Yoga for calm in Varkala
Quiet the mind and soften the breath.
Calm gathers classes built to slow you down: yin, restorative, yoga nidra, slow hatha, meditation, gentle breathwork and sound baths. They share long pauses, soft voices and very little rush. The aim is a quieter mind and an easier breath.
No classes scheduled in the next two weeks.
What Calm does for you
You get a stretch of time where nothing is asked of you except to notice. The breath lengthens, the shoulders drop, the inner commentary gets quieter. Many people leave feeling calmer and more spacious, as if someone had turned the city volume down. It is an hour to arrive back in yourself.
It suits you if
- your mind races when you lie down
- you want a pause in a full week
- you are curious about meditation but want something to do with your body
- loud, fast classes leave you more wired
Read the full guide to CalmWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
Classes run 45 to 90 minutes and are mostly on the floor or seated. Expect slow or no movement, long holds, guided attention to the breath and a long rest at the end. The space is often dimmed, sometimes with candles or live sound. Facilitators talk softly and leave silence between instructions. You will not sweat, and nobody expects you to talk.
Your first time
- Wear warm, soft layers and bring socks.
- Arrive early so you are not rushing into a quiet space.
- Switch your phone off completely, not just to silent.
Good to know
- Silence and stillness can bring up uneasy feelings for some people; you can open your eyes, move or step out at any time.
- If you live with anxiety, panic or trauma, a class is not a replacement for support from a doctor or therapist, and it can help to tell the facilitator what you need.
- Some breath practices are strong despite a calm label; if a class includes fast or held breathing and you are pregnant or have epilepsy, a heart condition or high blood pressure, check with a doctor first.
Where it comes from
Settling the mind sits at the center of classical yoga. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, compiled in the early centuries of the common era (exact dates are debated), open by defining yoga as the stilling of the movements of the mind, chitta vritti nirodha. Buddhist and Hindu meditation traditions developed many ways of steadying attention and breath long before yoga became mainly a posture practice.
In the 20th century, Western physicians and scientists took an interest. Edmund Jacobson developed progressive relaxation in the 1920s and 1930s, Herbert Benson described what he called the relaxation response in a 1975 book, and Jon Kabat-Zinn founded Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the University of Massachusetts in 1979, bringing meditation into clinics and offices. Together they gave quiet practice a secular vocabulary.
Today's calm classes draw on both lines: yoga nidra from the 1970s, restorative and yin yoga from the 1990s, and sound baths more recently. In Berlin, slow evening classes and Sunday afternoon formats have become a fixture, and many studios offer at least one candlelit, quiet class a week.
Words you will hear
- Savasana
- Lying on your back with eyes closed to rest, usually at the end of class.
- Pranayama
- Breath practice: ways of guiding and shaping the breath.
- Chitta
- The mind, including thoughts, memories and moods.
- Body scan
- Moving your attention slowly through the body, one part at a time.
- Sankalpa
- A short intention you repeat to yourself, often used in yoga nidra.