Celebrities dish on how meditation improved their lives

From improving their careers to making them healthier, these celebs credit meditation with changing their lives.

Oprah Winfrey

The diva of daytime brought a transcendental meditation practitioner to her Harpo Studios to teach her entire staff how to meditate, she told the Huffington Post in 2011. What began as a group of seven people eventually grew into her entire company, with two 20-minute sessions at 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. She told HuffPo that the benefits have included fewer migraines, better sleep and stronger relationships.

Richard Gere

A practicing Buddhist for decades, Gere has meditated in different ways. But he says that no matter the form he used, all meditation for him involved the idea of refuge, the awakening of the heart and mind, and dedication to others, he told Melvin McLeod of Lion’s Roar in a wide-ranging interview about mindfulness.

The New York Knicks

They may have one of the more dismal records in the NBA, but the team leads the league in mindfulness, with group meditation sessions instituted by coach Phil Jackson. Meditation allows his players “to be able to divorce themselves from what just happened — a referee’s bad call or an issue that goes on individually or against your opponent. You’ve got to be able to come back to your center,” he said in a speech at the New Yorker Festival, according to the NY Post.

​Gwyneth Paltrow

The GOOP founder took up the practice after her friends couldn’t stop raving about it as her new year’s resolution in 2010. According to a book by her wellness guru, Vicky Vlachonis, meditation should be done three times a day (morning, afternoon, evening) to focus on what you want to accomplish, checking in on your progress and reflecting on how it all turned out.

Rivers Cuomo

The Weezer frontman told Dan Harris of ABC News that he meditates for one hour, twice a day, when he wakes up and in the evening. He credits the practice with making him a better performer, as well as making better decisions in his life and even being more compassionate.