Arianna Huffington tells women: ‘Less stress, more living’

As president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, you would expect Arianna Huffington to be living her life at 100 mph.

Not so, she says (although she is often spotted running from event to event gripping multiple smartphones while tweeting at the same time).

In fact, Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post Media Group, is on a mission to persuade us all to slow down.

She describes herself as a “sleep evangelist,” has nap rooms in her offices at the AOL headquarters in New York and tries to start every day with meditation.

“I’ve been meditating for years but now I’m increasingly making it part of my daily routine,” she said.

In fact, she jokingly says she slept her way to the top. “There is that special glow after a good night’s sleep when you feel really in the zone. You feel like ‘Bring it on – you know I can handle anything!’”

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For a woman so successful, it is of course a mission with a business opportunity. The Huffington Post has a new “Less Stress More Living” lifestyle section and the company recently launched an iPhone app called “GPS for the Soul,” at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

“I am obsessed with stress reduction,” said Huffington. “We (The Huffington Post) are now moving into lifestyle and growing our offering in that department, especially at a time when we are recognizing more and more the dangers of stress.”

Huffington, 62, founded Huffington Post in 2005, and two years ago sold it to AOL for $315 million. She and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong inked the deal during halftime at the Super Bowl.

She was listed on Time Magazine’s “Time 100” list of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2006 and 2011, and among Forbes “100 Most Powerful Women” for the past three years.