Maybe it's just all about awareness? – Eliza Brooke's essay "How a 14-Minute Video on Posture Changed My Life" (NYT gift-link [1]) begins:

The world is loud and full of interruptions, from the phone buzzing in your pocket to the garbage truck backing up outside your window. It's rare to find yourself in an environment that is totally tranquil — rarer still to be in a head space where you’re able to dissolve into that bubble of peace. …

She describes ASMR and its stress-reduction benefits:

… as an anxious person living through abnormally anxious times, listening to strangers talk in soft, competent, unfailingly kind tones helped slow my spiraling thoughts …

... and goes on to discuss "unintentional ASMR" with the archetypal example "Alexander technique lesson with Diana Devitt-Dawson" (described by some as "the 'Citizen Kane' of ASMR videos" or "possibly the greatest 14 minutes in ASMR history"). Brooke concludes:

In a way, this video embodies the curious nature of ASMR itself. The first intentional ASMR videos responded to clips and comments on YouTube about a weird, nameless sensation; it feels fitting that despite ASMR’s present-day popularity, some puzzles within the genre persist. A video such as Devitt-Dawson’s feels like an encouragement to marinate in the unknown for a while, to recognize the many questions it prompts as intriguing but irrelevant.

The first time I watched Devitt-Dawson's lesson, I felt as though I'd been transported into an office phone booth, only it was the best phone booth ever — serene, silent, with no looming editors or pesky colleagues waiting to make a call. This is the paradoxical beauty of it. By capturing the absurdly soothing quality of certain real-world situations, unintentional ASMR can create the kind of peaceful environment that is so difficult to achieve in life. That is, until it's time to exit your happy void and return once more to reality.

Perhaps the central insight is simply mindfulness ("lon" in toki pona?) – conscious existence in the present moment.

_{(cf Alexander Technique (2012-03-12), This (2013-03-09), Linguistic Origins of Mindfulness (2015-05-11), Body Learning (2015-06-19), 2017-02-18 - Death by Do Loop with Stephanie (2017-03-20), This Moment (2019-01-09), ...) - ^z - 2023-07-05}