It’s no secret that people all over are experiencing record levels of stress in just about all aspects of their everyday lives. If you’re watching Good Morning America this week, they are even doing a segment on it! In fact the “Stress in America Survey” results show that adults continue to report high levels of stress and many report that their stress has increased over the past year – American Psychological Association.
75% of adults reported experiencing moderate to high levels of stress in the past month and nearly half reported that their stress has increased in the past year – American Psychological Association.
Approximately 1 out of 75 people may experience panic disorder – National Institutes of Mental Health.

Stress is a top health concern for U.S. teens between 9th and 12th grade, psychologists say that if they don’t learn healthy ways to manage that stress now, it could have serious long-term health implications – American Psychological Association.
80% of workers feel stress on the job and nearly half say they need help in learning how to manage stress. And 42% say their co-workers need such help – American Institute of Stress.
Stress levels in the workplace are rising with 6 in 10 workers in major global economies experiencing increased workplace stress, according to the Regus Group.

Data show that 36 percent of workers suffer from work-related stress that costs U.S. businesses $30 billion a year in lost workdays.

Now, if you’re on the verge of having your own panic attack after reading the few lines above. CALM DOWN. You and I both know that, Yes, we do have stress in our lives, it’s how we handle that stress that accounts for the way we function daily and cope with what life brings our way.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past 15 years, you’ve heard that exercise, particularly walking, jogging, running and biking can help to alleviate quite a bit of stress that comes our way on a daily basis. There are quite a few studies that have been done along these lines and they all agree that “Exercise and other physical activity produce endorphins, chemicals in the brain that act as natural painkillers, and also improve the ability to sleep, which in turn reduces stress” Exercise increases your overall health and your sense of well-being, which puts more pep in your step every day.” This according to from the Mayo Clinic.

Monitoring yourself while you work at releasing those magical endorphins is a key to keeping yourself motivated. After all, its human nature to challenge yourself or challenge a friend or a workout buddy. One way to make sure you’re on your “Game” is to get yourself the right activity monitor or watch, or both. It’s a fact that we all do better when we have a goal to work towards. And an Activity Monitor that fits the bill on all counts is the  Garmin Vivosmart 3 HR Activity Tracker. With this handy wrist based device you can track everything you need from your heart-rate (thanks to Elevate wrist heart rate monitoring), steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, distance traveled, intensity minutes, and VO2 max.

But the carrot on the cake is it can also track just how “Well” You Are Doing! Vívosmart 3, tracks Heart Rate Variability (HRV), which is used to calculate and display your stress level! You can look at a graph right on your device (On YOUR WRIST!) anytime you’re sitting or at rest. When the level starts to move up, it indicates that your stress is getting higher. What causes this? Any number of physical or emotional external sources. The key is to identify what is causing your levels to rise and for you to understand how you can lower them by more exercise, meditation or coming to grips with what is impacting you. Since this activity monitor also doubles as a watch, you have the ability to keep track on your stress levels with your HRV, monitor function at all times of the day, so you can see when the levels rise and what you are doing at the time they do that may cause your stress levels to elevate!

Vívosmart 3 helps you recognize when this is happening so you can find a way to relieve the stress, for example, by using the relaxation-based breathing timer, built right into the stress widget for the Vivosmart 3. Based on the Fourfold breathing technique, it offers a 1 to 5 minute guided breathing exercise.

It’s almost like having “Wellness Coach” with you all the time. Now if that doesn’t help you to come to terms with 2017’s silent personal enemy (Stress), I’m just not sure what will. Now we are not claiming that using this Activity Tracker will put “Paid” to your stress levels, but we all know we have stress in our lives and with a helpful tool like the Vivosmart 3 Activity Tracker, at least we can be conscious of it and just how well we are coping with it.

So, breathe and go and get yourself the Vivosmart 3 at HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com