Breathwork classes in Pokhara
Use the breath to shift how you feel.
Breathwork is any class where the breath itself is the practice. It ranges from slow yogic breathing called pranayama to faster, continuous styles like conscious connected breathing, Wim Hof style rounds and holotropic breathwork. You change how you breathe on purpose and notice what happens.
No classes scheduled in the next two weeks.
What Breathwork does for you
Your breath is something you can change at will, and these classes show you how much that shifts the way you feel. Slow, long exhales tend to leave people feeling settled; faster, fuller patterns can bring tingling, warmth, strong emotion and a buzzy afterglow. Many people describe feeling lighter or clearer afterward. Even the gentle styles leave you with a few techniques you can use on the U-Bahn or before a hard conversation.
It suits you if
- you want a tool you can use anywhere
- you feel restless in silent meditation
- you are curious about what your breath can do
- you want an intense, cathartic experience (the faster styles)
- you want something quieter than a movement class (the slower styles)
Read the full guide to BreathworkWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
It depends heavily on the style, so read the description. Pranayama classes are calm, 30 to 60 minutes, sitting upright, with patterns like alternate nostril breathing or long, counted exhales. Conscious connected and holotropic formats usually last 60 to 120 minutes, mostly lying down, breathing fast and full through the mouth to loud music, while the facilitator and sometimes helpers move around the space. Wim Hof style classes do rounds of deep breaths followed by breath holds, sometimes followed by an ice bath. Tingling hands, cramping fingers, tears or laughter are common in the faster styles, and the facilitator talks you through them.
Your first time
- Eat lightly two to three hours before, especially for the faster styles.
- Wear comfortable layers and bring water and a blanket, since your temperature can swing.
- Tell the facilitator about any medical conditions and whether this is your first time with fast breathing.
- Plan a quiet hour afterward rather than rushing back to your desk.
Good to know
- Faster styles involve deliberate overbreathing and breath holds; check with a doctor first if you are pregnant or have epilepsy, a heart condition, high blood pressure, glaucoma, severe asthma or a history of mental illness.
- Never practice fast breathing or breath holds in or near water, in the bath or while driving, since they can cause a brief blackout.
- Strong emotions, crying or vivid images can come up in connected breathing classes; you can slow your breath down and return to normal breathing at any point.
Where it comes from
Working with the breath is ancient. Pranayama, Sanskrit for regulating the breath or life force (prana), appears in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras list it as one of the eight limbs of yoga. Medieval hatha yoga texts added detailed techniques, including breath retention (kumbhaka). Breath also sits at the center of Buddhist mindfulness of breathing and of Chinese practices of qi cultivation.
Modern Western breathwork took shape in the United States in the 1970s. Leonard Orr developed Rebirthing, a connected breathing method he said could bring up memories of one's own birth, a claim most psychologists reject. The psychiatrist Stanislav Grof and his wife Christina developed Holotropic Breathwork, fast breathing to evocative music, as a successor to the LSD therapy Grof had practiced before the drug was banned. Much of the conscious connected breathing taught today descends from these lines.
In the 2010s the Dutch extreme athlete Wim Hof made breath rounds and cold exposure popular worldwide with the Wim Hof Method, combining cycles of deep breathing and breath holds with ice baths. Its rise came with warnings: several practitioners drowned after doing the breathing exercises in water, and the method itself now stresses practicing only in a safe place.
In Berlin, breathwork shows up in three main forms: pranayama inside yoga classes, stand-alone conscious connected breathing evenings and workshops, and Wim Hof style breath and ice bath events.
Words you will hear
- Pranayama
- Sanskrit for regulating the breath or life force; yogic breathing techniques.
- Kumbhaka
- Sanskrit for a pause or hold of the breath, after inhaling or exhaling.
- Nadi shodhana
- Sanskrit for channel cleansing: alternate nostril breathing, closing one nostril at a time.
- Connected breathing
- Breathing in and out continuously with no pause between breaths.
- Tetany
- Temporary cramping or curling of the hands and mouth from overbreathing, which passes when you slow down.