Andy Puddicombe is the co-founder of the nonprofit Headspace, which teaches simple, 10-minute meditation techniques to busy professionals. He is currently the only Clinical Meditation Consultant in the UK registered with the Care Quality Commission, formerly the UK Healthcare Commission. Mindfulness, one of today’s hottest topics in neuroscience, has been shown to improve sleep, decrease anxiety and depression, reduce cravings and addictions, lower blood pressure and reduce heart disease. Even more impressively, it has been shown to physically change the structure of the brain in the key area associated with happiness and feelings of well-being. Headspace works closely with Kings College and Southampton University in the UK and Columbia University in the US to help further the understanding and potential of these techniques to achieve physical, emotional and mental health benefits.

Puddicombe is a regular contributor on BBC Radio and on Channel 4 in Britain, where his 10-minute meditation videos are broadcast between regular programming. He has been featured in The New York Times, Metro, Elle UK, Marie Claire UK, The Guardian (UK), The Times (UK) and many other publications on a range of topics relating to mental health, emotional and psychological wellbeing, mindfulness, and the relevance of meditation to modern day living.

In addition to writing and presenting, Puddicombe runs a successful clinic in London. He also works with many companies including Google, Thompson Reuters, Nomura, Innocent Drinks, KPMG and Credit Suisse—teaching people how to be less stressed and more focused in an increasingly challenging work environment.

Puddicombe began learning to meditate at age 11, and in his early twenties he traveled to Asia to become a fully ordained Buddhist monk at a Tibetan Monastery in the Indian Himalayas. He lived in monasteries and completed retreats in Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Australia, the UK, and Russia, returning to the UK in 2004 with the goal of making meditation accessible and beneficial to as many people as possible.