If the week has your shoulders up around your ears, Oak is here to help you relax and unwind.
It offers breathing and meditation practices that are quick and easy to follow. And for every restorative session you take in, your personal animated oak tree (hence the app name) grows a little, with a sprouting green shoot to represent your inner growth.
Choose mindful or unguided meditation, then pick a male or female guide and a background sound (rain, a continuous "om" or white noise, for example) and the length of session you’d like, from 10 to 30 minutes. Now you're ready to relax.
What makes this app so easy to fit into a busy day is that the breathing practices are super short. Try five rounds of a long inhale, quick exhale pattern to boost your alertness, or four cycles of box breathing to relieve stress (inhale through the nose for four, hold for four, exhale four through the mouth, hold four). A 4-7-8 cycle (in four, hold seven, out eight) is deeply relaxing.
Give it a try. You have nothing to lose—except a little tension.