Kate Hudson: 'Meditation saved my sanity'

Actress Kate Hudson is grateful for meditation as the practice allows her to find balance when "life feels out of control".

The 36-year-old Rock the Kasbah star is currently promoting her new lifestyle book Pretty Happy: Healthy Ways to Love Your Body, and in an exclusive excerpt released to People.com, the blonde calls attention to how she manages stress.

"Meditation has saved my sanity," Hudson writes. "Not that I was crazy, but in this world of hyperspeed, overstimulation, no escape from technology, and constant emotional stress, it's very hard to stay centered and grounded.

"And yet, since I've integrated meditation into my daily life - which doesn't mean I do it every day - I feel so much more at ease, knowing that I can re-center myself when life feels out of control.

"There's no better feeling than realizing I have the power to get through the muck and the hard stuff to get to all that's good! This doesn't mean some of my old patterns or bad coping mechanisms won't crop up again - they will - but now I know I'm ready for them."

Hudson, who split from former fiance Matt Bellamy, the father of her four-year-old son Bingham, in 2014, reveals she could have easily suffered a nervous breakdown without the method of relaxation.

"During one particularly difficult time in my life when I was feeling overwhelmed, it was meditation that brought me back to me," she explains, without going into specific details. "At the time, a tough decision left me feeling completely upended. I could not stop my mind from racing. I could barely sleep. And I felt trapped by my anxiety."

Hudson, who also shares 12-year-old boy Ryder with ex-husband Chris Robinson, was first introduced to meditation by her mother Goldie Hawn, who has studied the practice for decades.

"My mom told me to just start simply, by calming down and bringing awareness to my breaths," Hudson shares. "She told me to follow my breaths in and out, remembering that the thoughts would come, but to just watch them pass, and to always come back to a simple breath.

"At first, I felt even more uncomfortable in my body and mind when I tried this. I felt like squirming away, like a toddler in time-out. But I kept at it, trusting my mom when she said it would get easier and that you got more comfortable."