Mindfulness, Breathing, & Increased Awareness. Could It Be For You?

Depression, stress, and anxiety are quite present in today's society and a range of first-world lifestyle factors may be contributing to their increased prevalence. Today I'm going to focus on two iPhone applications which may help you to relax when feeling anxious, stressed, or sad.

Stop, Breathe, and Think is an application created by a non-profit organization called Tools for Peace. The application asks you to select your mood or specific feelings you may be experiencing at that time and then gives you options of certain mindfulness meditation/ relaxation exercises which may help you feel calm and relaxed. Some sessions are as short as 3 minutes while others can be up to 8 minutes. The application also tracks your progress and how much time you have spent meditating.

Breath2Relax is an application created by the National Center for Telehealth and Technology and focusses on diaphragmatic breathing exercises. The length of inhalation and exhalation can be set by the user along with calming background music.

Both applications share information about mood and stress; Stop, Breathe and Think offers more variety, has attractive visuals and tracks mood and progress, while Breathe2Relax focuses solely on breathing and may be appealing for those who want to specifically set a length of time for their exercise and/or get great relief from deep breathing.

Interventions based on mindfulness and awareness have become increasingly popular. Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When we are mindful, we are aware, attentive, and observe our thoughts and feelings from a distance without judgment. It has been associated with enhanced relaxation, attention regulation, emotion regulation, body awareness and cognitive re-evaluation. Multiple 2013 and 2014 studies suggests it may play a role in pain management, irritable bowel syndrome treatment, diminishing cravings, fatigue, and insomnia management (see links below for details). A 2013 study with 56 pre-hypertensive patients showed a greater improvement in participant blood pressure who underwent mindfulness-based stress reduction exercises over an 8 week period. While another small 2013 study showed diaphragmatic breathing and muscle relaxation to promote more weight loss in overweight, Greek women when compared to those who did not receive a stress-management program.

Overall, it is difficult to definitively link mindfulness, meditation, and diaphragmatic breathing to an entire list of positive outcomes since many of the studies conducted involve small groups of people. However, the results seen are often positive; so if you experience stress, anxiety, or mood issues, why not give yourself a few minutes to relax, breathe or become more aware?
Also, if you've used alternative applications that have helped you, I welcome you to please feel free to post in the comments below and share!

Information Sources
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24719001
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24461370
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24239587
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24127622
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23627835