Staying calm is great in theory, but when you’re slammed at work, your phone won’t stop buzzing and you’ve gotten four hours of sleep, all bets are off. So in an attempt to find a little more peace in our day, we tried the WellBe bracelet ($149), a new digital tracker that’s designed to keep you more mindful of your stress levels. And it worked.
What is it? Think of the WellBe as a Fitbit for stress. You put on a bracelet, download a free app and sync it up with your phone. It then measures and records your stress level every hour, giving you a score from 0 (least stressed) to 100 (most stressed) based on the amount of time between each heartbeat. And the coolest part: It uses information from your online calendar to make connections between your schedule and your stress level. (Whoa, we were a 92 when we were giving a presentation to the company but a 43 at lunch.)
But wouldn’t that make me more stressed? Yeah, it might. But instead of dwelling on your stress levels and doing nothing about them, WellBe provides a series of quick guided meditation exercises designed to bring your stress levels back down on the spot. We tried one during a particularly busy day and it brought our number from an 86 to a 45. So the bracelet won’t automatically zap away your stress, but it will help you train yourself to be more aware of how you’re feeling throughout the day.
