The idea of changing your emotional and physical responses through breathing alone is something many are familiar with, and is commonly used in various types of sports, cognitive therapies, and other activities. This app gives you a visual of lungs filling and emptying, along with a pitched note at the top and bottom of each breath, and allows you to adjust for how slow you would like to regulate your breathing to. All you need to do is select how many breaths per minute you'd like to reach as your goal, select how many minutes you will do this for, and begin breathing with the audio cues while inhaling and exhaling along with the visual. It's that easy!
The app also allows you to record your progression over time if you are working to train yourself, however personally I don't see the need for that. It's about relaxing, not working towards an end goal.
I was introduced to the idea of using your breathing to change your body's total response during physical therapy following spinal surgery. Part of the therapy was cognitively working on relaxing all of my muscles in an attempt to ease both pain and stress. The therapist I worked with used a waist band that was connected to a small machine that did the same thing the MyCalmBeat app does, it had a lung visual and sound to cue your breathing. Over the years I've continued to use this as an effective way to not only decrease pain, but to handle the anxiety symptoms of PTSD. I found that just sitting back, closing my eyes, and focusing on deep steady slow breathing went a long way in lowing my heart rate, anxiety, and over all outlook.
Have you tried the app or one similar? Have any questions? Download the app and let me know how you like it in the comments!!
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