360 Calm — Guided Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

360 Calm is a resource for free guided relaxation using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) techniques. You can choose Virtual Reality (VR) videos to immerse yourself in pure relaxation or simply listen to the audio only tracks.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Virtual Reality

As someone who has struggled with stress and anxiety since my teenage years I have seen the benefits of CBT and guided relaxation in treating anxiety and related issues.

In 2017 I experimented with virtual reality (VR) videos and saw potential in making CBT more accessible. With VR videos now being possible on smartphones and VR headsets being more affordable it was no longer out of reach for the average person to benefit from CBT using VR technology. This made me create my first guided relaxation VR video using the youtube platform for free.

Free and accessible

I have decided to call this project “360 Calm” which is self-funded and still a work in progress. As it’s a self-funded project I have so far made all the content, artwork, and built the website. This limits the amount of content I’m able to create as well as the the quality of stock footage I am able to purchase. Also, since I’m not a professional therapist I am making all 360 calm content free and open.

I have recently setup a Patreon that if it reaches enough subscribers will help me improve and add more content, maybe even have the content certified by therapists. My plan is to keep it free which is why it will be hosted on YouTube and Soundcloud.

Work in progress

This is still a project in the early stages, so the content will improve based on feedback… it’s sort of an open source project but for mental health. There are many good apps that already exist in this space. The 360 calm project is not meant to compete with these but to compliment.

Guided Audio

CBT like most habit forming activities requires regular practice, I soon realised that VR is not very practical or accessible for everyday use. I decided that I will need to add audio only guided relaxation and CBT content. As this would also need to be free, downloadable and sharable I chose Soundcloud as the platform for the audio content.

2018 Product Hunt Maker festival

I have been planning on creating the audio only content for a while but it was brushed aside, then I came across the 2018 Makers Festival on Product Hunt. In summary “Makers Festival is your opportunity to make something happen. Start a project and see what your seed of an idea will blossom into!”. This is Product Hunt’s version of a hackathon during the month of November.What excited me was the categories “Voice & Audio” and “Brain stuff”. I saw this as the perfect opportunity (and timing) to create and share the guided relaxation audio content for 360 Calm.So here goes!I will be making and releasing the guided audio content for 360 Calm and this post is part of my entry into the 2018 Makers Festival. Let’s see what this seed of an idea will blossom into!

To follow along with my progress, here is a link to the 360 Calm upcoming page:

https://www.producthunt.com/upcoming/360-calm

Good luck to all the makers!

Originally published on Medium