A breathing guide that floats over your screen
For the moments your nerves show up at your desk: before the interview, the sales call, or the 1-1 with your manager. Or in the middle of one, when a question lands and you still need to look composed on camera.
Moments it's for
- The interview that starts in six minutes
- Your turn to present, three slides from now
- The salary conversation
- A 1-1 you've been dreading all week
- The demo that is going sideways while you keep talking
- The thirty seconds before you unmute to disagree
- The call with the doctor
- The conversation you've been putting off
In all of them you're at your Mac and you can't step away. That's where Ten Breaths lives: over whatever is on your screen, invisible to everyone on the other side.
Before a meeting
With calendar access on, Ten Breaths knows what's next and fits the session to the gap. Nothing here is a notification; you open the menu when you want to.
The menu shows your next meeting. When it's two to ten minutes away, one row fits a session to the gap.
You breathe over the lobby, the deck, or your notes. Drag the circle wherever it doesn't get in the way.
The session ends exactly when the meeting starts, with one line from the research on performing under pressure. Your cue to join.
What it does
- Floats over your work, and your calls
- A soft circle that expands and contracts with the breath, on top of any app, including full-screen ones. Nobody on the call sees it. Make it click-through and keep working while you breathe.
- Three techniques with trial evidence
- Box breathing by default, because a 2026 real-life trial found it as effective as cyclic sighing and much easier to follow under stress. Slow 5-5 if you dislike holds. Cyclic sighing for the curious. The studies.
- Nothing leaves your Mac
- No account, no analytics, no network calls. The calendar is read locally and never written to. The privacy policy is three paragraphs.
How you start it
- Menu barA dragonfly in your menu bar. Calm Down, Settle, or Lift. No Dock icon.
- ⌃⌥BFrom any app: starts a session, stops it again. Change it in Settings.
- Shortcuts, Siri, Raycast"Start Breathing" and "Stop Breathing" actions. "Breathe with Ten Breaths."
- open tenbreaths://startFrom the terminal, a Raycast quicklink, or any script. All the variants.
Questions I'd ask
Does breathing for two minutes actually do anything?
Modestly, and measurably. A 2023 meta-analysis of randomized trials found breathwork lowers self-reported stress with a small-to-medium effect, and a 2026 study of one-minute sessions in real-life stressful moments found large short-term reductions in anxiety. It won't change your life. It will get you into the room in better shape. Sources.
Can people on the call see it?
No. The overlay is drawn on your screen only. Sharing your screen would show it, so stop the session before you share, or use it while someone else presents.
Why not the Breathe app on my Watch?
Because your eyes are on the screen and the camera, not your wrist, and because the Watch doesn't know your meeting starts in four minutes.
Why "Full Access" to my calendar?
macOS offers only one permission for reading calendars, and it's called Full Access. Ten Breaths reads the title and time of your next event and never changes anything. Leave the feature off and everything else still works.
Is this medical advice?
No. Ten Breaths is a wellness tool, not a medical device. Slow breathing can make some people light-headed: stay seated, stop if you feel unwell, and talk to a doctor first if you have a respiratory, cardiovascular, or neurological condition.
Subscription?
No. One price, yours forever, including updates.