Ellen Lawlor

Ellen Lawlor, a Redken Global performing artist and a member of the Cutler editorial team, uses meditation and passages from Buddhist books to keep herself centered. She started this routine about 10 years ago. "There were many factors in my life that were not working, and I wanted to make a difference in my daily encounters with people and be helpful. Instant gratification and thinking, 'It's all about me,' were not working," Lawlor explains. "I found that thinking about being in the world for the benefit of others was the key to a more peaceful existence. This brought about real creativity, and I now look at problems as a place to grow from." —L.M.