Random Soothing Content to Ease Your Election-Week Stress

Hey, you. Yeah, you! The one doomscrolling for clues about how the swing states are voting. While we understand that is mostly what you’ll be doing for the next few days, we’ve called you in here to distract you for 10 minutes. Because mental health breaks are as important as this election. So please, turn off your news source of choice (and your brain) and follow the instructions below if you want to get that tension out of your shoulders.

First, ease into the break by hitting play on this gorgeous Karen O and Willie Nelson cover of “Under Pressure.” Close your eyes, take some deep breaths, and listen to a song that acknowledges your stress, then asks you to leave it behind.

Now, sit back, relax and enjoy this evidence that miracles do happen.

Oh, look! It’s Bob Ross feeding a baby squirrel named Peapod!

And some pictures of animals that are happy and adorable even though they’re all bald:

Now here’s a baby sloth taking a bath.

And Sir Patrick Stewart reading a Shakespearean sonnet to his dog. (Her name is Zoe.)

Now seems like a good time to listen to some baby bears purring.

And look at this rare yellow turtle’s derpy little face.

If that little fella got you in the mood for some color, watch San Diego artist @boelterdesignco, at work.

Now we’ll bring you back to reality the gentlest way we possibly can. It’s Leslie Sbrocco from Check Please! talking about sparkling wines with a very nice Spanish lady.

And as you go back the rest of your very stressful day, might we recommend following @dedosbailarines1 on TikTok? The finger-dancing channel is just the right combination of surreal, clever and stupid you’ll probably need to get through the rest of the week.

One final tip… If you find yourself in a fit of insomnia tonight, there’s always Cardi B. doing ASMR…