A few minutes a day, towards living more in the present, and more wisely.
A few minutes a day, towards living more in the present, and more wisely.
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Breathwork here is your own practice, on your own responsibility. Nothing here is medical advice, and each breath carries its own notes.
Nothing leaves this device unless you ask.
The power breaths work either way, so choose whatever lets you breathe fully and easily.
A common way: in through the nose, out through the mouth. The nose keeps the in-breath smooth; the mouth lets the out-breath fall away.
For the longest holds, exhaling through the mouth offloads more carbon dioxide, and it's low CO₂ that quiets the urge to breathe, so the retention stretches further. Keeping it all through the nose is gentler and offloads less, a softer version of the same practice.
A little CO₂ isn't just waste. It helps your blood release oxygen into your tissues (the Bohr effect). And breathing through the nose adds nitric oxide, which helps keep the airways open.
Slow, gentle breathing can be a real comfort in pregnancy, and most of what's here is that kind. This is honest guidance to help you choose, not medical advice, so let your midwife or doctor have the final word, especially with a high-risk pregnancy.
Gentle and welcome. The slow, flowing breaths are a friend now, such as Coherent, Extended exhale, Three-part, Ocean breath, Humming bee and Alternate nostril. Keep them soft, and let any breath-holds stay short and easy, or let them go.
Best set aside for now. The forceful, rapid breaths ask too much of the belly: Navel pumps, Bellows breath, Fire essence, Storm & Steady and the Connected breath. Leave the strong belly work and the energy locks too, and skip long breath-holds.
Either way. Sit, or later on lie propped up rather than flat on your back. Never strain, and stop if you feel light-headed or unwell.
This is how these practices are traditionally understood and what current research points to. It's here to help you learn, not medical advice, and every body responds a little differently.
You don't need many techniques. You need to understand a few levers. Learn what each one does and you can build the breath you need, then take it anywhere, without the app.
Direction is the first dial. Every breath leans one way: calming (langhana, softening and slowing) or activating (brahmana, rousing and warming). Longer, slower, exhale-led breaths calm; fuller, faster, inhale-led breaths energise.
Balance is the second. The breath also runs left or right: the two nostrils feed the body's twin channels, ida (left, cooling, calming) and pingala (right, warming, activating), and alternate-nostril breathing evens them. The middle path between the two ends.
Choose a direction, or come back to balance; then tune the pace, ratio and holds.
Calm lives in the out-breath. A longer exhale engages the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic "rest and digest" state, slowing the heart. It's why an extended exhale or 4·7·8 settles you so fast. This is the best-established effect in the whole practice, seen again and again in the research, so the calming dial, more than any single score, is the surest lever you have here.
CO₂ isn't just waste. It helps your blood release oxygen into your tissues (the Bohr effect). Slow, light, nasal breathing keeps a little more CO₂ around, and over time raises your tolerance of it: calmer, lighter breathing and a longer, more comfortable breath-hold (your BOLT).
The nose filters, warms and slows the air, and adds nitric oxide, which helps open the airways. Unless a technique says otherwise, in and out through the nose.
At about 5.5 breaths a minute (≈5.5 seconds in, 5.5 out) heart rate, breath and blood pressure fall into step and heart-rate variability peaks, a state of coherence. That's the coherent breath.
The holds, after the in-breath or out (kumbhaka), build comfort and skill with the hold and steady the mind, and are where the energy locks (bandhas) belong. Add them gently; build the hold over time.
Direction, pace, ratio, holds: that's the whole kit. Play with them in Build, save what works, and you've made a practice you understand and own.
Sources & inspiration: the yogic and hatha-yoga tradition (pranayama, the bandhas, the nadis); James Nestor, Breath; Patrick McKeown, The Oxygen Advantage. Built on, simplified, and made our own.
Inward locks engaged during the breath holds: they seal and direct the energy a held breath gathers. Attach one to a hold above, or to any hold-bearing breath in Adjust during practice.
A bandha is an inward lift you engage while the breath is held, in the pauses the breath rests in, not the moving in- and out-breaths. The fuller (or emptier) the hold, the more there is to seal.
Give a breath a hold (raise its Hold count above), then attach a lock to that hold. When you practise, the lock's cue appears the moment its hold begins.
The BOLT is a simple measure of how settled your breathing is: how long after a normal, relaxed exhale you can comfortably hold before the body asks for air. A longer comfortable hold reflects a calmer, more efficient breath and a better tolerance of carbon dioxide.
These rough bands are passed around a lot, from Patrick McKeown's work. They are handy rules of thumb, not a diagnosis, and the science behind the exact numbers is thin. Hold them lightly: your own trend over weeks tells you far more than which band you land in today.
It's a personal trend, not a grade; watch your own line rise over weeks, not any single number.
Your BOLT is really a measure of how easily your body tolerates carbon dioxide, and that tolerance is exactly what the calming breaths train. The Calm dial (langhana) leans on the exhale: longer out-breaths and soft holds let carbon dioxide settle a touch higher, and over weeks the body learns to stay easy with it. The Energise dial (brahmana) works the other way, brightening and rousing. So a rising BOLT is the quiet, exhale-weighted work showing up in the body. No need to chase the number; practise the slow breaths and it follows.
Best first thing in the morning, before eating or caffeine, once you're settled. Measuring at the same time of day keeps the trend honest.
The BOLT (Body Oxygen Level Test) comes from Patrick McKeown's The Oxygen Advantage, in the Buteyko tradition. The name is a little misleading: it reflects how comfortably your body tolerates carbon dioxide, not your blood oxygen, which stays near-full throughout.
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