From the developer

Why I built a mindfulness bell

I made Breath Bell for myself first.

I live with depression, anxiety, and attention difficulties. I do not think an app fixes any of that. But I wanted one small thing that could interrupt the noise for a moment, without asking anything from me afterwards.

Guided meditation was not right for me. A voice, an animation, and instructions gave me one more thing to follow. I wanted quiet.

Reading Thich Nhat Hanh introduced me to the idea of a mindfulness bell: hear the bell, stop, take a few breaths, then continue with your day. That idea stayed with me. I wanted it on my phone.

What I do when it rings

If the bell catches me at a good moment, I stop and take a few breaths. Then I carry on. If it does not, I ignore it. There is no streak to keep and no way to fail this.

If you want to try it: use one or two random bells during the part of the day you are awake. If they become annoying, use fewer. The point is not to be interrupted more often.

Why I prefer random bells

An hourly reminder becomes wallpaper for me. I expect it and dismiss it. A random bell is more likely to catch me before I do that.

That is enough. I do not turn it into a task, a score, or a good-meditation test.

A note about mental health

This is a personal practice, not therapy or medical advice. Guided meditation helps many people; it simply was not what I needed from my phone.

Why I built Breath Bell

I made Breath Bell because I wanted this reminder without ads, subscriptions, an account, or another feed. It rings a bell or vibrates, then gets out of the way. Everything in it is free.

Get Breath Bell on Google Play

Made by Marko. Questions or feedback: breath.bell.app@gmail.com.