Unlocking techniques
What opens the locks, what a locked card tells you, and how to see the shortest way there.
5 min read
Some cards in the technique list have a padlock on them. They aren't closed off, only not open yet: the app follows a path from easy to hard.
Tap a locked card
Tapping it opens a page showing what is needed. The technique's name at the top, and under it the requirements one by one with progress bars:
> 2 Triangle — 1/2
> 2 Extended Exhale — 0/2
Under that, why this order is written out. For 4-7-8, for instance: without experience of holds and long exhales, a seven-second hold can make you dizzy.
The page also shows the shortest way: which technique to do to open this lock fastest.
What counts
Only scored sessions count: sessions without the microphone don't add to lock progress. Sessions cut very short don't count either.
One session can count towards several locks at once. A requirement like "2 Coherent / Deep and Slow / Triangle" is satisfied by any of them.
What sets the number of sessions
Your experience level. If you said "I know some techniques" in the intake, the basic techniques are open from the start and the advanced ones open with half as many sessions. If you said "I'm experienced", most of the locks aren't there at all.
The score of your introductory exercise. If the short exercise you did on the first day went well, the requirements drop. Score above ninety-five and one technique opens straight away.
Your goal. Whatever you came for, that goal's technique starts unlocked. Say sleep and 4-7-8 is open; say focus and it's Box; say energy and it's the Energizing Breath.
If your health notes steer you away from that technique, a different one opens for the goal — the app won't both say "I opened this for you" and put a warning on it.
When a lock opens
When a new technique opens, a short notice slides across the top of the home screen. Tap it and you go straight to that technique.
Some screens have locks too: the Programs menu, the personal summary and the weekly summaries open after a certain point. They announce themselves the same way.
If you don't want locks at all
The locks exist to order the learning, not to punish. But if you came in already knowing the practice, marking your experience level honestly in the intake is the practical answer: choose "I'm experienced" and almost everything starts open.
You can change it later too: Profile → Settings → Experience.