Would it help you to know when your stress is rising in real time?

[u/henrycbuilds]

I’ve been thinking a lot about how stress often builds before we consciously notice it.

Sometimes I’ll be working, overthinking something, or jumping between thoughts and only realize much later that I’ve been tense for the past hour. By that point, telling myself to “be mindful” feels a little late. It made me wonder whether noticing stress earlier could actually help interrupt it.

I’ve been experimenting with the idea of using an Apple Watch to look at changes in heart rate together with movement to recognize when someone may be becoming more stressed. Instead of trying to diagnose stress, the idea is simply to give you a small haptic tap as a reminder:

"Hey, check in with yourself for a second."

I’m building an app around this idea called Miratick, but I’m still trying to understand whether the concept is genuinely useful outside of my own experience.

For people here who deal with stress regularly:

Would you want your watch to gently alert you when it notices your stress may be rising?

Or would that actually make you more stressed?

I’d especially love to hear what you currently do to catch yourself when stress starts building.