Former White House ethics chief Walter Shaub said he began using meditation sessions to help his 70-person staff cope with the "chaos" of President Donald Trump's administration, The Hill reported Friday.
Shaub said he and up to a dozen staffers in the Office of Government Ethics met regularly during the first six months of Trump's administration to meditate using an app called "Headspace."
"It kind of made us strong in weathering a very tumultuous storm at the time," Schaub told CNBC.
"Of the ones who came regularly, they loved it, and we all seemed to hunger for it," he added.
Shaub, who resigned last July, said he originally came up with the idea during the transition period after Trump was elected president. He said he could see the problems that would ensue in handling questions with regard to Trump's various business dealings.
While Shaub said the office was "prepared for the intensity" that takes place in a new administration, he said they "weren't prepared for the chaos in this administration," adding, "We weren't prepared for the assault on us."
During the 10-minute sessions, participants would sit silently in a conference room with the lights dimmed and eyes closed as they were guided through meditation exercises from the app, CNBC reported.
While the meditation sessions helped, Shaub said it didn't completely alleviate the stress, but enabled staffers to "get back into the ring."
"Our stress was so intense in that period of time, there wasn't anybody after that felt like they weren't stressed anymore," he said. "Afterward, people felt like, 'OK, this is still miserable in what we're going through, but we can get back into the ring for another round now.'"
The White House had no comment to Shaub's remarks, according to CNBC.
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