Everyone could do with relaxing a little more often. Whether you've had a long day at work, been dealing with stressful life events, or just need a quick break, taking some time out is essential.
The next time you need to relax a little, why not take a trip to YouTube. Google's video sharing site boasts plenty of channels full of videos guaranteed to help you chill out...
1. Meditation Relax Music
This channel's appeal lies right in its name. On it you'll find tons of videos full of relaxing music for meditation, calming, focusing, and similar activities. Meditation Relax Music uploads regularly, in addition to featuring a large back catalog of music.
Most of the videos are at least three hours long, meaning you can turn one on and enjoy plenty of music before finding another. It even has some live streams with always-fresh music.
Even though all the music on this channel is for relaxing purposes, you'll find different themes in each video. Above is one full of Native American music, which features a lot of flutes.
Alternatively, this video focuses more on music to help you fall asleep quickly. They're somewhat interchangeable, but it's nice to have a choice of topic.
2. HANSE
You've probably heard of the ASMR genre of videos, in which certain sounds make your spine tingle. It's a wildly popular trend on YouTube, and the clips are often quite relaxing as well. HANSE is a perfect example of this.
The channel uploads videos of baking various desserts. Its filmography is as simple as it is pleasing, as you watch the various ingredients being prepared. Plus, the sounds are all tuned for ASMR, making this relaxing for both your eyes and ears.
The above videos documents the process of making peanut butter chip cookies. While most of the channel content is in Korean, you can follow along with the basic English instructions too. Unfortunately, you can't try the treat for yourself when it's done.
Prefer non-solid desserts? Check out the above clip, which features a recipe for a cheesecake milkshake.
Like this? Here's how to make your own ASMR videos.
3. Primitive Technology
This channel's premise---a guy using nothing but natural resources to complete all kinds of bushcraft projects---might not sound too relaxing at first. But watch a few videos, and we think you'll agree that it's a good way to unwind.
Each video features frequent cuts to the key steps in the process, keeping it interesting. Aside from the sounds of him working, the only noise is the sound of the great outdoors like insects chirping and a fire roaring.
There's something calming about seeing someone work so gracefully with so little. If you're interested, he also documents more details in the video descriptions.
In the above video, you can watch the host build pottery from clay. He even forges a stove to use in the project.
Check out another project where he creates mud bricks and uses them to build a kiln. It's incredible what someone can do with only what you can find in nature.
4. ChessNetwork
Chess is pretty relaxing to begin with, so it's understandable that a channel dedicated to chess provides something calming to watch. This channel mainly covers breakdowns of real chess matches. Each one has a representation of the board in the middle, a list of past moves on the right, plus commentary.
If you enjoy chess, this can be a fun way to unwind and improve your own chess skills in the meantime. But even if you couldn't care less about the game, the simple graphics and smooth narration will help calm you down (or even put you to sleep).
This is a typical video for the channel, breaking down a real chess match. The above is Game nine of the World Chess Championship in 2018 between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana.
For something a little different, have a look at this match between Leela Chess Zero and Stockfish. Leela Chess Zero is an open source neural network chess engine that learns by playing against itself and others. It plays against Stockfish, another open source chess engine.
The channel host comments on the game and what you can learn from watching two AIs battle it out.
5. Relaxing White Noise
So, what if you don't like music, simple videos, or chess, and want to keep things as simple as possible? Then check out Relaxing White Noise. This channel is similar to Meditation Relax Music, but features background noise instead of music.
You'll find nature sounds (like an ocean or a thunderstorm) as well as man-made white noise like fans and refrigerators. Each video is 10 hours long, so you can play them through the night. The channel also places an emphasis on using these to help babies relax.
Do you wish you were at the ocean? The next best substitute is this video of ocean waves hitting the shore. It's a great way to calm down and mentally transport yourself somewhere else temporarily.
Do you prefer something more industrial? Enjoy the sounds of a dishwasher running all night long. It's just consistent enough to be relaxing, but with a tiny bit of variance to make it interesting.
Learn to Relax At Any Time
With these YouTube channels, you're never more than a few clicks away from relaxing sounds and videos. Whether you use them to calm yourself at the end of a long day, to help your baby fall asleep, or you just have them on in the background at random intervals, we hope you enjoy them.
For more help relaxing, check out easy meditation tools for beginners seeking mindfulness and the best calming apps to clear your mind.