HOLLYWOOD’S ZEN STARS
Oprah Winfrey, Goldie Hawn, Richard Gere and other celebs reveal how they keep their peace and sanity in show business.
Goldie Hawn
MINDFULNESS MEDITATION The body and mind have always been closely connected for this former dancer, who scored her breakthrough role on Laugh-In at the age of 21. Though she was living her dream, “I started looking into myself to understand why I was feeling this anxiety,” Goldie, 72, recalls. “I was feeling nervous, uncertain and destabilized from the life I thought I was going to live.” Once she immersed herself in the world of meditation in 1972, though, “it brought me a tremendous joy and connectivity.”
OM IS WHERE THE HEART
(AND SOUL!) IS FOR THESE A-LIST CELEBRITIES WHO HAVE FOUND THE SECRET TO CLARITY AND
PEACE OF MIND
Tom Bergeron
TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION The Dancing With the Stars host, 63, battled anger-management issues in college so he turned to meditation for help. Decades later, he still reaps its benefits. “Because of the investment in time and mental energy of being present, I trust I’m going to somehow know how to roll with whatever happens [on DWTS ], be it somebody passing out [like Marie Osmond in
2007] or a judge going a little crazy!”
Oprah Winfrey
TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION “I give myself a healthy dose of quiet time at least once (when I’m on point, twice) a day,” the 64-yearold philanthropist reveals. “Twenty minutes in the morning, 20 in the evening.” That practice has worked
wonders for Oprah’s soul. “I’ve reached a point in my life where I pay attention to every breath. I awaken and the first thought is ‘Thank you.’ ”
Richard Gere
TAI CHI & TIBETAN BUDDHIST MEDITATION A dark period in his 20s made Richard Gere seek answers to some big questions. “I was not particularly happy,” the actor, 68, shares. “I don’t know if I was suicidal, but I was… pushing the edges of my own sanity.” Walter Evans-Wentz’s books on Tibetan Buddhism became his lifeline. “I just devoured them,” says Richard, who met and built a lasting relationship with the Dalai Lama about five years after he became a Zen student. “It completely changed my life the first time I was in the presence of His Holiness,” he raves. “It quite naturally felt that this was what I was supposed to do.”
Forest Whitaker
KUNDALINI YOGA & MEDITATION “Some of the best things I’ve learned in my acting have not been in class but in my spiritual discipline,” says the actor, 56, who founded the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative in 2012 to link peace efforts with community building.
Its Harmonizer Program trains youth in everything from meditation and yoga to communication skills and conflict resolution. “We’re trying to create a network of people working for peace all over the world,” he says.