Hunter March's Number One Takeaway From Meditation - Exclusive

Here's something you might not know about Hunter March. When the "E! Nightly Pop" host takes something on, he becomes a devotee. His devotions, however — maybe with the exception of late-night talk shows — come in phases. March has done it with chess; he's done it with painting; he's done it with a handful of sports. "My style of life ... is I get very headstrong into something," March told Health Digest's sister site Mashed in an exclusive interview. "I will go hard at it for two to six months, and then I won't touch it again or really pay attention to it for another six months."

If March is being honest, that's how he's gone about meditating, too — though he admits that it's perhaps not the best way to approach the practice. "A more steady, regular practice is really helpful," March reflected. That doesn't mean he hasn't benefited tremendously from it, even with his penchant for intervals of intensity followed by longer breaks. 

"The times I have gone into it headfirst, I've learned so much about myself that even if I'm not meditating, as soon as I sit down again for ten, 15, 20 minutes of silence, I'm able to channel some of those things that I taught myself during the moments where meditation [was central and I was spending] an hour a day of reading about it," he reflected. Here's his number one meditation takeaway.

Hunter March is nowhere near a perfect meditator, but he's learned that's okay, too. When asked about the biggest thing he's learned from his practice, the late-night talk show host shared, "It's the idea of not being so hard on yourself." He noted that one method of reminding ourselves of that is by remembering that "everything is constantly changing and there is no right, perfect thing besides 'the now.'" Yes, March knows that sounds nebulous. "Even as I say it, I go, 'What the f*** are you talking about, man?'" March quipped.

There's a practical application to his discovery, though. "When I meditate, one thing I remind myself is like, 'All right. If my brain does wander, [I can] bring myself back,'" he told Mashed. "I think [for] a lot of people that's the struggle ... the monkey brain wants to turn and go to the past, or the future, work, anxiety, whatever." 

If that does happen, March's advice is not to sweat it. "Instead of beating yourself up for missing nine minutes of meditation time because you were anxious about your family [or] whatever, you celebrate the fact that you brought yourself back," said March. "It's not a big outward celebration, but it's like a, 'Good job,' and then you return to what you're doing because that's all meditation is. It's an awareness and a mindfulness." 

Catch up with Hunter March when new episodes of "Nightly Pop" air on E! Monday through Thursday at 11:30 p.m. ET.