April 12, 2017
Click here for the full written transcript of this podcast episode.
Meditation for insomnia?
Meditation as an alternative to a cup of coffee?
Meditation for mind blowing sex?
My guest on today's podcast has cracked the code on what kind of meditation works for all these goals, and for many more. Her name is Emily Fletcher, and Emily is the founder of Ziva Meditation and the creator of zivaMIND, the world’s first online meditation training. Her mission is to make meditation attractive and accessible to people who are ready to up-level their performance and their lives. Recently featured in The New York Times, named top 100 women in wellness to watch and regarded as one of the leading experts in Vedic meditation, Emily has been invited by companies like Google, Barclays Bank, sweetgreen, & Viacom to help improve company performance through meditation.
She began her ten years of training in Rishikesh, India and was inspired to teach after experiencing the profound physical and mental benefits meditation provided her during her 10-year career on Broadway, which included roles in Chicago, The Producers & A Chorus Line.
Emily has been invited to speak at Harvard Business School, Bulletproof Biohacking Conference, Summit Series, A-Fest and The Omega Center. So far, she has taught over 5,100 people to become self-sufficient meditators with this game changing practice to take with them for life.
Here is a Sleep zivaMeditation by Emily Fletcher:
During our discussion, you'll discover:
-How Emily went from being a Broadway actress to meditation…[7:55]
-The new science of gratitude, and why you don't even need to think of something that you're actually grateful for…[12:20]
-Why Emily does “lazy man's” meditation…[16:25]
-How your body has a built-in mechanism to become less tasty to predators when you are stressed (and how this can make your skin ugly)…[21:10]
-Why stress makes you stupid, and what you can do about it…[26:25]
-The best way to do “cross-training” for your brain…[34:50]
-What a sample meditation session would look like for energized focus if you, say, didn't want to drink a cup of coffee…[43:42]
-How you can use meditation to get the equivalent of taking a power nap…[49:10]
-The best form of meditation for sleep or insomnia…[62:30]
-How to use meditation to help you have mind-blowing sex, and the specific chemicals that can inhibit female orgasm and erectile dysfunction…[68:40]
-What Emily thinks of all the newfangled ways to meditate like the Muse headband and the Headspace app…[73:00]
-How about neurofeedback as a way to “shortcut” the brain into meditation…have you ever experimented with that? [76:40]
-And much more…
Resources from this episode:
–Ziva Meditation (Use code: BEN50 to save $50)
–Free Body Scan meditation videos on Google
–The PeakBrainInstitute for neurofeedback
Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Emily or me? Leave your comments below and one of us will reply!
I did the alternate nostril breathing technique while checking my HRV today and it totally worked. After 5 mins my HF/LF were completely balanced and my HRV score and rmsd both shot up from where they initially were. It was pretty immediate. Trippy
Emily blatantly rips off TM and pretends her sham technique is original. Disgraceful!
And Ben you are a tool for not calling her out on it.
Show some balls and don’t censor this comment.
I have noticed when competing in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu treatments, competitors (including me), stink. There is a smell to the fear, it is a different smell from just training. I think this bio chemical change is related to what Emily was saying about a secretion of acid from the skin. That acidity change of the skin probably allows certain bacteria to proliferate or give off a different smell.
Hi Ben!
Great show. Just curious…I was absolutely fascinated by Emily’s comment concerning the acid we release in order to taste bad to animals when in “flight or fight”. Unfortunately , I was unable to find any research to validate this phenomenon . Can you direct me to any resources that might explain this process in detail ?
Thank you!
Yes, it's basically a cortisol/epinephrine release that can taint the meat. It's happened to me before when hunting deer.
Hi Ben and Emily –
Thanks for all the great info. I am curious about the alternate nostril breathing. I have what I suspect is a deviated septum that I haven’t been able to have addressed surgically at this point. I was trying the breathing technique and found that I a great deal of trouble with the inhale on the “small” nostril side, making it tough to get air for that side of the technique. I frequently will use essential oils diffused or applied topically onto my mustache whiskers to open up those passageways and was wondering if that would add to or take away from the technique. I use a respiratory blend for that purpose – peppermint, eucalyptus, camphor, and some other stuff. Also, do you have any more tips (other than “get the surgery”) for making the most of my situation?
Yes, doing what you are doing with lavender can work really well, as can baking soda and sea salt. Daily antinflammatory use with things like ginger quite good too. I am not a doctor and this is not to be taken, interpreted or construed as medical advice. Please talk with a licensed medical professional about this. These are just my own personal thoughts and not a prescription or a diagnosis or any form of health care whatsoever.
Emily offered a discount on your show/podcast. What is the code?
Let me get that for you– which product was the code for?
“get $50 off with this link” – doesn’t work. :-?
Sorry, that discount special is no longer available
What is the name of the traditional form of meditation that this is derived from?
Nishkam Kharma Meditation
Loved this podcast and am interested in trying her program. Is there a discount code to use when signing up? I don’t see one in the show notes.
Follow the link in the shownotes and you automatically get the discount.
Why was Ben’s question “what is the difference between Ziva and TM?” evaded by the guest? Seems like an important issue to address…
You’re absolutely right. Emily is a fraud. Ziva is a blatant TM ripoff bastardized to try and look different. Try TM, pay for the course ONE TIME and that’s all you need for life. Nothing else, trust me. 20 minutes 2x a day and you’ll set.
Emily should be embarrassed and Greenfield should know better.
I reached out to Emily with your comment and I wanted to share her reply:
Hi guys. Thanks for your passion and for your desire to protect something that I hope you love and has brought you peace.
You will be pleased to know I have never taken a course at TM and therefore would have a very hard time "ripping it off". I am sharing a practice that has helped me immensely and am very passionate about sharing with others. After doing extensive research and study over the last ten years both intellectually and experientially I can help to clarify the differences and similarities between the two.
At the foundation of what I teach there is a tool that helps you to access a verifiable 4th state of consciousness. Different than waking sleeping or dreaming. Most ancient civilizations have some version of techniques like this. They are not exclusively found in India. But this is the thing I am assuming you are accusing me of ripping of.
In addition to teaching this tool to help the body get deep healing rest I also teach mindfulness and performance techniques.
At Ziva people move through a system of healing, habit adoption and positive psychology in addition to the meditation training.
We are partnering with neuroscientist at Stanford and with one of the best body data monitoring devices (ouraring) to help people track and understand the ways their bodies and minds are changing.
We also offer a lifetime of support and follow up once people take the course. We offer weekly group meditations and a very active online community.
So far we have helped about 7,000 people learn to meditate and are just getting started!
I hope you find a practice you love and start to celebrate other people joining you in meditation. This is the time to band together as an army of light workers, not to tear each other down.
Ben, I follow you a lot and respect you because you make a lot of sense, research, and because you practice what you preach. If it wasn’t for your participation (with your humility and controversial and well informed questions) this podcast would’ve been terrible. But let me explain: i know a few things about meditation and I was expecting to learn from this episode something else, something new backed up by research (or not even that, but maybe some new speculation, with data backing it up of course, about our mind or body), but this was not the case (I mean, not everything was useless but you know what I mean). Maybe my expectations were to high and there’s nothing more in meditation to know (which I big time doubt), but this lady ain’t much about the science, not as deeply as this program is. On top of that, she is trying to sell something original when it isn’t, besides the part that she did the work putting different things together. And I believe you realized that when she answered your question about the difference in TM and her Ziva technique, because it was a pretty lousy answer: “they are cousins”… really?… Anyways, why am I telling you this? Because I think she is not a good pick for future podcasts for people like me who’ve been meditating (and researching a few things) for years, I could’ve (and will do) listen to some other of your podcasts. So, to sum up: not enough scientific details; your guest is very parcial, she almost lies about TM and mindfulness (saying is a practice to get rid ONLY of right now’s stress? so, that being said, is there a null long term benefit to mindfulness?… I don’t believe that (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=mindfulness+long+term , make your pick), her effort to undermine the practice so her technique looks better was almost evident); and, most importantly, everything was pretty basic stuff.
Anyways, I still thank you, man, this definitely will help people who just started their practice. This is just constructive, I wish you well. Thanks for your research, interviews, practices, and spiritual (and subtle) advice.
Awesome podcast Ben! I’ve has my longest stretch of meditation ever going on almost 5 months and it has been so great. I look forward to learning some of Emily’s techniques. I really enjoyed the perspective she shared. Thanks for having her on
Hey Ben, is there a discount for your listeners interested in signing up to Emily’s course?
<a href="http:// -http://www.zivamind.com/ben/?oprid=6398″ target=”_blank”> <a href="http://-http://www.zivamind.com/ben/?oprid=6398” target=”_blank”>-http://www.zivamind.com/ben/?oprid=6398 <–get $50 off with this link
Just seeing this. Thanks!