So, I did a thing.
I recently released a wellness app. It’s for people like me who want to have a consistent breath work practice, a daily journaling routine, and a focus on building an intentional life. If that sounds like you, this app may be up your alley.
Let me introduce you to the new app, Sway.
The idea came to me when I was concerned about my dipping HRV and what that indicated about my health. I read how daily breathing exercises helps your HRV score, which reminded me of biofeedback breathing exercises I taught clients (I’m a therapist by day) for breathing coherence. Since a good breathing practice is always a good idea, I knew it was something I wanted to rediscover.
But I knew I wouldn’t remember to complete a daily breathing practice without setting a million reminders. Which quickly felt lackluster.
So off I went, looking for a nice breathing app to guide me on my journey. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one that came without a hefty subscription cost, had all the features I wanted, and matched my aesthetic.
So all that to say, I built an app for myself.
At first, I took a shot at building it in Vercel, but soon found too many limitations. I quickly moved to building Sway in Swift (Apple’s programming language) so I could install it locally on my phone. I was content to never put it in the App Store. After all, I was just building it for myself. But I eventually realized what a pain in the ass it is to have to re-deploy the app every few days.
So off I went to figure out how to get an app into the App Store.
Initially, I made Sway to be a simple breath work app. Only three things were important to me; it needed to have a timer, some haptic feedback, and some auditory cues. But as I kept monkeying around with it, I realized I wanted to include different breathing patterns, different session lengths, statistics for breath work sessions, and a way to measure whether my breathing practice was actually making a difference.
Then I realized I wanted to be able to reflect on a breath work session or explore what came up for me. Eventually, I wanted to explore other emotions I experienced throughout a day. So off I went to figure out exactly how I would want that to play out. That idea turned into Reflection Notes.
Then came Intentional Practices. I know I feel my best when I follow my Intentional Practices. These are practices that help me live an intentional life and don’t let me stray too far from my better self. My Intentional Practices include writing and reading daily, using my cold plunge, writing in my Bullet Journal, stretching in the morning, lifting and doing some form of cardio. When I complete these Intentional Practices, I know I feel more balanced.
Intentional Practices are not just productivity hacks. They are less about getting things done and more about doing the important things in life that bring me back to center.
And then I created Sway State. This is a “score” I came up with to reinforce good decisions I was making. Having the kind of brain I have, I wanted to know how all these practices were having a positive impact on me. Coming up with a score for something like this was tricky, because I didn’t want the score to be punishing. If I had an off day, it was okay if the score slipped. I wanted the score to have enough leeway that it could “sway”, like a tree in high winds, bending but not breaking.
As this is an introductory post about Sway, I’ll spare you all the details, but I promise to go deeper into Sway’s features over the next several weeks.
Oh, and even though a lot of people have told me Sway helps their brain too, it’s important to note that every option in Sway can be turned on and off to fit your brain. Sway is fully customizable.
That means you can make Sway behave however you would like. If you just want to use it as a breath work app, awesome, just turn off all the other features. Don’t want to be scored with Sway State, toggle it off. Want an app that just allows for Intentional Practices, that’s possible too.
Oh, also, about those subscription fees I was avoiding when I was looking for an app, Sway doesn’t have any. It was very important to me that Sway avoid monthly or yearly fees.
Nor does Sway make you sign in or track any of your personal data. It just exists on your phone, helping you live your best life.
At least that’s what it’s doing for me.
If you want to try Sway, check it out here. And if you want to read more about Sway, check out its companion website, www.keithcourt.com.