In these uncertain times, mental health challenges, such as anxiety, stress and insomnia, can arise. To help our community mitigate these issues, San Mateo County Libraries is proud to be the first public library to partner with Calm, a mindfulness app and service.
What is Calm?
Whether you’re new to meditation and mindfulness or looking to deepen your practice, Calm’s audio content can help you meet your goals. The most popular feature of Calm is a 10-minute meditation called, 'The Daily Calm,' which explores a fresh mindful theme and inspiring concept each day. You can also choose from meditation series, such as “7 Days of Calming Anxiety” or “Train Your Mind,” which is taught by LeBron James, opens a new window.
The Calm Masterclasses are a series of audio courses on various wellness and mindfulness topics, such as Radical Self-Compassion, Stoicism, and Conscious Parenting. These courses are taught by world-renowned experts, such as Tara Brach, opens a new window and Ryan Holiday, opens a new window.
If you’re looking for help with sleeping, Calm also contains some 100 Sleep Stories (bedtime stories for grown-ups), plus sleep music and nature sounds. Some of the Sleep Stories are read by familiar voices, such as Matthew McConaughey, opens a new window, Stephen Fry, opens a new window, and Kelly Rowland, opens a new window.
Calm also offers mindfulness content for children, including short and fun guided meditations and stories to help ease stress or anxiety.
Calm is available in both the App Store, opens a new window and Google Play, opens a new window store, or you can access it via the web, opens a new window.
Calm and San Mateo County Libraries
San Mateo County Libraries cardholders can now check out a Calm account! You get full access to all of Calm’s premium content for six months. Simply fill out our form to submit your library card number and preferred email address. Someone from San Mateo County Libraries will respond within 3-4 business days and provide you instructions on how to activate your Calm account.
FAQs
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To sign up for a Calm account, you must have a library card with a barcode starting with “29041,” "29731" or "29735" and an account in good standing. Fill out this short form with your library card number and email. In 3-4 business days, you will receive an email from the library system with instructions on how to set up your account.
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At this time, Calm is available in English, German, French, Spanish, Korean and Portuguese. The company is looking to expand its language options in the future! You can let Calm know what language you'd like to listen to by filling out their Calm Language Request form, opens a new window.
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Yes! Calm Kids has beginner meditations for various age groups up to 18 years old. The Calm Kids meditations are under the "Kids" category of the "Meditate" screen. Calm also includes more than 30 Sleep Stories for Kids which can be found in the "Kids" category of the "Sleep" screen.
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You will receive an email from San Mateo County libraries 3-4 business days after you’ve submitted the form. In your email, there will be a code to use to sign up for a Calm subscription. Please follow the below steps:
- Visit our landing page, opens a new window to subscribe. This should be done on a computer or your mobile browser (not in the Calm app itself).
- Once on the web page, sign in to your Calm account or create an account if you have not already.
- Once you have signed in, enter your Library card number to activate subscription access on your Calm account.
- Log into the Calm app or website, opens a new window with the same account you used in step 2. (Make sure to “X” out of the initial setup questions, and then you'll see a page prompting you to Create An Account. At the bottom, there is the “Have an Account? Log In” option. Use that to log into your account.)
- The new premium subscription will be active, and the full content library will be unlocked.
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Most sessions and tracks in the Calm app can be downloaded for future listening offline. For more on using Calm without an Internet connection, visit Calm’s Support site, opens a new window.
