A growing number of stressed-out traders on Wall Street are turning to transcendental meditation in order to ‘deal with challenges like a Ninja’, according to an expert in the field.
Author and transcendental meditation teacher James G. Meade told the April 24 club lunch that the biggest reason traders came to him for help was anxiety, with many working at least 18-hour days.
The solution, he said, was simple: two sessions of just 20 minutes each day had given many in the finance industry ‘an extremely effective antidote to stress’. Meade cited Ray Dalio, founder of investment firm Bridgewater Associates, who introduced transcendental meditation to his entire company. Dalio told Business Insider: “I did it because it’s the greatest gift I could give anyone — it brings about equanimity, creativity, and peace.”
Meade, author of books including The Answer to Cancer: Is Never Giving It a Chance to Start, said working on Wall Street was highly pressured, adding: “There’s no time for sleep. Transcendental meditation is instant deep rest at will. It’s a technology.”
He added: “We do make you peaceful, it’s extremely peaceful.
“It develops the mind and the emotions… We become more appreciative of other people. Also in the world of stock brokers… we have instances where they’ll say ‘my staff asked what are you doing that’s different? How come you’re coming out and talking to us, you’re friendly where you were not before?’ So actually people become nicer.”
Meade demonstrated how the ‘whole brain gets bathed in this alpha and the stress becomes less’. Using a video of a live transcendental meditation session, he showed the difference in brain waves once someone becomes relaxed.
Hollywood director David Lynch, Beach Boy Mike Love and outspoken radio DJ Howard Stern are all advocates of transcendental meditation, Meade said.