Mindfulness in the Moment: A Personalized Wearable Reflection System for Emotional Regulation

Abstract

Life is full of stress-inducing activities, which have the potential to shape habitual behaviors that can increase anxiety and decrease overall well-being if not dealt with properly. While existing stress management technologies aim to mitigate these behaviors, such interventions are largely impersonal and have a high barrier to entry, offering generalized guidance and requiring users to manually trigger the intervention. This thesis presents a novel, smartwatch-based system for disrupting stress habits that automatically detects moments of physiological arousal and delivers personalized, in-the-moment reflection exercises. A within-subjects user study examined 24 participants engaging with a prototype of this system, finding that 87.5% reported greater awareness of their stress habits after using the application. Participants also significantly preferred (p = 0.003) the automatic triggering over scheduled methods. Ultimately, this work contributes a novel integration of physiological sensing and behavior-change theory, offering insights into how wearables can support emotional regulation and habit-loop disruption within everyday routines.