TM practice since 1969
Dalio has practiced Transcendental Meditation since 1969, crediting it as a key tool for reflection, creativity, and managing pain after setbacks.
Snapshot · My First Million
Ray Dalio: The principles that made me a billionaire
Explore episode
Jul 17, 2026
Where this was said
Pain + Reflection = Progress
At 18:45 · chapter starts 18:25
Every painful experience contains a lesson, but only if you do the work of reflection after the hurt passes [1] — Ray Dalio "Pain arrives involuntarily. But most people skip the reflection and stay stuck in the hurt. Dalio's habit is to treat every painful event a…" 17:27 . Dalio warns that most people skip this step — they sit in the pain, eventually it fades, and the lesson is lost. His antidote is a practice he's maintained since 1969: Transcendental Meditation. He describes it as sitting quietly and repeating a meaningless sound (a mantra like 'Om') until the conscious mind quiets and the subconscious opens up [2] — Ray Dalio "Dalio has practiced Transcendental Meditation since 1969. He describes it as a way to bypass the conscious mind and access the subconscious…" 18:35 . This is where creativity lives — it's the hot-shower effect, engineered and repeatable. But meditation is only part of the system. The deeper habit is reframing every painful event as a puzzle: 'What does this tell me about how reality works, and what principle can I extract to navigate it better next time?' Over 35 years, he has written down thousands of such principles, many of which became the basis for Bridgewater's computerized decision systems. The process is recursive: pain creates reflection, reflection creates principles, principles create better decisions, better decisions reduce future pain.
Transcendental Meditation Since 1969
Dalio has practiced Transcendental Meditation since 1969. He describes it as a way to bypass the conscious mind and access the subconscious — where creativity lives. It's like the hot-shower effect, but on demand.
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