5 Mindful Celebrities Who Will Inspire You to Get Back Into Meditating

Everyone and their dog seems to have a meditation practice these days. From CEOs to celebrities, countless influential people swear that meditation – from transcendental meditation or mindfulness – has been essential in helping them rise to the top of their fields. Have you been putting off starting a regular meditation practice, or are you simply having trouble sticking to one? Perhaps hearing from some very famous names about what meditation has done for them will be enough to propel you into a more mindful 2020. After all, if they can find time, you probably can too.

Katy Perry

The ‘Roar’ singer learned transcendental meditation in 2011, and has sworn by it ever since. (Perhaps that’s why her music video for “Never Really Over” seemed so much like a wellness retreat?) “I start the day with transcendental meditation. It puts me in the best mood. I wake up and just prop myself up in bed for 20 minutes. It’s the only time my mind gets absolute rest,” Perry has said. “It’s changed my life, it’s changed how I think about things. I meditate before I write a song, before I perform. I feel my brain open up and I feel my most sharp.” 

Jerry Seinfeld

The creator of Seinfeld and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is another creative person who swears by transcendental meditation. Seinfeld has been doing TM for over 40 years and credits it with helping him ‘survive’ the grind of creating, starring in, writing, and producing Seinfeld. “Do you know how I was describing TM to somebody? It’s like having… you know, your phone has a charger, right? It’s like having a charger for your whole body and mind,” Seinfeld has said. “That’s what transcendental meditation is!”

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney has spent his whole life in the spotlight. He credits his 50-plus year meditation practice with keeping him sane through the end of Beatlemania and beyond. McCartney learned meditation in the late 1960s from an Indian sage. “[I was] just overdoing it in the ‘60s. I was just not very centered and I was looking for something,” he has said. “For me, it came at a time when we were looking for something to kind of stabilize us toward the end of the crazy ‘60s.” It may not be the crazy ‘60s anymore, but it’s a practice that Sir Paul has kept up ‘til this day. 

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard

Both halves of Hollywood’s golden couple have been open about their mental health struggles. On his podcast ‘Armchair Expert,’ Shepard talks openly about his history of addiction, while Bell has written op-eds describing her struggle with depression. Now, in addition to other mental health-bolstering practices like therapy and exercise, the couple have integrated meditation into their routine. “Meditation makes me feel more rested than a full night’s sleep,” says Bell. “I really enjoy powering down for 20 minutes because it’s like shutting off light switches in my brain. I should make more time for it, but meditating even a couple times a week makes a big difference in my stress and happiness levels.” Sometimes, she says, they even do it while holding hands – how cute! “We nauseate ourselves with how mushy we are,” she adds. “It’s a wonderful way to connect.”