Shora
The science

It learns what works — for you.

The techniques are published science. The matching is Shora: a feedback loop that pays attention to how each session actually lands, so the recommendations fit you better every week.

The check-in: four dials — or a few words.

“Stressed” at 9am and “stressed” at 11pm are different animals. Four dimensions — mood, energy, focus, connection — catch the difference in about thirty seconds. Prefer to write? A few lines works too.

Mood
The emotional weather — from stormy to clear. Sets the session’s overall direction.
Energy
Wired, steady, or running on empty — decides whether you need settling or lifting.
Focus
Scattered or sharp? Foggy minds get structure; racing minds get an anchor.
Connection
Feeling close to people, or far away? Loneliness calls for different practices than stress.

The loop that does the learning.

One honest rating after each session is all it takes. Over time, Shora notices that box breathing settles you but body scans put you to sleep — and matches accordingly.

Shora learns you
1 · Check in
every rating tunes the next voyage
Shora check-in — writing a few words about how you feelShora matches a guided session to how you feelTaking a guided session in Shora — Cyclic Sighing playingRating how the session landed, compared to beforeRating which techniques worked, tuning the next recommendation

Different states, different doors.

There’s no one technique for everything — that’s the point. A rough map of how check-ins steer toward categories:

Wired & anxious
BreathingSomatic grounding
Foggy, can't focus
Hybrid resetsThought noting & defusion
Low & heavy
Loving-kindnessVisualization
Running on empty
NSDR / deep restBody scan
Lonely, disconnected
Loving-kindnessSafe place imagery
A simplification — the real matching also weighs time of day, session length you have, and what’s worked for you before.

How a session is built.

A session isn't a shuffle of techniques. Each one follows a deliberate arc — settle the body, deepen attention, then integrate and close — the same structural logic used by evidence-based programs like MBSR and yoga nidra.

We start with the body, because attention works better once the body is calmer (a principle informed by the window of tolerance framework). And we never just stop: every session ends on a gentle, settling note — positive, calming states have been shown to actively speed the body's recovery after effort, and research suggests the way an experience ends shapes how it's remembered.

The arc is a design principle drawn from this literature — not a claim that any single session is a clinical treatment.

The studies on our chart.

Cyclic sighing Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Stanford University, Cell Reports Medicine 2023.
Box Breathing How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing. University of Pisa, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2018.
Loving-kindness Open Hearts Build Lives: Positive Emotions, Induced Through Loving-Kindness Meditation, Build Consequential Personal Resources. University of North Carolina, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2008.
Body scan Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits: A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 2004.
NSDR / Yoga Nidra Yoga Nidra practice shows improvement in sleep in patients with chronic insomnia: A randomized controlled trial. National Institute of Mental Health, India 2020.
Diaphragmatic breathing The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults. Beijing Normal University, Frontiers in Psychology 2017.
Session structure Full Catastrophe Living (MBSR) — the body-then-mind, integrate-and-close session structure. Kabat-Zinn, 1990.
The soft close The undoing effect of positive emotions — positive states speed cardiovascular recovery after arousal. Fredrickson, Mancuso, Branigan & Tugade, Motivation and Emotion 2000.
Endings & memory Patients' memories of painful medical treatments — the peak-end rule. Redelmeier & Kahneman, Pain 1996.
Where the science ends and Shora begins. The evidence is in the techniques — our “Strong / Moderate / Emerging” labels summarize that literature, not our app. Shora’s contribution is the matching: a recommendation loop that fits proven practices to your moment. We’re honest about that line.