The estimated reading time for this post is 4 minutes
You may be thinking, “Relax with tech? No way! Tech stresses me out!” True, tech can be stressful, but there are so many ways tech can help you relax, why not give tech a chance to de-stress your life?
1. Radio: Instead of turning on your favorite station for your drive home or your walk around the block, try tuning in to relaxing music, such as the Spa Channel on Sirius (Channel 73) or New Age on Pandora. Prefer classical music? No problem, tune in to those stations instead. Too often we mindlessly tune in to our traditional favorites without considering how our mood should affect what we listen to. If you are able to listen to music while you work, listening to relaxing music may make your day a little less stressful.
2. iPod: If you have some relaxing music on your iPod, make a Relaxation playlist for those times you need to de-stress. Listening to music this way is especially relaxing as the headphones or earbuds can block out other noises. Listening to your Relaxation playlist on a plane can do double duty of relaxing you and insulating you from the annoying passenger sitting next to you. Don’t have any relaxing music on your iPod? Check out iTunes for the many albums titled “Relaxation.”
3. Koi Pond: One of my favorite apps is Koi Pond, a $0.99 app in the iTunes App Store. You can either just relax to the soothing sounds while you watch the koi swim in your pond or make the app interactive by tapping on the screen. You can choose your fish, the color of your pond, the amount of sunlight, and the sounds. Choose from wind, rain, bird, frog and cricket sounds. You can even set a sleep timer for the sounds so you can fall asleep listening to the app. This app doubles as entertainment for younger kids who will love feeding the fish, tapping on the screen for cool effects and rearranging the lily pads. For Android users, check out Koi Pond wall paper, free in the Android Market.
4. Easy Relax: This is another app in the iTunes App Store that will help take the stress away. The app has different themes, such as Hawaiian Vacation, Rainy Day, Blossoms from India and others that offer ambient sounds to relax you. The app has a sleep timer you can set to lull you to sleep. The app is $0.99, but a free version is also available with limited functions.
5. Sleep Timer: Whether it’s the sleep timer on your clock radio or your iPod, try falling asleep to relaxing music. If you think the music will be distracting or irritating, just try it for ten minutes with your Relaxation playlist to see if it relaxes you. I sometimes use the sleep timer on my iPhone with my audiobooks or with podcasts to keep my mind away from worries.
6. The Kindle Chronicles: This is a podcast by Len Edgerly about the Kindle which comes out every Friday. You can listen to it here: thekindlechronicles.com. The podcast is fascinating and full of useful information, tech tips and in depth interviews about the Kindle and the ebook revolution. I find Len’s voice incredibly soothing and his persona so peaceful that I know the podcast will relax me and put me to sleep. Since I also find the podcast a helpful resource, I always listen to it again the next day to be sure I don’t miss any helpful information. I find this podcast to be much better than a sleeping pill.
7. Games: When I first discovered that my Palm Pilot had a backlight, I found the perfect antidote to restless nights. If I wake up in the middle of the night, instead of stressing about what tomorrow holds, I grab my iPhone and play a game. This takes my mind off of any worries I have and I nod back off to sleep quickly. But the game has to meet certain criteria: untimed, easy to put down and pick back up again, and not too much thought. I try to avoid games with bright colors as well. I find games such as Sudoku, Mahjong, solitaire and word games are perfect. If a game gets my heart beating faster, then that is not a relaxing game (no Angry Birds in the middle of the night!).
8 Alarm clocks: I am not a heavy sleeper and I hate waking up to blaring alarms. I have always preferred waking to music to ease me gently into the day. A clock radio used to wake me up, but now I use the clock app on my iPhone. Unfortunately, with the iPod Touch, iPhone and Android phones you can’t just select your favorite song for an alarm. You can either create a ringtone (stay tuned for an upcoming blog on ringtones), get an alarm clock app that allows you to choose a song from your device, or dock your phone in an alarm clock with the capability to wake you to your music. If you hate alarms but don’t want to mess with tech, then a clock radio still might be your best bet to wake to music!
9. StumbleUpon: Check out StumbleUpon’s relaxing websites. (See, You’ll Fall for StumbleUpon!) Here’s my favorite relaxation website I found through StumbleUpon: Just Do Nothing for 2 Minutes. I created a bookmark for this site to remind me to take a couple of minutes to relax every so often.
10. YouTube: It’s easy to search YouTube for relaxing videos. Here’s one I found that you might like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OkIfTjYwOBo
Enjoy!
Do you use tech to relax? What are your favorite relaxation tips? (They don’t have to be tech related!)
Where is the sleep timer on an iPod/iPad?
Hi Andy, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Great question! The one thing I really wish the iPad had was a clock app from Apple. There is no native sleep timer on the iPad, but you can get an app that has a sleep timer for the iPad, such as Nightstand.
For the iPod Touch, just use the sleep timer on the clock app that comes with the device. For other iPods, go to Extras => Clock => Sleep Timer, turn it on and select the number of minutes.
Hi Carolyn,
I almost always relax by listening to music on either my iPhone or my Mac (via Spotify). And of course, watching TV… that’s what I do when I want to sleep 🙂
– Jens
Hi Jens, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! You have great ways of relaxing and I think that reading your new Kindle might be relaxing for you too, depending on the book you’re reading. 🙂
Yes, the Kindle is awesome. But at the moment I am reading suspense, and it’s not relaxing at all 🙂
Well, then Jens, you should probably stay away from your Kindle when it’s time to relax!
Yes, I should stay away from the Kindle when it’s time to relax.. but I’ve also bought some marketing books. So, I might read Seth Godin’s Poke the Box instead 🙂
Jens, Please keep us posted on whether Poke the Box is relaxing or suspenseful! 🙂
Great idea! I looked on Amazon for relaxation music and found this – free today:
http://www.amazon.com/Massage-Meditation-Exclusive-Digital-Sampler/dp/B004QT0IUI/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303929951&sr=301-1
Hi Jane, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Thanks for the great link, I just downloaded this free album. Can’t wait to get it on my iPhone and add it to my Relaxation playlist. Thanks for sharing this!
I love Mahjongg! I never thought about getting an app for it! What is the name of the app?
Hi Andrea, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! I discovered mahjong as an app for my Palm PDA and love it, though I’ve never played it as an actual game. The app I use is Shanghai Mahjong, which is available in a lite version for free or a paid version for $0.99 in the iTunes App Store.
Great video! I’m keeping the video on in the background as I re-read your blog.
Hi Ann, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so pleased you are enjoying the video and the blog!
Never thought of YouTube for relaxing videos. That’s a really beautiful video you shared.
Hi KJ, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you like the video. You can search YouTube for other relaxing videos. I like ones with actual videos, not slide shows, but it’s fun to explore to see what works for you!
Your post inspired me to download some relaxing music. I then downloaded 2 museum apps & I get a lovely slideshow of some classic artwork while listening & relaxing!
Hi Suze, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Did you download the great free music Jane recommended in the previous comment? Which museum apps did you download? What a great idea for relaxing!
Of course i scored the free music! Your site rocks!
I downloaded the free version of the London National Gallery (which just gives you a taste of the full paid version) and e-Museum. There are so many museum apps out there I want to try several before committing to particular paid versions.
Hi Suze, I’m so pleased you enjoy the site. Many thanks to Jane for posting her useful link here! Thanks for letting us know about the museum apps! Let us know what you decide in getting the paid versions of the apps. 🙂
How cool! I never thought of using tech for relaxing. I love lavender aromatherapy, but I could combine that with some of the suggestions here. Thanks!
Hi Julie, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! I agree with you, I love aromatherapy with lavender to relax! I warm lavender oil when I’m in the shower and play the Spa Channel on Sirius and I feel incredibly relaxed from the experience. You should check out Patricia’s blog, Lavender Uses, she shares our passion for lavender!
Relaxation would be most important to our body 🙂 yeah, most of them are get relaxed through listening music because it’s such a beautiful one 🙂
Hi Kavya, I completely agree! Relaxation is very important for health and for us to function at our best. Thanks for your comment!
Playing Mahjong while listening to relaxing music on Youtube! 🙂
Hi Jocuri, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I enjoy both of those ways of relaxing with tech, though I hadn’t thought of combining the two. Thanks for the great idea!