Breathing Exercise

Pick a breathing pattern — 4-4-4, 4-7-8, 5-5-5, or 6-0-6 — and a visual animation guides you through each inhale, hold, and exhale. The numbers refer to seconds per phase, so 4-7-8 means four seconds in, hold for seven, out for eight: a rhythm many people find particularly useful for winding down before sleep. You follow the animation rather than count in your head, which makes it easier to actually relax instead of just doing arithmetic.

The four patterns cover a decent range of goals. Box breathing (4-4-4) is widely used for focus and stress relief, while the longer exhale patterns lean toward calming the nervous system. A short session — even two or three minutes — can make a noticeable difference mid-afternoon or before a tense meeting. If stress management is a bigger priority for you, Worry Dolls goes in a different direction but covers the same general territory of quieting an anxious mind. Both sit comfortably in Health & Fitness.

Works best with headphones if you want to tune out background noise, though the app itself is silent — the animation does all the pacing.