Introduction
For 26 years, Tom Cronin was one of Sydney’s top money brokers, working a trading floor that ran on adrenaline, hedonism and very little sleep. He also spent those years having panic attacks in his car, in toilet cubicles, and at client lunches he could never fully explain leaving. This episode of Don’t Let The Old Man In sits down with Tom, now a meditation teacher, author and founder of The Stillness Project, to talk about what actually happens when a high functioning man’s nervous system gives out, and what it takes to rebuild a life around stillness instead of chaos.
Why this conversation matters
Tom’s story will be familiar to a lot of men listening, even if the trading floor isn’t. The pattern is the one that counts: pushing through physical warning signs because stopping was never an option, hiding what’s really going on because looking strong matters more than being honest, and mistaking a slow motion breakdown for a run of bad weeks.
Tom describes the moment his body finally forced the issue, and the identity he had to let go of before meditation could do anything for him at all. He also admits how inconsistent his own practice still is, which is oddly reassuring coming from someone who has built a global movement around it.
What we discuss
- What was actually happening in Tom’s body during the panic attacks that hit him in car parks, toilet cubicles and client lunches throughout his broking career
- Why the trading floor culture of Sydney bond and swap broking in the 1990s ran on hedonism, and what that lifestyle eventually cost him
- The identity he had to dismantle, the strong alpha male broker persona that kept him functioning while everything underneath was falling apart
- How he discovered mantra based meditation, and why consistency, not perfection, is the thing that actually changes a nervous system
- The visualisation exercise that led, almost exactly as he pictured it, to a real book signing in New York for The Portal
- Why he started The Stillness Project with a goal of inspiring one billion people to meditate daily, and how his broking instincts turned out to be good training for it
- What his 75 year old self would tell him now, and why not stopping the fun is advice for every man heading into his fifties and sixties
Why midlife men should listen
If you’ve ever pushed through something you should have stopped for, or kept a strong face on while everything underneath felt unmanageable, this episode is for you. Tom doesn’t offer a five minute fix. He talks about what it actually took, over years, to rebuild his nervous system and his sense of self from the ground up.
He’s also refreshingly honest about the fact that none of this becomes easy. He still has days where the doubt creeps back in. What’s changed is what he does with it.
Guest info
Tom Cronin
Tom Cronin spent 26 years as one of Sydney’s leading bond and swap brokers before leaving finance to become a meditation teacher, speaker, coach and author. He discovered meditation while still working on the trading floor, after chronic anxiety, insomnia and panic attacks culminated in a nervous breakdown. He has since studied advanced meditation practices in Bali, India and Australia and now teaches a mantra based technique known as Deep Meditation.
Tom is the founder of The Stillness Project, a global movement working towards inspiring one billion people to meditate daily, and the producer and co-author of The Portal, a book and documentary exploring how meditation changed his life. He has published six books in total and works with executives, CEOs and corporate teams across Australia on stress management and leadership. His work has been featured in Vogue, The Daily Telegraph and The Sydney Morning Herald, and he regularly hosts meditation retreats and immersions internationally.
