Goldie Hawn’s Secret to Happiness? Meditation—and She’s Been Doing It for Over 50 Years
From mindfulness to movement, Goldie Hawn shares her secrets to a peaceful, balanced life
Goldie Hawn has always been known for the positive energy she radiates, and she’s just as joyful off the screen as she is on it. The Private Benjamin and Overboard star attributes much of her joie de vivre to her decades-long commitment to meditation and mindfulness, a practice she engaged in years before it became trendy.
Hawn is also dedicated to helping those who aren’t celebrities live mindfully. In 2003, she started the Goldie Hawn Foundation, “a public charity with a mission to equip children with the social and emotional skills they need to lead smarter, healthier, happier and ultimately more productive lives.” The Foundation created MindUP, a program that uses elements of mindful awareness, social-emotional learning and positive psychology to help children manage difficult emotions and feel happier.
Here’s a look at Hawn’s inspiring dedication to meditation and what she’s had to say about it over the years.
Goldie Hawn’s introduction to meditation
Goldie Hawn began her long mediation journey in 1972. As she recalled, “Meditation was really happening . . . The Beatles were meditating . . . My experience was visceral, it was amazing. I rediscovered something in that one sitting. I can’t explain the joy that was brought back to me. It was a transformational ‘Aha!’ moment for me. It stabilized my mind and gave me a piece of my interior that was all mine. No one could touch it. It was my internal universe and it’s something I’ve been doing ever since.”
Hawn felt that meditation was an extension of her early artistic interests, as she initially worked as a dancer. She said, “Starting out as a dancer gave me an aspect of mindfulness that I didn’t even realize that I was getting, because to dance is to be aware of every piece of your body while you’re moving. It’s like a meditation unto itself.”
The actress has also been candid about how meditation helped her overcome the panic attacks she struggled with early in her career, and said that practicing mindfulness and going to therapy helped set her on the path to self-discovery and happiness.
Goldie Hawn’s take on spirituality
While Hawn is a dedicated meditator, she’s said, “I don’t think of myself as a Buddhist.” As she elaborated, “I was born Jewish, and I consider that my religion. But I’ve studied all religions, and as you learn more, you really learn that everyone’s praying to the same God . . . It’s not the idea of a particular religion that’s important; it’s the development of a spiritual life. Because spirituality creates well-being, health and happiness. In Buddhism, it’s called sangha—community. I believe having religion in your life creates the potential for long-lasting relationships.”
Hawn has also paid respect to spiritual figures, as she titled her 2005 memoir Goldie: A Lotus Grows in the Mud after a quote shared with her by an Indian monk: “The lotus grows in the mud. The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in mud. In order to grow and gain wisdom, first you must have the mud—the obstacles of life and its suffering.”
How meditation has helped Goldie Hawn—and how she’s using it to help others
Hawn has said that meditation has helped her as she’s aged, explaining, “This time in my life feels like a culmination of everything I’ve been practicing. People talk about the brain weakening as it ages. Mine feels stronger. Meditation thickens the cortex, where we make decisions, analyze, feel more connected to others and dream.”
With MindUP, Hawn seeks to share what she’s learned with the younger generation, promoting “brain breaks” and saying, “If you learn how your brain functions, you can learn to calm down and focus when you need to. So, for instance, if you’re scared before a test, or your parents are breaking up, or whatever it is you fear, we help give them the ability to pay attention to the fear, to focus on their breathing, on the body’s reactions. By tuning in to brain function, you can train the prefrontal cortex of the brain to make better choices.”
In addition to leading her organization, Hawn co-authored the book 10 Mindful Minutes: Giving Our Children—and Ourselves—the Social and Emotional Skills to Reduce Stress and Anxiety for Healthier, Happy Lives and wrote, “Remembering my own childhood anxiety, I longed to show children everywhere how to rediscover their natural joy, understand the value of their emotions, and learn to feel empathy for others.” In 2020, MindUP sought to help kids experiencing pandemic-related stress by launching a series of quick and approachable recorded meditations.
Hawn says that meditation has “brought me a tremendous joy and connectivity,” and has four tips to offer for mindful living: meditate, reconnect with nature, dance and get ready for bed. We’ve always wanted to channel the star’s warmth and humor, so her tips certainly seem worth taking!
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