Jay’s Must-Listens: The Step-by-Step Guide to Meditation ANYONE Can Do (Eliminate Anxiety & Rewire Your Nervous System)

How do you normally calm yourself when you’re overwhelmed? Have you ever tried meditation before? Today, Jay brings you a diverse exploration of meditation with some of today’s most insightful minds: Dr. Joe Dispenza, Big Sean, Michael Acton Smith, Vishen Lakhiani, and Sam Harris. From science to music, entrepreneurship to spirituality, each guest reveals how meditation has shaped their lives, and how you can use it as a powerful tool for focus, healing, and inner transformation. Together, they show us that meditation is far more than sitting in silence, it’s a pathway to healing, clarity, and growth. Whether it’s rewiring the nervous system, reprogramming the mind, or unlocking creativity and resilience, this conversation demonstrates the many ways meditation can ground you in the present and while also opening you to what’s possible. Whether you’re just beginning or returning with new intention, this episode is an invitation to reconnect with yourself. These insights remind us the practice isn’t about getting it “right,” but about consistency, curiosity, and compassion for yourself. In this episode, you'll learn: How to Reprogram Your Mind Through Meditation How to Turn Elevated Emotions Into Healing How to Build a Daily Meditation Routine That Sticks How to Heal Your Body by Training Your Mind Meditation isn’t about where you begin, it’s about the choice to begin at all. Each breath is a chance to return, reset, and remember the calm already within you. Wherever you are, restless, curious, or seeking clarity, meditation offers a doorway inward. With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty. Join over 750,000 people to receive my most transformative wisdom directly in your inbox every single week with my free newsletter. Subscribe here. Check out our Apple subscription to unlock bonus content of On Purpose! https://lnk.to/JayShettyPodcast What We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 04:10 How Meditation Transforms Your Brain and Body 08:33 How Much Practice Do You Really Need? 14:39 There Is No Wrong Way to Meditate 18:30 How to Connect Deeply with Nature Through Meditation 22:17 Debunking the Biggest Myths About Meditation 24:21 What Is Active Meditation and How Does It Work? 28:45 Using Meditation to Elevate Your Everyday Life See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by Chase Sapphire Reserve. One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves is the chance to step outside of our routine. Travel is a way of slowing us down and shifting our perspective. And with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, every journey becomes even more rewarding. Earn four times the points on flights and hotels booked direct. Enjoy access to award-winning airport lounges, three times the points on dining and reserve exclusive tables. Learn more at chase.com/sapphirereserve. Cards issued by JP Morgan Chase Bank, N A Member FDIC. Subject to credit approval, terms apply. This episode is brought to you by AG1.

• 0:44Jay Shetty?

  Are you feeling September reset too? Shorter days, longer to-do lists, earlier alarms, all those routines you promised yourself you'd pick back up. It can feel like your whole life is recalibrating. And when everything around you is changing, it helps to have a few things you can rely on. AG1 Next Gen is one of those easy habits to keep. It's the clinically-backed, comprehensive daily health drink that supports your gut health, energy production, and foundational nutrition all in one scoop. AG1's ingredients are sourced from quality partners for absorption, potency, and nutrient density to deliver the foundational nutrition your body needs.

• 1:24Jay Shetty?

  And alongside a proper diet, AG1 Next Gen meets 94% of nutrient requirements and it's clinically shown to enrich the gut microbiome. For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro at drinkag1.com/onpurpose. That's drinkag1.com/onpurpose. This episode is brought to you by Amtrak. You know that feeling when you're already tired and you haven't even gotten there yet? That's where Amtrak comes in. Leave the driving behind and settle into a comfortable seat with plenty of room to stretch out.

• 2:04Jay Shetty?

  Catch up on work with wifi, grab a snack at the cafe car, or just sit back and enjoy your favourite podcast. Choose a cellar or north-east regional and get there without the stress of getting there. Visit amtrak.com to plan your next trip. Hey everyone, it's Jay Shetty. Welcome back to the YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed yet, make sure you do, so that you never miss a video. Mindfulness meditation can reduce cortisol levels by up to 25%, decreasing stress and inflammation. Long-term meditators have brains that are on average 7.5 years younger than non-meditators. Meditation can reduce the experience of pain by 40%,

• 2:50Jay Shetty?

  which is greater than morphine, which reduces pain by 25%. Now, I've been fortunate enough to practice meditation for nearly two decades. It's a deep part of my practice. It's a part of my daily commitment. It's something I turn to for greater self-awareness, alignment, and to really tap into my intuition. But at the same time as knowing the benefits of meditation, I also recognize it's something that a lot of people struggle with. Most people today have heard of it, but a lot of us don't know if we're doing it right. We're judging ourselves, questioning ourselves. And maybe you've been wanting to try meditation, but you don't know where to start. Well, then this video is for you. Or maybe you want to start,

• 3:34Jay Shetty?

  but you're worried you're not going to be able to shut off your mind. Well, this video is for you too. Or maybe you're someone who's completely skeptical about meditation altogether. Research shows that meditation can actually reduce stress and anxiety. It can improve sleep, enhance brain function, and help with emotional regulation. In my own time as a monk, I've seen firsthand the power that meditation has over your reality. And in this episode, we'll hear from top experts about how anyone can harness that power for themselves to improve the quality of their lives. I think for so many of us today, we're always on.

• 4:19Jay Shetty?

  We're always on the go. We're always on the move. We're always on top of everything. Meditation can be that reset, that break. That moment of the day that is just for you. It's that scheduled time to give yourself a little bit of a break, to give yourself a little bit of a reset, and to give yourself a moment of peace and calm. It's something I know I turn to all throughout the day just to get ready before a meeting, just before I walk on stage, or just before I go to bed, to make sure that I maximize and improve that moment of my day. So let's get into it.

• 5:07Jay Shetty?

  In this first clip, Dr. Joe Dispenza shares data-backed insights about how meditation affects the brain and body and the incredible healing power it can have. He explains that lasting transformation happens when you consistently train to shift your internal state with focus and intention. Dr. Joe Dispenza shares how meditation helps shift the body out of stress and survival mode and into a state of healing, acting like your body's own medicine by calming the mind, balancing emotions, and supporting physical recovery. He shares powerful stories of people reversing

• 5:50Jay Shetty?

  chronic health conditions through consistent practice, proving that when you change your inner state, you can actually influence your biology and immune system. Whether you're feeling stuck in stress, burnt out, or emotionally overwhelmed, Dr. Joe Dispenza explains how even small, repeated moments of mindfulness can rewire the way you think, feel, and show up each day. Change might not happen overnight, but that doesn't mean it's not happening. Meditation helps you stay in motion, create new patterns, and build a new reality from the inside out. Let's take a listen to what Dr. Joe Dispenza has to say.

• 6:30Joe Dispenza?

  We've done the largest studies on meditation than have ever been done just because we have a community of 1,800 people that come to an event that are going to be getting up at the same time, doing the same thing, pretty much eating, making the same food choices, and pretty much... A big laboratory, right? And so our discoveries in working with 1,800 people in measuring brainwaves, their brain function before and after the event, measuring their gene expression before and after the event. We're measuring 2,882 metabolites in their blood. We're measuring DNA expression. We're measuring urine. We're measuring saliva. We're measuring the energy of the room. We're measuring everything.

• 7:15Joe Dispenza?

  And meditation, in a sense, that it's not in the traditional way. What we do is we look at what really works. You know, we're actually looking to say, well, that's something that we can actually see a change in. So we teach meditation three ways. To become familiar with your old self and to become familiar with your new self. That's what the word meditation means. Familiarization, to become familiar with. So we use that model for change. To slow your brainwaves down and get beyond your analytical mind is meditation. And you teach your body how to do that. And we've discovered a formula that that simply makes it very easy for people to do it. You practice it, you'll get good at it, just like anything else you practice. So to get beyond the analytical mind is another way to reprogram ourselves.

• 7:57Joe Dispenza?

  And then meditation is really about getting beyond your body or disconnecting from your body, disconnecting from your environment and forgetting about time. And that is that eye of the needle where we begin to make the most significant changes. So we're data-driven, you know, we're really looking to see what it is. And when we see brains respond in the same way, it helps me enormously to teach the material better. And so the more people understand what they're doing and the more they understand why they're doing it, the more naturally the how becomes easier. And nothing is left to conjecture. If nothing is left to superstition or dogma, or even in spiritual, you know, traditional words.

• 8:42Joe Dispenza?

  Use science as the contemporary language to demystify that process. And you give new people numerous times to overcome themselves and numerous times to connect. Sooner or later, you'll start watching transformation right Before your eyes. And so one of the cool things that we've discovered is that we have so much compelling data to suggest that you're greater than you think, more powerful than you, no more unlimited than you could ever dream. We have compelling data to suggest that your nervous system is the greatest pharmacist in the world, that it makes drugs that work better than any drug in a drugstore. A drug study is about 18 to 25% cause and effect causality.

• 9:26Joe Dispenza?

  Our data is between 75 and 85% cause and effect. This is a person creating their own pharmacy of anti-inflammatories, their own pharmacy of anti-carcinogenic chemicals, their own pharmacy of pain relievers who are seeing this over and over again. So we have this incredible data that says that this is no longer pseudoscience. This is the real, this is really science. The side effect of a person's transformation is, has changed my belief in what's possible. I have seen people stand on the stage with stage four cancers that were in every single organ in their body that metastasized and they have no sign of cancer in their body. And we have data that

• 10:11Joe Dispenza?

  suggests that you put the blood of an advanced meditator and a uterine cancer cell, a pancreatic cancer cell, 70% of the mitochondrial function in the cancer cell is diminished. The mitochondria is the energy packets of the cell. It's taking energy out of the cancer cell. It works perfect with what we're seeing with the testimonials that people are telling around the world. We've seen blind people see, we've seen deaf people hear, we've seen people with spinal cord injuries walk again. We've seen ALS change. We've seen all kinds of unbelievable health conditions changed by a person, simply changing the way they think, the way they act, and the way they feel.

• 10:53Jay Shetty?

  How long have you seen certain things last? Like, how much does the practice have to continue daily to sustain impact? Because I feel that

• 11:02Jay Shetty?

  You know, this isn't, as you know, isn't a one-off thing, and that isn't what you're encouraging. Like, this is the experience of when someone's coming to a retreat or an event. They're having this incredible experience, but then do you measure how people continue to practice?

• 11:16Joe Dispenza?

  Yeah, it's important. Yeah, it's super important for us. And of course, we have mounds of data, but let's see if I can say this as clear as I possibly can. When a person has that arousal, where they're feeling that elevated emotion, and their eyes are closed, they're in a room with eighteen hundred people. There's music playing in the background. They're not eating, they're not smelling, they're not tasting, they're not moving about and feeling. On some level, they're having an inner experience, right? And the body is so objective, that it's literally believing it's living in a new environment.

• 11:54Joe Dispenza?

  And so that elevated emotion somehow tends to drag the body right out of the past into the present moment. So many people with everything from eczema to muscular dystrophy, when they have those events, there's a biological change that takes place in their body where they feel completely differently. Now, some people heal all the way. Some people are out of their wheelchair, and they're walking again, but they're limping. And that doesn't mean it's over. It just means they made contact, or they hit gold. And so there's varying degrees that we see. We've seen people for seven years work on a terminal health condition.

• 12:38Joe Dispenza?

  It took them seven years to heal that health condition. Some people, it takes two years, three years. Some people, they do it in three months. There's no predictable menu that we can say it's this way. Now, when people have those more profoundly aroused states, it seems like their change is much more immediate and much more permanent. But for the most part, we see people's response pretty dramatic. Now, it's also important to say that we have seen people heal. From terminal cancers, stop feeling those elevated emotions and return to responding

• 13:20Joe Dispenza?

  to the circumstances and conditions in their life and return back to the same personality. The same personality is the same personal reality and their body is believing it's living in that same environment and they're feeling the same way and they're in the habit of acting the same way and thinking the same way. And lo and behold, the condition returns. We've seen people heal themselves of Parkinson's disease more than once, have one response to some very serious event in their life that produced a very strong emotion. And in one hour, their condition returned because they literally went back to their old self. And we've seen that person turn around and reverse the condition again. Again, people do the best with what they think is available.

• 14:05Joe Dispenza?

  The person standing on the stage, who's, we've had numerous physicians and researchers stand on the stage, they're the four-minute mile. They're telling the community, I'm the example of truth. This is no longer philosophy, this is no longer theory. Here's my scans. We had someone with bilateral breast cancer just recently. No evidence of cancer in her breasts or any lymph nodes, no longer in her liver. I'm looking out at the audience and everybody's leaning in. There's the four-minute mile and that person's telling the truth and they're telling a story and it's not pretty, it's not always rosy. They went through a lot of dark nights, they went through a lot of their condition getting

• 14:47Joe Dispenza?

  worse, but every day they had to show up for themselves. If they stopped showing up and doing the work, they would really not believe it was possible. But if they showed up and did the work, it means that they believe it's possible. And I think when you believe in possibility, you gotta believe in yourself. When you believe in yourself, you gotta believe in possibility. So it used to be a few examples of that. Now we have so many great testimonials, so many great stories, that now people, it's becoming infectious, just like a virus or any bacteria becomes infectious. Now, health and wellness becomes as infectious as disease and you get a community of people.

• 15:28Joe Dispenza?

  Uh, starting to break through and you start seeing these changes where people stand on the stage invariably, you're going to see a very strong shift in consciousness and consciousness is awareness. And if you're unaware that you could actually heal yourself, you'll make the same choice. Once you see it, uh, I think it starts be creating a brush fire and, and that's really the exciting part. So we've seen so many great testimonials that are undeniably great stories of transformation. And many, many of those people still no longer have their eczema, still no longer have their Parkinson's, still no longer have their cancer. Life is an experiment. So if your personality creates your personal reality and your personality is made up of how you think, how you act and how you feel, if you

• 16:11Joe Dispenza?

  keep thinking the same way, you keep acting the same way, you keep feeling the same way, your life is going to stay the same because you're the same. So the experiment is, okay, let me begin to think differently. So I gotta remind myself how I do wanna think and I have to remind myself of how I no longer wanna think. So I don't default and go unconscious. Let me remind myself how I'm gonna behave so that I could actually get my behaviors to match my intentions. And let me remind myself of how I'm gonna feel. If I'm able to succeed in that day, then there should be some change in my life. This is the experiment. The, and, and if it doesn't change, that doesn't mean the law doesn't work for you. It's just, you're not that good yet. It's just, you've just gotta keep practicing, right? So the act of disconnecting from your life long enough to remind yourself of who

• 16:54Joe Dispenza?

  you do wanna be and who you no longer wanna be, that experiment then is the experiment called life.

• 16:59Jay Shetty?

  Our next clip is from the rapper Big Sean. Now, if you answered my question earlier that you want to start meditating, but you're worried you won't do it right, this next clip is for you. Big Sean challenges the idea that there's a right way to meditate. Whether it's sound healing, a walk, or even a quiet moment, what matters most is finding what works for you and showing up consistently. There's no wrong way to meditate. The intention matters more than the method. Over time, consistent meditation deepens the connection to self and increases impact. Big Sean describes his meditation practice as a deeply spiritual experience using visualization,

• 17:44Jay Shetty?

  energy work, and body awareness to realign himself. For him, it's not just about stillness. It's how he sets the tone for productivity, creativity, and emotional balance.

• 17:57Big Sean?

  I practice I am. There's so much power. So I am grateful. I am this. I am happy. I am confident. I am happy that I get to sit down and talk to my friend Jay today. You know, I'm happy I get to, whatever the case is, right? So that's what I do. And then at the end of it, of the journal, of the, when I do the gratitude stuff, and there are times where I write how I feel, not as much. I also speak out loud by myself. You know, there are a lot of processes I do, but when I do that journal, I sign it at the, at the bottom of it, like a contract. And I like, I, sometimes I put it is done, or I put like, so be it, because it's a declaration.

• 18:40Jay Shetty?

  Oh, I like that.

• 18:40Big Sean?

  When I do that. And I sign it because it's that important to me. I have to sign my contracts. I have to sign things that will be upheld as an important thing. And that's how the level of importance even more that I hold that to. So I sign it every time.

• 18:58Jay Shetty?

  That is so good, man. I've never heard that before. I'm gonna start doing that.

• 19:01Big Sean?

  It's powerful.

• 19:02Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, I've never signed it. That's dope.

• 19:04Big Sean?

  It's powerful. And Jay, does everything I write down come to fruition? No. Sometimes it does. A lot of them do. And then I realized that I am also on God's time. So the things that I've always wanted, the things that I've desired, it may not just be the right moment in my journey for that, but that's the beauty of it, man. I'm like, I'm still here. I'm still able. I'm still inspired. I'm still passionate, you know?

• 19:32Jay Shetty?

  Beautiful.

• 19:32Big Sean?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's how I, that's how I do my journaling. I also have like a, there's a book I have of like poetry too, that I like write poems and stuff. I've only, I only write a few a year, honestly, but like, I like. Fully write and draw around the poem and like it's really like a beautiful art. It's just some something I do for fun. I haven't actually, I've only written one this year and last year I wrote a few. So maybe I'll maybe inspire me to write one today, but that's kind of all it is. But I don't spend too much time on it. Takes me about five to 12 minutes.

• 20:09Jay Shetty?

  That's great.

• 20:09Big Sean?

  Max. And then I meditate after that because it kind of like, it's kind of like a good transition to like, the energy is set for me to like, to meditate because when I meditate, I feel like I'm attracting these things more and giving myself the best shot of being the most productive, the most impactful that I can be, you know? So that's, that's kind of the first thing I do when I wake up if I can. Being a dad though, there are times where I get, I get woken up and I have to go immediately, you know? And so I come back to it later on. It's not preferred that way, but it's a good trade off.

• 20:50Jay Shetty?

  I can't wait to dive into the next part, but first a short break for our sponsors.

• 20:57Jay Shetty?

  Hey, it's Jay Shetty and I'm so excited to share, we're launching a brand new subscription on Apple Podcasts. That means if you want more on purpose, more inspiration, more tools, more depth, you now have the option to subscribe and unlock bonus content from our incredible guests. And don't worry, the main show is still free for everyone. But if you're someone who wants to go even deeper and support the show, this is for you. Just hit try free on Apple Podcasts and join our growing community of purpose driven listeners. I can't wait for you to check it out. This episode is brought to you by Orange Theory Fitness. One of the best investments you can make is in your own strength.

• 21:40Jay Shetty?

  The choices you make today can help shape how you feel for years to come. Orange Theory Fitness provides a one hour workout to build strength, burn fat and build muscle with an expert coach guiding you every step of the way. Head to orangetheory.com slash onpurpose to learn more and get your first class free. Orange Theory Fitness, helping people live longer, more vibrant lives. Terms and conditions apply. See webpage in studio for details.

• 22:08Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by Indeed. I know how important every hire is for a business. If you need to make the right hire, this is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed sponsored jobs helps find quality candidates when you need the most. You can reach who you need based on whatever criteria you're looking for, like skills, certifications, or location. In fact, people are finding quality hires on Indeed right now. In the minute I've been talking to you, companies like yours made 27 hires on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast.

• 22:51Jay Shetty?

  That's indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. This episode is brought to you by Mazda. The best habits are the ones we hardly notice, the ones that quietly shape the way we move through life, giving us the confidence to focus on what really matters. That's Mazda's approach to safety. Every Mazda is designed with proactive safety features that help keep you more aware, more connected, and more engaged with your drive. So you can stay present behind the wheel. That commitment has earned Mazda recognition as Consumer Reports' safest new car brand. And as of July 2026, Mazda has won more 2026 IIHS Top Safety Pick Plus awards than any other car brand.

• 23:35Jay Shetty?

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• 23:52Jay Shetty?

  I hope you learned about some of our incredible partners. Let's jump back in. What about your meditation? What does your practice look like?

• 23:59Big Sean?

  It depends. I love doing guided meditation sometimes. I love doing, I kind of have my own process where I like and visualize the light of creation, like the light of the sun. And it like really filling my whole body up and literally everything that doesn't align with that, anything that isn't that light and bright, you know what I'm saying, immediately leaves my body and goes back into the earth. And like, so you know, there are times where I, if I'm not in nature, I imagine myself in nature and like things going back into the earth. And I like surround myself. You know, from my, I forgot the word, the esoteric body, I think it's like one inch off you, then your emotional body, then your mental body.

• 24:43Big Sean?

  And like, I just do the same thing, like, it's like a shower of light, it's like hopping in the shower after you work out, like, a bit of light. And whatever it is, I kind of like cater to how I'm feeling. So from there, I'll like, if I have like something wrong with my stomach, I'll like, for some reason, I associate green with healing energy, right? And this comes from years of like practice, or I associate royal blue with power, you know, the power of the universe. I associate like, uh, red with the love of the universe, the love and support of the universe. And like, I represent like the violet flame of Saint Germain, like, to cleanse things that are holding me back.

• 25:21Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 25:21Big Sean?

  Right? So I do, I have like quite a process and I break it down in a book. And afterwards, I feel just, it really makes a big difference. And you know, I read this book, The Hidden Messages in Water, I believe it's called. And it talked about, you know, there's like itty bitty microscopic crystals in water. And they, one of the part of the book, they experiment of like, how positively, when you speak to water, like, hey, you're amazing, I love you, keep going, like, you're beautiful. And then they had another, uh, water, uh, glass or container of water where they said like, you suck.

• 26:02Big Sean?

  It's never the, you know, real negative. And you look at the crystals and one is like a beautiful snowflake looking crystal, and then the other one is like, distorted and all damaged. And we are seventy, eighty percent water. So these things, when you write these affirmations down, or when you say them out loud, or when you journal, these things have a real effect on you tremendously, like scientifically, it's not even like a woo woo type of thing, it's not even like, it's not even up for debate, you know what I'm saying? It's literally scientific for the people who are more, you know, need the proof as opposed to, you know, more analytical than like opinion based. So,

• 26:43Big Sean?

  I just want to stress the importance of it. It really is. And by the way, the most, the most honorable people that I've met and like what I consider to be successful, and I don't mean richest, I just mean successful in like, the impact, what they're doing, how they are. They meditate, they all, you know, from my favorite rappers down to my favorite, down to you, you know, down to anyone who I just really admire.

• 27:10Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 27:10Big Sean?

  And, and, and, and, and you can meditate in your own ways. They're like, I know like Janey does different meditations, you know, through sound healing or mirror meditations. I know people who do shower meditations, walking. There's no wrong way to meditate either. That's another misconception. There's no wrong way to do it. The fact that you take the intention out, or if you focus on your breathing, the fact that you take the, the time out to be that conscious of yourself, over time, you will get more and more into it. It's like anything you do, and it will, you will see the effects of it.

• 27:42Jay Shetty?

  Next up, Michael Acton Smith, the founder of Calm, reflects on how much the perception of meditation has shifted. And I remember these days, it used to be met with a lot of doubt, a lot of scrutiny, but now it's widely seen as a practical, effective way to support your mental wellbeing. Early on, people thought meditation required robes or lengthy silence. Now it's understood you can start with just one conscious breath. In a world designed to distract you, focus is power. Meditation can help you improve your attention and reclaim the power within you. When you're not aware of where your

• 28:23Jay Shetty?

  attention goes, it's easy to slip into autopilot. Meditation can help you stay present, avoid distractions, and make more intentional choices with your time.

• 28:33Speaker 04

  The early days when we'd go to parties and tell people we were building a meditation app, we'd get one of two reactions. One is that they'd back away from us and make any excuse to go and talk to someone else. The second was that they'd be like, oh, I've heard of that. I've tried it, but I can't do it, you know, my mind is far too, too busy. And it has been extraordinary how that has shifted over the last decade. Again, this is connected to mental health. Do you remember how stigmatized it was? No one talked about it. Could you imagine telling your boss you were struggling with your mental health years ago? It, it wouldn't have been a good move. And, and for most organizations now, that has changed dramatically. I think it was because people did have so many misconceptions about meditation. There were so many myths associated with it.

• 29:18Speaker 04

  I think they thought it was either religious or connected to the counterculture. They thought they might have to dress up in robes or go to a different country or sit for hours and hours in an uncomfortable position. And we just wanted to let people know that that is not true. You can literally start with one mindful breath. If you don't have time to to meditate for a minute or 10 or or longer, literally start with one conscious mindful breath and then build your practice from there.

• 29:45Jay Shetty?

  In this next clip, Vishen Lakhiani, the founder of Mindvalley, shares how meditation has helped him heal physically and stay grounded through life's ups and downs. His story is a powerful reminder that meditation isn't just about calmness. It's about growth, resilience, and finding your center when life feels chaotic. Vishen shares how he used meditation to heal severe acne as a teenager and how that experience sparked a lifelong fascination with the mind-body connection. Through the Silver Method, he discovered active meditation, a structured form of inner work that turns life's challenges into step-by-step problem-solving opportunities.

• 30:30Jay Shetty?

  He explains the difference between daily meditations that keep you grounded, like his six-phase method, and more tactical techniques used to solve specific issues. For Vishen, meditation isn't about escaping problems. It's about engaging with them directly and using your mind to heal, grow, and create real-world results. I think everyone can remember or has a distinct memory of their first meditation experience. What was your first meditation experience ever? Do you remember it? Like, the first time you were ever introduced to any form of meditation?

• 31:05Speaker 03

  So, the first time it happened to me, I was 14 years old. I was a young kid in Malaysia. And I decided to try a form of meditation that I learned from a book called The Silva Method, a really old nineteen sixties, nineteen seventies book. Back then, I was fourteen, so must have been like nineteen ninety. There was no internet in Malaysia, we had four television channels. So really, to pass the time by, all I did was I would browse all of the books on my father's bookshelf. And I discovered this book called The Silva Method. Now, the book captivated me because it spoke about how the mind can heal the body. What was happening to me back then is I was having a really horrible skin problem. My face was covered in acne, I had very little confidence, I considered myself ugly.

• 31:50Speaker 03

  I had difficulty making friends at school. You know, even if I liked a girl, I had no confidence to even talk to her. And so when I read in this book that the mind can heal the skin, I was game on. I wanna figure this out. So I tried practicing, nothing happened. I continued practicing, nothing happened. And there was very little results, but I read and reread and reread that book over and over and over and over again. Then I started picking other books from Bob Proctor, from Wayne Dyer. I started reading these books, it became a passion. And slowly, things began to click. And one day, applying The Silva Method, at this point I was seventeen years old. Things had finally started clicking, I began to understand it's not just about hoping and wanting your skin to heal.

• 32:34Speaker 03

  There was a process, there was a method, there was a psychology. When it clicked, in five weeks, I completely healed my skin. Five years of skin disease healed in five weeks. Today, science talk about this as a thing, it's called psychodermatology, how your mind influences your skin. But that was my first evidence that we can use our minds to influence our bodies. Now, the next thing I did was, I decided to see, can I use my mind to accomplish a really big goal? For me, that was qualifying for the US Open Taekwondo Championships. Taekwondo is Korean karate, I was really into it. And I managed to qualify, my first ever trip to the United States, which was my dreamland. Since I was like a kid, I wanted to go to America. My first ever trip was to the US Open to represent my country.

• 33:19Speaker 03

  It was in Colorado Springs in nineteen ninety-three, my first time I fell in love with America. But it became because I visualized that in my mind. And that was my beginning, the beginning of my fascination with the human mind that would later lead to me starting Mindvalley and writing this book.

• 33:35Jay Shetty?

  That's amazing. I, I, I love that story for so many reasons. A, because... Well, let me just break this down for everyone. You had an intention that was very clear. Even if it was to save your skin, or to impress a girl, or whatever it was, you were clear of why you wanted to meditate. The second thing was, you were happy to read the book again and again and again.

• 33:54Speaker 03

  Again and again and again, right.

• 33:55Jay Shetty?

  And I think that takes a lot of resilience, because most of us, when we try something once and it doesn't work, we give up. And the third thing is, you didn't just test on something small. Once you saw a small result, you were like, well, does this apply to something bigger? And I think those three lessons in and of themselves are so powerful. What has changed in the benefits to you of meditation today? At that time, it was solving your skin, it was getting focused around the Taekwondo championships. How do you view meditation? Like, what is its use in your life today? Because I feel like so many people keep telling us to meditate, and there's so many benefits, but for you personally, what's the reason?

• 34:31Speaker 03

  So, I grew up in a Hindu family in Malaysia. Meditation was never what I was taught. The style of Hinduism I was taught was very dogmatic. You had prayers, you had chants, you had mantras. And I found it, oh God, so boring and irritating. I hated being dragged to temple to listen to a priest speak in Sanskrit, a language I didn't even understand. So when I was nineteen, I gave up Hinduism. I decided the religion was not for me. I read a quote by Gandhi that said, "I am a Hindu, and I'm a Muslim, and I'm a Christian, and I'm a Jew, and I'm a Buddhist." And I thought, that's it, I want to study and unite ideas from all of these different spiritual practices. And so that was my beginning. I got obsessed with spirituality.

• 35:14Speaker 03

  I started reading books by Esther Hicks, by Neil Donald Walsh. And I became particularly captivated by the spirituality that was emerging from the United States. From everyone, from Paramahansa Yogananda, who was an Indian who crossed over here, to Neil Donald Walsh, to especially Jose Silva. Now, a lot of them spoke about spirituality. What made Jose Silva's work different was that he broke it down into actionable steps. And that's what fascinated me most. So, a lot of people spoke about meditation, about sitting still, about going within. Jose Silva would teach the method. You're gonna do this method to reduce your brainwave frequency to the alpha level. This method to gather down to the theta level. This method of positioning your eyes to activate alpha frequency in your brain. This method to reprogram your subconscious.

• 35:59Speaker 03

  This method to manifest a goal. This method to do healing. And that structured approach captivated me. Now, we call that active meditation. That's a word Jose Silva used. Osho used the same word, active meditation. This means it's different from passive meditation, which was more the meditation from Hinduism, from eastern cultures, where you focus on your breath or you go within. And there's a usefulness in that. But what I loved about active meditation is, in the words of Jose Silva, you use it to solve problems. You do not push your problems away. You turn your problems into a project. You have skin disease, you're gonna heal it. You need to achieve a business goal, you're gonna make it happen. And you would apply different tools to solve these problems.

• 36:43Speaker 03

  Now, when I was in Silicon Valley, I applied the Silva method and it completely transformed my career. I was able to hold down two jobs. I got promotion after promotion after promotion. At the age of twenty-six, I was vice president of a booming.com. And I was meditating, using the Silva method and other practices I would combine with it. And one day, I certainly had a calling. I realized that meditation was the most powerful thing I'd learned in life. It was the reason why I was successful at my career. Yet, my university degree, for which I paid almost a quarter million dollars for, taught me jack. It wasn't really helping me. So I decided I wanted to do something that could help the world. I decided to quit and become a meditation teacher.

• 37:27Speaker 03

  Now, as I started becoming a meditation teacher, as I started compiling all of these methods, I needed something for myself. And I look at meditation from, as a tool, okay? So a lot of people say, alright, meditation is a form of self-awareness, of prayer. Yes, yes, yes. But meditation is also a tool. The point of meditation, in the words of the great teacher Emily Fletcher, is not to get good at meditation, it is to get good at life. And so, I use two different types of tools. Now, let's think about our home. We have coffee makers and we have electric drills. We use a coffee maker every single day, or a tea kettle every single day, to put ourselves in a good state to start our morning. An electric drill is a power tool. You don't use it every day. You use it when you have a problem,

• 38:09Speaker 03

  when you have to drill a hole in a wall, or threaten someone, I guess. So... In meditation, the style that I teach, there are two types. You would use a power tool like the Silva Method, which now sits on Mindvalley for a really tactical problem. For example, healing. The Silva Method has been proven by Dr. O. Carl Simonton as a very effective form of imagery therapy for accelerating healing. You're sick, you want to do it. If you are suddenly feeling like you have a migraine, you want to use it to help reduce your migraine. The sixth phase is what I developed as not the electric drill, but the coffee maker. Something you use every single day. Even if your life is amazing, you use it every single day because it helps put you in a peak state

• 38:54Speaker 03

  for work, for happiness, for human connection. And it puts you in this beautiful state where it almost feels as if the universe has your back. Like you have, you know, the Tinker Bell Fairy following you around, blessing everything you do and making your life magical. This is how I view meditation. It's an active approach to tackle the most complex problems in life, but also as a daily approach to put you in peak states of humanness.

• 39:21Jay Shetty?

  This is why I love talking to you because I love that explanation. And I think that that breakdown of how meditation can be used differently for different challenges is fantastic. And I love the analogy with the tea kettle we'll go with and the drill because I do think you're right that we've made meditation, what you just said, is about becoming good at meditation, which is absolutely irrelevant to life. I hope this episode serves as a reminder that there's no single way to meditate and no perfect practice. What matters is that you start. Whether it's to heal, focus, align, or simply breathe, meditation is a tool that can meet you wherever you are in life.

• 40:04Jay Shetty?

  Remember, the goal isn't to get good at meditation.

• 40:09Jay Shetty?

  The goal is to improve your life. So whatever form works for you, a guided practice, a moment of stillness, or a walk in nature, I hope this episode inspires you to make it your own. And if you've ever told yourself, "I'm not the meditation type", I hope this conversation helps you realise you already are. You just have to begin. If you loved this episode, you will also love my interview with Charles Duhigg on how to hack your brain, change any habit effortlessly, and the secret to making better decisions.

• 40:44Joe Dispenza?

  Look, am I hesitating on this because I'm scared of making the choice because I'm scared of doing the work? Or am I sitting with this because it just doesn't feel right yet?