• Posted October 10, 2025

Inspirational Videos Rival Meditation For Stress Relief, Study Says

YouTube or TikTok might offer a solid alternative to meditation when it comes to stress relief.

People’s stress dropped about as much from watching a short inspirational video as it did through guided meditation, researchers reported in the journal Psychology of Popular Media.

“What we found is that even a few minutes of watching content that makes people feel hopeful can put a dent in stress,” said lead researcher Robin Nabi, a professor of communication at the University of California-Santa Barbara. 

“It’s a short, simple and even enjoyable break — and it can make a meaningful difference in helping people feel more optimistic and able to handle what’s in front of them,” Nabi added in a news release.

Activities like meditation, deep breathing and exercise are often recommended for stress management, but many folks can’t fit them into their day, she said.

“Though there are many effective ways to deal with stress, people often feel too busy or overwhelmed to enact these strategies,” Nabi said.

Media is rarely discussed as a means of dealing with stress, even though movies, TV and short online videos are all considered enjoyable pastimes, she  said.

“So many of us are told that when we’re stressed, we should avoid media. And, in fact, we as a society tend to look at media use through a very negative lens,” Nabi said. “But media use is one of the most common ways that people try to cope with stress, and it has the capacity to provide benefits, particularly when it comes to relaxation.”

To test this, Nabi and colleagues conducted a four-week experiment with more than 1,000 adults. The experiment occurred between Thanksgiving and Christmas — a time of year that stresses out many Americans.

Participants first completed a questionnaire to assess their stress levels, and then were randomly assigned to one of five groups.

Each day for the next five days, participants received an e-mail instructing them to view an inspirational video, watch a comedy segment, follow a guided meditation or scroll through their phone based on the group to which they were assigned.

Each of the video segments lasted about five minutes. A fifth group received no instructions at all and served as a control group.

After each experience, participants answered questions about their emotional state. Researchers also checked in with the participants the next week and the week after to gauge the longer-term effects on their mood.

Both inspirational videos and guided meditations caused people to feel significantly more hopeful during the week when they were watching the short segments, results showed.

That hopefulness predicted lower stress levels up to 10 days after people stopped watching the videos, researchers said.

Comedic videos made people laugh and phone scrolling kept them entertained and distracted, but neither had any impact on their later stress, the study said.

Hope appears to be the key to stress reduction, Nabi said.

“Hope isn’t just uplifting in the moment,” Nabi said. 

“It can also motivate people to deal with the challenges in their lives," she said. "When people see others overcoming adversity, as they did in our inspiring videos, it can spark the belief that they, too, can persevere, survive and thrive."

And, Nabi added, “that sense of possibility helps counteract stress and can have enduring benefits beyond the simple moment of viewing."

Strategically chosen media — especially content that provokes hope — could be a practical and easy way to manage stress, particularly during periods like the holiday season, Nabi said.

It also could offer a reasonable alternative for folks who have trouble meditating or engaging in other stress management activities.

“If we actively choose to incorporate a little more inspiring content in our lives — to feel a little more hope — it can possibly help us reduce stress,” Nabi said. “This is not to say that this sort of media consumption should replace meditation or other well-supported strategies to deal with stress. But rather, this is one more tool we can add to our toolbox to handle the stress that so many of us feel.”

More information

Harvard Medical School has more on techniques to relieve stress.

SOURCE: American Psychological Association, news release, Oct. 9, 2025