Wanderlust 108 Milan: A Day I'll Never Forget

There are days you think you've already understood before you even live them. I set off with high expectations — Wanderlust is a sure thing — and instead I found myself feeling something I hadn't foreseen, and that I still struggle to put into words. On Saturday 26 September, in the CityLife park in Milan, I lived one of those days that move you forward a step without your even noticing.

The energy there wasn't just a figure of speech: you could touch it with your hands. Thousands of people in the same place, all happy to be there, all willing to let go together. And in the middle of it was me, my heart already open before I'd even unrolled my mat.

What Wanderlust 108 is

In case you don't know it: Wanderlust is the largest international circuit devoted to wellbeing, and the «108» format is its open-air day, where yoga, meditation and music weave together and become a collective experience. In Italy, in 2026, it touched four stops: one in Venice, two in Milan and one in Rome. I lived the Milan one, at CityLife, with the skyscrapers framing a sea of mats.

And that 108 that recurs everywhere — on the stage, on the signs — is not a graphic detail: it's the sacred number of yoga, a symbol of completeness. If it intrigues you, I've written about it separately.

The intention: gratitude

The morning practice opened with an intention dedicated to gratitude, and it hit me right in the chest. With my eyes closed, in front of the stage, I saw my whole journey flow past: the efforts, the choices made sometimes with fear but always with courage, the doors I had the stubbornness to open.

It was gratitude toward myself, for having come this far. And gratitude toward others: the people who have always been there, who never doubted my worth even when I doubted it myself. Seeing them pass one by one, in the silence of that immense crowd, moved me to tears. It's not often that you feel so full and so light in the same instant.

When strangers become family

The thing that overwhelmed me most, though, was the connection with others. You unroll your mat beside complete strangers and, without knowing how, at some point you take each other's hands, look into each other's eyes, smile. Someone, with glistening eyes, lets themselves fall into a hug. You don't know one another, and yet you recognise one another.

This is the little miracle of Wanderlust 108: yoga, meditation and music that together stir something deep — that shakti, that energy — and turn a crowd into a community. Wonderful teachers, a luminous mood, a warm day full of sun. The braids, the faces painted with tribal colours, the laughter. Lightness and depth in the same breath.

What I'm taking home

I'm taking home three things. Energy, first of all: the physical certainty that it wasn't outside, on the stage or in the music, but inside me — I only had to let it rise. Then courage: the courage to keep following this path without asking permission. And a conviction firmer than ever.

I already knew it, but there I felt it in my bones: yoga is not performance, it's not perfection. Yoga is you — how you live it, how you carry it, how you express it. And you can express it in a thousand different ways, not necessarily in an asana: in a smile, in a hug, in a moment of meditation, in the way you hold a stranger's hand. It's all yoga, if it's true.

But the greatest thing I'm taking home is an awareness: this is my home. This is my path, and this is where I want to be, nowhere else. I'll keep studying, I'll keep travelling — to always bring something new, and something more, into the hearts of the people I'll have the privilege to share all this with. I'm grateful to Wanderlust for inviting me as a Wayfarer and for reminding me, once again, why I do what I do.

Frequently asked questions

“Yoga isn't a perfect asana. It's how you live it and how you carry it: you can express it in a smile, in a hug, in a breath. — Silvia