last night, my first ever reggae show—believe it!
2. The beautifully meditative chairlift ride I took to the top of the mountain this morning. Note to self for next year: Way more hiking.
3. A really cool lecture given by Manoj Chalam where I got schooled on Hindu & Buddhist Deities and became more acquainted with my new friends Ganesh and Shiva.
4. The final few moments I took to breath in all the beauty that was around me and feel a deep sense of gratitude for the gift of such an incredible experience.

there’s no place like wanderlust...i mean, home

It’s funny too, when my Wanderlust road trip crew dropped me off at home tonight, I felt a little bit like Dorothy in the final scene of the Wizard of Oz, the one where she wakes up back in Kansas, trying figure out if what just happened was really real or not. After they pulled out of the driveway and drove away, I stopped for a second and wondered the same thing: did that really just happen? Has it really been 4 days already?

Wanderlust, you came and went, but you also had an amazing way of making time stop so I could fully live in, and enjoy each moment to the fullest. In class the other day I remember Rolf Gates saying something to the effect of, “Meditation is those moments when time stops”, and at Wanderlust, it really did just that. A perfect pause in the hustle and bustle of my everyday life to take time out to “just be”.

Namaste, Wanderlust Vermont, I’ll be back next year.

Wanderlust Vermont may have ended, but yoga festival season is just getting started! Up next: Wanderlusts in Colorado, Tahoe, and then our own backyard of Whistler, BC. See you there!

Today, on day 3 of this magical yogic journey, I decided early on that the theme of the day would be “100% Indulgence”—I mean, it is Saturday after all. To start things off on the right foot, I took a lovely twist-centric class (I freaking love twists) called “Twists and the Fluid Body” with Stephanie Sandleben of the Kula Yoga Project in NYC. Indulgent asana mission accomplished.

After class, I headed over to the Kombucha tent to have my first sampling of the festival (are you surprised I waited this long? I know I am). Um, seriously though: Best. Kombucha. Ever. I tried the jasmine flavored version and fell in love immediately. I might have to go back tomorrow for the home brew kit. Indulgent beverage mission #1 accomplished.

Then of course, it was time for my obligatory daily braid (today I switched it up and did a small french braid down the left side) from the “cool free stuff” tent. Freshly braided, I stopped at another station in the tent and made my own lavender scented DIY yoga mat spray. Indulgent beauty mission accomplished (for me and my mat).

Before heading off to my noontime Breath and Bandhas class (for a little indulgent pranayama), I decided to go big for lunch and get some veggie empanadas from the food truck I’d been eying all weekend. I really only needed 1 or 2 tide me over, but because it’s “100% Indulgence Saturday”, I got the 4 for $7.50 special, and scarfed down those delicious little things in a heartbeat, fully accomplishing my indulgent eating mission.

After empanada time and bandha work, I grabbed a soy iced chai latte (indulgent beverage mission #2) and headed over to Grace Jull’s Anatomy and Asana lecture, where my sore little chaturanga arms got a much needed break, and I learned this great song about not compressing your acetabulum.

And tonight? A little Shakti Sunfire, MC Yogi and Ziggy Marley. Just another day in Wanderland.

Our time at Wanderlust Vermont is (sadly) coming to an end tomorrow. Check back here on Tuesday for Danne's festival wrap up!

1. You wake up in a bunk bed in a Swiss chalet (that’s still decorated for Christmas) that you’re sharing with 12 strangers/soon to be BFFs (picture the Real World for yogis).

2. The free gift that’s passed out at registration is a mala bead bracelet (they must have known that we couldn’t possibly fit another canvas tote bag in the trunks of our cars).

3. Instead of free junk food or energy drink samples, they’re handing out massive quantities of Honest Tea and Kefir.

4. About 3 feet from the endless Kefir supply is a booth that advertises: “Kombucha On Tap”, and about another 3 feet over, is a recycling tent with a bin for every type of “would-be-trash” imaginable.

5. There's a tent with free hair braiding (I’m sporting a sweet waterfall braid on both sides right now), a DIY trail mix station out of the trunk of a car, custom screen printed Wanderlust tote bags, and an herbal tea bar (I couldn’t make this up if I tried).

And how do I feel about all of this? 100% awesome and amazing. My little yoga heart is full to the brim and smiling.

additional awesome experiences of day 1

1. The morning meditation hike lead by Garth Stevenson, who seemed to effortlessly glide up the mountain (with a stand-up bass strapped to his back, mind you) to set-up camp in a field of wildflowers and serenade us. Yes, this was 100% as magical as it sounds.

2. The ayurveda workshop I attended where Hilary Garivaltis, Dean of the Kripalu School of Ayurveda, gave a live demonstration on how to use a neti pot. Hopefully she’s inspired me make use of the one I have at home that I bought months ago but have been too scared to use.

3. A detox flow class I took with Seane Corne (woohoo, girls with boys names!) where the main topic of conversation was, well...poop. I’ll spare you all the details, but she ended class by promising us all a "movement" sometime in the near future.

And as I walked back from class, I was serenaded by the sound of Billie Holiday coming from the chalet...I may have officially found my new “happy place”.

We're at Wanderlust yoga-ing and meeting people for three more days. Check out Amanda in the Wild for more of what we're up to!