I am very impressed with what Apple is doing in the health front. I do yoga and for many years have practiced brief meditation. But, like most people, I procrastinate a lot. Like most people, I also got in the habit of ignoring the breathe alerts because I was too busy. So when I got my new AW5 and went through it’s preferences, I started noticing them again. It made me realize that I had slipped back into the habit of always being busy and pressured (ramped up sympathetic nervous system) instead of taking time to exercise my parasympathic nervous system (smell the roses). We need balanced physiologies to have balanced minds and bodies. So I said to myself, “Self, come on, it only takes 1 minute a few times a day”. So, I have not turned off the breathe alerts and I am paying attention to them again.
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I have been tempted to give it a try a couple of times, but does one rationalise just putting everything down in the middle of work (in public no less) to meditate?
I also wonder if this is just the software pushing a couple of pre-scheduled alerts throughout the day, or if the watch is actually tracking metrics like heart rate and deciding when the best time to “breathe” is.
I also wonder if this is just the software pushing a couple of pre-scheduled alerts throughout the day, or if the watch is actually tracking metrics like heart rate and deciding when the best time to “breathe” is.
Only takes a minute to down tools and follow the breathe in, breathe out cycle prompted by the Watch. My guess is that the prompt is generic, not user-tailored.
Very simple. Just look at the Watch when it starts. Breathe in deeply when prompted by the animated image and haptic tapping, and breathe out when prompted. Repeat as prompted by the Watch. This is a basic first step in learning mindfulness, relaxation, meditation, etc. All basic skills that we don't learn as kids in our society.
Never knew it was a condition/thing. Not trying to be a smarty-pants...What is the technical name so I can Google it and learn about it?
Hmm, good question! It has been a basic thing for me for so many decades that I haven't looked into the formal bits. I just checked and you'll find a lot with search terms like "mindfulness breathing" or "yoga breathing", for example. Search in Google Scholar if you are interested in the technical literature. Widely used in clinical care to help patients with anxiety and various forms of mental illness. Military clinicians leverage tactical breathing skills taught to soldiers to help them deal with mental health problems, for example. "Apple Watch Breathe app" in Google Scholar turns up some interesting studies. There is interest in the longevity benefits of learning such basic mindfulness skills.
The watch also takes HRV measurements during the "Breathe" cycle. Very important indicator of your body's "State".
It can send it to other apps like HRV4Training to give you indicators of whether you're ready for a hard training day, or easy day. You can also see something like a cold or flu, there's a lot of information to be gleaned from HRV readings, it's best to do research, and way beyond the scope of this forum, I believe.
So it just collects HRV data but does not do anything with it other than maybe store it in the paired phone's Health app? For example, I imagine that it does not tailor the visual and haptic cues to longer or shorter breaths for the user. I can't see that happening because there are so many variables that need assessment in sorting out an individual's HRV signal.