The population seems to have doubled overnight here in Lake Tahoe and the Wanderlust grounds are buzzing with happy, sweaty, yoga-fied people. The energy here is incredible and the conversations are flowing - from the yoga mat to the elevator.

600 yogis line up for Seane Corn's class

creating space

About 600 people were in my first class of the day, lead by Seane Corn. I knew it was going to be powerful a few minutes in when I noticed the two people in front of me had tears streaming down their cheeks. We honoured the amazing and powerful women in our life by dedicating our thoughts to them (I sent mine to my mom - hi mom! Did you get them?), and went deep into our hips where Seane says we "store every relationship we've ever had" to release the past and let go. One word: wow.

creating art

I had been looking forward to practicing with John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga, for a long time. His class was just as I had imagined it would be -- 1.5 hours of play, accompanied by live musicians who were perfectly in sync with our movements: holding the song as we held poses, crescendoing as we expanded towards the sky. I think I detected a Simon + Garfunkel song at one point [side note - can anyone verify this? I really want to know!].

John Friend and the merry band

science-asana

About to get my neuroscience on

Next up: "The Secret" meets neuroscience. At least, this is what I thought when Dr. Van Houten began his lecture about happiness and meditation and asked us to create a vision of our future self. My nutshell edition of his wonderful 1.5 hour lecture: We can change the chemistry in our brains permanently, through 10-15 minutes of meditation a day. So if there's something in your life that you want, focus on it and your brain will figure it out. I'm now inspired to give my neurons a workout -- six-month meditation experiment, anyone?

hammock dreams

I had a short break between activities and checked my Twitter stream. Someone named @hammocker had said hi to me, and I decided to meet them in real life. I am so glad I did.

Rachel was at the Yellow Leaf Hammock booth and told me how her boyfriend Joe had gone to Thailand on vacation, discovered these handmade hammocks, and quit his corporate day job when he returned to found Yellow Leaf, which is committed to creating a sustainable social enterprise. They've only officially been open for a week. The hairs on my arm stood up when she told me their story.

visions and goals

I ended my day with a goal-setting workshop lead by Andrea from lululemon. Andrea brought tears to a few eyes with her personal story of goal-setting including the fact that she was achieving a goal by being here at Wanderlust leading the workshop. When I got home and checked the lululemon blog, I saw Allessia's post on visions and goals and it connected all the individual pieces of my day together.

If there's something in your life that you don't have, you can create it. Let go of situations / things that aren't serving you and create a life you love. If you're at Wanderlust, Andrea's holding another workshop Saturday at 5 pm. Be there or be square.

Until tomorrow,
Alana

I have arrived in Tahoe! There's a buzz in the air here and the population of Wanderlusters is growing by the hour as more and more people roll into town, yoga mats in tow.

Here's a quick summary of my day:

what i packed

Cool Racerbacks, Wunder Unders, Vinyasa Scarf, airplane reading, technology.

is a yoga mat luggage?

Momentary confusion re: whether or not my travel mat was considered carry-on (do I check it in? Can I carry it on?) until I discovered it folds up and slides neatly into my actual luggage. Props, lululemon designers!

trivia: where in the world is this?

Hint: it's between Vancouver BC and Lake Tahoe.

the reno airport!

"Nobody puts Baby in the corner."

new airport friends

I shared a taxi from the Reno airport to Tahoe with three other Wanderlusters.

Nate is from Greenville, South Carolina, has been practicing yoga for a year, and quit his full-time job (where he wore a suit and worked 60 hours a week) 2 Fridays ago. He came to Wanderlust to deepen and explore his relationship with yoga.

lance and amy

Lance is from Denver and is a "jack-of-all-trades" in the telecommunications field. He's been practicing yoga for 3 years and his intention for Wanderlust is to "be happy. Experience it."

Amy's from New York City, has been practicing yoga for 2.5 years, and "lives to inspire". Her intention for her time at Wanderlust is to connect with as many amazing people as possible.

I can tell that it's going to be an intense (in the best way possible) few days of making connections, learning, sharing, and of course getting our yoga on. My first class starts bright and early tomorrow morning, and I can't wait to hit the mat!

Meet you tomorrow, Wanderlust!

♥ Alana