Wearable Technology Monitors Your Stress

BOSTON (CBS) -- Stress is a daily part of life for this working Newton mom of three young kids.

"My schedule is pretty hectic," says Dr. Liz Scheufele.

So WBZ asked the doctor to try out Spire, which tracks the pattern of your breath to determine if you're calm, focused, or tense.

"It's probably one of the cutest wearables I've seen in a while," she said, adding "It kind of shows you how you're doing."

If the breathing speeds up too much, Spire buzzes and a message pops up in your iPhone, reminding you to take a deep breath.

"There were a couple of times (that) usually involved watching all three kids at one time," Scheufele said.

Neema Moraveji, co-founder of Spire, says it's the "simplicity of the feedback (that) makes it so applicable and what makes it so actionable in daily life."

"You can take a deep breath without stopping what you're doing without distracting from what you're doing," he says.

While technology may add to modern-day stress levels, Moraveji says there's no realistic escape.

"The question became: how could technology change and improve our state of mind?" he said.

Along with alerts sent as needed, users can track and compare their activity levels and state of mind day-to-day.

As a doctor, Liz recognizes how important the right kind of breathing can be.

"The exercise of deep breathing to bring you out of that tense state, I think that's highly valuable," she says.

Spire user, Peter Kazanjy, says it has made him more mindful of his breathing and daily stress levels.

"You kind of notice things like maybe I'm hunched over, and I'm not doing as deep breathing through my diaphragm as a I should be," he said.

According to Spire, Liz was more in control of her breathing than she realized, but she also thought the device gave her some false alarms.

If you'd like to try out Spire, it costs around $150 and it's not considered a medical device.