Breathe Easy: The 10 Best Apps for Breathing Exercises
Have you ever stopped to think about your breath or how you actually breathe? Breathing is something that we do without even realizing it, but taking a moment to focus on our breathing can have incredible effects on our overall well-being. By practicing simple breathing exercises, studies have shown that we can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, enhance the quality of our sleep, boost our immune system, and even improve our cognitive function. The beauty of these practices is that they require no special equipment or locations – just your presence and focus. However, maintaining focus and consistency can for many of us be challenging. This is where mindfulness apps come into play. Keep reading to explore the 10 best apps for breathing exercises, so you can find your personal favorite – even if you don’t see yourself as “the meditating type”.
The Best Apps for Breathing Exercises
We’ve handpicked a diverse selection of popular and highly-ranked apps, presented in no particular order.
These apps cover a range of relaxation, calming, and meditation techniques. When it comes to calming the body and mind, one thing remains constant: the importance of breathing. It serves as the foundation for all these approaches.
Whether you’re interested in incorporating breathing exercises into a broader mindfulness or meditation practice or if you’re seeking specific breathing techniques, we’ve got you covered. So go ahead and explore our curated list of apps. Hopefully, you’ll find one that suits your needs perfectly.
1. Calm
Calm is the #1 app for meditation and sleep that also offers a wide selection of guided breathing exercises. It provides a variety of tools to improve your well-being, offering personalized content to help you manage stress and anxiety, achieve better sleep, and feel more present in your daily life. With its easy-to-navigate interface and rich library of content, it offers a wide range of guided meditations, sleep stories, breathing programs, stretching exercises, and relaxing music.
Calm excels at integrating breathing techniques into its meditation sessions. This approach helps you not only sharpen your focus but also embrace the power of deep, soothing breaths.
Highlights:
- Wide, wide selection of content
- Progress-tracking to monitor improvements.
- Highly effective bedtime stories, some read by high profiled people like Matthew McConaughey and Harry Styles.
- Ability to set daily reminders for mindful moments throughout the day.
- Choose from meditations, breathing exercises, mindful movements, gentle stretches, soundscapes, and more.
- Just enter the mood you are in and the app will bring a list of suggestions
2. Breethe
When you’re looking for peace and calm, check out the Breethe app. It’s a special place designed to help you learn breathing exercises and meditation. People love it because it’s easy to use and has lots of different things to try, like meditations, sleep stories, and music tracks. That’s why it’s considered one of the best apps for deep breathing and mindfulness. Personally, I absolutely love the soundtrack that plays in the background when exploring the app. It sends signals of instant relaxation right to my subconscious, gently setting the stage for what’s to come.
Highlights:
- Comprehensive library including meditations, breathing exercises, sleep stories, and music tracks.
- Expert-led bedtime visualizations, hypnotherapy, and sleep stories to encourage deep rest.
- It provides a highly personalized experience with tailored programs to fit your goals and lifestyle.
- Easy to use with an intuitive design that ensures a seamless user journey.
- Program lenghts range from short to long.
- Seven-, 30- and 90-day learn-to-meditate programs.
- Offers alarm clock and morning meditation options.
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3. Headspace
Headspace is another popular and award-winning app that promotes mindfulness through breathing exercises and meditation. It combines scientific research with ancient techniques to offer a unique way of developing mindfulness. Whether you’re a seasoned meditator or a curious beginner, this app offers a diverse range of guided meditations, sleep soundscapes, and mindful movement exercises to suit your needs and mood.
Highlights:
- Stands out with its wide selection of guided meditations and breathing exercises.
- Also provides podcasts, short videos and exercise tutorial videos.
- Guided sessions for beginners and less-structured programming for more experienced practitioners.
- An optional routine and schedule are created each day for users to follow.
- Its rich library is well-organized and easy to navigate.
- Aesthetically pleasing design with bright, happy colors.
- Includes videos for kids and teens.
- Users can select the duration of their meditation video.
Your wellness journey is personal, and the Mindfulness.com app understands this deeply. It aims to be a comprehensive platform for both learning and practicing mindfulness through breathing exercises and meditation techniques. What makes Mindfulness.com stand out is its balanced approach. It combines educational lessons with practical exercises to ensure that you not only go through the motions but also truly understand the importance of each exercise.
Highlights:
- Easy-to-use interface and wide range of content.
- Focus on education alongside practice.
- Valuable lessons on the science behind mindfulness and how it can improve your well-being.
- Traditional mindfulness and loving-kindness meditations.
- Focus areas: ease anxiety, sleep, pain & illness, self-compassion, relationships, and happiness.
- Practices are led by experienced teachers who provide clear guidance throughout.
- Personalized daily check-ins with customized content based on your unique needs and circumstances.
Mindvalley stands out in the crowded market of meditation platforms, thanks to its unique combination of personal growth programs with guided meditations and breathing exercises. Mindvalley’s goal is not just to help users find inner peace but also to improve every aspect of their lives, including productivity, relationships, fitness, and sleep. One standout feature of Mindvalley is its “Lifebook Online” course. This 30-day quest helps you create a clear vision for your life across multiple areas, including health, relationships, career, and personal growth. Each day includes a short video lesson followed by reflective writing exercises. It’s a powerful tool for gaining clarity on your goals and taking intentional actions toward them.
Highlights:
- Specifically designed with a user-friendly interface, making it easy to navigate.
- Impressive lineup of world-class teachers who are experts in their respective fields.
- 100+ programs in 6 categories designed to level up your life in just 20 minutes a day.
- App with 1000+ guided meditations, hypnotherapies, and sounds for relaxation, focus, healing, and more.
- Access to Mindvalley’s private social network, where you can connect, share wisdom, and grow with fellow members in your city and around the world.
- A.I. guided curriculum personalized to your needs.
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6. The Mindfulness App
The Mindfulness App stands out in the digital space as a versatile tool that empowers users to engage in breathing exercises and meditation with ease. Tailored for both beginners and experienced practitioners, it offers a personalized experience that adapts to one’s individual wellness journey. At the same time, it guides you towards reduced stress, better sleep, and improved health.
Highlights:
- 400+ structured programs that guide users through various aspects of mindfulness practices.
- The app includes progress tracking which can be rewarding and motivating for users.
- Offers a beginner course for people who are new to meditation.
- Includes meditations and breathing exercises on a variety of topics and in a variety of lengths.
- Allows you to add favorites and filter searches.
- Customizable reminders and timers help users stay committed to their practice.
7. Insight Timer
The Insight Timer app is known for its impressive community-centric features and versatile timer function, making it a great choice for those who are into breathing exercises and meditation. One of the highlights of this app is its extensive collection of guided practices, offering sessions for every mood and requirement. You can also skip the guided part altogether and customize your session with unique starting and ending bells, interval chimes, ambient soundscapes, and silence durations to create your perfect atmosphere. This level of customization supports a practice that’s as unique as each individual. Also, while most of the other apps are stingy when it comes to free content, Insight Timer has plenty of it.
Highlights:
- Includes over 120,000 guided meditations.
- Half of the proceeds from subscriptions go to the teachers.
- The timer tool is great for customizing sessions exactly how you prefer it, allowing you to skip the “guided” part and go it alone.
- Allows you to include sounds throughout sessions to remind you to bring focus back to the breath or mantra.
- Large library of calming music, podcasts, discussions, and offline listening.
- Courses are led by known figures in the wellness community.
- Extensive selection of free content.
8. Breathwrk
While many of our other chosen apps do conscious breathing as an integral part of meditation, this app really hones in on the breathwork part. It provides various breath exercises, such as deep breathing and box breathing, with the goal of transforming lives through breathing techniques that promote calm, focus, and stamina, and improve sleep. When you use the Breathwrk app, you’re not just learning to breathe; you’re unlocking the power of breath to transform your body and mind. This app is unique because it offers specific breathing exercises for different purposes — whether you want to feel more energized, relaxed, or even fall asleep easier.
Highlights:
- A vast collection of breathing exercises to help you master a wide range of breathwork techniques.
- Specialized Techniques: You can choose exercises based on what you want to achieve in the moment, such as reducing anxiety, pain relief, or improving focus.
- Science-backed: Each technique is based on how our bodies naturally work, so you can trust that it's effective.
- User-friendly Design: The app guides you smoothly through each exercise with visuals and timers.
- Personalised programs for different needs.
- Integrates with Apple Health.
- Unlimited progress tracking.
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9. Smiling Mind
Smiling Mind has guided meditations and activities designed specifically for children. It includes easy one-minute meditations and fun guided meditations like The Bubble Journey, which is a guided meditation exercise that involves children filling in bubbles representing moments in their day when they noticed what was going on around them. There are also guided meditations for older children that focus on improved studying, being more present, and using mindfulness to excel while playing sports.
Highlights:
- Meditations for children, teens and the entire family
- Totally free
- Geared toward children 3 and up
- High level of personalization tailor the experience to what you are in the mood for that day.
- Pick any program without the app telling you what to do or in what order.
- Meditations start at one minute long to help children build on the practice
10. Othership
Othership is a music-driven breathwork app that helps you regulate your emotions and nervous system through hundreds of breathing exercises including Pranayama, Wim Hof, diaphragmatic breathing, Kundalini, and coherent breathing. The Othership app stands out from other mindfulness tools by combining breathwork exercises with immersive guided visualizations. This combination aims to make meditation more powerful and enjoyable, leading to a deeper sense of relaxation and awareness.
Highlights:
- 500+ Breathing exercises.
- Breathwork exercises: Customized exercises to either energize or relax, depending on what you need.
- Guided Visualizations: Captivating stories and imagery to help you focus and explore your imagination.
- Merges traditional mindfulness techniques with dynamic breathing methods.
- Interactive feature where the app responds to your breathing patterns in real-time, creating a personalized session for you each time.
- Sessions vary in length from 1 to 60 minutes.
- Visually stunning meditation environment.
Finding Your Perfect Companion: What To Look For
There are many breathing exercises and meditation apps available, each with its own strengths, features, and experiences. Whether you’re looking to reduce stress, sleep better, increase focus, or improve your overall well-being, there’s an app designed for it.
Note: The best breathing exercise apps are not one-size-fits-all. They should be tailored to your lifestyle, preferences, and goals. The goal is to find an app that resonates with you and makes your mindfulness journey effective and enjoyable.
Factors to Consider When Choosing The Best App For Breathing Exercises
When choosing a breathing exercise app, it’s important to consider the following factors:
Ease of use: Is the app easy to navigate? Does it provide clear instructions for breathing exercises?
Variety of content: Does the app offer different types of breathing techniques or guided meditations?
Personalization options: Can you customize your sessions based on your needs and preferences?
Community features: Does the app have a community or social aspect where you can connect with others?
Personal preferences: Which app do you find most aesthetically pleasing, which voices do you prefer to listen to, and what are the sounds that resonate the most with your soul?
By keeping these factors in mind, you’ll be able to find a breathing exercise app that suits you just perfectly.
Final Thoughts
Breathing exercises can bring about life-changing results, leading to better physical and mental well-being and a healthier lifestyle. While we are all different and may prefer varying support on our journey, mobile apps have made it easier to incorporate these practices into our daily routine.
These tools are more than just digital platforms; they provide pathways to finding balance, inner peace and calm within ourselves.
I hope this list of the best apps for breathing exercises provides you with a starting point for exploring the world of applications, so you can find one that resonates with you and tailors to your unique needs.
So dive in, give a few of them a go, and start witnessing how the power of breath can transform you into a healthier, more mindful individual.
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Leave a reply
Have any comments or want to share which is your go-to breathing app? Let me know in the comments below!
12 Comments
Antonia
27/04/2024 at 7:31 AM
I just recently watched a podcast about how important it is to breathe properly. I’m definitely going to check out some of these apps.
Antonia Sweet Passions
breatheintocalm.com
01/05/2024 at 2:36 AM
It is such an interesting topic, Antonia. And important too! Just being mindful of how we breathe in different situations can have such a tremendous effects on both our health and our well-being.
nicole
27/04/2024 at 7:47 AM
Great post! I’m going to look into some of these to start incorporating into my wellness routine!
breatheintocalm.com
01/05/2024 at 2:35 AM
Thanks, Nicole! I use them just about every day and love it. I would suggest trying out a few to see which resonates with you. 🙂
Pradnya
27/04/2024 at 10:31 PM
I use the wake up app for meditating every day!
breatheintocalm.com
01/05/2024 at 2:24 AM
I will definitely check out that one. There are so many great apps! 🙂
Hari
30/04/2024 at 8:19 AM
I am hearing about these apps for the very first time, but they sound interesting. Got to give calm a try for sure!
breatheintocalm.com
01/05/2024 at 2:18 AM
I absolutely love these apps, Hari. My suggestion is to try out the free version of a few and see what resonates with you. They may have similar content, but the feel and atmosphere are quite different as well.
Lana
30/04/2024 at 8:26 AM
This post was so insightful! Thank you for creating it. ☺️
breatheintocalm.com
01/05/2024 at 2:15 AM
Thanks Lana 🙂 So glad you enjoyed it.
Jamiee
04/05/2024 at 5:47 PM
These are great picks, I saved a few to download. Thank you for sharing.
breatheintocalm.com
05/05/2024 at 4:44 AM
So glad you found it useful Jaimee. I suggest trying out a few and seeing which resonates with you. Happy breathing!