Moksha’s meditation tool aims to kick traditional breath work exercises to the curb. 

As most breathing tools on the market are designed to do, Moksha aims to help train you to breathe longer and deeper, which studies have shown naturally calm you down, relax your muscles, slow your heart rate, and stabilize your blood pressure.

The smart breathing device — now available on the company’s website after launching on Kickstarter last year with over 400 preorders — is a sleek metal pendant with a mouthpiece that you can inhale and exhale through. The idea for the Gamified Meditation Tool, as the company calls it, is that by inhaling and exhaling through a small cylindrical structure, you can better control and slow your breathing.

Yash Ghanekar and his co-founder Jaymin Shah came up with the idea for Moksha after dealing with some personal things that affected their mood and well-being. “My close friend had passed away, and it really triggered my anxiety to new heights. I always dealt with general anxiety and just the stress of school and social situations, but this took it to a new level, where I was having panic attacks night after night,” Ghanekar told me.

Shah’s brother, a doctor, told them about the benefits of breath work, and it inspired them to collaborate with R&D experts, data scientists, mechanical engineers, and designers to build their flagship device, the Beam, a $43 necklace with a metal pendant attached to it. It also comes with a free stand-alone app.

“The feedback was remarkable. We got all kinds of people reaching out to us, saying that it saved their lives. People were coming to us with all kinds of collapsed lung disease conditions, with PTSD, with anxiety, and saying that this breath work tool is really helping them,” Ghanekar said.

After the success of its first device and app, the company decided to launch a smart tool that merges the two products. 

The most unique selling point of the Gamified Meditation Tool is that it features air pressure sensors and haptic feedback technology to help beginners learn how to breathe and meditate properly. After inhaling for 2 to 8 seconds (depending on the type of meditation exercise) and then exhaling for 5.5 seconds, the device vibrates as a signal to begin inhaling again, eliminating the need to count in your head and helping you stay focused. This is indicated by a light buzzing feeling on your fingertips. When connected through Bluetooth, it can also track your breathing data. 

Notably, Moksha designed its device to resemble a vape or cigarette. The company hopes this will help redirect smokers from unhealthy habits. “Our idea is to move everything away from this oral fixation of vapes and weed pens and move it more towards mental health,” Ghanekar said.

Moksha claims the device is nickel- and lead-free and doesn’t contain “chemicals or toxins that may injure your respiratory health.” The mouthpiece can be removed for easy cleaning or replaced with a new one. Its portable charging case provides up to 60 hours of battery life.

The tool’s companion iOS app offers breath control games, playlists, and meditation exercises to make breath work more engaging. 

The app offers five breath work categories that all provide different benefits: Calm, Energy, Morning, Recovery, and Sleep. Each exercise follows a similar format: a brightly colored circle expands and contracts to help you center your breathing, accompanied by calming music or nature sounds in the background. It’s the addition of the breathing tool that Moksha thinks will help people feel confident that they’re doing the breath work correctly.

An enjoyable part of testing was playing the breath control game known as Copter. In this game, the player maneuvers a ball through the sky, dodging clouds by using controlled inhalation and exhalation to guide the ball up and down. While addictive, it reminded me that I should practice breath work more frequently. (Why was I so bad at something as basic as breathing?) It also reminded me of existing medical tools, such as the incentive spirometer, which acts as exercise equipment for patients to maintain strong lungs.

Similar to many traditional meditation apps, it monitors meditation sessions and maintains a daily log of users’ moods and thoughts. 

The smart breathing device costs $150, which may seem like a steep price for something that gets you to do a thing you do every day for free. But the price is comparable to other meditation devices: Moonbird, which you hold in your hand, costs $199; and The Shift, another breathing device, retails for between $65 and $340, depending on the material it’s made out of.

I’ve attended several breath meditation courses before in an attempt to alleviate my anxiety, but I always struggled to get into it and make it a regular habit to see real results. However, after using Moksha for nearly a month, I can say that it has made the practice a bit less boring for me. Admittedly, it’s still not a daily part of my routine, but I find myself gravitating toward it before going to stressful events or to wind down after a long week. Moksha also has a new game launching soon, so I look forward to trying that out, too.

The handheld device can be used as a stand-alone product, but the app offers some free games and exercises. For $8 a month, you get access to its full library of over 500 breathing activities. Moksha’s app also features a gamified reward system that offers discounts on coffee and clothing for users for simply using the app and, well, breathing. The company teamed up with Instacart, NBA Store, and Fanatics to offer coupons. 

The company claims to have over $1 million in lifetime sales. To date, Moksha has raised a little under $200,000 from Republic and angel investors.