On Sunday, Wanderlust's second annual Yoga in the City event at Pier 63 featured perfect weather and a plethora of yoga world talent—from Kristin McGee as emcee, to Elena Brower, Schuyler Grant, Chrissy Carter, Dana Flynn, and Kelly Morris teaching, to Anya Porter performing Breakti. (It also felt like an extension of the DNC at times, with references to Barack Obama's reelection every few minutes.) Around 2,000 New York yogis headed west to meditate, chant, socialize, and stretch on the Hudson River.

 

In between the day's two massive yoga classes, attendees browsed sponsored goodies from Kind Bar, BluePrint Juice, Health Magazine, Elizabeth Arden, VitaCoco, and Lucy. And Acroyogis showed off their incredible moves while Garth Stevenson played.

 

Conquering Lion Yoga founder Kelly Morris started the day's second class with a brief meditation. Then, she had everyone turn to their neighbor and tell them something in their life that was going wrong. "I could really use a job," my partner told me. We then dedicated our practice to our neighbor's issue, with Morris reminding us, in hard moments, to focus our intention and send them our energy.

 

Throughout class, Morris' hilarious and irreverent nature was on full display. Examples: "Put your nose in the grass. Come on, really, like stick your nose in it. You guys aren't afraid to touch the subway, but you're afraid of the grass?!" and "Raise your hand if you can love a Republican today. Some of you are thinking 'Bitch, I am a Republican.'"

 

After Morris finished, Pure Yoga's Kay Kay Clivio led the class through 30 minutes of invigorating sun salutations. Literally. The sun was hot, hot, hot.

 

The class immediately morphed into a dance party when Dana Flynn took the stage, in her Obama t-shirt and trucker hat. Flynn blasted hip-hop tracks and an amazing Gotye remix while injecting rhythm and laughter into every second of the flow sequence. Then, 13 Hands came on stage and started a drum beat, which Flynn had everyone chant to. The mantra? "Start the day with love. Fill the day with love. Live the day with love."

 

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