D. Dipasupil/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Josh Radnor is best known for starring in the hit TV series How I Met Your Mother, but since the show wrapped two years ago, Radnor has been focusing on going beyond being a TV star, crediting meditation for helping him figure out what he wants.
“Meditation is something that gets me back to being ‘quiet’ so I can hear that kind of guidance,” Radnor told ABC News’ Dan Harris during his 10% Happier podcast.
Radnor started meditating in 2004 after he said he went through a rough breakup. At the time, he was a working actor who had a shot a few pilots for other shows, but before the pilot for How I Met Your Mother. The show went on to run for nine seasons until 2014, starring Radnor as the lead character, Ted Mosby.
Once he started meditating, Radnor said he never really stopped. He practices Vedic meditation, a form of mantra meditation, at least once a day for about 20 minutes.
“I look back and my life is a lot different than it was in 2004,” he said. “It’s a lot bigger. My career took off in different ways so I have to give a lot of credit to meditation… May be those things would have happened but I don’t know if I would have processed them in as sane a way if I didn’t have a meditation practice.”
Radnor said he’s grateful for the success of How I Met Your Mother because it boosted his career, but he said the show didn’t give him the “sustained euphoria” one might expect. Instead, he said it sent him in search of projects he would find more meaningful, specifically in writing and directing — his 2011 film, HappyThankYouMorePlease, which he wrote, directed and starred in, was a Sundance Audience Award winner. Radnor said there’s a part of him that is shy, and he wishes he could continue to work in this industry without dealing with the fame.
“It sounds silly to talk about being on a hit TV show as being a spiritual struggle but it was and it continues to be,” he said. “It’s a complicated thing, because you also can’t complain about it to a lot of people. It’s isolating… [but] after you have a very visible success, I think it’s OK to go away for a while or to do something quieter for a while.”
Copyright © 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
