Try the Free Program Peace Paced Breathing App

 

Over the last year, I developed a breathing app designed to help people breathe more deeply. The app can help you learn the key elements of diaphragmatic breathing and is meant to guide people through the Program Peace self-care system. It is available for iPhone and Android phones. You can find it on the Apple Store or the Google Plus store. This blog post will explain its features and how it can help you.

Breathing short, shallow breaths creates tension in the muscles of respiration, which drives anxiety. Almost everyone breathes in this way to some extent. By training you to become comfortable breathing deeper and longer, this app will help you eliminate the tension and reduce the negative emotions it causes. The app also provides an easy-to-use interface without bloat, clutter, ads, sign-ins, in-app purchases, or full version upgrades. Also, the app collects no data. The video below offers a description.

Scientific studies have shown that paced breathing lowers blood pressure and heart rate and calms the mind. Research has also shown that breathing at longer intervals can improve mood, focus, and flexibility, increase athletic performance, reduce recovery time, mitigate fatigue, and help people sleep at night. This app is designed to help you take full advantage of those benefits. This app is designed to help you take full advantage of those benefits. It also provides an easy-to-use interface without bloat, clutter, ads, sign-ins, in-app purchases, or full version upgrades.

Read about the science of optimal breathing. Select how long you want your inhales and exhales to be. Choose the duration of the optional pauses between them. Peruse the preset breathing rates to learn about various breathing methods. Practice the Program Peace exercises to build confidence, a positive mindset, and rehabilitate systems throughout your body.

 

 

FEATURES:

* Breath counter

* Customizable breathing intervals

* Apple health kit integration

* Mindfulness minutes

* Current and longest streaks

* Track your history and progress

* Multiple audible cues

* Over a dozen preset rates

* Color palette options

* Custom reminders

* Rank system

* Recommended exercises

* Optional breath holds

* Vibrate function

* Multiple audible cues

* Dark mode

* Create your own color theme

* Free book included

* Original informative content

 

PRESET BREATHING MODES:

* Before sleep

* Box breathing

* Classic Pranayama

* Energizing

* Holotropic

* Panic blocker

* 4-7-8 breathing

* and more

 

EXERCISES THAT TARGET:

* The respiratory diaphragm

* Thoracic breathing muscles

* The voice

* The neck and back

* Facial expressions

* Eye contact

* Nasal breathing

* Fasting

* Laughing

 

The app is designed to help users transition from distressed breathing to calm, smooth, diaphragmatic breathing. This is accomplished by completing breathing sessions where you follow the breathing bar on the left side of the screen. The bar helps you lengthen your breaths which is key to activating the diaphragm and, along with it, the nervous system’s relaxation response.

Let’s browse through the app’s five main pages so I can show you what they offer. The first page contains a brief summary of the Program Peace book. It also has a tutorial video and a posture and mindset checklist video.

 

 

This second page offers 40 of the best program peace exercises which are designed for you to practice while you breathe along with a Breathing Bar.

 

 

Here exercise 3.4 teaches you to breath smoothly, meaning at a constant steady rate. It explains how the exercise should be done, why it is helpful, and shows illustrations to guide you. At the bottom you can see a button that says “start session.” When you press that button a two minute timer starts the session. And of course your sessions are tracked here on the previous page.

 

 

 

This third page is where you can change the rate of the Breathing Bar. You can use these plus and minus buttons to change the duration of the inhale and the exhale. Or you can do it by using the scrub bars directly. You can add breath holds or use this blue button in the middle to start a timed breathing session.

 

 

 

Below this you can choose from a number of preset breathing options. Just click on any of the i-shaped information buttons to read more about them and why you might want to use them. 

 

This fourth page tracks your progress and keeps a record of the number of breaths you have completed, the number of minutes you’ve used the app, your average breaths per minute, and more.

 

 

 

Below this there are timers for you to practice breath holds and extended inhalations and exhalations. Using these have really helped me train my body to, almost effortlessly, take full sixty second inhalations. There is probably no better way to relax, strengthen and desensitize your respiratory diaphragm.

 

The final page is the options page. Here you can choose the audible queue that tells you when to breathe in and out. You can opt to use a persons voice, a simple vibration, or a number of different sound effects.

 

 

 

You can choose to hide the System bar if you don’t want to see the time and battery constraints.

 

You can choose to use a full screen bar which is easier to see at a distance. This is a great option if you want to place your phone to the side of your television so that you can practice diaphragmatic breathing while watching a show or a movie. As we wait for the two bars to synchronize try breathing along with the bar now.

 

You can select between light and dark themes.

 

You can also choose to have your phone remind you to practice a breathing session

 

There are a number of other assets included in the app. This includes videos, and the entire Program Peace book in PDF form. 

 

This app is intended to be a companion to the Program Peace book, website, and self-care system but is also a fully stand-alone product. For more information, you can visit www.programpeace.com. Please leave a review or contact us through the app if you have questions or suggestions.

 

Program Peace will introduce you to eight different principles of relaxed breathing and then encourage you to practice them while performing related exercises. Here are the principles:

1. Breathe deeply (high volume): Breathe more fully, breathing most of the way in and out in a way that pushes the belly forward during each inhalation.
2. Breathe longer (low frequency): Breathe at longer intervals in which each inhalation and exhalation lasts for more time.
3. Breathe smoothly (continuous flow): Breathe at a steady, slow, constant rate.
4. Breathe assertively (confident): Do not let social concerns or stressors conflict with the other rules.
5. Exhale passively: Allow your breathing muscles to go limp during each exhalation.
6. Breathe nasally: Breathe through the nose with nostrils flared.
7. Ocean’s Breath: Relax the back of your throat and breathe as if you are fogging up a glass.
8. Breathe with purity of heart: Knowing that you have only the best intentions, and that you exemplify the combination of nonsubmissive and nondominating, will infuse your breathing with peace.

I designed the app and created a business plan and all of the artwork first and then interviewed a number of app developers on freelancer websites. I ended up hiring Bradley Martin and Dan Rodenberg at Another Reality Studios to program it. They were great and I highly recommend them. When you start designing an app you need to create a visual guide or schematic that lays out the workflow. This is called a wireframe. Here are some of the original wireframes that I drew to describe how it would operate. It was a fun process and it was easier and less expensive than I thought it would be. If you are interested, it cost under 10k and took about four months. If you have an idea that you want to turn into a digital app, I highly recommend creating some wireframes like the ones below, and then contacting some freelancers or online businesses to get quotes and feedback.