Miley Cyrus is encouraging young girls to meditate more and take time to discover what they really want out of life.

The pop star and actress admits she lost her way during a tough period in her life - and started hanging out with people she thought were "cool" in a desperate bid to be just like them.

Then she found meditation and realised her best friend is herself - and she urges other confused teenagers to follow her example and get in touch with the real you.

Appearing on TV show The Conversation with Amanda DeCadenet, the former Hannah Montana star says she's sick of meeting young girls who want all the wrong things in life.

She explains, "Some girls that I see and I see what they want and what is the most important thing in their life, I just wanna shake them and say, 'Wake up! The world is so much greater. Go, be by yourself, go meditate, go spend 10 minutes really looking at yourself and I don't know if you're gonna like it.'

"I always say, 'If I met me, would I really like me...? Would you really wanna be your friend?'

"We kind of judge people and we put people down about the things that we really don't like about ourselves. It's the same with the people you choose to have in your life."

The realisation made Cyrus rethink who her real friends were: "I see the people that when I was in a sad point in my life and when I so just wanted to prove a point of, 'I'm not who people think I am...' They were cool... but I'm so sick of people trying to be too cool. Cool is so dumb."

