How to meditate: improve your mental health and well-being using these tips from a Silicon Valley executive
- Apple lawyer and software company co-founder Randy Komisar was depressed, despite being at the top of his game
- When recreational drugs didn’t work, he turned to meditation, and 25 years later he is happy, healthy and still successful
On the face of it, Silicon Valley executive Randy Komisar had it all. A high-flying Brown University and Harvard Law School alumnus, hired by Apple as a lawyer, he went on to co-found its software spin-off Claris. Komisar was at the top of his game; but he was also utterly depressed.
“The more successful I was, the less happy I was,” he says over a Zoom interview from his California home. “As a striving type-A personality I had a need to win the game at the expense of others. And it felt miserable.”
In an attempt to break the cycle, Komisar turned to recreational drugs, which in the short term gave him a “nourishing” feeling.
But once the chemicals wore off, Komisar would be dealing with a comedown that could last all week.
He needed a more sustainable way to rekindle his inner compassion. He had attempted meditation in his twenties, but just couldn’t tame his “monkey mind”.
