APP REVIEW: Prana Breath
Review by Casey Douglass
If like me, you suffer
with anxiety and other mental health stuff, the chances are quite
high that you might have had cause to use some kind of breath-based
relaxation or awareness exercise, just to see if it might help you to
feel better in some small way. Recently I’ve been using the free
version of the Prana Breath Android app to help me keep track
of what I’m doing, and in this review, I will describe how the app
works and what I think of the various options it offers.
The main app screen is
a simple circle with some timings in the middle. Depending on your
training program selection, these will respond to varying durations
of Inhaling, Exhaling, Retaining etc. The free version includes eight
training exercises, from Clear Mind and Harmony to Anti-appetite and
Cigarette Replace. More are available with the Guru version, which I
will come to later.
If you have your own
breathing session in mind, there is nothing stopping you from creating
your own program. I created my own Square Breathing (4-4-4-4 intervals) training program
as I’ve found this to be most useful over the years that I’ve
practised it. Changing the length of the session, Ratio of breath
cycle or Seconds per Ratio unit is trivial, and I was up and
“breathing” before I knew it.
Prana Breath
keeps track of your total time spent practising in the Experience tab
at the bottom, awarding you a Total Level and telling you the time
you’ve spent on particular training programs. This is nice, and
backed up by more viewing options along the top such as a detailed
Log and Graph view.
Next to the Experience
tab is the Reminders one, and in this you can set a reminder to
perform a certain practice. This Reminder will appear at the set time
with a Random Motivator phrase, just to give you a jolt to action if
needed. A nice touch.
The free version of
Prana Breath is advert free, which is so rare in this current
time. There is plenty of functionality in the base-app, and it
doesn’t pester you to upgrade to the Guru version. The Guru version
does open up more options and settings to tinker with however:
- Dynamic Training (being able to vary timings within a single session)
- The ability to use more training programs and patterns
- More detailed progress charts
- Infinite training duration
- Health tests to help you keep track of your progress
- More sounds to choose between
- Google Drive Backup
- An Import/Export Data option
You can gain access to
the Guru version by a small monthly subscription, or unlock it
permanently by choosing between the prices of £7.99, £9.00 and
£12.00, depending on how much you’d like to contribute to help the
app. My own feeling is that by using the free version, you will soon
be able to guess if you would like these extra features.
Personally, I’m
sticking with the free version for now, as money is so tight that I
can’t afford to spend anything on apps. I do think the payment
options seem reasonable for a well-made and slick app. Some breathing
apps are just basic timers and that’s it. Prana Breath genuinely
seems to go above and beyond this, and the fact that the free version
is ad-free too always gains my respect.
The only draw-back I
might envision for some is that they might want an app that is more
secular in appearance, lacking the symbolism and sounds associated
with more belief-based meditation. Even to these people I would say
give Prana Breath a go, as it’s a great little app. It
really helps me to practice my breathing exercise of choice without
getting too lost in mentally counting the intervals myself.
As an example of when
this comes in handy, I sometimes enjoy slowing and deepening my
breath to a rate of two breaths or less per minute. It has been known
for my mind to lose count, and I forget to breathe for sometime. When
I realise I’ve drifted, I get a bit of a jolt, and this tends to
undo any calming or relaxation effects I’d already experienced. So
yes, Prana Breath does help with this, to a degree.
Does it help me with
relaxation and anxiety stuff? Yes and no. I find I sometimes bring
any tension or stress I’m feeling into the exercise I’m trying to
do. Even with the best of intentions and awareness, in these
situations, the breathing stuff sometimes makes me feel worse. At
other times, it helps me to settle and feel calmer. The act of
focussing on both breath and audio cues also slows my mind’s usual
ruminations too. On balance, I find breathing exercises helpful, but
at other times I’d rather just focus on my breathing and watch it
rather than change its rhythm.
As always though, you
should go carefully with health stuff. Breathing exercises might help
some but they could harm others or make things worse. I’m not
telling you that breathing exercises will help you, I’m just
describing an app that helps me to time the ones that I like to use.
Don’t self-treat or self-diagnose blindly, see your Doctor for
advice and realise that you are responsible for your own health, and that you try things at your own risk. Be safe and be sensible.
Visit the Prana Breath website for much more information and detailed breakdowns of the various exercises. There are also links to some of the science behind why breathing exercises might help people with various health and emotional problems.
Prana Breath is
available from the Google Play Store and the Amazon Store.
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If you found this review helpful, or think that it might be useful to someone you know, please share it on social media and tag them in. If you have any breathing exercise recommendations to try, please also let me know by commenting below or finding me on social media. I'm always on the lookout for new ones to try. Cheers.
