Among the many announcements Apple made Monday at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), one particular introduction caught my eye: A new Apple-made app called Breathe.
In recent years, I've looked at various ways to better cope with stress. I've tried changing my diet and exercising more, but the simplest and most effective solution I've found thus far is something called deep-breathing.
It's really easy to do: Just breathe in for several seconds, hold that breath for several seconds, then exhale for several seconds, repeating that process over the course of a few minutes. In my experience, it's worked exceedingly well at calming my body and mind, and relieving stress. I've found it also helps ameliorate headaches and stomach aches, too.
The hardest part, though, is setting time aside to actually do it.
We all face so many distractions every single day - smartphones are one of them, but so are our daily routines - that it's not easy to carve time out during the day just to breathe slowly for several minutes.
That's where Apple's new Breathe app comes in. If you own an Apple Watch, the app will guide you through simple deep-breathing exercises to calm your body, relax your mind, and deal with everyday stress.
When the watchOS 3 update rolls out later this year, you can access the Breathe app from any watch face you have or the new dock functionality (pressing the side button below the digital crown summons the dock), but the Apple Watch can also be set up to remind you to do some deep-breathing every once in awhile in the same way it reminds you to stand up at least once every hour (this can be done in your settings).
Apple
The way the Breathe app works is actually really cool, and it's one of the great recent examples of Apple's hardware working in sync with its software. Once you open the app, you can change the amount of time you want to do your session, from one to five minutes, just by turning the digital crown.
When you're in the app experience, Breathe has some nice visuals to help you follow along. But, if you're like me and you'd prefer to do this exercise with your eyes closed, Apple's unique Taptic Engine can guide you with gentle taps so you never need to look at the screen. It's an incredibly clever use of the Apple Watch's unique hardware.
When the exercise ends, you'll get a quick summary showing you how long you were deep-breathing and your heart rate from the last few seconds of the session.
Apple
"If you already do deep breathing, we think this is going to be a great way for you to fit it into your day more often. And for those of you that don't, we think this is going to be a great way to get started, and just one more simple way that it can help you live a better day," said Jay Blahnik, director of fitness for health technologies at Apple, during the WWDC conference on Monday.
This is why I love the idea of the Breathe app: It's a simple, beautiful-looking app based on an incredibly simple concept: helping remind people to stop and relax every once in awhile. It doesn't have a ton of ancillary features or functions; it just uses the hardware and software to help you slow your breathing and relieve some stress. As Tim Cook would say, "That's it!"
This Breathe app is a small addition that has potential to make a big impact on your life. I think more people would be generally happier and more balanced if they took some time out of their day to just sit and breathe slowly.
I appreciate its inclusion in watchOS 3 - it's a small gesture that, to me, shows Apple really does care about the health and wellbeing of its users, aside from all the fitness stuff. Frankly, I've never used any of the Apple Watch's fitness apps, but I could see myself using the Breathe app quite often. It's a good habit to have.