Former White House ethics chief Walter Shaub Walter Michael ShaubTrump breaks with precedent on second night of convention Democratic senators call for ethics review into Ivanka Trump's Goya tweet Chris Cuomo blasts Trump over photo with Goya products: 'In the middle of a pandemic, they're selling beans' MORE said that he implemented group meditation sessions in his office to cope with the “chaos” of President Trump Donald John TrumpBubba Wallace to be driver of Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin NASCAR team Graham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Southwest Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE’s administration.

Shaub, a frequent Trump critic who resigned in July after a series of clashes with the president, told CNBC that he, along with up to a dozen staffers, practiced meditation daily using the meditation app “Headspace.”

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"It kind of made us strong in weathering a very tumultuous storm at the time," he told CNBC. "Of the ones who came regularly, they loved it, and we all seemed to hunger for it."

He said that he came up with the idea during the presidential transition after it became clear that Office of Government Ethics was going to run into conflict with Trump over issues like control of his business interests.

"We weren't prepared for the chaos in this administration,” Shaub said. "We weren't prepared for the assault on us.”

Shaub told CNBC that the stress in the 70-person office was “so intense” that the 10-minute meditation periods only made enough of an impact to get them through to the next task.

"Our stress was so intense in that period of time, there wasn't anybody after that felt like they weren't stressed anymore," he said. "Afterward, people felt like, 'OK, this is still miserable in what we're going through, but we can get back into the ring for another round now.'”

Headspace founder and narrator Andy Puddicombe told CNBC that the app saw a 44 percent increase in usage in the week after the election.

"Headspace is a tool to help people cope with these challenges, so we're not surprised but we are gratified to hear that the ethics team turned to our app for help," he said.