Light Watkins — Vedic Meditation Teacher, Author of Bliss More, Knowing Where to Look | Self Growth Videos

Light Watkins was born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama. He moved to Los Angeles in his twenties, working in entertainment industry roles while looking — as he has put it in multiple interviews — for a sustainable meditation practice he could actually keep. He found Vedic meditation through the teacher Thom Knoles, a senior direct disciple of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (founder of Transcendental Meditation), and trained under Knoles to become a certified meditation teacher himself.

Watkins has taught meditation for over fifteen years, including individual sessions with celebrities such as Shailene Woodley, Gabrielle Union, Barrymore Jenkins, and thousands of private students. His public platform accelerated dramatically in the late 2010s with the publication of Bliss More: How to Succeed in Meditation Without Really Trying (2018) — a deliberately unintimidating introduction to meditation aimed at readers who had tried and failed at mindfulness apps. The book was widely reviewed and established Watkins as a leading voice in accessible meditation teaching.

His follow-up Knowing Where to Look (2021) is a collection of short meditative essays on spiritual practice, and Travel Light: Spiritual Minimalism to Live a More Fulfilled Life (2023) is his most recent book. He founded The Happiness Insiders — an online meditation community that now includes thousands of students practicing Vedic meditation remotely. He lives a deliberately minimalist lifestyle, famously having spent several years with no fixed address, traveling internationally with only a small amount of luggage.