In the process of setting up the previous Covid HRV study, we looked into a range of existing breathing and HRV Biofeedback Apps. But could not find what we feel is needed for a general population to use easily and regularly to help manage their stress and improve their wellbeing. i.e., people who are not, techie geeks like me, who have dozens of different devices or highly motivated sports people, who spend hours a day trying to optimise every aspect of their training. What we want is something that will help a wide range of people to learn the new habit of healthy breathing.
This is why we are running a “co-design” pilot study and would really like your input, feedback, and wisdom. We believe the research evidence already exists that learning to do diaphragmatic breathing at your resonant frequency (more on this next), has a range of health and mood benefits. But the issue is how to bring this research out of the Lab into the real world, where people have busy lives and competing pressures for their precious time.
Most lab studies either use undergraduates that are required or paid to come into the lab regularly or patient populations with serious issues and who are obviously well motivated to find help. But we believe this very simple training could be helpful for millions of people with just low levels of stress, from our modern lives, but only if people can acquire this new habit.
We have two parts to the study, the first is a one-off ‘Resident Breathing Assessment’ and will take around 35 minutes (this can be spread over several sessions if necessary). The second part is ‘The Daily Breathing Practice’ which simply consists of doing a daily 10-minute breathing practise for 28 days. Then just tell us what you think and feel about your experience.
We must say that this home training program, is not Intended as a medical intervention and if you have any health conditions that could be affected by slow breathing, it maybe a good idea to speak to your doctor before trying this program. Also, if you feel any issues during the assessment or training, please just stop, and let us know if we can help, and have a look at www.mind.org.uk for information and support for anyone living with a mental health issues.
We can communicate with email, text, phone or WhatsApp. Or you can use the ‘chat box’ on the bottom of this page. So, if you have any questions or comments, as you’re doing your daily breathing practise, we would love to hear from you.