Breathing pacer
—Ready
Today
Rescue rep deployed
3-min reactive breathing on a stress spike or 5am wake. Tap when used.
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days logged (30d)
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current streak
Active practice, not monitoring — do the breathing, don't chase the HRV number after.
This week
—Tick the reps you actually did. Reflection at the bottom — that's the part that compounds.
Weekly reflection
1 · What drained me, and what restored me?
Two lists. What pulled energy down this week (work fires, poor sleep, conflict) and what put it back (a good run, time with Ana, a real day off). Naming both is how you spot the pattern over weeks.
2 · When I felt stressed, did I face the thing or avoid it?
When a spike hit — a worrying sensation, a conversation you'd rather skip — did you move toward the thing that mattered (let the not-knowing sit; say the hard thing), or toward making the feeling stop (check/google; let it slide)? Not pass/fail — the misses show you where the next rep is.
Climb & deload rules
Same logic as training readiness.
ClimbAdvance a strand only when the current rung is consistent and no longer effortful — when it stops generating pre-dread / settles within the session.
Bad weekSick kid, work fire, low HRV / poor readiness → hold rungs, drop the voluntary discomfort reps, keep only breathing + connection. Treat it as a deload.
TravelMaintenance only — breathing + connection block. No climbing.
Anchor slipSkipping the daily breath 3+ days → dose too big or wrong anchor. Shrink it (2 min), don't abandon.
Back offA discomfort rep that spikes distress that doesn't settle, or days of rumination → drop a rung next time.
The 8-week build
Add one thing at a time, same as not stacking volume before the habit holds.
Wk 1–2Breathing (A) R1 + the two reflection prompts. Nothing else.
Wk 3–4Breathing → R2. Add Activation (C) R1 + the no-input run.
Wk 5–6Add Health-uncertainty (B) R1 + Recovery (D) R1. Book the one-off bloodwork sometime in here.
Wk 7–8Add the connection block + Breathing R3 (rescue rep). Climb B / C / D as criteria allow.
BeyondEach strand climbs on its own criterion → maintenance rungs.
On the activation strand
Run it in the tone you'd use with a competent colleague, not a drill sergeant. Harsh self-talk is the shared root that makes both the procrastination and the negativity worse — white-knuckled activation burns out. The rep is "notice avoidance, name it, start" — done kindly. That's what keeps it sustainable.
On the health-uncertainty strand
The target is reactive reassurance-checking — re-checking, googling, body-scanning. Real scheduled monitoring stays; retire the reactive loop. If health worry is genuinely eating into daily life, a CBT therapist is a higher-leverage tool than any ladder.
On the recovery strand
A, B and C are all "do the hard thing" muscles — they add load. Recovery is the opposite muscle: stopping, detaching, not optimizing. For you it's probably the hardest rep, because stopping triggers the same "falling behind" feeling Activation is fighting. That tension is the point — C teaches you to start when it's uncomfortable, D teaches you to stop when it's uncomfortable.
Progress
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breath days (30d)
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weeks logged
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rungs climbed
Rung history
Backup & restore
Data lives on this device only. Export before clearing browser data or switching phones.
How this works
Resilience isn't toughness — it's load tolerance plus the ability to return to baseline. This trains both, the same way you'd train the body: minimum effective dose, one thing at a time, progressive overload, built-in deload.
The four strands
A · Breathing — daily regulation. The anchor everything else hangs off.
C · Activation — start what you're avoiding. Trains initiating under resistance.
B · Health-uncertainty — retire the reactive checking loop (not real care). Plus the one-off bloodwork as a baseline anchor.
D · Recovery — stopping, detaching, not optimizing. The opposite muscle, and your hardest rep.
Each strand is independent. You can be on Rung 3 of one and Rung 1 of another. That's correct.
The daily move · Breathe tab
Run the pacer once a day — follow the orb, in as it grows, out as it shrinks. It auto-logs when the timer completes. Tap the rescue-rep box if you used a reactive 3-min round.
This is active practice, not monitoring. Do the breathing; don't chase the HRV number after.
The weekly move · Week tab
Once a week (Sunday fits your review), tick the reps you actually did, answer the two reflection prompts, and hit Save. The reflection is the part that compounds — it's where you spot patterns.
Climbing · Ladder tab
Each rung shows its own climb-when criterion. When the current rung is consistent and no longer effortful, tap Advance ▲. If a rung is too much — distress that doesn't settle, days of rumination — tap Drop ▼ and rebuild. Climbing isn't the goal; consistency is.
Don't climb everything at once. Follow the 8-week build in the Rules tab — add one new thing at a time.
When life gets loud · Rules tab
Bad week (sick kid, work fire, flat HRV) or travel → deload. Hold rungs, drop the voluntary reps, keep only breathing + connection. Same logic as not stacking tempo work on poor readiness.
Your data
Everything lives on this device only. Before you redeploy a new version or switch phones, go to Progress → Export. After deploying, Import the backup. Your rungs, streaks and reflections carry over.
If something's genuinely heavy
This is a self-directed training tool, not treatment. If health worry or low mood is eating into daily life, a therapist does more than any ladder — and that's the smart move, not a failure of the plan.