Breathing mindfully isn’t just a fad or buzzword, it can help you focus and sharpen your concentration. This in turn, allows you to better deal with anxiety, stressful events, and negative emotions like anger and impatience.
Mindful breathing doesn’t mean that you’re always keeping your mind on your breath. It means taking a moment to breathe deeply and completely, focusing solely on the breath from its beginning to its completion. This can be difficult at first, as the mind often tends to wander, so using the Breathe app can keep you better focused and on task when nerves are a bit high.
The Breathe app is new to watchOS 3, so you will need to upgrade your Watch if you haven’t already. To use the Breathe app, tap it open on your Watch. Start off with a 1 minute session and get the feel for it by tapping the “Start” button.
If you want to increase the duration, turn the digital crown to change it from one to five minutes. One minute is equal to seven breaths, two is equal to 14, and so on.
Your breathing session will instruct you to be still and bring your attention to your breath.
When your breathing session begins, the Watch will repeatedly tap your wrist and instruct you to inhale, then it will stop tapping and tell you to exhale. The tapping lets you then concentrate fully on your breathing instead of staring at the Watch’s screen.
You will do this for the entirety of your session and at the end, it will give you a short summary of your progress as well as you heart rate. If you want to go through another session, tap “Breathe Again”.
Over time, however, the idea is that you will gradually practice deep breathing throughout the day, using your iPhone’s Health app to track your progress, which it calls “Mindfulness Minutes”.
Hopefully, once you’re breathing more effectively, you can begin to reduce stress and bring about a greater sense of peace, at least during those times you’re using the Breathe app.
