“I think it’s on-brand for me, isn’t it? I talk about things,” says Gwyneth Paltrow. We’re in the middle of discussing the way the actress and mogul recently spoke out about her experiences with perimenopause. But she could be referring to any number of things, given how much her buttoned-up appearance contrasts with her lifelong willingness to open up.
Today, Paltrow is here to talk about how meditation changed her life. She started doing it in the ’90s, at the end of her yoga practice. Years later, she began studying transcendental meditation, or TM, though she admits, “I was very sporadic with that over the years. I was very much like, ‘Ah, I don’t have time,’ which I think is quite a common refrain for people. Especially if you have little kids. It’s really hard.”
Paltrow found her way back to the practice in the early days of COVID, “when everything slowed down quite a lot.” Her husband, writer-director-producer Brad Falchuk, started studying with her TM teacher as well, and the couple began meditating together every morning, a tradition that they’ve kept up ever since. “I feel us go into this deeply personal, but intimate space. The space around both of us has the same tenor, but it’s very internal,” she says. “I’m not sure if it strengthens our relationship, but it feels like it does.”
Paltrow recently partnered with Moments of Space, a meditation app founded by Kim Little that combines ancient Dzogchen tradition with modern technology and focuses on the technique of eyes-open meditation. (Paltrow is one of the co-owners of the app.) Even the wellness-versed Paltrow admits she had never heard of the concept before becoming involved with the project. Initially, “I thought, ‘If there’s an eyes-open version of this, does that really work?’” The approach, she found, is perfect for “beginners or anybody who thinks, I can’t sit still, I have too much going on in my head. Or, I don’t have the time. Just such an amazing way to have all of the scientific benefits of meditation. And you can do it for a really short amount of time, throughout the day, and it’s pretty impactful.”
When I shamefacedly admit to being a non-meditator and someone who has been regularly described as not mindful, Paltrow says judiciously, “I think you should try it, because it’s hard to fully articulate, but it’s very simple. You start by just picking a point and looking at it. And there’s a real softening that happens. You just become aware of the space around [you]. And you let that space be there and then you go inward, but all with the eyes open.”
The technique has proven to be a game changer for her. Now, “I can pull myself out of a stressful situation in real time, or a difficult conversation at work.” She also loves the app’s walking meditation. “There’s this synthesis that happens with your insides and the natural world around [you].”
Given that Paltrow has always been on the forefront of wellness trends, ushering bone broth and jade eggs onto the national stage, I’m curious about her predictions for what’s next. “I think that personalized wellness is what’s coming around the corner,” she says, pointing to “all kinds of really interesting genetic testing that can be done now that helps you understand what you’re prone to, what to avoid. And I think the cost of those tests is going to come down as they become more popular, and they will be made accessible to people.” (Other terms she tosses out: “exosomes and stem cells and peptides. These are things that I’m hearing about a lot.”)
While social media might be the opposite of mindfulness, Paltrow has found a knack for Instagram story AMAs that are refreshingly unfiltered (“Oh God,” she laughs when I bring this up.) “So I should preface this by saying, I’m really uncomfortable with social media as a whole. My team asks me to do this every month, and I’m always like, ‘Noooo, it’s Ask Me Anything time.’ But I feel like if I’m going to do it, I should really do it. And to do a franchise called Ask Me Anything, but be really guarded and have rehearsed answers, would just suck for everyone. So I’m just myself. I tend to get a lot of questions around, ‘How do I navigate this?’ ‘How do I navigate that?’ People ask me all the time, ‘What’s your favorite Coldplay song?’ And I’ve answered that. I’m like, ‘I’m not answering. How many times can I answer this question?’”
Paltrow’s comments about perimenopause (she called the symptoms “a roller coaster”) have helped to remove some of the stigma around the subject. “I started asking my friends around the dinner table a few years ago. ‘This is happening for me. Is it happening for you guys? These are my symptoms.’ Really cultivating the conversation. I just think it’s crucial for us to have community around these difficult things. When we have little kids, we don’t feel ashamed saying, ‘I’m having a problem with my toddler.’ Or, ‘How do you potty-train them?’ But for some reason, when it’s around this phase of our lives, it becomes some weird or bad thing.
“The idea that women have been enshrouded in silence and shame around menopause for years and years and years is so crazy,” she adds. “This is such a natural, wonderful, different time in a woman’s life. We as human beings, a lot of us live a long time after menopause, which is uncommon in the rest of the animal kingdom. Most animals, after they are not viable reproductively, die—and we don’t. I always like to think of it as, we have this magic era that’s coming where we get to be fully in our power and in our wisdom. And I’m not sure why it was made to be embarrassing or shameful to talk about. It’s perfectly natural that we all traverse through it. If we’re lucky, we live to go through perimenopause, and someday I’ll be in menopause. And I’m looking forward to understanding what that means and the gifts that come along with it.”
Entering her 50s, she says, “I actually feel better than I felt in my 40s, weirdly. I feel strong. I feel vibrant. I feel like I put the time into really looking after myself. I made a bunch of changes around dietary stuff. I think I put myself a little bit more in the center now, certainly than I ever have before. And I feel like I’ve really befriended myself and I know myself well. I know the great things about me and the awful things about me, and I’m always trying to obviously learn and grow, but also have a deep appreciation for everything I’ve been through and the relationships I have in my life that are really close and deep. It feels really liberating to be 50. Oprah said 60 is even better!”
And it wouldn’t be a Gwyneth Paltrow interview without asking about the gray cashmere-clad elephant in the room that is quiet luxury. Lately, she’s been held up as a totem of the trend, both past and present. “I wouldn’t have branded it that myself,” she says of the term, “but if I look back, I feel like I’ve always dressed this way, which to me is: You wear better things. High-quality, beautifully made, trend-proof clothing. Which is exactly what we do at G. Label. Lately, [people have] been talking about this being a trend, but I feel like this has always been the way that I’ve dressed.” Having a Gen Z daughter, she adds, has “shifted my perspective on this as well…given that she is so consumed with waste and the environmental impact of the fast fashion industry. She would rather borrow my vintage things than buy anything new.” And really, looking at Paltrow’s ’90s wardrobe, do you blame her?
The Moments of Space meditation app with Gwyneth Paltrow can be downloaded here.
