In episode three of Dan Harris' podcast "10% Happier", filmmaker Brian Koppelman (who also is one of the most engaging and kindest Twitter users I've encountered) explains why the characters in the TV series "Billions" meditate, something that Koppelman does himself on a daily basis by practicing Transcendental Meditation.
Koppelman said he started practicing Transcendental Meditation about five years ago and practices it for 20 minutes twice a day.
"For me it was a way to control anxiety, and I found that the physical manifestations of anxiety just dissipated by about 85 or 90 percent," he said. "So that was a gigantic life change, to not feel a fluttering stomach, to not get a stress headache and things like that. Whatever the anxieties are, being someone trying to make a living in show business or, more to the point, like a parent who loves his kids, any kind of outside worry that I might have."
"It doesn't mean that I still don't have concerns, that I don't still worry, as we all do," Koppelman explained. "But the physical manifestations, the actual way I walk through the world and feel, changed a dramatic amount when I started meditating after probably three weeks of meditating."
Listen to the "10% Happier with Dan Harris" podcast on Podtail, Player FM or on iTunes.
And here is the video versions:
- "pilot" episode with author Gretchen Rubin
- episode 1 with the Dalai Lama
- episode 2 with Weezer's Rivers Cuomo
- episode 4 with Dr. Jay Michaelson
Featured image: Actor Paul Giamatti's character Chuck Rhoades meditates in the first episode of "Billions".