Balance in Three Steps
Three steps in the same order every day for three weeks: Coherent Breathing, Ocean Breath and Coherent Breathing with a longer exhale. How a day goes, how the weeks change, who it suits.
5 min read
Balance in Three Steps is a three-week program that brings two calm techniques together in three steps in one session, in the same order every day.
How a day goes
Every day has three steps:
1. Coherent Breathing: slow and even, with the inhale and exhale the same length.
2. Ocean Breath: at the same slow pace, with a soft sound from the throat as you breathe out.
3. Coherent Breathing with a longer exhale: the exhale a little longer than the inhale.
When a step ends, the session waits in a short pause: the screen shows the step you just finished and the next technique. When you're ready, tap Go to the next technique, and after a short countdown the new step begins. The time you spend waiting isn't added to the session's length. When the rhythm changes, watch the circle; you'll settle into the new rhythm within a few rounds.
Each step has its own focus. It shows in the step's first rounds and on the screen between steps.
The first time you do the program, a short page before the session explains the steps and how you move between them.
How the weeks change
The session lasts ten minutes in the first week, gets a little longer each week and reaches sixteen minutes in the last. The step that grows the most is Ocean Breath. You don't choose the length: each week's length is shown on the setup screen. How your sessions go doesn't change these lengths.
There are a few special days in the second half of the program. On one day the last step is silent and you follow the rhythm by vibration. On some days the circle steps back in the last minute and you carry the rhythm yourself. The last day of the program ends that way too.
In the report and the history
The session is saved as a single record, but each step is measured separately. The result screen and the report have a section for each step. In your history the row shows the program's name and day, with the steps' icons beside it.
Who it suits
People who know Ocean Breath and want to combine a few techniques in one session. The session is long, so it helps to pick a calm time when no one will disturb you.
To set up the program, Ocean Breath needs to be unlocked. If it isn't yet, Unlocking techniques tells you what it takes.
In Ocean Breath don't squeeze your throat or force the sound. If you feel dizzy, stop and take a few ordinary breaths.
How to set the program up, what happens when you miss a day and what you see at the end are in Setting up a program and keeping it.
What it is based on
The program is a flow inspired by Brown and Gerbarg's breathing practices and adapted to the app. In a 2009 paper in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Brown and Gerbarg described practices that combine slow breathing with breathing that makes a soft sound in the throat, and set out their views on how these relate to the nervous system.
The program in the app isn't their method itself. It has no movement, and its steps and lengths were chosen for the app. The program itself hasn't been tested in a study of its own.
- Brown and Gerbarg (2009), Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1172:54–62 — "Yoga breathing, meditation, and longevity". Full text