I've just gotta tell you about this little device that I've fallen in love with. I was inspired because.......
The little Spire device on my hip was buzzing.....
Loudly.
I stopped what I was doing and "took notice".
I realised I was holding my breath. I was tense.
And the Spire was telling me so.
I was tense because I was writing this post (well, not this actual one, but the one before I decide to write this one - which was about the Reality Gamification book by Mark Hoverson if you really want to know).
I was holding my breath as I typed and if it wasn't for the Spire I would never have known it. Amazing.
I would have gone on feeling tense for god knows how long.
You might be thinking, pffft, bullshit. I know when I'm holding my breath or not.
I'll bet you a bitcoin you don't. Not when you're just doing ordinary stuff.
The Spire has been one of the most useful things I've ever owned and it's got to the stage that I feel naked if I'm not wearing it every day.
I would even go so far as to say it's changed my life.
Now before you roll your eyes and start making "wanky wanky" motions with your hand, let me tell you what this little baby does.
It monitors your breathing to work out when you are calm, focused, tense, moving or stationary. Each time you spend too much time in any one area, it gives you a little buzz to warn you. I wear this on the elastic of my undies so the buzz is somewhat enjoyable....buzz you bastard...buzz.....
It tracks all this information in an app which lets you not only see what's happening, but also how each metric compares to your daily averages. You can also tap each metric and see the times through the day when it occurred.
You can see I picked a day when my tense metric wasn't through the roof. Unlike yesterday (damn computer malfunctions)
This enables you to find out just what causes you to be tense (or whatever) by casting your mind back to where you were, or what you were doing when the metric was recorded.
For example, when I'm at the shopping centre, my tense metric goes up. When I'm building a new sales funnel, my focus metric is massive.
The Spire was developed by Stanford University's Calming Technology Lab and according to their blurb "integrates the sciences of mindfulness and neurophysiological training".
All I can say is, it works, and hardly a day goes by when I'm not wearing it. My level of awareness has gone through the roof.
Like right now, it's buzzing because I'm holding my bloody breath again. Jeez.
You can get the Spire from Amazon
It comes with a groovy little USB charging pad that you sit the Spire on at night and the charge lasts for a good couple of days.
If you decide to get one though, be warned, it is pretty addictive. You'll be constantly checking your phone to watch the funky wavy breath pattern scrolling across the screen. people might think you're a bit weird when they watch you looking at your phone and taking great big breaths so you can watch it move in real time. Well, they thought I was anyway.
Aaron "Deep Breather" Parker
P.S. Yes, I am affiliated (Amazon) to the Reality Gamification and Spire links in this article. If I don't sell something on there soon the bastard's are going to kick me off.....again.
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