Exhale App

The thing about the Exhale App is I truly did not realize how much I needed it until I started using it. The look and feel, the gentleness of the prompts, the quality of the content-- all of that made me feel incredibly grounded and held. As a busy primary care physician, it's been hard to find time for self-care-- the Exhale app helps me to actually invest in some self-care with the approach of using short modules (5-10 min) to engage listeners. I've gone from being someone who did nothing at all, to now doing the deep breathing and meditation exercises at least every other morning. So excited by what the team has created and the love they've shown to us Black women users; I can't wait to share it with my colleagues and patients.

I go between this app and headspace. Something this app has that others don’t: clear acknowledgement of traumas and micro aggressions as well I actually really appreciate the spa-like music that is played softly behind the guide while they are speaking. I might actually take to playing some light music when listening to headspace. Something that this app cannot compete with their competitors on is the quality control on the guides’ audio recordings. Speaking clearly is not the only thing that makes up a soothing and relaxing guide experience… The audio is kind of sharp around the edges like there was insufficient soundproofing. As well, guides seem to have prioritized speaking clearly over calmly, and smoothly. You can hear vocal fry and unnecessary upward inflections in some exercises - this is both awkward and distracting and leaves me feeling annoyed like I didn’t get much out of the exercise. I will literally record these for y’all free if it meant you would have better audio quality.

I have not been a big fan of meditation apps in the past. This one works well for me. I’m obsessed with the breathing section. They are pretty short (about 5 minutes), but I also feel so much better after doing one. Even more than that, I love the daily push notifications that remind me to take time to focus on myself, even if I don’t necessarily spend time doing one of the sessions in the app. The messages are always right on time for me and I never get tired of them popping up (I keep push notifications turned off for all the other apps I use because I hate them). Highly recommend this app!!!