Tired of working a desk job that left her physically and mentally drained, Dutch citizen Hana(pictured, below) planned a trekking trip to Nepal in 2021. As soon as she reached Pokhara, all her tiredness seemed to slip away, and she felt as though her life had changed. “I was drawn to Pokhara’s mountains, the nature, and the climate,” says Hana who was in Nepal to do the Annapurna trek.
“But once here, I discovered the healing benefits of yoga and meditation.” Read also: Pokhara comes alive at night Hana is back in Pokhara for the third time in three years, and spends time in daily meditation and yoga. She says, “Pokhara is so peaceful and beautiful, it is the perfect yoga destination.
” Like Hana, there are thousands of ‘meditation tourists’ visiting Pokhara during what used to be the monsoon off-season for visitors. Many yoga retreats have sprung up in and around this scenic city, and instructors advertise private meditation classes in hotels. One instructor is Maheswar Man Shrestha (pictured, below), who grew up as a sickly child in Kathmandu and was often hospitalised, missing school for months at a time.
When modern medicine did not work, his father, himself a doctor, sought ayurvedic treatment and combined it with yoga and meditation. Shrestha soon got miraculously better. Read also: Practicing mindfulness in schools , Basu Gautam Now in his fifties, Shrestha is a true believer in the power of yogic healing.
“I went from medication to meditation, I am .