Hugh Jackman Explains Why He Practices Transcendental Meditation: 'Every Aspect of My Life Changed' (Exclusive)

The ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ star says he’s been meditating for 31 years

Hugh Jackman hasn’t shied away from showing how he keeps his body in superhero shape — but now, the Deadpool & Wolverine. star, 55, is sharing how mediation helps him keep other areas of his life in order.

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE at the David Lynch Foundation's Meditate America Gala, the actor said he started meditating 31 years ago — back when he was a “younger acting student.”

“I thought it would really help me with my acting. That's why I sort of went and it did,” Jackman tells PEOPLE. "It helps you be more present, more creative, more energized, more able to connect to people.”

“What I realized very quickly is it changed everything in my life into better: My relationships, my sense of who I am, my accountability with who I am — and literally, every aspect of my life changed,” Jackman said.

As the website Transcendental Mediation explains, it's “a simple mental technique, practiced silently with the eyes closed, sitting in any comfortable position.” It’s not “mindfulness” or breathing control, the site says, but rather a practice that  “has the potential to transform all areas of your life: mental and physical health, sleep, relationships, cognitive function, self-actualization, and much more.”

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The Greatest Showman star said that while he tries to keep his enthusiasm for transcendental meditation in check and avoid "converting" people, he can’t help but share his love of meditation with friends.

Related: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman React to Massive Record-Breaking Opening Weekend Box Office for Deadpool & Wolverine

“I am one of those people [where if] there's something good in my life — could be good restaurant, a good walk, or a beautiful day — I do like to talk to people around me," Jackman told PEOPLE.

He said he tells his friends, “ ‘You gotta check this out.’ I do like to share this. So this is something very dear and important to me.”

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Meditation, he tells PEOPLE, is how he “came back to me," saying it's "very, very deeply wonderful.”

He shared that he meditates on set every day at lunchtime because, as he tells PEOPLE, “when you work on these movies it can be grueling, can be tiring.”

Related: Ryan Reynolds Recalls Meeting 'Friend and Favorite Actor’ Hugh Jackman in Touching Tribute: 'I Was a Nervous Mess'

“For me, having that reset at lunchtime, I'll go back in the afternoon, and I can watch people on set, sometimes flagging a little bit, and I'm like, ‘Let's get ready to go.’ “

“It's not just energy," Jackman tells PEOPLE. "It's the quality of the energy that makes you feel grounded, feel present, more creative, more able to be spontaneous.”

“And when you work with Ryan Reynolds,” he added, a reference to his good friend, prank buddy, and costar, “you need to be spontaneous.”

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