‘You are under the mist machines in the produce aisle’: These spoofs of guided meditations are the perfect antidote to scrolling fatigue

It’s hard to rest your mind with the infinite scroll of social media at your fingertips. But what if the secret to inner peace was hidden in your TikTok feed all along? 

Visit Aiden Arata's TikTok, and you’ll be transported to a simpler place—one where you can enjoy a blissful hour and a half alone in front of the computer screen before your parents get home from work.

@aidenarata you can be anything at all #fyp #dreamcore #asmr #meditation ♬ original sound - aidenarata

Writer and director Arata, whose recent credits include TikTok’s live sketch show Stapleview, has been sharing her creations on TikTok and Instagram for over a year. They have evolved into one of the funniest, weirdest, and most comforting corners of the internet. 

The settings range from mundane and familiar—like the cool mist of a supermarket grocery aisle—

@aidenarata you’re a little cloud of mist #fyp #dreamcore ♬ original sound - aidenarata

to the abstract and absurd. With Arata's help, for example, you can know the sublime bliss of being a phone in someone's pocket. 

@aidenarata you’re a little cloud of mist #fyp #dreamcore ♬ original sound - aidenarata

In another meditation, Arata encourages you to stop scrolling and simply rest. As your thumb relaxes, you find yourself transformed into a horny toad who once doubted his own beauty but is now confident that he's a cool guy.

@aidenarata you deserve a little break #SoFiBreakUpChallenge ♬ original sound - aidenarata

Arata, a former wellness writer, tells the Daily Dot that her creations are an attempt to address the “unnameable desire” so many of us feel as we scroll. “Ideally, I’d like to make the world a little less stressed," she says.

Arata also likens her creations to cat YouTube but for people. 

Indeed, her colorful, bite-sized guided meditations are a hypnotic and welcome interruption to what you typically find on the timeline. While they might not be the key to enlightenment, they're sure to ease your worried mind.

Many of the videos toe the line between humor and earnestness. In one, Arata performs the role of an ideal dad: present, reassuring, and dependable.

@aidenarata i’m your dad ❤️ #fyp #foryou #asmr #meditation #dreamcore ♬ original sound - aidenarata

In another, waiting for a simple pot of water to boil becomes a meditation on being both a loving grandmother and a child capable of receiving the grandmother’s love.

@aidenarata spaghett 🕊#fyp #asmr #meditation #foryou ♬ original sound - aidenarata

Arata says that while the guided meditations started out as satire, they soon struck a personal chord. As she recorded some of the voiceovers, she would listen to her own words and find herself in tears. “I’d [hear myself] say something that I really needed to hear," she says. "It became not-a-joke pretty quickly.”

In a world where scrolling can easily send you spiraling, Arata’s humorous videos offer an alternative experience. Like traditional meditation, they remind us that with a little gentle guidance we always have the power to tune into a different thought—even if that thought is, “What if I was a dog playing poker?”

@aidenarata it’s been an extra dystopian week, hope this helps ♥️♠️#fyp #fypシ #asmr #meditation #dreamcore ♬ original sound - aidenarata

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