Yoga

In today's session, Sara Clark will be guiding you through a gentle Vinyasa Yoga class, which is a style of yoga characterised by a smooth transition between poses. Vinyasa means "to place in a special way". During this gentle flow, you will be consciously placing your breath, your body, and your thoughts in a way that supports you and calls in what you need in this moment. Please note this practice is done standing, so it is wrist, shoulder, and knee friendly.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to day 26 of Insight Timers Building Healthy Habits Challenge.

Let's take a moment to get settled.

Close your eyes,

Take a deep breath in and exhale out.

Let's dive into today's healthy habit.

Welcome to Insight Timers Building Healthy Habits Challenge.

I'm Sarah Clark and I will be your guide leading you through a short and sweet yoga practice designed to connect you to your breath while grounding your energy.

This practice can be done at any time during your day.

We will be standing so it will also be wrist,

Shoulder and knee friendly.

I love teaching Vinyasa yoga because Vinyasa translates to,

To place in a special way.

We're placing our breath in a special way,

Our bodies in a special way and also our thoughts in a special way to support calling in what we need in this moment.

And we will be moving moment by moment.

So I invite you to find a comfortable standing position.

Allow your feet to be just hips width apart.

Place one hand on your belly and one hand on the center of your chest.

Let your eyes close when you're ready.

Allow the backs of the eyes to relax along with the jaw.

Relax through the shoulders.

Relax your belly.

And as the body is softening,

Begin to bring your awareness to your nostrils and see if you can feel the breath entering and leaving the nostrils.

And as you're feeling your body breathing,

Without judgment,

Notice how you are feeling in this present moment.

See if you can also begin to feel the belly,

The ribs and the chest inflating and expanding as you breathe in.

And as you breathe out,

Feel the chest,

The ribs,

The belly deflating and relaxing.

Breathing in,

Belly,

Ribs,

Chest expand,

Creating space for new energy to flow.

Breathing out,

Feeling everything releasing that you no longer need.

Three more breaths.

Noticing how the belly and the chest greet the palms of the hands as you're inhaling and expanding.

And feeling how everything softens as you exhale and release.

Now staying with the focus on the breath,

Set an intention for your practice.

What do you need during this short time together?

What do you need to call in?

What are you seeking?

Trust the first thing that comes to you.

And I invite this to be your intention for our movement practice together.

Once you have your intention,

Notice your hands.

And as you inhale,

Let your arms reach out and up towards sky.

Palms touch above you overhead.

As you exhale,

Bring your palms together at heart center.

And we'll begin again,

Inhale,

Arms out and up,

Reach towards sky.

Exhale palms touch,

Draw them back to heart center.

Several more,

Inhale,

Arms out and up.

You're stretching,

You're lifting,

You're lengthening feet,

Stay rooted.

Palms touch above you as you exhale and bring hands back down to heart.

Feel the thumbs touching the sternum.

Twice more,

Inhale,

Arms out and up,

Reach like you're yawning,

Lengthening even the sides of your body.

Exhale hands come back down to center.

One more,

Inhale,

Arms out and up.

Palms touch above you,

Exhale,

Draw the palms towards heart center.

Let's begin again,

Inhale,

Arms out,

Arms up,

Reach.

This time as you exhale,

Arms spread out wide,

Soft bend at the knees,

Fold all the way down,

Head towards earth.

Arms dangling or touching the ground.

On your next inhale,

Take a half lift,

Palms slide to the shins.

Feel your thigh bones pressing back,

Spine and crown of head lengthening forward.

Exhale,

Let the body fold again.

Lengthening down into your feet,

Inhale,

Arms out wide like wings to carry you all the way up to stand.

Palms touch above you overhead.

Exhale with the palms together,

Draw them back down towards the chest,

Center of the heart.

Let's do this again,

Inhale,

Arms out,

Arms up,

Reach.

As you exhale,

Arms out wide like wings,

Bow all the way down.

Take a half lift and lengthen,

Bow right back down,

Exhale.

We're gonna come up again,

Root down into the feet,

Inhale,

Arms out wide and up towards sky,

Lengthen.

Exhale,

Hands come together at heart center and let your body pause.

Last one,

Inhale,

Arms out,

Arms up,

Reach.

Exhale,

Hands come together at heart center and let's actually just pause as we stand noticing how you feel.

Come back to your intention,

Come back to your breath.

Feel all four corners of your feet anchoring you down.

And now let's begin again,

Every breath is an opportunity to begin again.

Inhaling arms out wide and up towards sky,

Exhale,

Fold arms wide as you bow down.

Take another half lift,

Lengthen the spine forward,

Bow right back down and stay.

Officially step your feet hips width apart and you can measure by bringing two fists together in between your feet.

That's a good measure of if your feet are hips width apart.

With all 10 toes pointing forward,

I invite you to bend the knees as much as you'd like so that your left fingertips can touch the ground in between your big toes.

With the left fingertips on the ground in between your big toes,

Notice your right arm and as you inhale,

Reach your right arm up towards the sky.

So feel your torso turning towards the right,

Left hand stays down,

Right arm to sky,

Turn your gaze up towards your right fingertips.

You might notice that your left leg bends a bit more and perhaps you allow your right leg to straighten.

If this feels okay,

You might even send your right hand behind you towards low back,

The back of the hand rests at low back.

Right shoulder gently draws behind you a bit,

Chin turns towards the sky.

So towards your right shoulder and up.

Two more breaths as the body is rotating and twisting and rinsing.

Good.

If your arm was behind you,

Inhale,

Lift the right arm back up towards sky,

You're still in your twist and then slowly release the right hand,

Right fingertips down where the left fingertips were.

So now the right fingertips are on the ground in between your big toes and let's turn in the opposite direction.

Left arm reaches up towards sky.

Either both legs bend or maybe it's just your right leg that's bent and your left leg that straightens as you twist.

Turn your gaze up towards the left hand,

Left fingertips,

Your eyes might want to close.

As you're here,

Notice your breath,

Notice this side of the body as you are breathing in and out.

And if it feels good,

Send your left arm behind you,

Let the back of the hand rest at the low back area.

Rotating at the waist,

Chin turning towards the left shoulder,

Breathing,

Long spine reaching forward as you're rotating.

Take two more breaths as you're here and just simply notice how you are feeling.

Very nice.

On your next inhale,

Lift the left arm back up towards sky if it was behind your back and then let it go.

Left hand comes to the ground,

Right hand comes to the ground,

The body is in a standing forward fold.

As you inhale,

Take a half lift here,

Lengthen,

Noticing how you're feeling.

As you exhale,

Let the body bow right back down.

As you inhale,

Reach your arms out wide,

Stand all the way back up,

Palms can touch above you and then exhale them back together at heart center.

Notice how you're feeling.

Come back to your breath.

Feet anchored and grounding you,

Crown of head reaching up towards sky.

You're grounded but you're here in the present moment.

Let's do a little bit more.

As you inhale,

Reach your arms back out and up towards sky,

Lengthen.

Now this time as you exhale,

Glide your arms behind you,

Interlace your fingers,

Roll the shoulders back as you're standing,

Lift the chest,

Lift the chin as if you're coming to a very gentle back bend.

You might step the feet a little wider than hips width as you fold,

Fingers interlaced behind you.

There's a soft bend at the knees and you're forward folding again.

Now the knuckles are towards sky behind you.

And you're breathing into this chest that is now more expanded.

Now if the fingers interlaced behind you does not feel good,

You can grab opposite wrist with opposite hand or opposite elbow with opposite hand.

As you're folded,

The body might want to sway a little bit.

The head might want to dangle.

The jaw may want to relax.

Two more breaths as you're here,

Anchored and present.

Very nice.

Now scoot your feet as you're in your forward fold with the knuckles behind you together.

So feet together as you're in your forward fold.

And then very slowly,

You're going to bend the knees with the feet together,

Release the interlacing of hands behind you.

You're going to come into chair pose.

So feet together,

Bend at the knees,

Hips gently press back,

Arms reach forward and up to frame your ears.

It's like you're trying to sit into an imaginary chair behind you.

Knuckle is gently towards spine,

Thigh bones hugging in.

However,

If feet together,

Thighs together doesn't feel good,

Step your feet back to hips width.

So feeling the hips pressing back,

Fingers,

Arms,

Crown of head reaching forward.

Weight is primarily in your heels,

Grounded,

Breathing,

Present.

Two more breaths in your chair pose.

Every inhale helps to lengthen your spine forward.

Every exhale allows you to sit a little deeper into your seat.

One more inhale,

One more exhale.

Good.

Hook your thumbs now and stand all the way up.

Pull the body up,

Lift those fingertips with the thumbs hooked to sky,

Gently lift the heart.

And then exhale,

Come back to standing,

One hand on heart,

One hand on belly.

Step your feet as wide as they need to be so you can come back to feeling grounded.

Feel the belly,

The ribs,

The chest expanding as you breathe in.

The chest,

The ribs,

The belly contracting as you breathe out.

Notice how you feel in this new moment.

Come back to your intention.

You might even sway a little bit,

Feeling the feet or the weight I should say in the feet rocking further forward into the balls of the feet and then back into the heels until you find center again,

Coming back into stillness.

Take your intention with you for whatever you're doing next,

May it support you.

Yoga is a beautiful opportunity to be in the present moment,

To move breath by breath,

To know that every breath is an opportunity to begin again,

Whether you're practicing on your mat or off of it.

Thank you so much for practicing with me during this Insight Timer Building Healthy Habits Challenge.

I look forward to practicing with you again.

Reviews

Exactly what I needed. I feel grounded and energized and at ease.

🌿2025: Very clear instructions. Thank you for the short, well taught yoga/breath exercise🙏

Lovely mini class and excellent guidance! Thank you so much! 🙏🏼🌷

I appreciate the pace- not too fast, not too slow!

Thank you so much. I really enjoyed this yoga sequence. It helped me to feel grounded and more relaxed. I will definitely be repeating it again.

I use this as my daily quick yoga refill, when I feel a bit down or when I am not able to do yoga. This helps calm my mind in the evening and calm my body during work.

Would you be able to make more of these amazing (short) classes? Your voice is so calming and the breathingpauses are exactly right for my breathing tempo. Really hope there will be more!

It has been a few months since I got on my mat. This was the perfect way to reintroduce it. Thank you so much. 💓

Easy to follow, lovely calming voice. Will be a flow I will return to frequently, Highly recommend.

I love this as a way of aligning mind and body at the start of the day. Thenk you 🙏

With gratitude - I took this during the challenge & saved it. So glad I did & was able to come back to it.

Lovely voice and gentle, clear guidance. I feel more grounded, open and uplifted. Thank you!

Very nice and short yoga session, very good explanation for the movements, thank you! 🙏💕🤗🧘‍♀️

My favourite Yoga practise. Clear is kind and this always brings me the clarity I need. Thank you ❤️

Super! Great for a beginner like me. Thank you 🙏 💕🥰

Beautiful standing flow. Thank you! My intention was confidence and with each pause- I have anxiety about what the next moment might be, and with each purposeful pause I felt the stress slip away.

Beautiful way to start the day, very grounding and energising. Thank you 🙏

Incredible practice. Left me feeling energized and balanced. Thank you!

Thank you! So simple and effective for energizing and staying present.

I love and appreciate her cadence when talking thru the movements. Thank you!

Awesome teacher!