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"Amidst all the stress and running around from meeting to event and back to meeting again, there was one conversation I had during last week's International CES that was particularly calm and somewhat stress free. It was one with Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of Huffington Post Media Group. She told me she doesn't expect anyone to answer her emails at night or over the weekend. \nSpeaking at the Digital Health Summit about how we can actually use technology to improve our health and well being, Arianna, as she's known in the industry, talked about the need to prioritize de-stressing. She also showed off the guide from her newly-released app; GPS for the Soul.\nWalking the show floor at CES I was struck by the increase in the number of health and fitness devices have come on the market. In fact, the CEA says floor space devoted to health and wellness is up 25% over last year. So it seems we all want to know how much we're walking and how many calories we're burning in this fast-paced world, but Arianna says that's not enough.\u00A0\n\"We need to deal with our minds, not just our diet and bodies, our mind and spirit count for so much,\" she told me. \"That's where anxiety and depression and insomnia come from,\" she added. That's why it's important to prioritize de-stressing your life.\n SEE ALSO: Fitbug Launches New Suite of Health Trackers \nAnd she should know. Four and a half years ago, Arianna fainted from exhaustion, broke her cheek bone and wound up with stitches around her eye. That's why, she tells me, her current obsession with the issue of helping people de-stress stems from her own personal experience.\n\nShe launched the iPhone app, in conjunction with HeartMath, to create a guide for users \u2014 a course-correcting mechanism \u2014 to help them get back in sync. In addition to giving you your heart rate variability, it gives you something to focus on that makes you happy and calm. For Arianna, it's pictures of her family. For others it might be the ocean, poetry or a particular place. Users can show and share guides, as it has a very large social component. There are also expert guides from Dr. Oz and Deepak Chopra. \n\"We're never going to eliminate stress, but we can reduce it,\" she tells me. \"Heart disease, diabetes, both are related to stress.\" \nI get that, but I have to confess, the words tech and stress-free just seem like an oxymoron to me. I still don't get how we can use the tech currently available to us to help de-stress our lives. Arianna's answer is simple, and this is where it really begins to make sense.\nArianna says she always puts the day behind her before going to bed. She puts her phone on charge in another room. That way, even if she wakes up in the night, there's no temptation to sneak a peek at it. \n\"You can't be tempted to look at it, even if you go back to sleep, you've allowed your day life to intrude into your recharging, restoring time,\" she tells me. \nAnd no screen time before bed. Studies show reading on a screen before going to sleep can be detrimental to getting a good night's sleep.\nArianna says she wants others on her staff to gain the same rejuvenation from sleep and relaxation as she does. No more emails that pull you in all weekend long. Arianna says she makes it clear to her staff \"If I send an email at eleven at night, it's to get it off my to-do list, but I don't expect a reply. And I make that very clear, I don't expect replies over the weekend.\"\nDoes she go so far as to have a tech-free weekend? It's more like a catch-up, which in some cases can help reduce stress as well. \"I go through my inbox on a Saturday, but I don't expect a reply over the weekend.\"\nWhat about you, does tech make you more stressed? Could you go the weekend without responding to email? Let us know in the comments. \nPhoto via Michael Buckner/Getty Images Entertainment"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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