Deepak Chopra Says Stress Is Hijacking Your Mind—Here’s How to Take It Back

Deepak Chopra doesn’t see peace as something you have to earn with perfect routines. In his mind, peace is the default—until it gets covered up by a conditioned mind trained on news cycles, other people’s opinions, and constant stimulation. On The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast, he tells hosts Lauryn and Michael Bosstick that the goal isn’t to become uninformed or detached, but to stop being emotionally hijacked by everything you consume. 

Chopra offers everyday practical insights like how “regular people” can structure their news intake, what five minutes of meditation can actually look like, and why your energy level is the fastest diagnostic for how your life is really going. He also gets into trauma, forgiveness, and the idea that presence isn’t something you demand from others—it’s something you practice.

Deepak Chopra Says Stress Overrides Everything—Here’s Why

Basically, you don’t need more hacks. You need less interference. And this conversation is sure to unpack that. Below are the highlights, adapted from The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast.

How do you get peace when you feel stressed?

“Peace is our natural state before it’s overshadowed by our conditioned mind. So the deeper levels of awareness which we call spirit or soul [are] always at peace, but the mind overshadows it because the mind is conditioned through economics, through the news, through social media, through people’s opinion.

If you want true peace you have to be independent of the good and bad opinions of the world. You have to be immune to criticism. You have to feel that you’re beneath no one. And you have to be fearless, which is our natural state before it gets bamboozled by the hypnosis of social conditioning.”

Do you protect your peace by turning off the news—or is that missing the point?

“I don’t get affected by anything. So I don’t have to practice anything. So, you know, I’ve watched the news and I see the insanity and I don’t want to be part of it…I’ve checked out from insanity. The world is insane. Climate change, war, terrorism. Mechanized death, nuclear weapons, you name it, drones, cyber warfare. So if you participate in that, then you are part of the insanity. I’ve checked out…

…I would suggest for, you know, regular people—I’m not regular, but for regular people—you could schedule checking it like three times a day or four times a day, and then you focus on it, and then check out. At least practice some meditation, mindfulness, go for a walk in the park, you know, listen to some good music.”

What made you decide to change your life so drastically?

“I worked on my way as a medical resident and intern and working in the emergency room. I was burnt out like most physicians are. Most people in the health industry are totally burnt out and are the most unhealthy people. Doctors, psychiatrists, the highest rates of depression, suicide are amongst therapists. So, you know, I realized that a long time ago. And there was a point in my life where I actually put a pacemaker in a patient, put him on a machine so he couldn’t breathe. He was dying of emphysema and had a heart attack. I did all that to save his life, and then I went out and smoked a cigarette. And that was a pivotal moment. I said, ‘I’m saving lives and killing myself at the same time.’ So, I checked out. I threw the cigarette. I stopped smoking. Cold, cold. Everything. One moment.”

What’s the simplest way to know if you’re actually doing okay?

“If I had to ask you only one question to know how you’re doing…ask yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, how much energy do I have? And don’t think, just see what you come up with. If you answer 8, 9, or 10, you’re thriving. If you answer 10, you’re not only thriving, you’re flourishing. And if you answer 6 or 7, you’re struggling in some area of your life. You’re maybe not getting enough sleep, maybe you have a toxic relationship, maybe you’re worried about your finances. Something is going on…If you score 5 or less, you’re suffering, and you probably already have a disease which has either been diagnosed or not diagnosed.”

Do you believe disease is mostly genetic—or mostly lifestyle?

“Now we know for sure that less than five percent of chronic disease—and that includes things like cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease, even mental issues, like schizophrenia or, you know, psychosis—less than five percent is due to what are called fully penetrant gene mutations….Only five percent of those mutations guarantee disease…It’s probably less than two percent, according to the latest science. 95 percent of disease is not genetically determined, even if you have the mutation. It doesn’t predict the disease. So, that’s called epigenetics, that’s a new science. Epigenetics means how you sleep. How you manage your stress, exercise, nutrition, relationships, emotions, and biological rhythms…

…Of those, I would say, sleep, managing stress, because if you have stress, it doesn’t matter what you do. It doesn’t matter what the best food you take, whatever if you have stress. It overrides everything because it causes inflammation in the body. So, I would say stress management, sleep, movement, exercise, relationships, social engagement, nutrition, and you’re covering 95 percent of illness, preventing, and even in some cases reversing.

What can someone do right now to calm their nervous system?

“There’s a nerve in the body called the vagus nerve, which is the anti-stress nerve. It’s part of a system in our body called the parasympathetic nervous system. People who are stressed, they have the sympathetic overdrive, which is the tiger response. So, the opposite of that is called the rejuvenation, rest, repair response. In that parasympathetic nervous system, there’s a nerve called the vagus nerve.

If you smile, you activate the vagus nerve. There are certain eye exercises, clockwise and anticlockwise, looking at the distance close by, you activate the vagus nerve. If you sing, you activate the vagus nerve. If you chant, you activate the vagus nerve. And if you take a deep breath or do breathing exercises, you activate the vagus nerve. If you put awareness in the heart and think of someone you love it activates the vagus nerve. If you do yoga, it activates the vagus nerve…If you squeeze your sphincter and then release them, it activates your vagus nerve.

What are the 5 causes of suffering you always talk about?

1. Not knowing who you are at a very deep level.

2. Clinging and grasping at experience which is ungraspable past and present or any experience. If you grasp it and you cling to it, you’ll be frustrated because by the time you try to grasp it, it’s over.

3. Recoiling from experience.

4. Identifying with your ego.

5. And the fear of death.

“These are the five causes of suffering, which all come down to one thing—you don’t know who you are. You think you’re a separate self. You think you’re a separate self. I, this is me, and there’s the rest of the universe. But actually, you and I are a movement in the universe, just like waves in the ocean. You are a pattern of behavior of the infinite consciousness.”

How do you forgive someone when you’re still angry?

“They need education. You don’t forgive because the other person deserves forgiveness. You forgive because you deserve peace. They’re occupying a lot of real estate in your mind, in your brain. So you forgive because you deserve peace, but you also need to understand…And that is much better way of dealing with people who are traumatized instead of saying, ‘You’re evil.’”

What’s your personal meditation practice—and why are you ‘excited’ about death?

“I meditate. Between yoga and meditation, that’s three hours in the morning minimum three hours. In the last few decades, I haven’t missed a day of yoga, even when I travel. And in the last few decades, [I] don’t remember the last time I walked less than 10,000 steps [a day]. So yoga is very important, but between yoga and meditation is [about] three hours. And then at night before I go to sleep, I do meditation on my death. I’m now 79. So, my next chapter is death, which is very exciting because, you know, I’ve had a full life and I want to have an elegant exit, because death is the most creative experience you can have.

Death [is] starting all over again. Life is not the opposite of death. Life is the continuum of birth and death, and it’s happening all the time. There’s a term in biology called ‘apoptosis,’ programmed cellular death. When a cell forgets to die, it is a cancer cell. We have to die so that the universe can renew itself, which it is doing all the time, and it does it through you. Matter recycles, energy recycles, information recycles, and the spirit recycles. 

To hear the full conversation with Deepak Chopra, listen to The Skinny Confidential wherever you get your podcasts.

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