VR Meditation in Photorealistic Nature
Your personal haven for relaxation, sleep and focus.
Photorealistic Nature VR Environments
Soul Retreat is your personal haven for relaxation—immerse yourself in photorealistic natural landscapes, explore personalised guided meditations and stories, or simply enjoy calming music and breathing exercises. Every place is real, filmed on location in the Scottish Highlands and islands, the Pyrenees and the Swiss Alps. Unlike a 360 video, which moves with your head, every place has real depth: lean or shift and the scene responds as the real place would, and our GroundedPresence™ true-scale alignment puts the ground where your feet expect it—more comfortable whether you sit, stand or lie down.
Seven places, including all the newest, are in Enhanced 3D: rebuilt from LiDAR scans, so cliffs, waterfalls and mountains have their true shape and scale, while the water flows and the leaves move just as they did on the day. Natural hand movements and optional voice commands help you settle in quickly and stay present, and a small gesture shifts the daylight, warming toward evening or easing into night.
Does it work?
9 in 10 people felt more relaxed after their sessions, on average
Of people who arrived feeling tense, 94% left no longer feeling tense, and none left feeling worse.*
How people felt, before and after a session
Before
After
- Very tense
- Tense
- Neutral
- Relaxed
- Very relaxed
*People who opt in rate how they feel in the app, before and after each session, on a five-point scale from very tense to very relaxed. From 655 check-ins by 99 users in 2026, each user counted once. Average improvement: +1.0 point per user. Not a controlled trial. Check-ins are anonymous. How we measure The research
"Time in nature, even in VR, and slow, paced breathing are both well-supported ways to ease everyday stress. Soul Retreat brings them together in a way that is simple to follow, and I've helped keep its guidance safe, supportive and grounded in evidence-based techniques."
Dr Sonia Madrid Cuevas, Clinical Psychology Advisor. PhD, University of Edinburgh.
Part of a care home, hospital or other organisation? See how easy it is to bring Soul Retreat to the people you care for.
Personalized Guided Meditations That Adapt to You
No two days—or minds—are the same. Soul Retreat personalises guided meditations using your goals and quick check-ins, built with a PhD psychologist and grounded in proven mindfulness and positive-psychology practices. Each session follows a research-supported, step-by-step method: welcome back → relaxation check-in → ~1 minute of slow paced breathing → your choice of meditation (body scan, nature imagery, or story-based guidance) → closing check-in, so you finish noticeably calmer.
Guidance mirrors your surroundings with visualisations, local-legend tales, or mentor stories (e.g., Marcus Aurelius). Choose 5–30 minute sessions, and follow 7-day Calm, Sleep, and Focus programmes with simple progression. Your before/after ratings help Soul Retreat learn what reliably helps you unwind.
Resonance Breathing & Biofeedback in VR
At any time during your session, place a hand on your stomach and Soul Retreat follows your breathing, using biofeedback to encourage a resonance breathing pattern of around six breaths per minute, a technique supported by research into stress reduction and heart rate variability. As night gathers, the sky becomes a living canvas, where stars spark to life and constellations unfurl in time with your breath. With music on, every inhale and exhale adds notes, so the music evolves with your breathing; turn it off for nature sounds alone.
No headset to hand? Try our free online breathing pacer.
What People Are Saying
"There are others that are quite relaxing but you're very aware that you're in an app. Sitting by the stream in Soul Retreat is almost as good as the real thing."
— Robbunt, store review
"I noticed I felt calmer and handled things better throughout the day, even stuff that would normally stress me out."
— Angelfire340, store review
"I look forward to my session each night to relax before bed, the heart rate monitor on my watch shows this does work… this has helped me relax and sleep better."
— Ellehcim99, store review
Start Free — Unlock More with Soul Retreat Plus
Soul Retreat is a premium subscription app with a free starter: two free environments plus a featured environment that rotates weekly. Soul Retreat Plus ($6.99/mo or $34.99/yr — cancel anytime; $69.99 lifetime) includes all environments, hands-free voice navigation, and deeper personalization. Compare Free vs Plus.
Soul Retreat Plus membership helps fund ongoing development—covering exclusive, real-travel, expedition-shot photorealistic environments, expert-guided content, and AI compute needed for adaptive guidance.
Email Updates
Join the mailing list and be the first to know when new nature locations arrive.
Our Principles
We believe VR and XR can offer a unique sense of “being there” in nature—especially for people without easy access, including those in hospital beds. This isn’t possible on a flat screen.
We follow the science to build something genuinely helpful for stress. The evidence is clear on the benefits of nature immersion, and we’re building GroundedPresence™ to maximise presence. The science is also clear on resonance breathing—so we make it easier to do, and easier to stick with.
We’ll stay focused, and user-led. We deeply value the people who return to Soul Retreat week after week—and we build with you, learning from what helps in real life and improving it with every release.
We partner with the academic community and healthcare. We’re working with researchers at the University of Glasgow on an independent controlled study, and the first 20 headsets are free for healthcare organisations, care organisations, charities and universities (Soul Retreat for organisations). Our goal is to help identify what’s most effective—and turn those insights into a calmer daily reality for as many people as possible.
Evidence-Informed
The Science of VR Meditation and Resonance Breathing
Soul Retreat blends two proven methods— VR nature immersion and resonance-frequency breathing—to help you feel noticeably calmer in minutes.
VR nature immersion reduces stress. Controlled studies show that immersive, photorealistic nature in VR lowers stress markers and negative affect, and improves mood; higher immersion tends to yield stronger effects. Evidence includes a systematic review (Frontiers in Psychology, 2023), a VR vs. screen randomized study (Virtual Reality, 2022), and a review of VR for stress management (JMIR Mental Health, 2024). Additional research shows VR relaxation and VR-based HRV biofeedback produce beneficial psychophysiological changes (Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 2024).
Why immersion matters. Being “present” in natural scenes blocks everyday distractions and cues the body’s relaxation response, resulting in lower heart rate and calmer affect (Frontiers in Psychology, 2023; Frontiers in Psychology, 2020).
Resonance-frequency breathing (≈0.1 Hz, ~6 breaths/min) is science-backed. Meta-analyses and randomized trials show that breathing at or near your resonance frequency increases Heart Rate Variability (HRV)—a key marker of autonomic balance—and reduces stress and anxiety. Major reviews include a meta-analysis in Psychological Medicine (Goessl et al., 2017), a systematic review and meta-analysis in Applied Psychophysiology & Biofeedback (Lehrer et al., 2020), and a meta-analysis in Scientific Reports (2021).
Mechanistically, slow rhythmic breathing around 0.1 Hz synchronizes respiration and cardiac rhythms (RSA/baroreflex), producing larger, more coherent HRV oscillations associated with improved resilience and calm mood (Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2020; Physiological Reports, 2019).
Bottom line: Taken together, immersive nature scenes and slow breathing help lower stress and improve mood.
Independent research. We're working with researchers at the University of Glasgow on an independent controlled study comparing our 3D nature with 360° video, measuring how restorative people find each and other wellbeing outcomes.
Disclaimer: Soul Retreat is a self-help wellness and relaxation app, designed for adults. It is not therapy, does not diagnose, treat, or prevent mental-health conditions, and is not a substitute for care from a licensed professional.
Evidence-Informed and Privacy-First
The product was developed with advisory input from well-being experts, including a PhD psychologist and a therapist. Preferences are stored on device, only minimal, anonymous analytics are collected. Voice is processed to respond in the moment and isn’t stored by Soul Retreat. Find out more in the Plain English Summary of our Privacy Policy.
Content last reviewed by Clinical Psychology Advisor, Dr Sonia Madrid Cuevas: .
Meet the Team — Key People
Ben Gillett, BSc, MSc — LinkedIn
Founder, Soul Retreat
Product designer and meditator. Ben sold his previous company to Apple and spent ten years there in product design before founding Soul Retreat to make deep relaxation effortless through immersive nature and sound. "When stress became hard to ignore, I looked for reliable ways to relax. I created Soul Retreat so that pause is easy to reach when you need it."
Dr Sonia Madrid Cuevas, BSc, MSc, PhD
Clinical Psychology Advisor
Clinical psychologist who led a team of psychologists in Mexico's public health system for several years. PhD (University of Edinburgh), MSc (UCL). Sonia ensures Soul Retreat’s guidance reflects current psychological research and best practice.
Ignacio Ferrando Margeli
Environment Capture Director
Ignacio is an award-winning cinematographer whose 360° work includes projects for National Geographic. For Soul Retreat, he and Ben trek for hours into remote landscapes with the capture gear on their backs to film and scan each location—capturing the light, texture, and atmosphere that make our environments feel vividly real.
On the way to film and scan a new location in the Alps.