We made every practice in Buba unguided. Would that work for you?
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One of our earliest product decisions was to leave out the voice. No narrator, no calm instructor telling you when to inhale. The reasoning: while you're following someone else's voice, it's hard to notice what your own body is doing. And noticing is what Buba is built around.
I know plenty of people find a guide easier, especially when starting out. So I'd like to hear it straight. Guided or unguided, which works better for you, and why? If a guide is the only thing that keeps you practicing at all, that's just as useful for us to know.
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I’d choose guided, at least as a beginner. When you’re learning something new, it’s hard to notice what your body is doing and remember what to do next at the same time.
The closest parallel for me is fitness. I can do absolutely unguided Zumba (and even teach it now;-)), but when I started more than a decade ago, I absolutely needed a coach: someone to show me the movements, set the pace, and help me trust that I was doing it right. Only later could I stop following and start really listening to my body.
I suspect wellbeing practices may work similarly (though I might be wrong here, still a practice novice;-)): guidance helps you begin, unguided practice may be where you eventually want to arrive.
@marina_detinko the Zumba parallel is a good one, and the part I'd underline is where you ended up: teaching it without following anyone. A coach is there to get you to the point where you can hear yourself, and a good one knows when to step back. The open question for us is how early someone can drop the guide. My bet is sooner than most apps assume, as long as the practice itself is simple enough to learn quickly.
PS And thanks for supporting our launch.