"I used to have a difficult time meditating. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't clear my head. Even the master Deepak Chopra tried to teach me, but it seemed my mind was too cluttered. Then I met Dr. Herbert Benson, who founded the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He gave me a valuable piece of advice: Initially, the key isn't to make your mind go blank, but to focus on a single thing that you personally find calming. For me it's the word
gentle, because it evokes all sorts of calming images, like running water and beach scenes. Once I start focusing on that word, my mind begins to clear. I can now meditate for up to 15 minutes."
—
Sanjay Gupta, MD, neurosurgeon and CNN chief medical correspondent
