. this is "nightline." >> tonight, medication misgivings. we've all heard about the benefits. but who has the time? the concentration? >> tomorrow i'm pulling a 16-hour day. i wake up at 4:00. then you come home and you're exhausted. where do you find the time to sit for even five minutes? >> on a cross country road trip, we meet with meditation skeptics of all stripes. exploring the challenges, debunking the myths. plus, turning times. we're backstage at one of manager's favorite game shows to meet the woman behind the wheel. >> i get all dressed up lying like a bar by doll.

>> vana white still smiling. 35,000 gowns. how she landed the job beyond her wildest dreams.

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sage action saja thanks for joining us. tonight a cross country road trip with the goal of helping americans add a little more sanity into their lives. with the new year, meditation is a big issue. a story of how one person came to meditation and now he's hitting the road to help others adopt the habit. getting some unlikely converts along the way. >> this is ridiculous. >> this is my meditation chariot. >> i need to take a picture of this. >> gassed up for an 11-day, cross country quest to find out what's stopping wannabe meditateors from adopting this simple habit. >> i cannot sit still. >> i feel so guilty. >> i am joined by one of myyyy favorite teec

favorite teachers, jeff warren. i'm hoping that he's though he's canadian -- >> you can forgive him for that. >> i was surprised they let canadians in the building. our first stop my workplace. abc news. >> have you ever gone cross country on a bus? >> no. not the whole thing. >> this is where my personal ad vent wurs meditation began 13 years ago -- >> we're going now to dan harris. >> with a panic attack live on "good morning america." >> really to prescribe statins slowly -- >> that on-air meltdown helped me to embrace a practice i always thought was both ridiculous and impossible for somebody like me about the attention span of a 6-month-old golden retriever. our first test subjects, my "good morning america" co-anchors who are in desperate need of help. >> oh, we're rolling!

>> see what i mean? >> i cannot sit still. >> abc's paula farris is the perfect spokesperson for the first myth we will end counter. i can't meditate because my mind won't stop wandering. here's the good news. mind wandering is natural and inevitable. getting natural and starting again is the whole thing. brain scans of meditators show healthy changes associated with focus. day two, and we've come to the studios of elvis duran. america's top 40 deejay. >> so dan is going to go out into the other room and have conversations with you guys. trying to find out who is meditating and who isn't. what do you think of it? should you start? >> what's stopping you? >> so why are you here on this

show? >> because you're out of your mind, clearly. and you need help. every morning i listen to the show and it's a cry for help. >> when we sit down with elvis' co-host, we encounter the second big myth that stops people from meditating. i don't have time for this. >> i am so busy every single day. tomorrow i'm paulg 16-hour day. i wake up at 4:00. then you come home and you're exhausted. where do you finds the time to sit for even five minutes? >> you're the ideal person that needs to be able to actually find what it means to have a more meditative form of twhangs you're in the middle of the busyness. >> more good news. even a minute of meditation counts. you can start with that and build from there. the next few days will take us south. we'll meet young military cadet who's look way cooler meditating than do i. >> it definitely changed my evenings and how i felt.

the narrative that was going through my head or trying to meditate. it faded away. i was more present in myself. >> nice to meet you. >> we'll set up a meditation booth on the streets of new orleans. and then we'll head west to new mexico. this is a long drive so let me give you a little back ground. after i discovered meditation, i wrote a book called 10% happier. for this one we're keeping it real. >> i brought my teachers together to provide a deeply practical meditation lesson. >> where now? self-conscious. >> i realize that had many people who want to do it, this is about getting fast obstacles. this is called meditation for fidgety skeptics.

in new mexico, they give voice to our next myth. meditation is self-indulgent. >> i feel like taking those five minutes is so guilty. i could have been planning for therapy. i could have been coming up with more things to do with my baby. i could have given my husband five minutes. so guilt is my biggest barrier. >> the answer to this myth is also simple. if you can't take care of yourself, you can't help other people. day nine of the road trip and we're in the back of a squad car in tempe, arizona. >> i typically go on a call that involves more risk. >> people think if you're meditating, you're going to go soft a little bit? >> correct. absolutely. so they say, to do medication, what's going on? what are we doing? >> sergeant johnson is suffering

from another common misconception. if i get too happy, i'll lose my edge. his concerns are answered the very next day by his own colleagues who say meditation has made them more effective. >> i reenter the stream of the conversation. >> there's a lot of tension between the police and the community right now. i don't think meditation is the cureall for anything. but do you think this could be a useful tool in the tool bag for dealing with what is a tense situation? >> i'm 5'2" before the 110 pounds. i'm a tiny officer. when i show up, it is essential that i'm calm. i find since i've been meditateding very recently that my performance is better. a lot of times in our culture, people don't want to talk to you. so i have to be in the right mind set so people can trust me and know that i'll be able to help you. >> we don't have anything for that. >> in los angeles, in the final

day of our tour, we get a visceral sense of the impact meditation can have in an individual's life. >> there are a million other things you could be doing, making that choice. strength of mind. >> we're at the office of inside out writers. it teaches creative writing to formerly incarcerated youthful. >> does anyone have anything they can write about? okay. everybody writes. >> we do some writing and then we hear an emotional reading from candace wright who has lived through childhood abuse and incarceration. >> i haven't had a family member for the past 13 spear actually loved me. my dad just got out of jail for doing 25 years. and i don't know how to love him. i'm confused on how to love him. >> i heard you judging yourself and saying, you're supposed to open up to him or you're not supposed to treat him like that.

that's okay. just remind yourself that's who you are. you are a part of him and you are welcoming him. >> shortly after the shoot, candace reaches out to say both she and her father are now meditateding and getting a lot out of it. a fitting and moving ending to an 11-day, 18-state road trip with the goal of helping americans adopt a simple practice that can make all of us at least 10% happier. this is dan harris all over america. >> you can check out dan harris' book. meditation for fidget y out today and in stores. vanna white takes us behind the scenes of wheel of fortune. . i sure had a lot on my mind. my 30-year marriage... ...my 3-month old business... plus...what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital,

but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? so i made a point to talk to my doctor. he told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots. eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. eliquis had both... ...and that turned around my thinking. don't stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. if you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily... and it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. plus had less major bleeding. both made eliquis right for me.

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now through january 10th. ikea. . literally for decades now, we've welcomed her into our living rooms. now we're going into hers. tonight we revisit vanna white in her home and her home away from home. "wheel of fortune." she explains what it has meant to her to turn all those times for all those years. >> now we will officially welcome her. please do that for vanna white. vanna! >> a pirouette! >> congratulations and welcome. >> thank you. invery excited and happy to be part of "wheel of fortune." >> "wheel of fortune"!

>> 6,500 gowns later -- >> never the same one twice. >> and vanna white, now 60 years old, still here. still loving it. >> i get all dressed up like a bar by doll. i give someone else's money away. there's nothing else i want to do. >>ehind the scenes. >> somewhere along the line, we became more than a popular show. we became part of the popular culture. >> once an aspiring model from myrtle beach, has now carried the olympic torch, appear on the cover of "newsweek" and playboy. >> when i became hefner decided to put me on the cover. i said if you put these pictures on there, it could roo inmy career. >> did you remain friends? >> i didn't go to the mansion after that.

>> there is now a verb, vanna white. >> that means to present. to present. >> already in the guinness book of records. >> for most frequent clapper. they say i have clapped more than 3.9 million times. >> wheel is celebrating its 35th season. simple, massively successful, they shoot six shows a day just four days a month. that's the gig. >> oh! nice! >> i have to take two goes on that. >> not quite as easy as it looks. >> you see? i caught my finger in the thingy. >> nothing lasts 35 years. >> what are you doing? >> we're playing hangman on tv. >> vanna white, perhaps the main ingredient of the secret sauce.

>> a nice little haven you have up here. >> it is my home away from home. this is has chandeliers. >> well, i spend a lot of time here. >> we only work four days a month. >> but they're long days. >> kathy has been dressing her for years now. >> she made this for me in 1995. i wear this every day i come to work. >> their sartorial instincts now one. >> $180. not bad. >> i like wearing the short ones best. i do. i don't trip. >> how long do you have between shows? >> ten minutes. >> ten minutes? >> yes. we change very quickly. >> we change the dress, we change the shoes, the lipstick, i'll stand in front of the mirror and i'll do a few of these. >> just to pump them up? >> well, yes. yes.

a girl has got to do what a girl has got to do. >> you've also done very well out of the show. you've earned a lot of money. >> yes, i have. i'm a business woman. i have other investments, too. real estate. a long time ago i would buy a house and flip it. but now everybody does it. i don't do it anymore because there are no houses to buy. >> for someone on tv so long, vanna white is quite a private person so this is rare access to casa vanna. >> i'm shy. i'm not outgoing. i'm a homebody. i like staying home. you're on tv. >> but you know what's interesting? how much do i talk on tv? this is my closet. >> here we go. walk-in closet. hello! >> there you go. >> purses. >> did you know she is big on crochet? >> so many people are having

babies so i do it on airplanes. >> that's me. >> next door, home gym. how many hours in here? >> 45 minutes a day on this. this is my spin bike and this doesn't happen every shoot. she followed us around with a tray of snacks. that's all i had laying around. >> she has a rep as a pool hustler. >> that was lucky. i'd better get some chalk. >> did you see that? >> yep, i did. >> who is getting hustled here? >> she has two kids, was married to george, divorce in the 2002. now has a boyfriend john. >> we've been together for six years. he's great. we get along terrific. he is like a male version of me. i met him through my best friend. he was hesitant. she said i have a girlfriend i want to you meet. vanna white. he said oh, no, not those

hollywood people. i'm not interested in that. but as he said, i'm just the opposite of that. >> her father still watches wheel every day. >> i call him every day to say hello. >> have you ever had a massive fight with pat? >> no. i've never had one fight. well, one fight. putting ketchup on my hotdog. he does not like that. how can you eat ketchup on a hotdog? >> i've been trying to find something bad about her. >> she is who she is. >> pat didn't say anything bad about you backstage. >> he didn't? whew! >> i'm striking out big time with the bad stuff. >> have you ever thought about replacing her? >> not for a second. >> if you say to her, what do you do? >> she says i touch letters and they light up. >> it's not exactly the most feminist job in the world. >> you know what though?

i feel like i hold my own on that show. i don't feel like it is degrading because i'm walking in a dress touching letters and i don't think people look at it anymore. they think of as you as team, a couple, that put on a good show. i'll be the first to make fun of me. i love my job. i think it is great. >> for the last 20 years, she's only had to touch the letters. >> by the way, these are tv monitors turned to the side. touch the blue one. >> and she signed up for at least three more years. this is "nightline," los angeles. up next, holiday cheer where you least expect it. a crowded airport. ♪ i'll be home for christmas

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