I Questioned the Usefulness of Meditation Until I Tried Breethe

I’ve been wanting to experience the benefits of meditation and mindfulness that I’ve heard about for some time now. Still, in the past, when I tried meditation and mindfulness practices, I never really got the hang of them. I always felt a bit too squirrely to sit down and practice. But the wellness app Breethe stood out to me. Breethe seemed much more down-to-earth, human, and approachable than other meditation and mindfulness apps I’ve tried, such as Calm and Headspace, and I really liked that. 

I used Breethe for over a month to focus specifically on meditation and mindfulness (though it also offers sleep exercises). I tried to use it at least once every day. Ultimately, I had a positive experience with Breethe, so much so that I am extending my subscription. Now, I think I might actually like meditating. Plot twist, I know.

How Breethe Works and How I Signed Up

Breethe is a wellness app that provides mindfulness exercises focused on meditation and sleep. Meditation is a practice in which you use various techniques to focus or clear your mind. Mindfulness—purposefully focusing on the present moment without judging it—is one such technique. Breethe offers over 1,700 meditations and mindfulness exercises, and, unlike most of its competitors, it also offers hypnotherapy, or the practice of hypnosis to address health problems or mental challenges. It’s known for its friendly, unpretentious, and lighthearted approach. For example, there’s the "My Family Drives Me Nuts" meditation, and the "Tax Season—Adulting Is Hard" meditation, which I am absolutely going to try next spring 

It’s important to note that, while the Breethe website claims that there is a free version of the app with limited access to content and services, I could not find this option. I hit a paywall at a certain point and could not continue without providing my payment information.

When I first signed up, the app asked me to specify what I was hoping to get out of this experience. Then it personalized my landing page to help me achieve those goals. 

How I Used Breethe

When I opened the app, it literally said “Start here” and listed some meditations for me to do, which was extremely helpful, since there are more than 1,700 exercises to choose from.

There’s a wide variety of meditations. Some of these are specific one-offs, such as the “Two-Minute Stress Reliever.” Others are grouped into week-long series, such as the “Meditation 101” series. There was no daily limit to the number of meditations I could do, so some days I just did one, and other days I did as many as four. 

I was also able to search Breethe’s inventory for specific meditations when I wanted to. About a week into trying this app, I woke up in a lot of pain due to some chronic issues. I typed “chronic pain” into the app’s search bar and was thrilled to find a lot of meditations that focused on chronic pain. I chose a 16-minute meditation called “Managing Pain” and it was incredibly helpful. Lynne, this meditation’s guide, walked me through an exercise in which I imagined different sensations, such as heat and tingling, occurring in a painful area and merging with the pain.

Not all of the meditations I did were as long as “Managing Pain.” Most of the meditations that the app initially recommended for me were less than five minutes long, which was great; sitting still for more than three minutes is a bit of a miracle for me. 

I enjoyed the very first exercise the app recommended: “The Mindful Moment Meditation.” Lynne guided this one, too. I was feeling tense from a stressful day when I pressed play. Unsurprisingly, I was pretty resistant when Lynne said to take five slow deep breaths… and then to take another five breaths while becoming aware of any sounds I could hear… and then to take the slow five breaths, stay mindful of the sounds, AND also become mindful of my feet on the floor. But I did it. And then the muscles at the base of my skull relaxed so thoroughly and noticeably that I conceded that Lynne knows her stuff. I do this exercise regularly on my own now, too.

Some exercises were not for me. There was a “Mindful Walking” meditation that encouraged me to walk slower than usual. I’m a native New Yorker, so I will literally never do that.

It was called “Beginner’s Mind” and included statements such as “that diet you keep blowing” and it also questioned whether you really needed to eat that chocolate cake. If statements like this are triggering for you or interfere with your eating disorder recovery, I would proceed with caution. Nothing in the meditation description would have tipped me off about this content, which made me wary about the app moving forward. 

The app is excellent for beginners and for people with busy, ever-changing schedules. However, some of the meditations have an unexpected but distinct “diet culture” undercurrent, so if that kind of thing negatively impacts you, I would proceed with caution.

Pros and Cons

I had a mostly positive experience with Breethe, but the cons did have an impact on the quality of my experience.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed the curated experience of this app. I felt that Breethe met me at my level, and helped me grow from there.

I also liked that I could meditate for as long or as little as I wanted to: some days I did a two-minute meditation, and other days I did a 30-minute one. 

That said, I did not like the meditations that were clearly, and without warning, influenced by diet culture. Since there was no warning about that in the description, I felt a bit on edge every time I I tried a new meditation, fearing it might come up. This led me to repeat a good amount of the meditations that I found to be safe instead of branching out to do new ones.

The Breethe website is very accurate, which is unusual in this day and age with so much overpromise in advertising. It describes the mediation app as relatable, specific, easy to follow, and easy to fit into a busy schedule. In my month-long experience, I found all of this to be true. I would definitely recommend the app to a friend. I would just give them a heads up about the diet culture influence present, and let them make of that what they will.