Meditation is the practice of deepening one’s awareness or focusing one’s mind for a period of time to support mental and emotional balance and well-being. And it may help reduce stress, boost immunity, increase concentration, and improve sleep quality — all of which are beneficial to highly successful people.
“I taught Katy Perry, Tom Hanks, Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, and Lena Dunham how to use Transcendental Meditation (TM) because of its ability to increase clarity, focus, and resilience,” says Bob Roth, chief executive officer of the David Lynch Foundation. “Transcendental Meditation helps successful people remain at a high level of functioning and think innovatively.”
In the workplace, Roth recommends Transcendental Meditation, a form of meditation that uses a mantra to settle the thoughts in the mind and direct your attention to a restful state, because of the effect it has on brain functioning.
“Of all types of meditation, Transcendental Meditation has the most research showing that it strengthens the connections of the executive or prefrontal cortex of the brain, calms the amygdala reactivity center, which lead to overreacting and hysteria, and activates the imagination and default mode network,” he says, in his opinion.
It’s important to note, there are a variety of ways to meditate that come from a spectrum of secular to religious leanings that are used with various intentions and for desired outcomes.
Here are 9 highly influential CEOs and celebrities who practice these various forms of meditation to help them be successful in the workplace:
Jeff Weiner, Executive Chairman of LinkedIn
After launching the professional social network LinkedIn in 2009, CEO Jeff Weiner has since grown the company to include over 900 million members. Weiner has acknowledged his daily use of guided meditations on the app Headspace in several LinkedIn articles. In an interview with CNBC in 2018, he noted meditation is an important part of his morning routine, along with exercising and getting his kids ready for school. Weiner told The Wall Street Journal that pausing to reflect on situations helps him to strategize and work proactively towards long-term goals. "Part of the key to time management is carving out time to think, as opposed to constantly reacting," he said.
William Clay Ford Jr., Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company
The executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, Bill Ford relied on meditation to get him through several years of bankruptcy. “The practice of mindfulness kept me going during the darkest days,” he said in an article published in Harvard Business Review. Ford also incorporates mindfulness meditation sessions and yoga classes into his company’s work culture so his employees can remain calm, alert, and productive, he said in an article published in the Detroit Free Press.
Marc Benioff, Co-Chief Executive Officer of SalesForce
Marc Benioff is the tech entrepreneur responsible for the software company SalesForce, which is worth billions, according to Forbes. Benioff has had an inclination to develop his spiritual practice after spending time in Hawaii and India with gurus, and returning with a vision of his future company. Now, Benioff has meditation rooms all throughout the various SalesForce offices, according to an interview published in The New York Times.
“I’m trying to listen deeply, and the beginner’s mind is informing me to step back, so that I can create what wants to be, not what was,” Benioff told The New York Times. “I know that the future does not equal the past. I know that I have to be here in the moment.”
Benioff tweets regularly about the benefits of meditation, encouraging others to start with small meditative habits.
Arianna Huffington, Cofounder of Huffington Post and Thrive Global
Arianna Huffington, cofounder of Huffington Post and founder and CEO of Thrive Global, incorporates meditation into her morning routine every day. “Once I’m awake, I take a minute to breathe deeply, be grateful, and set my intention for the day,” Huffington told High Existence in 2020. “Then I do 20 to 30 minutes of meditation and 30 minutes on my stationary bike, on days when I’m home. I also practice yoga most mornings.”
Huffington relies on a regular routine of self-care that includes daily meditation to help her avoid burnout. When asked by High Existence what she wished she had known growing up, Huffington said, “I wish I had avoided falling victim to the collective delusion that burning out is the necessary price for accomplishment and success,” and “I wish I’d appreciated just how powerful it can be to introduce just five minutes of meditation to your day.” You should not compromise balance and self-care for high performance; renewal is part of the process, Huffington said.
Oprah Winfrey, Media Proprietor, Actress, and Philanthropist
Oprah Winfrey has made it her mission to spread messages of health, wellness, and mind-body balance to all with her talk shows, O: The Oprah Magazine, and her television channel, Oprah Winfrey Network. Oprah has curated meditation and wellness content for her readers, teamed up with spiritual gurus like Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra for meditation podcasts, retreats, and discussions, and credited meditation with changing her life for the better.
In an article published on Oprah.com, Oprah explained that “Meditation is about getting still enough to know the difference between the voice and you. It's a heightened state of being that lets whatever you're doing be your best life, from moment to astonishing moment.”
Katy Perry, Singer and TV Personality
Singer Katy Perry has released more than nine No 1. songs in the last decade, positioning herself as one of the top pop stars in the world. But living on the road can be stressful, so Perry learned how to practice Transcendental Meditation.
In a 2022 interview with The Cut, Perry said the practice profoundly changed her life. “I can be too head-in-the-clouds, thinking too much about the future, and it helps me be more present,” she told the outlet. “I’ve dealt with depression and anxiety in my life, and TM is a huge tool.”
Lady Gaga, Singer and Actress
Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, has been very open throughout her career about her mental health struggles. The singer and actress suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from a history of sexual assault and also lives with chronic pain from fibromyalgia.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey during Winfrey’s 2020 wellness tour, Germanotta spoke about her experience with transcendental meditation practice, saying, “sometimes I can be in a ton of pain, and meditate and it goes away. It’s amazing.”
She also shares the ways meditation benefits her with her followers on social media.
“Meditation really improves my mental health and reminds me it's important to stay calm so I can feel safe in my body,” the singer wrote on Instagram. “We are all one body, and the calmer we are, and the more we find inner peace, the more the world will too.”
Sir Paul McCartney, Singer-Songwriter
Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney began his journey with Transcendental Meditation over 50 years ago after attending a lecture with TM's founder himself, Maharishi Yogi. “It was very interesting. It was very calming and it seemed like something that was worth trying,” McCartney told David Lynch in an interview published on the TM Blog.
McCartney was in search of something to provide him with stability during the '60s, and he's maintained the practice ever since. “I think it’s always very good to get a sort of still moment in your day. Whenever I have a chance in a busy schedule, I’ll do it, if I’m not rushing out the door with some crazy stuff to do,” McCartney said in an interview published at TMHome.com. “In moments of madness, meditation has helped me find moments of serenity — and I would like to think that it would help provide young people a quiet haven in a not-so-quiet world."
Hugh Jackman, Actor
Hugh Jackman may be known for his larger-than-life superhero roles in blockbuster movies, but in real life, he likes to keep things calmer. The actor credits transcendental meditation with changing his life.
“I was always very curious and very much a searcher, but soon after I started meditating, I felt I gained a true understanding of myself and was no longer just being reactive to events that came my way,” he said in an interview with psychiatrist and scientist Norman E. Rosenthal, MD, published on Oprah.com. “I felt a sense of calm, a sense of purpose, of finer energy in things I did.”
Jackman went on to say that with meditation, his anxiety levels have “dropped considerably.” “The mind can make us worry about things beyond their measure,” he said. “And the great thing about meditation is that twice a day, the monkey mind just calms down.”
Justin Laube, MD
Medical Reviewer
Justin Laube, MD, is a board-certified integrative and internal medicine physician, a teacher, and a consultant with extensive expertise in integrative health, medical education, and trauma healing.
He graduated with a bachelor's in biology from the University of Wisconsin and a medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School. During medical school, he completed a graduate certificate in integrative therapies and healing practices through the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing. He completed his three-year residency training in internal medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles on the primary care track and a two-year fellowship in integrative East-West primary care at the UCLA Health Center for East-West Medicine.
He is currently taking a multiyear personal and professional sabbatical to explore the relationship between childhood trauma, disease, and the processes of healing. He is developing a clinical practice for patients with complex trauma, as well as for others going through significant life transitions. He is working on a book distilling the insights from his sabbatical, teaching, and leading retreats on trauma, integrative health, mindfulness, and well-being for health professionals, students, and the community.
Previously, Dr. Laube was an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA Health Center for East-West Medicine and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where he provided primary care and integrative East-West medical consultations. As part of the faculty, he completed a medical education fellowship and received a certificate in innovation in curriculum design and evaluation. He was the fellowship director at the Center for East-West Medicine and led courses for physician fellows, residents, and medical students.
Nicol Natale
Author
Nicol Natale is a freelance journalist who specializes in health, wellness, beauty, fashion, business, and lifestyle. She is currently a writer at People and her work has appeared in Women’s Health, Prevention, Good Housekeeping, Woman’s Day, Houston Chronicle, Business Insider, Insider, and more.
Natale created a women's wellness brand called Muse Essence in 2023 and is currently writing a meditation book that is devoted to the feminine. Her passion is to help others find a sense of balance, healing, and embodiment in their own lives through her writing, reiki, yoga, meditation, and workshops. When she isn't writing, you can find her practicing yoga, exploring a new country, reading, or playing in the ocean. She is based in Hawaii.
Ashley Welch
Author
Ashley Welch has more than a decade of experience in both breaking news and long-form storytelling. She is passionate about getting to the crux of the latest scientific studies and sharing important information in an easy-to-digest way to better inform decision-making. She has written about health, science, and wellness for a variety of outlets, including Scientific American Mind, Healthline, New York Family, Oprah.com, and WebMD.
She served as the health editor for CBSNews.com for several years as a reporter, writer, and editor of daily health news articles and features. As a former staff member at Everyday Health, she covered a wide range of chronic conditions and diseases.
Welch holds a bachelor's degree from Fordham University and a master's degree from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, where she studied health and science reporting. She enjoys yoga and is an aspiring runner.