Andy Puddicombe Takes 10 on The Sunday Business Show
A former Buddhist monk with a degree in Circus Arts, Andy is the founder of Headspace, an award-winning digital health platform that provides guided meditation sessions for its users. The “Take 10” meditation app is a global success story and it now spans 150 countries with over one million users. A very unassuming and all round nice guy in person, he's fans incl Arianna Huffington, Gwyneth Palthrow and Emma Watson.
In short “Take 10” is a secular course in meditation and mindfulness that sits on your smartphone(Android or iPhone) in the form of an app, which is free and promises to change your life by leading you through a series of daily meditation practices, all of which are voiced by Andy, who calls it a “Gym membership for your mind”.
A business man in his own rite Andy has transformed ‘mindfulness’ into a multimillion- dollar business, with some conservative estimates valuing Headspace at €25M.
Myra Hayes met Andy(named the "international poster boy for the modern mindfulness movement”by The Times) at the Web Summit where he explained to her how great meditation is for business and why you can’t afford not to sit up and take note.
The Headspace ethos to a balanced life include simple steps like taking time-out. Andy's co-founder Rich Pierson advises to
have periods of the day where you duck out of technology completely
never have your phone or laptop in my bedroom
never check emails until you get to work and
never check emails on annual leave
Listen back to the interview here
