Galactic Breathing for Pāhoa residents runs 90 minutes, $222, and is most often booked online with Jason Donaldson, who lives in Hawaiian Paradise Park along Highway 130. Jason has no office in Pāhoa, so in person is by request: write first, and he confirms a studio session or a home visit by arrangement.
Pāhoa has rebuilt its identity more than once. The town's wooden storefronts predate the 2018 lower Puna eruption by decades, and the community has long drawn people looking to live outside the mainstream. After 2018 reshaped the land just east of town near Leilani Estates and Kapoho, that independent character deepened into something steadier, a town that knows ground can shift and keeps going anyway. Breathwork, with its own cycle of building intensity and coming back to calm, speaks to a community that already understands what it means to find solid footing again after things move.
What the session involves
A Galactic Breathing ceremony opens with settling in, then light movement, usually Qigong, followed by guided meditation and intention setting. From there, three rounds of breath, each ending with an inhale, a hold, a release, and rest. The first round alone is typically enough for most people to feel a real shift. The second and third rounds build further, sometimes opening into an altered state with channeled messages or a felt sense of connection to guides and ancestors. A longer pause follows the final round, then a grounded return and time to talk through what came up.
Jason built this method from his own years of distance running and long meditation practice, inspired by Wim Hof and Stanislav Grof. He ran it as a regular Big Island experience for over two years, working with guests from around the world, before settling into the practice as it's offered today.
Why Pāhoa clients choose breathwork
Given the town's history with sudden geological change, a number of Pāhoa clients come to Galactic Breathing specifically around grief, uncertainty, or a major life transition, not because the practice promises to resolve any of that, but because the structure of building intensity and returning to calm mirrors something the community already lives with. Others simply want the somatic reset of a good breathwork session and have no particular story attached to it. Both are equally valid reasons to book.
Gentle by design
Nothing about the ceremony involves forcing, screaming, or pushing past what the body can handle. Jason trained as a pre-licensed marriage and family therapist, and that clinical grounding shapes how he tracks a client through the session, watching for trauma responses and keeping the pace calm even as the rounds deepen. "This is about remembering rather than fixing," he says, and that holds for Pāhoa clients exactly as it does everywhere else he works.
Online, studio, or home visit
Most Pāhoa clients choose to breathe at home, where the road never enters the picture. If you prefer to meet in person, Jason offers the studio in Hawaiian Paradise Park at 10am, 11am or noon, before the afternoon heat, or he can travel to you during regular business hours, easily within a 25 mile radius, which covers Pāhoa.
Preparing for your session
Eat and drink lightly for about an hour beforehand, and wear something comfortable to lie down in. No prior breathwork experience is assumed. The method was built from the start to work regardless of fitness level or familiarity with the practice, since the original Big Island groups drew people from every background imaginable.
Pāhoa's independent streak, before and after 2018
Pāhoa has long drawn artists, homesteaders, and people who came to the island looking to live by their own rules rather than anyone else's schedule. The wooden storefronts along the main street have stood for decades, through plantation closures and population shifts long before lava ever entered the picture. When the 2018 eruption changed the land east of town, the response wasn't to leave. Most of Pāhoa rebuilt, adjusted, and kept its particular character intact. That same resilience shows up in how people here approach something like breathwork, less interested in whether it's conventional and more interested in whether it actually helps.
What a Pāhoa client typically notices by the third round
Some people coming from Pāhoa describe a loosening by the final round of breath, somewhere between the chest and the shoulders, in a spot they had stopped noticing as tension at all. Experiences vary and none of it is promised. Living with ongoing uncertainty can settle into the body as a kind of background bracing, and a structured breath practice gives attention somewhere to go besides staying put indefinitely.
Frequently asked questions
Does Jason hold Galactic Breathing sessions in Pāhoa itself?
Not at a regular location. Online is the main option, and in person is by request, at his Hawaiian Paradise Park studio or at a home by arrangement.
Is breathwork a good fit if I'm processing grief or a major change?
It can be. The practice is a complement to whatever other support you have in place, not a substitute for medical or mental health care, but many people find the structure of building and releasing intensity useful alongside other work.
How far is Pāhoa from where Jason lives?
A short trip along Highway 130, since Hawaiian Paradise Park lies on that same road, and well under the time it would take to reach Hilo.
Can I book online instead of traveling?
Yes. The same 90 minute format is available online, and that is the main way Jason works with people right now.
What if I only want the first round and not the deeper ones?
That's common and complete on its own. The first round alone is often enough, and Jason paces every session around what feels right for you rather than pushing toward the deeper rounds by default.
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Online first. Ask about in person if you would like it.
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