iPhone Giveaway of the Day - Breathful

Breathful is the key to effective mindfulness training.

Determine whether your mindfulness practice is really paying off by actively tracking your sessions of mindfulness practice with Breathful!

Breathful does not force the user to follow a particular meditation plan – there are lots of great books on the subject, each containing a slightly different technique for achieving mindfulness. However, one common theme amongst all mindfulness methods is the importance of breathing, and that is precisely where Breathful comes into play.

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What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness or “vipassana" originated in Theravada Buddhism, and it involves the idea of learning to watch one’s thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations, without getting caught up in them. Mindfulness is a practical form of meditation that can be practiced pretty much anywhere, at any time.

The goal of mindfulness practice is to witness one’s own experience without attachment or reactivity. In other words, any thoughts that arise during mindfulness practice are acknowledged - but then that thought is quickly allowed to pass... typically the individual then re-focuses their attention on slow-paced breathing.

Research has shown that practicing mindfulness can reduce anxiety, decrease depression, and lower overall stress levels. If mindfulness is the key to unlocking your full potential, why haven’t you heard of it? After all, corporate powerhouses like Google have been using mindfulness training for years, and it even made the cover of TIMES Magazine in February 2014!

“The Mindful Revolution”
TIMES Magazine – February 2014

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Breathful is a useful tool that allows users to engage in ten-minute “sessions” of mindfulness practice. The user gets to actively monitor each session by attaching a number of “distractions” as the session progresses. After the session ends, it is then archived by date and time in the apps session log, along with the number of distractions encountered.

If the user sees that their average number of distractions is dropping, then they will know that whatever method they are using to practice mindfulness has been working.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING BREATHFUL:

- A new session is started by tapping on the timer circle, which will then start a ten minute countdown.
- If at any point the user taps on the screen while the timer is running, then a "distraction" will be recorded.

It is up to the user to decide what constitutes a distraction… after experiencing a distracting thought during mindfulness practice, one typically re-focus one’s attention on breathing.

You do not have to record distractions that last for merely a split second... but if in the user's opinion, the distracting thought lingered for longer than it should have, then the user taps the screen to record the “distraction.”

A perfect session with zero distractions may remain unattainable for most, but Breathful is going to be the tool to get you as close as you can get to perfect mindfulness practice.