Different things affect each of us differently. Some of us get stressed out at work, where I’m sure others get stressed out by the traffic on the commute to and from work. Effects of serious stress can include sleep problems, depression, skin conditions and raised blood pressure that can result in heart disease. None of which sound like an appealing prospect I’m sure. So what can we do to relieve the stress that we invariably suffer in our day-to-day lives?

Affectiva, a company based in Massachusetts, have developed a device called the Q Sensor that you wear like a watch that takes measurements over the course of the day. On the underside of the device that resembles a large digital watch with no digital display, there are 2 small sensors that continually send out a low electric current to measure skin conductance – something that fluctuates according to your stress levels. From this your results can be analyzed at the end of the day to discover those activities in your day that really get you stressed out – allowing you to approach them from a new perspective.

And the results are not always as obvious as you would expect. One of the developers wore the Q Sensor on a trip to a theme park with her children. As expected her stress levels climbed during her time on the rides and rollercoasters, but her stress levels actually peaked for the day when she was organizing everyone before they left the house in the morning.

Whilst we may not all be able to get our hands on the Q Sensor to help us manage our day, there are still things that we can do to help manage the stress that an average day can weigh us down with. The Relax: Stress Relief application available on the Android Market Place offers assistance to the stresses that beset all of us day to day. Featuring a number of guided breathing exercises complete with calming music (that shockingly isn’t as cheesy as you would expect) Relax is simple to use meaning you won’t get even more stressed at the de-stressing application! Go into the menu on Relax and you can select the breathing pattern that you personally find the most relaxing, whilst you can also specify the duration of the exercise depending on how much time you can free up. Having tried it I can confirm it is more effective than the traditional method of banging your head against the wall in a toilet cubicle!

Download Relax: Stress Relief for free from the Android Market place here

Top image courtesy of Bhernandez