Vaken is a trauma-informed breathwork app for people who have already tried everything , meditation, cold showers, Wim Hof, SSRIs, therapy , and still feel like the tiger is in the room.
Free download. Optional 39 DKK premium. iPhone.
Built from 1,000+ posts in r/CPTSD · r/Anxiety · r/covidlonghaulers · veteran communities
If you're reading this between panic waves at your desk, or after waking up gasping at 3 AM, or wondering why every breathing app you've tried made it worse , you're in the right place. We've read thousands of posts from people exactly like you. Here's what we heard.
Natural remedies. New diet. Cleaned my gut flora. Meditation. Therapy. Breathing. ASMR. You've spent years building a personal stack , supplements, apps, podcasts, a binder full of activities , and the panic keeps coming back. You're tired of being your own clinical trial.
The unnatural flow made it hard to get air properly. You followed the YouTube video. You counted. You held. Instead of calm, you got air hunger, lightheadedness, heat across your face, the feeling that you were suffocating. Standard breathwork is built for people who don't actually need it.
Things I used to love , meeting new people, phone calls, a normal Tuesday , now feel impossible. Long COVID, PTSD, burnout, or years of panic have left your nervous system stuck in fight-or-flight. The world is too loud. Recovery feels just out of reach.
Most breathwork apps were built for stressed knowledge workers , not for nervous systems that have been hijacked by trauma, long COVID, POTS, or years of panic. They tell you to breathe deeper. Hold longer. Push through. For a dysregulated nervous system, that advice doesn't just fail , it backfires.
Meditation alone isn't enough. You can't mindful your way out of a vagus nerve stuck in overdrive. The body needs a different protocol , one that works from the bottom up, not the top down.
And every app you've tried lives on the same phone that's also a trigger. The notifications. The bright screen. The doomscroll. Opening it during a panic attack often makes the panic worse.
Not gone forever , that's a fantasy. But passable. Manageable. A wave you can ride instead of one that drowns you. Here's what life looks like when your nervous system has the right tool.
Mid-meeting. Mid-drive. Mid-conversation. The familiar chest tightness. Instead of bracing, you run a protocol you've practiced a hundred times. Your nervous system knows the way down. The wave crests at a four instead of a nine , and passes through you.
You don't need to. You already know the pattern. Four breaths in, seven holding, eight out. Your heart rate drops. The bedroom stays dark. Your partner stays asleep. In four minutes you're back under the covers , not okay, but okay enough to sleep.
Not because the anxiety is cured. Because your body has practiced a way down so many times that it becomes the new normal. Something you'll have forever, even if your phone breaks, your subscription lapses, the lights go out.
"There's never a tiger in the room. There isn't. You're safe. Breathe."
, from a real Reddit comment that captured what we kept hearing.
A breathwork and nervous system regulation app , built by a combat veteran for the people standard breathwork left behind.
4-7-8 for anxiety. Box breathing for focus. Physiological sigh for an instant reset. Vagus tools (humming, cold, grounding) for when breathing alone isn't enough.
Short sessions, designed for any state your body is in. No forcing. No pushing through. If something doesn't feel right, you stop. The point is gentleness, not performance.
Over weeks, your nervous system learns a way down. It becomes muscle memory. Something the panic can't take from you.
I'm Dan. I served in Afghanistan with ISAF Hold 8, 12, and 13 , IED disposal in Helmand. I came home with a nervous system that didn't.
For years I tried every tool that exists. Most of them weren't built for a body like mine. Vaken is the tool I wish I'd had at 3 AM, gasping in the dark, twelve years ago.
If that's you , this is for you.
Dan Kristoffer Holmstad, founder
Articles on breathwork, nervous system regulation, and training your body for crisis through practice.
Vaken is free to download. The premium tier is a one-time 39 DKK purchase, no subscription, no data harvesting, no upsells. If you're in financial crisis, message us and we'll comp the premium tier. That's the deal.
Vaken is not a substitute for medical or mental health care. If you're in immediate crisis, contact your local emergency services or a crisis hotline.