Kanopy is like Netflix, but instead of paying with your hard-earned cash, you can access content for free using your library card. Kanopy provides access to a wide variety of films, including independent and foreign films, documentaries, and educational videos.

The streaming service is available through participating libraries and universities, and you can access the service through a web browser, mobile app, or smart TV. Kanopy also provides a selection of educational content including some great courses focused on helping you improve your well-being.

1. Yoga for Health

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Kanopy may not be as popular as other streaming services such as Netflix, but it provides you with free movies and music using nothing but your library card. It features a lot of health and wellness content, including instructional videos for becoming the next great yogi.

Yoga for Health is one such series. Taught by Dr. Sujatha, India's first Ph.D. in Yoga, Yoga for Health offers nearly 17 hours of instructional time across 13 episodes. Episodes will take you through every aspect of yoga, including proper posture, the mind-body connection, yoga for elderly people or children, and yoga to help manage diabetes and hypertension. It also covers yoga for physical issues, such as spinal problems, knee problems, and neck and shoulder problems.

If you've never tried yoga before, Kanopy is a great gateway to learning how to find inner peace, balance, and flexibility. It's also the only workout where you get to lay down and take a nap at the end!

2. Make Stress Work for You

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If you're still not sure what Kanopy is or how it differs from other streaming services, consider this: it's free, its purpose is to provide "thoughtful entertainment," it's free from advertising, and it doesn't share your personal information. This makes it a great place to delve into educational content on how to manage stress.

Make Stress Work for You is part of Kanopy's Great Courses series. It includes nearly 10 hours of content spanning 18 episodes, each packed with scientifically-backed behavior modifications and cognitive exercises to deal with and manage stress. This course would be valuable for anyone who has tried apps to relax and destress but needs a little more.

Episodes explore topics such as understanding emotions like happiness and anger, the role stress plays in shaping our behavior, how to manage stress in emergencies, and how you can use good kinds of stress to become more resilient in day-to-day life.

3. Body Composition: Diet & Exercise

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Body Composition: Diet & Exercise provides you with a comprehensive overview of your body and its relationship to food and movement. The course seeks to challenge your assumptions about what it means to look and feel good and teach you how to understand your health using more than a bathroom scale.

The course offers nearly 13 hours of content and covers topics such as your relationship to your body, a better way to measure body composition (it's not just about weight), how your body processes and uses food, the role of fat, protein, and nutrients, the role of hormones, and ultimately, how to change your body composition.

This course is also part of Kanopy's Great Courses series and is worth exploring if you're the type of person who has used one of the many meal-tracking web apps but hasn't yet been able to achieve your goals.

4. Food, Science, and the Human Body

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As mentioned, Kanopy is one of the best free movie streaming sites, but it also offers so much more, from TV shows to documentaries and instructional videos. Another course available on Kanopy that offers deep insights into wellness is Food, Science, and the Human Body.

Watching this course is like going to school. You'll spend nearly 18 hours spread across 36 lectures learning about the evolution of the human diet and its relationship to our bodies. The course is taught by Alyssa Crittenden, professor of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It covers a broad range of topics, from the role of meat in early humans' diets to the history of bread to how the body's gut microbiome functions.

5. Finding Meaning in Adversity

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This course defines resilience as the ability to physically, emotionally, and mentally bounce back from adverse circumstances. Finding Meaning in Adversity is one of Kanopy's Great Courses. It's focused on understanding how your brain works and what you can do to experience life more positively despite negative things that might happen to you.

The course offers nearly 13 hours of content across 24 episodes that will help you use challenges as opportunities for growth rather than being crippled by fear or inaction. The course focuses on eight themes to help you on your journey: core values and purpose, finding meaning in adversity, equanimity, self-care, healthy coping skills, a positive sense of self, support and connection with others, and a proactive worldview.

6. Science of Mindfulness

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Mindfulness is big business and there is no shortage of apps designed to support you in living a more mindful life. But what is mindfulness really, and is there any science to support the claims that focusing on your breath can do anything for your health?

Science of Mindfulness answers this question in depth. The course offers nearly 13 hours of content across 24 episodes and covers the wide range of meditation and mindfulness techniques out there. It also looks at how these modalities have been adopted in part or whole by practitioners of psychology and healthcare.

Using a science-based approach, this course is perfect if you've always wanted to apply traditional wisdom practices to your own life, but you've been skeptical about their legitimacy. Episodes include topics such as the nature of self (and the perils of having an ego), how meditation modifies brain structure, and overcoming trauma.

Improving Your Well-Being With Kanopy

With so many resources out there offering advice and instruction for how to be healthier, it's hard to choose how to spend your time. You might also find it difficult to find trustworthy information when it comes to health and wellness.

This is what makes Kanopy's wellness content so useful: all the courses are taught by professors and scientists and all the recommendations are science-backed. By using Kanopy, you have one more tool in your arsenal to tackle the ongoing journey of mastering your mental and physical well-being.