I tried the meditation app “Breethe” in 2024

I’d always heard about the benefits of meditation and mindfulness, but I wanted to experience them for myself. However, my previous attempts at practicing meditation and mindfulness had never quite worked. I always felt a bit too restless to sit down and practice. But the wellness app Breethe stood out to me. I loved it because Breethe seemed so much more real, human, and approachable than other meditation and mindfulness apps I’d tried, like Calm and Headspace.

I’ve been using Breethe for over a month, with a particular focus on meditation and mindfulness (it also offers sleep exercises). I try to use it at least once a day. Finally, I had such a good experience with Breethe that I decided to extend my subscription. Now, I think I’m really going to like meditation. What an unexpected turn of events.

How Breethe works and how to sign up

Breethe is a wellness app that offers mindfulness exercises focused on meditation and sleep. Meditation involves using different techniques to focus or clear the mind. Mindfulness is one of the techniques to intentionally focus on the present moment without judgment. Breethe offers over 1,700 meditations and mindfulness exercises, and unlike most of its competitors, it also offers hypnotherapy, the practice of hypnosis to address health issues and mental challenges. Breethe is known for its friendly, unpretentious and easy-going approach. For example, “I will definitely be trying out the “My Family Annoys Me” and “Tax Season—Being an Adult is Hard” meditations next spring.

Although Breethe’s website claims there’s a free version of the app with limited access to content and services, I couldn’t find this option, and at one point I was stuck with the paid version, which wouldn’t let me continue without providing my payment information.

When I first signed up, the app asked me to specify what I wanted to get out of the experience, and then the app customized my landing page to help me achieve that goal.

How to use Breethe

When I opened the app, it literally said, “Start here,” and listed a few meditations to do. I found this extremely helpful, as there are over 1,700 exercises to choose from.

There are many different types of meditations. Some are specific, one-off sessions, like “2-Minute Stress Relief,” while others are organized into week-long series, like “Meditation 101.”“ It’s a series. There was no limit to the number of meditations I could do in a day, so some days I would do just one, and other days I would do as many as four.

I was also able to search for a specific meditation in Breethe’s inventory if I wanted. About a week into trying the app, I woke up in excruciating pain due to a chronic issue. I typed “chronic pain” into the app’s search bar and was delighted to find a bunch of meditations focused on chronic pain. I chose a 16-minute meditation called “Pain Management.”“ And that was incredibly helpful. Lynn, my guide for this meditation, showed me an exercise where I imagine different sensations arising in the painful area, like heat or a tingling sensation, and then merging with the pain.

Not all of the meditations I did were as long as “Pain Management.” Most of the meditations the app initially recommended to me were under five minutes, which was great. Sitting still for more than three minutes is a minor miracle for me.

The first exercise the app recommended was a fun one, the Mindful Moment Meditation, which Lynne also guided me through. I was on edge after a stressful day when I pressed play. Naturally, I was quite resistant when Lynne asked me to take five slow, deep breaths… then five more while focusing on the sounds you hear… then five more slow breaths while focusing on the sounds and your feet on the floor. But I did it. The muscles at the base of my skull relaxed so much that I had to admit that Lynne knew me pretty well. I now do this exercise myself regularly.

Some of the exercises just weren’t for me. The “mindful walking” meditation encouraged me to walk slower than usual, which I’m a native New Yorker and definitely don’t do.

It was called “Beginner’s Mind” It also included statements like “that diet you keep breaking all the time” and questioning whether you really need to eat chocolate cake. If statements like this hinder or trigger your eating disorder recovery, I would recommend proceeding with caution. Nothing in the meditation description gave me any hints about this content, and I was wary of what the app was going to do.

This app is great for beginners and people with busy schedules that change frequently, but some meditations have a surprising but unique “diet culture” underpinning them, so we recommend using it with caution if this is a concern for you.

Pros and Cons

Although my experience with Breethe was mostly positive, shortcomings also impacted the quality of my experience.

Final thoughts

I really enjoyed the curated experience of the app, and felt like Breethe matched me to my level and let me grow from there.

I also liked that I could meditate for as long or as short as I wanted: one day I would meditate for 2 minutes, another for 30 minutes.

That being said, I didn’t like meditations that were so obviously, and without warning, influenced by diet culture. There was no warning about this in the instructions, so every time I tried a new meditation I was a little nervous, afraid it would come up. So rather than trying new meditations, I pretty much repeated the ones that I knew were safe.

Breethe’s website is very accurate, which is rare in this age of advertising overpromises. The app is described as approachable, specific, easy to follow, and easy to fit into a busy schedule. After using it for a month or so, I have found all of this to be true. I would definitely recommend this app to a friend. Just be sure to let your friend know up front about the influence of diet culture and let them interpret it however they like.