A weekly circle is a link that works at the same time every week. Everyone who has it opens it on their phone or computer, a count starts for all of them at once, and for one, three, five or ten minutes a family or a few friends in different cities breathe the same rhythm together. Bliss keeps time with her voice on every device, in sync. Nobody has to install anything or make an account to join.

Why a circle, not a call

A video call asks for attention: faces, talking, the pressure to say something. A circle asks for nothing except that you show up and breathe. That is why it works for the moments a call does not: a grandmother and a grandchild in different time zones, two friends who both said "we should talk more" and never do, a couple apart for work, a parent and a teenager who would rather not discuss it.

After each round there are three reactions to tap (🙏 Thank you, 💛 Feeling calmer, 🔁 Again?) and that is the whole conversation. Often it is enough.

Setting one up

  1. Open Breathe together in CalmSpace.ai and choose Weekly circle.
  2. Pick the day and the time. Eight in the evening on Sundays is the one most people land on; bedtime for a young child is another.
  3. Choose a rhythm: Calm (4 in, 6 out), Resonant (5.5 in, 5.5 out), Sigh, Box (4-4-4-4) or Sleep (4-7-8). Calm is the right first choice.
  4. Choose the length: 1, 3, 5 or 10 minutes.
  5. Share the link, by message or by email (if you type an address, it is used once and not kept). You can keep up to five circles.

The circle starts by itself at the time you set, every week, whether you remembered or not. Add it to your calendar from the same screen and it will remind you.

Who can join

Up to six people in a circle. People you invite open the link in any browser; on an iPhone with the app installed it opens in the app, but it does not have to. Children can join on a parent's phone. The link is the only thing anyone needs.

When the time is hard to agree on

Pick the time that is easiest for the person who finds it hardest to join. A five-minute circle at an odd hour that happens every week beats a perfect hour that gets skipped. If two time zones make one slot impossible, make two circles with different people in each; that is what the five circles are for.

What it is for

A circle is not a therapy session and it does not need a reason. It is a small weekly habit of being in the same moment as someone you love, even from far away. Breathe together explains the feature in full, and the guide to breathing together has the rhythms written out for anyone who wants to do it without the app.

CalmSpace.ai is a wellness app, not a medical service, and Bliss is not a therapist. If you are in crisis, contact the crisis line for your country; in the United States, call or text 988.