What do Jennifer Aniston, Hunter McGrady, LeAnn Rimes and Gisele Bündchen all have in common besides being beautiful and successful? They’re all fans of a wellness app called Insight Timer, which is currently the number-one free app for sleep, anxiety and stress and has surpassed 18 million users.
Though it’s not new—it launched in 2015—it’s begun soaring in popularity due to the global pandemic. According to the World Health Organization, more people are turning to meditation, yoga and sleep rituals to help them manage this unprecedented and incredibly stressful time. Whether your goal is coping with anxiety or boosting self-esteem, Insight Timer offers different types of meditation to suit every need. It’s also great for novices who want to familiarize themselves with the basics—users have access to more than 55,000 guided meditations in 44 languages.
In September, the app announced a new bilingual partnership with none other than Gisele Bündchen, who has been using the app for more than four years and was inspired by its mission at a time when meditation is becoming an integral part of so many people’s lives.
“I chose [to work with] Insight Timer not only because they offer such diverse and high-quality content for all tastes and needs, but also because they offer the library for free, making it accessible to more people,” says the supermodel and Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations. “Meditation transformed my life in incredible ways and gave birth to a new phase in my life that brought me much more joy and balance than I’d ever experienced before. It continues to be a powerful, positive influence in my life today, and I’m so happy for this partnership to be able to share this amazing tool with as many people as possible.”
As part of the collaboration, Bündchen debuted her first guided meditation, Hope In Times Of Uncertainty, on Insight Timer’s in-app live platform last weekend, and it was timely too, as Saturday was World Mental Health Day. The session is now available on the app in both English and Portuguese, and Bündchen will continually add free meditations in both languages each month (some practices will be meant for parents to share with their children as well). For those who missed the first session (read in English), Bündchen will host a second one in Portuguese using Insight Timer’s new in-app live-streaming feature on October 19.
