I have really enjoyed using my Spire tracker. In my work, I find it easy to get "stuck" on a task or project for long periods of time or overly stressed throughout the day, not realizing how much tension has built up in my body and leaving me with tight muscles.

This biofeedback device tracks your breathing, alerting you to stress (via shallow breathing), long periods of 'focus' and even if I've been sitting too long without a break. The app even allows you to customize how long you want to go before receiving the the gentle buzz from the device and a notification on my phone.

As an added bonus, it tracks my steps throughout the day. At the end of each day or week, I can look at my focus minutes, calm minutes, and tense minutes, along with my active minutes and steps. The app even has 'moments' that allows me to look back at different moments in my day. Even better, you can set the app to look at your calendar to make a link between a 'moment' (calm, focused, tense) and a calendar event.

This is a great tool is worth trying. It even comes with a 30-day money back guarantee!

Just "knowing" I'm wearing it makes me more aware of my breath which in turn makes me more relaxed. I just received three days ago and my average breaths per minute has already gone down from 17.9 to 14.7. I emailed their customer service "Neema" who I think she said was one of the developers, and she responded to me right away on a Sunday. I've adjusted all of my notifications so if I go longer than 4 minutes of tense breathing, it's going to alert me. I love this thing and kudos to whomever developed it. No glitches whatsoever.

I have pretty bad anxiety, so I decided to order the Spire to help keep track of my breathing. More out of curiosity than anything else. Once I received it, I set it to notify my by buzzing when my breathing became tense. I quickly found out all of the triggers for some of my tension. After buzzing, I could quickly focus my attention on my breathing and take a few breaths to bring me back to a relaxed state. It has been very beneficial to me by adding to my awareness. It is another tool I now use everyday in a addition to meditation and conscious breathing. I feel naked whenever I forget it at home. It also has added benefits by letting me know how much I activity and focus I got in a day. The customer service department at Spire goes above and beyond to help resolve any issues that may arise. I would highly recommend Spire to anyone who wants to add another level to their awareness.

I love this product and have never had any of the difficulties with it that I am seeing some of the other reviewers mention. (For instance, I've *never* had a problem with it charging, and as for the ones who aren't getting a "read" from it, I wonder if they just need to experiment and try placing it somewhere different on their clothing. For me, I'll say that putting it in the center of my bra, which is one suggestion offered by the instructions, would never have worked, but clipping it to the side of my bra works beautifully. You would never even notice it was there, and it gets a firm "read" on my breathing every time.) I find that Spire has helped me be much more conscious of my own stress levels. This might seem like a silly statement (as in, "Surely you KNOW when you're stressed?"), but it's not that simple. It has helped me "map" my anxiety throughout my day and week and assisted me in realizing some moments that impact my breathing and mood that I would not have consciously known about, so that I can better address that stress at the end of that given day or week. I also enjoy the "boosts" that you can do on the phone app, and I appreciate the fact that it tells me if I've been lazy for too long. That doesn't happen terribly often at my job (I'm a teacher), but it's healthy to have a reminder to get up and move around. This is a wonderful tool that I have really integrated into my daily life, very smoothly, and I have no regrets whatsoever in buying it.

Fascinated by this concept when I saw an advertisement for this product (on Facebook, of all places), I checked their website, then I checked to see if it was available on Amazon. It was, and the price at that time was very reasonable (I see it's back up to list price now). I think it works fairly well. I'm still trying to figure out how it's interpreting tension, but I allow it's probably accurate in that respect. The only time I seem to be focused is when I'm sleeping. That seems strange to me. I get regular periods of Calm.

Seven-day battery life? Only in one's wildest dreams. Maybe I'm not supposed to wear it while I'm sleeping? I'm lucky if I get three days between charges. I have noticed it glows solid blue when it's supposedly charging, so maybe it isn't charging correctly? This is disappointing. My Fitbit One easily goes more than seven days between charges, and it tracks much more information.

On the App, in Settings, there's an "I Lost My Spire!" area to tap. This is only useful if you can't remember if you mounted the Spire on your bra or your waistband, because it merely vibrates, and you'll never hear it. This is a joke, right? Or is it a feature placeholder for a future version?

I agree with some other reviewers about the tutorial being intermittent in unlocking the next level. It took about a week to unlock from Day 1 to Day 2. Day 3 awaits, and I'll get to it eventually. My enthusiasm waned. I anticipate this is merely software bugginess, which will be resolved in an app update soon. Battery life is of greater concern.

The website is spartan, designed as a sales page only. I have not tried telephone tech support, so I can't comment on its usefulness. The Support page is very basic.

Despite the three-star rating, mostly for the abysmal battery life, I like this gadget. I believe it will be useful for enhancing mindfulness. And, maybe, I'll figure out the tension thing, which doesn't seem to completely track to when I think I'm feeling tense. But I could be wrong about that.

Added on Ausust 3, 2016: downgraded to 2 Stars. Maybe it's me and I just don't breathe, but with the update the battery life may have improved slightly, but whenever I look at the app, it says it can't detect any breathing (believe me, I am still breathing). Frequently it says the Spire has been away from the phone for more than six hours. I'm never away from my phone for more than six hours. At this point is like to get rid of this junk. Can I sent it back? I don't even care about a refund at this point. I don't want it cluttering up my house. The updated app is pretty but is less functional.