http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/16/10-people-who-came-out-of_n_4086176.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

How Some Of The World's Most Successful People Discovered Their Spiritual Side

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Here are 10 amazing spiritual "coming out" stories from successful thinkers, performers and business leaders.

Jim Carrey

In 2009, Jim Carrey gave a heartfelt talk about the first time he realized that his self was something bigger than his mind, body or thoughts. Carrey said of his spiritual awakening:

"I understood suddenly how thought was just an illusory thing, and how thought is responsible for, if not all, most of the suffering we experience. And then I suddenly felt that I was looking at these thoughts from another perspective, and I thought, 'Who is it that is aware that I'm thinking?' Suddenly, I was thrown into this expansive, amazing feeling of freedom -- from myself, from my problems. I saw that I was bigger than what I do, bigger than my body, everything and everyone. I was no longer a fragment of the universe. I was the universe."

In a 2006 "60 Minutes" segment, Carrey also said that spirituality has helped him through bouts of depression, and helped him to engage with the world from a more loving place.

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Tim Ryan

Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), author of "A Mindful Nation: How A Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance and Recapture the American Spirit," has been instrumental in bringing mindfulness to the nation's capital -- and into schools and communities across the U.S. Since last December, he's led a silent meditation time on Mondays for members of Congress, the "Quiet Time Caucus."

The Catholic former high school football player turned to meditation (which he now practices for 45 minutes every morning) when he was feeling stressed and overwhelmed with campaigning and constant work travel. So he went on a five-day mindfulness retreat in the Catskills with Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction -- and the trip changed his life.

“I had two BlackBerrys,” Ryan told the Washington Times. “I checked them at the door. You learn to follow your breathing, appreciate how your mind works. When it starts to wander off, you come back to your body."

“By the middle of the retreat I felt my mind and body sync up. Like being in the zone."

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