Interval bells for meditation and yoga — stay present, not clock-watching.
Set a gentle bell to ring at whatever interval suits your practice. Every 5 minutes, every 10, every 15 — Mindful Timer rings quietly in the background while you stay in it. Set it once, put your phone down, and don't pick it up until you're done.
Download AppAn interval bell is a soft chime that sounds at regular points during a meditation or yoga session — every few minutes, throughout your sit or practice.
The tradition goes back centuries. In Zen and Vipassana practice, a bell signals transitions, marks time, and calls wandering attention back to the present moment. Today, practitioners use interval bells for the same reason: not to interrupt, but to gently anchor.
Instead of wondering how much time has passed — or sneaking a look at your phone — a bell tells you. You stay in your body. The practice continues.
Open session settings, tap Interval Bells, choose your interval — anywhere from every 1 to every 20 minutes — and start your timer. A gentle bell chimes throughout your session, a different bell signals the end, and both play even with your screen locked or phone on silent (as long as your volume is up). Put your phone away. Mindful Timer handles the rest.
Meditators
Interval bells are especially popular in silent meditation practices — Vipassana, insight meditation, Zen, and Zazen. Rather than sitting with one eye on the clock, you simply listen. The bell tells you where you are in your session. Your attention stays where it belongs.
For longer sits of 30, 45, or 60 minutes, a bell every 10 or 15 minutes can also serve as a gentle check-in — a moment to notice your posture, soften your breath, and re-anchor before continuing.
Restorative and yin yoga practitioners
In restorative and yin yoga, poses are held for anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes. Watching a clock while you're meant to be surrendering into a pose defeats the purpose entirely.
An interval bell set to match your pose duration means you can close your eyes, relax completely, and trust that you'll know when it's time to move. No clock. No phone. Just the pose.
Breathwork and pranayama
Many breathwork practices involve cycles — rounds of breath retention, alternating nostril breathing, or timed exhales. An interval bell set to a short interval (every 1, 2, or 3 minutes) can mark each cycle quietly, letting you move through your practice without counting in your head.
Will interval bells play if my screen is locked?
Yes. Mindful Timer is designed to run in the background with your screen off. The interval bells and session-end bell will both sound as long as your phone's volume is turned up. Note that the silent/ring switch on iPhone affects ringer sounds — Mindful Timer plays through the media audio channel, so it comes through regardless.
Can I choose what the interval bell sounds like?
The free version includes a bell sound specifically for interval chimes, separate from the session-end bell. If you'd like to pick from a range of sounds, custom bell sounds are available as a one-time in-app purchase.
Do interval bells work across multiple timers in one session?
Yes. If you've set up multiple back-to-back timers for different parts of your practice, interval bells run continuously across all of them — you don't need to configure anything separately for each timer.
Stay in your practice. Let the bell keep time.
Mindful Timer is free to download. No account creation, no subscription, no guided audio — just a clean interval bell timer that works.
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