Breathe2Relax is a free app that provides information on the effects of stress and a guided exercise in diaphragmatic breathing. The diaphragmatic breathing exercise shows users how to take deep breaths while engaging their diaphragm, which can be used as a stress-management tool. Breathe2Relax explains how stress impacts the mind and body, and shares the health benefits of relaxation and deep breathing techniques.
Pros & Cons of the Breathe2Relax App
Breathe2Relax aims to provide two key elements: information on diaphragmatic breathing and one guided exercise to practice the technique. While Breathe2Relax claims to help users track stress levels and heart rate, the results chart isn’t labeled clearly and is difficult to read. In addition, the app consistently shows errors when attempting to play videos and when syncing with the Apple Watch heart rate tracker.
How to Download the Breathe2Relax
To sign up for Breathe2Relax, you can download the app from the Google Play Store or Apple App store.
What Is the Breathe2Relax App?
Breathe2Relax is a free health and fitness mobile app that features a guided exercise in diaphragmatic breathing and helpful information on the effects of stress. Diaphragmatic breathing is when you intentionally engage your diaphragm while taking deep breaths allowing more oxygen into the lungs. 1 This form of breathwork is often used in mindfulness and meditation practices.
Breathe2Relax offers users information on the fundamentals of the biology of stress, diaphragmatic breathing, and the effects of stress on the body in a tab labeled ‘Learn.’ It clearly defines the body’s stress response, what it’s used for, and how it’s activated. It highlights the difference between short term stress and long term stress, and how long term stress (too many stress hormones being activated for too long) can be harmful to the body and mind. There’s also a body scan graphic that pinpoints how stress impacts each body part.
Users will find detailed content on diaphragmatic breathing and precise instructions on how to master this technique. The content also includes the difference between “chest breathing” and “belly breathing” to ensure that you’re doing the exercise correctly. Before beginning the guided practice, you have the option to personalize the breathing experience with inhale/exhale lengths, preferred number of cycles, and audio/visual settings.
The guided breathing exercise begins by asking users to input how they feel using a slider on a spectrum scale that ranges from “relaxed” to “stressed.” This will be asked again at the end of each session to help users track how they feel before and after their exercise. When the exercise starts, users can see their chosen audio/visual settings and a metronome graphic that counts breaths. There’s an audio instructor that guides users through their breathing exercise. Once you’re finished, results are saved on a separate tab, which helps you keep track of stress levels each day the app is used.
Who Is the Breathe2Relax Right For?
The Breathe2Relax app can be helpful for anyone looking for a simple introduction to breathwork, those who want a quick and easy guided diaphragmatic breathing exercise, and those who are interested in using breathing techniques to relax in stressful situations.
Looking for Simple Introductions to Breathwork
Breathe2Relax could be right for you if you’re just interested in the basics of breathwork and the science behind it. The ‘Learn’ section provides a brief but straightforward explanation of the effects of stress on the body and how diaphragmatic breathing can help.
Want an Easy Guided Exercise
The guided exercise featured on Breathe2Relax is easy to personalize and set up. Those who are not ready for multiple guided breathing exercises or exploring meditation alongside breathwork may find this app helpful.
Interested in Using Breathwork to Relax in Stressful Situations
There’s a lot of valuable information about the “fight or flight” stress response and how breathwork can ease stress and calm the mind and body in threatening situations. Veterans or others managing symptoms of PTSD or panic attacks can use Breathe2Relax as a mobile tool to relax and lower their blood pressure and heart rate.
Who May Want an Alternative to Breathe2Relax?
Breathe2Relax isn’t the most up-to-date, stylish, or multipurpose breathwork app available at this time, so many people interested in breathwork will be looking for alternatives. If you want to incorporate a breathwork program into your daily life, go beyond stress-reducing exercises, or explore different relaxation and meditation techniques, Breathe2Relax isn’t the right app for you.
Incorporate a Breathwork Program into Daily Life
Breathe2Relax doesn’t encourage a breathwork routine or program. It’s more for people who need a simple breathing exercise when facing a stressful or threatening situation, such as veterans managing PTSD symptoms. If you’re hoping to incorporate breathwork into your daily life, the Breathwrk app could be a good alternative. It has breathing exercises for waking up and preparing for sleep. It also allows you to set reminders, track progress, and build habits to help you integrate breathwork into your daily life.
Go Beyond Stress-Reducing Breathing Exercises
Breathe2Relax is primarily focused on reducing stress, but the truth is, breathing exercises can do much more than help you relax when tensions are high. For instance, you can utilize breathwork to increase your energy, help you focus, stabilize your mood, or improve your sleep. If you’re interested in going beyond stress-reducing breathing techniques, a better alternative is the Othership app. They have over 500 different breathwork classes that can help you develop a deep and meaningful practice. The Othership YouTube Channel also offers a wide range of guided breathing exercises for free.
Interested in Exploring Mediation Techniques
The Breathe2Relax app doesn’t provide guided meditations or other calming techniques, so it’s not a great option for anyone looking to dive into the mindfulness world. A better path would be using an app like Headspace. Headspace provides the necessary building blocks for meditation and structured courses, making it a great choice for beginners. It has everything from quick meditations for work breaks to intensive classes taught by mindfulness experts.
What Users Are Saying About the Breathe2Relax App
The Breathe2Relax app has a 4.3-star rating from 255 reviews in the Apple Store and a 3.6-star rating from 1.12K reviews in the Google Play Store.
The users having positive experiences with Breathe2Relax emphasize that the app is easy to use, simple, and straightforward. It also does what it says it will do, which is help you relax. However, the 1 to 3- star reviews often include complaints about the videos not working and an inability to sync with the Apple Watch. Users also find the design and style unappealing and outdated.
Simple, Straightforward, and Effective
Users, many of them veterans, like the app’s simplicity. They’re not interested in choosing between various breathing exercises; they just want an easy guided practice to help them relax in a stressful or threatening situation. They also like that the information about the body, health, and biology of breathing are written clearly and precisely. When properly executing the diaphragmatic breathing exercise, users find that it does indeed work. Many noted that they were surprised by how relaxed they felt after just a few inhale/exhale cycles.
Videos and Apple Watch Sync Not Working
Many users reported the same glitches I had when using the app. When attempting to play the videos, you’ll see an error message that says you’re not connected to wifi, even when you are. Initially, the app appeared to sync with my Apple Watch because I could see the Breathe2Relax icon on my watch’s display screen. However, when beginning the breathing exercise, it would ask if you’d like to track your heart rate during your session, and another error message would appear stating that your phone and watch were not close enough, despite both being inches from one another.
Outdated Design and Style
It’s apparent that Breathe2Relax isn’t the most advanced breathing app out there simply by looking at it. Users mentioned that the interface wasn’t attractive, and the fonts, colors, and overall design were unappealing. I also thought the app appeared outdated and found the arrangement of the information and graphics to be unrefined.
Breathe2Relax Cost
The Breathe2Relax app is free and does not require a subscription or even registration. The latest version of the app doesn’t ask for personal information, email, phone numbers, or health stats.
How to Get Started With Breathe2Relax
Getting started with the Breathe2Relax app is an incredibly easy process. Downloading the app and beginning your first breathing exercise can be done in a matter of minutes.
Here’s how to get started:
- Download the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
- Open the app and choose to pair it with your Apple Watch.
- Go to SetUp or Personalize and set your inhale/exhale lengths, number of preferred cycles, and audio/visual settings.
- Hit ‘Breathe’ to begin your guided breathing exercise.
Breathe2Relax: Detailed Review
The Breathe2Relax app is the bare bones of guided breathwork. It’s completely free, has no premium versions, and doesn’t require users to log in or enter an email address. Within a few minutes, you can have the app downloaded and begin your first breathing exercise.
The ‘Learn’ tab (biology of stress and diaphragmatic breathing) and the ‘Breathe’ tab (guided breathing exercise) are the only features of this app. The information about how stress affects our health is accurate and scientifically sound. It also includes a new health tip that you can find on the home page every day. As stated above, the breathing exercise is easy to use and can be personalized to fit basic breathwork goals.
Unfortunately, it has quite a few glitches and appears outdated. The latest version was released four years ago when it added the heart-tracking Apple Watch feature, which was not working while I was using the app. In addition, none of the instructional videos are working. Because there’s no way to leave feedback or contact the developers, I don’t anticipate an updated version of Breathe2Relax will be released anytime soon.
Basic Background on Diaphragmatic Breathing and the Effects of Stress
Under the Breathe2Relax’s ‘Learn’ tab, you’ll find helpful information on how stress affects the mind and body. It specifically addresses the “flight or fight” response and explains how adrenaline and stress hormones are activated in threatening situations. You’ll also find a comprehensive “body scan” graphic demonstrating how stress impacts each body part, including the brain, eyes, ears/hearing, muscles, heart, lungs, stomach, fingers/toes, and skin.
There’s also an area in this section dedicated to diaphragmatic breathing, also referred to as “belly breathing” or “abdominal breathing.” It shares the biology behind this type of breathwork and how it compares to “chest breathing.” Diaphragmatic breathing supplies more oxygen to the blood and activates the body’s relaxation response. Breathe2Relax provides clear text instruction on how to execute diaphragmatic breathing properly to help you prepare for your guided breathing exercise. The mental health and medical community promote diaphragmatic breathing as a helpful stress-management technique.2
Guided Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercise
The Breathe2Relax app’s guided breathing exercise begins by asking you to personalize your experience. This involves setting inhale and exhale pace/lengths, the number of preferred cycles per session, and audio/visual options. There’s a tool that allows you to measure and register your breathing pace by holding down a button as you inhale and exhale.
Once you’re ready to start the breathing exercise, you’ll enter how stressed you currently feel using a slider ranging from “relaxed” to “stressed.” This helps you assess how stressed or relaxed you feel at the start and closing of each session and track your progress. After hitting ‘Start,’ a female voice will guide you through your exercise with your chosen audio and visual settings (e.g., ocean mist sounds with a beach graphic).
The audio guide helps you by counting your inhales and exhales, tracking each cycle, and letting you know when you’re getting close to the end of the practice. The audio guide also offers tips as you go (e.g., “remember to use your diaphragm” and “breathe out slowly”). You can check the ‘Results’ tab to see if you typically feel more or less relaxed after each practice. However, the chart on the results tab isn’t labeled clearly and doesn’t offer a lot of insight into your progress.
Breathe2Relax is centrally focused on a singular diaphragmatic breathing exercise and its biology. It does not offer other breathing exercises, guided meditations, or other relaxation tools. It emphasizes being a “portable stress-management tool,” but it’s simply highlighting that it’s a mobile app and can be used anywhere, like most smartphone apps.
History of Breathe2Relax
Breathe2Relax was developed by T2 — The National Center for Telehealth and Technology. T2 is a research and health technology development group within the U.S. Department of Defense. This app was intended for veterans to use when experiencing symptoms of PTSD, stress, and anxiety.
While many might find the app overly simplified – that was actually the intention. Developers wanted the app to be straightforward and with easy-to-use access to a guided breathing exercise. It’s clear that Breathe2Relax could be a helpful tool for healthcare workers to use with veterans or people who don’t typically use health and fitness apps.
Breathe2Relax vs Headspace
Breathe2Relax and Headspace are technically under the same umbrella but are fundamentally different in almost every aspect. They’re on opposite ends of the spectrum of breathwork apps when considering options, design, content, personalization, and price. Breathe2Relax is the most basic version of guided breathing exercises, while Headspace is one of the more advanced apps available.
Headspace costs $12.99 per month or $69.99 annually, and you find free trials depending on the type of subscription you choose. All of the content on the Breathe2Relax app is free and doesn’t ask users to submit any personal contact information. The pricing is certainly reflective of what’s offered by each app. Headspace provides various breathing exercises as well as guided meditations and educational courses. It allows you to learn, grow, and progress to different levels in meditation. Breathe2Relax only provides one guided exercise and a basic background on how stress affects our health.
Final Verdict
Breathe2Relax would not be my first choice for a guided breathing exercise. It lacks options, is not fully functioning, and has a poor design, which means I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone hoping to explore breathwork for relaxation. If the videos/Apple Watch pairing issues are fixed and the interface is updated, this app could potentially be a helpful tool. Veterans with PTSD, those who need a quick guided exercise in a pinch, or older users who don’t typically use apps might benefit from an improved version.
