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#HURDLEMOMENT: How to Combat Stress & Anxiety · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: But what I find what happens with meditation is that
0:02
Speaker 1: you're investing your time. So for a fifteen minute meditation,
0:06
Speaker 1: you're actually giving your body rest that's about five times
0:09
Speaker 1: deeper than sleep. And this is not insignificant because when
0:14
Speaker 1: you give your body the rest that it needs, it
0:16
Speaker 1: knows how to heal itself. And one of the things
0:18
Speaker 1: that heals itself from is stress. But not only the
0:21
Speaker 1: stress from today, all that stress from the past, all
0:23
Speaker 1: that stuff that we've been storing in our cellular memory.
0:26
Speaker 1: And so once that stress gets out of the body,
0:29
Speaker 1: you actually get a return on your time investment. You
0:31
Speaker 1: become more productive, you become smarter, you become faster, you
0:34
Speaker 1: become more decisive.
0:51
Speaker 2: Hey, Hurdler's Emily a body here bringing you another installment
0:54
Speaker 2: of Hurdle Moment from Hurdle. I know I promised you
0:58
Speaker 2: a marathon recap and it is coming. Trust me, if
1:01
Speaker 2: you listen to these in order, I got you. But
1:04
Speaker 2: it felt really time sensitive and appropriate that I pivoted
1:09
Speaker 2: a little bit this week to bring you this conversation
1:13
Speaker 2: with Emily Fletcher. She's the founder of ZeVA Meditation, and
1:16
Speaker 2: today we are chatting about ways.
1:19
Speaker 3: To rid the body of stress.
1:21
Speaker 2: It's kind of it's a little scary because I'm recording
1:26
Speaker 2: this the day before it comes out, which is currently
1:31
Speaker 2: Election Day. It's coming out on Wednesday, after Election Day, and.
1:37
Speaker 3: A lot of us are on edge right now.
1:39
Speaker 2: Regardless of what your political opinions might be, this is
1:45
Speaker 2: a tense time. And so because of.
1:48
Speaker 3: That, I know about you.
1:50
Speaker 2: But I have felt stressed and anxious and that feeling
1:53
Speaker 2: in my chest where like my breath feels heavy, and
1:57
Speaker 2: I sometimes feel like I'm doing everything wrong. And then
2:00
Speaker 2: I have other moments where I'm elated and I feel
2:01
Speaker 2: like I'm actually thriving and.
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Speaker 3: Just a whole sea of things.
2:06
Speaker 2: And so because I know that I am feeling this way,
2:09
Speaker 2: and because I just also know that many of you
2:13
Speaker 2: are probably feeling this way, that's why I'm bringing this
2:16
Speaker 2: episode to the feed this week. Of course, the tip
2:20
Speaker 2: of course, the tips and tools that I chat about
2:23
Speaker 2: with Emily today, they're relevant no matter when you are
2:26
Speaker 2: finding the.
2:27
Speaker 3: Time to listen to this episode.
2:28
Speaker 2: We all go through hard stuff, hence the title of
2:32
Speaker 2: this show, hurdles constantly, and we have the tools within
2:37
Speaker 2: us too, although it may not feel like it at
2:40
Speaker 2: the time. Handle hard stuff, and so that's what I
2:44
Speaker 2: got for you. As always, if you like what you
2:46
Speaker 2: were listening to, please make sure to tag Hurdle over
2:50
Speaker 2: on social media. It is at Hurdle podcast and I
2:52
Speaker 2: am over at Emily a Body and also rate Hurdle
2:56
Speaker 2: in the iTunes store. Leave a rating and review and
2:58
Speaker 2: make sure you are subscript to the Weekly Hurdle. I
3:01
Speaker 2: know on the Weekly Hurdle.
3:02
Speaker 3: Quickly before we dive into.
3:04
Speaker 2: This, I get messages constantly asking for my top picks
3:08
Speaker 2: for everything from sports bras to sneakers for different types
3:12
Speaker 2: of workouts, to reflective gear for low light running.
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Speaker 3: Wow, try to say low light running five times fast.
3:19
Speaker 3: I'll wave. I'm kidding, but not easy anyway.
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Speaker 2: I get asked for suggestions all the time, and every
3:25
Speaker 2: week I am putting some of my top picks, my
3:28
Speaker 2: favorites into the newsletter to answer all those questions. So
3:32
Speaker 2: if you subscribe, then you'll have them in your inbox
3:35
Speaker 2: every single Friday morning. And that's it for now. Let's
3:40
Speaker 2: take a deep breath with that. Let's get to hurdling.
3:53
Speaker 3: Today.
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Speaker 2: On the show, I am chatting with Emily Fletcher. She's
3:57
Speaker 2: the founder of Zeeva Meditator and We're here to chat
4:01
Speaker 2: all about managing stress.
4:04
Speaker 1: How you doing, m I am feeling a lot of things,
4:08
Speaker 1: to be quite honest, I'm putting my twelve years of
4:09
Speaker 1: meditation to the test today.
4:12
Speaker 2: I know this is a very timely topic. I mean,
4:15
Speaker 2: as if twenty twenty has not been full of stress period.
4:21
Speaker 3: There's just so many stressors happening, am I right? Yeah?
4:24
Speaker 1: I would call them demands, but yes, there are plenty
4:26
Speaker 1: of demands on our nervous systems at the moment.
4:28
Speaker 3: I like that word demands.
4:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a little bit of a vernacular shift. But
4:33
Speaker 1: if you think about it as if you believe that
4:35
Speaker 1: stress is external, that it's very easy to fall victim
4:38
Speaker 1: to the external circumstances. But if you just do this
4:41
Speaker 1: little flip of hey, I'm in a high demand time,
4:45
Speaker 1: meaning there's either things or people or events that are
4:48
Speaker 1: demanding my time and burning up my adaptation energy, then
4:53
Speaker 1: you can go back into the driver's seat and say
4:55
Speaker 1: I have a choice of how I choose to respond
4:57
Speaker 1: to this demand versus this is inherently stressful. So we
5:01
Speaker 1: can talk about this as we go, but it's basically
5:03
Speaker 1: just switching the idea from stress is happening to me
5:06
Speaker 1: to stress is my reaction to external demands, because we
5:09
Speaker 1: are always in charge of our own reactions.
5:11
Speaker 2: I love that, And I mean, what you're talking about
5:14
Speaker 2: is a big cornerstone of you know, integrating meditation regularly
5:20
Speaker 2: into your every day, into your weekly practice. So before
5:24
Speaker 2: we jump straight into the concepts and the practices that
5:28
Speaker 2: we can use to manage stress, I'd love to hear
5:31
Speaker 2: just a little bit about you and talk to me
5:34
Speaker 2: about Zeba meditation.
5:36
Speaker 1: Sure, so ZeVA is all about meditation for performance, Like
5:40
Speaker 1: I believe that we meditate to get good at life,
5:43
Speaker 1: not to get good at meditation, right, Like no one
5:45
Speaker 1: cares how many apps you have on your phone, No
5:48
Speaker 1: one cares how many or few thoughts you have when
5:50
Speaker 1: you sit quietly in a chair. But everyone cares how
5:53
Speaker 1: kind you are, how adaptive are you? How intuitive are you?
5:57
Speaker 1: How present are you? How's your sex strive? How's your
5:59
Speaker 1: immune syste People care about those things. And the more
6:02
Speaker 1: you have a daily practice, the more regularly you commit
6:05
Speaker 1: to a daily meditation practice, all of those things that
6:08
Speaker 1: I just mentioned not only get easier, but they start
6:11
Speaker 1: to be like your baseline, Like you just are intuitive,
6:15
Speaker 1: You just are present. You just are creative, you are healthy,
6:18
Speaker 1: and it doesn't become work or discipline. It's just your
6:20
Speaker 1: baseline level of happiness increases, your baseline level of intuition increases,
6:25
Speaker 1: and so at ZeVA, we're all about making things as
6:28
Speaker 1: accessible as possible. And one of the things that makes
6:32
Speaker 1: ZeVA quite unique is that we're not just teaching mindfulness,
6:35
Speaker 1: which most of the quote unquote meditation apps out there
6:38
Speaker 1: are teaching actually what I would call mindfulness, which means
6:41
Speaker 1: that someone's guiding you through right like someone is having
6:44
Speaker 1: you focus on your breath or visualize something, and all
6:47
Speaker 1: of that is good. Mindfulness is very good at dealing
6:49
Speaker 1: with your stress and then now. But meditation, and specifically
6:52
Speaker 1: ZeVA meditation is all about getting rid of your stress
6:55
Speaker 1: from the past, all that stuff that we've been storing
6:58
Speaker 1: in our cellular and now we even know on our
7:00
Speaker 1: epigenetic memory. This style of meditation can clean that stuff out.
7:04
Speaker 1: What happens when you get rid of stress in your
7:06
Speaker 1: body is that you start being able to perform at
7:08
Speaker 1: the top of your game. You can increase your IQ,
7:10
Speaker 1: you can increase neuroplasticity, you can decrease your body age,
7:14
Speaker 1: and so we're actually getting like a return on time
7:17
Speaker 1: investment when you do meditation versus just mindfulness. And then
7:22
Speaker 1: we finish off. The end of the ZeVA technique is manifesting,
7:25
Speaker 1: which is basically consciously creating a life you love. It's
7:29
Speaker 1: you getting intentional about what you want your life to
7:31
Speaker 1: look like. So the ZeVA technique is mindfulness, meditation, and
7:34
Speaker 1: manifesting the three ms. And so we use mindfulness of
7:37
Speaker 1: like the appetizer. The meditation is the main course, and
7:40
Speaker 1: then you finish with the dessert of manifesting. Interesting, Okay,
7:45
Speaker 1: I love this idea of dessert of manifesting.
7:48
Speaker 3: Who doesn't love dessert? Nobody?
7:51
Speaker 2: Okay, So then let's bring it back to this concept
7:55
Speaker 2: of stress.
7:57
Speaker 3: We've got a lot of it.
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Speaker 2: So hacks tricks, talk to me about how we can
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Speaker 2: rid the body of stress.
8:07
Speaker 1: Yes, so I'd say most of the hacks and tools
8:11
Speaker 1: would be more in the mindfulness camp of like, oh
8:13
Speaker 1: my gosh, it's election day, I'm freaking out. What can
8:16
Speaker 1: I do? I feel like I'm having an anxiety attack?
8:18
Speaker 1: And so I can give you a few just like
8:19
Speaker 1: real time in the moment, things you can do to
8:22
Speaker 1: create a state change. And then we can talk about
8:25
Speaker 1: the science of why meditation creates a trait change. All right, right,
8:29
Speaker 1: so mindfulness like, oh let me feel better in the now,
8:32
Speaker 1: meditation getting rid of stress from your past. So some
8:35
Speaker 1: tricks would be something called the two X breath. This
8:38
Speaker 1: is actually the first thing I teach in Ziva Online,
8:41
Speaker 1: which is our fifteen day training. And basically, all you're
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Speaker 1: doing is inhaling through the nose for the count of two,
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Speaker 1: and you exhale through your mouth for the count of four.
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Speaker 1: And that sounds simple because it is, but it is
8:52
Speaker 1: powerful enough to stop an anxiety an anxiety attack in its tracks.
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Speaker 1: So we can do a few together if you'd like,
8:59
Speaker 1: because you know, we're all busy, so let's just do
9:01
Speaker 1: it while we're listening to this podcast.
9:02
Speaker 3: Let's do it. Let's do it.
9:04
Speaker 1: Let's do it. So you just close your eyes, inhale
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Speaker 1: through the nose for two and exhale through your mouth
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Speaker 1: for four.
9:14
Speaker 3: Really good.
9:15
Speaker 1: Again, inhaling through your nose for two, right into the belly,
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Speaker 1: an exhaling through your mouth for four. Really good. On
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Speaker 1: this next, inhale breathing space into your belly, space into
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Speaker 1: your heart, and as you exhale, feeling your brow, soften
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Speaker 1: your jaw, soften your shoulders drop, your heart open, and
9:37
Speaker 1: your legs relax really good. And one final time for
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Speaker 1: good measure, and this time as you exhale, just letting
9:45
Speaker 1: gravity do its job, letting the weight of your shoulders drop,
9:48
Speaker 1: letting any unnecessary tension or speculation just wash down through
9:52
Speaker 1: the bottoms of your feet really good. So that was
9:56
Speaker 1: what like ten seconds of our life. And chances are
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Speaker 1: you feel a little bit more oxygenated, a bit more present,
10:04
Speaker 1: a little less holding in the body. And the reason
10:06
Speaker 1: why the two ex breath is so effective is they're
10:09
Speaker 1: actually calming down the vagus nerve, which is the super
10:12
Speaker 1: highway between your brain and body. And so it's really simple.
10:16
Speaker 1: But if you're having a panic attack, you don't have
10:17
Speaker 1: time for something complex, you know, you just need to
10:19
Speaker 1: keep it simple. So it's in for two out for four.
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Speaker 3: That was really calming. I liked it.
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Speaker 2: I feel like they're definitely going to be people that
10:28
Speaker 2: listen to the show who cringe when they hear other people.
10:31
Speaker 4: Breathing, but the people who hate totally anti asmrs. But
10:38
Speaker 4: I feel like, you know what, we just taught them
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Speaker 4: something really useful and it made me feel good, good,
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Speaker 4: good great. Okay, So that's one helpful tactic we have here.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and then the other one is sort of philosophical.
10:51
Speaker 1: But I'm a big fan of something called watering the flowers,
10:55
Speaker 1: not the weeds. And this is another simple concept but
11:00
Speaker 1: be very profound. And what happens is that we humans,
11:04
Speaker 1: we start to get good at problem solving, and then
11:07
Speaker 1: we look at more and more problems to solve. So
11:10
Speaker 1: what we accidentally do is that we start putting our
11:13
Speaker 1: attention on all the problems that there are to solve.
11:16
Speaker 1: And then what we're doing is we're watering the weeds
11:19
Speaker 1: instead of watering the flowers. So we all know that
11:21
Speaker 1: what we put our attention on grows. And so if
11:25
Speaker 1: you imagine standing in a garden and having a water
11:27
Speaker 1: hose in your hands, and if all you're looking at
11:30
Speaker 1: is the weeds, then naturally the hose is going to
11:32
Speaker 1: be pouring onto the weeds. So you're watering the weeds,
11:35
Speaker 1: watering weeds, growing more and more and more of the
11:37
Speaker 1: exact thing that you do not want. Versus, if you
11:40
Speaker 1: take your attention and put it on the flowers, then
11:43
Speaker 1: you're going to be watering the flowers, and you end
11:44
Speaker 1: up growing more and more of the things that you
11:47
Speaker 1: want to create in your life. And so the election
11:50
Speaker 1: is actually a perfect example of this because, as if
11:53
Speaker 1: you've watched over the past few months, what most people
11:55
Speaker 1: have been talking about is anti this. Don't vote for this.
11:58
Speaker 1: This person's terrible defie on this, anti this, And so
12:02
Speaker 1: we're pushing against, pushing against versus. What are we voting for?
12:07
Speaker 1: What are we moving towards? What's the world that we
12:10
Speaker 1: do want to see? And it actually takes a lot
12:12
Speaker 1: of bravery to put yourself out there and say I'm
12:14
Speaker 1: for something in this age of skepticism and cynicism and
12:18
Speaker 1: take down culture and cancel culture. It takes a lot
12:21
Speaker 1: of optimism and like I said, bravery to say, like
12:24
Speaker 1: I believe in this person, I believe in this concept.
12:27
Speaker 1: I'm going to dedicate myself to educating youth. I'm going
12:31
Speaker 1: to dedicate myself to creating a whole new system. And
12:35
Speaker 1: you know, this is an interesting example. People like Oprah
12:38
Speaker 1: Winfrey or Reese Witherspoon. Reese Witherspoon has actually done a
12:41
Speaker 1: beautiful job of this. She didn't go into Hollywood and say, oh,
12:45
Speaker 1: I hate this system. It's misogynistic. There aren't enough female directors,
12:49
Speaker 1: there aren't enough roles for women over forty. I'm going
12:51
Speaker 1: to try and take down this Hollywood patriarchal system, she said. No,
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Speaker 1: I'm just going to create my own. I'm just going
12:58
Speaker 1: to create a new one, a production company that's going
13:01
Speaker 1: to be so successful, and I'm going to write the
13:02
Speaker 1: scripts I want. I'm going to produce the movies I want,
13:04
Speaker 1: and I'm going to hire the actresses I want. And
13:07
Speaker 1: then she did the same thing with her book club.
13:09
Speaker 1: She knows it's mostly female authors that she's featuring, and
13:12
Speaker 1: so instead of trying to take down some old system
13:14
Speaker 1: to water the weeds, she builds a new thing. She
13:19
Speaker 1: watered the flowers. And I'm very interested in that as
13:21
Speaker 1: a concept of you know, I'm voting for this person.
13:25
Speaker 1: I am interested in creating this community instead of taking
13:28
Speaker 1: down something else.
13:29
Speaker 3: I dig that.
13:29
Speaker 2: I dig that, And then also, I mean in doing that,
13:32
Speaker 2: in watering the flowers, you also seem to have an
13:36
Speaker 2: opportunity to step away from the comparison thing, Like we're
13:41
Speaker 2: so worried about comparing ourselves or our progress or what's
13:44
Speaker 2: going on in our lives to other people.
13:46
Speaker 3: Large in part because of social.
13:49
Speaker 2: Media that in doing that, we we seem to take
13:52
Speaker 2: away our own joy and stray away from the things
13:56
Speaker 2: that make us happy because we're so worried that the
13:58
Speaker 2: things that we have are in good enough.
14:01
Speaker 1: That's right, And when you're looking at other people's successes
14:04
Speaker 1: all day, you're actually watering other people's success right. You're
14:09
Speaker 1: not putting your time and attention on your own projects,
14:12
Speaker 1: on your own creative endeavors. All you're doing is you're
14:15
Speaker 1: actually nurturing other people's dreams by doing that. Definitely, it's
14:19
Speaker 1: fine to celebrate other people's successes, but you know, our
14:23
Speaker 1: time and our attention are the two most valuable resources
14:25
Speaker 1: that we have, and so we want to take care
14:27
Speaker 1: that we are investing them wisely. And that brings me
14:31
Speaker 1: back to the meditation piece in that you know, with
14:33
Speaker 1: a lot of the apps and a lot of the
14:34
Speaker 1: mindfulness practices, they are good, but because they're only dealing
14:38
Speaker 1: with your stress and then now it's almost like you're
14:40
Speaker 1: spending your time versus What I find what happens with
14:43
Speaker 1: meditation is that you're investing your time. So for a
14:47
Speaker 1: fifteen minute meditation, you're actually giving your body rest. That's
14:50
Speaker 1: about five times deeper than sleep. And this is not
14:55
Speaker 1: insignificant because when you give your body the rest that
14:58
Speaker 1: it needs, it knows how to heal itself. And one
15:00
Speaker 1: of the things that heals itself from is stress, but
15:03
Speaker 1: not only the stress from today, all that stress from
15:05
Speaker 1: the past, all that stuff that we've been storing in
15:07
Speaker 1: our cellular memory. And so once that stress gets out
15:11
Speaker 1: of the body, you actually get a return on your
15:13
Speaker 1: time investment. You become more productive, you become smarter, you
15:16
Speaker 1: become faster, you become more decisive. And so for fifteen
15:20
Speaker 1: minute time investment, you get back three hours of productivity
15:23
Speaker 1: in your day. You might get back two hours of
15:25
Speaker 1: insomnia at night. You might get back days of being
15:28
Speaker 1: sick because your immune system is stronger. And so that's
15:31
Speaker 1: a big thing of like, we're not spending our time
15:34
Speaker 1: on meditation, We're investing our time. And that's one of
15:36
Speaker 1: the biggest things I hear about ZeVA specifically, is that
15:39
Speaker 1: people are like, no, my return on investment is huge.
15:42
Speaker 2: That's so interesting, because I mean, what I'm just like
15:46
Speaker 2: sitting here thinking about the difference of meditating for fifteen
15:49
Speaker 2: minutes versus sleeping for fifteen minutes and so you're saying
15:51
Speaker 2: that the meditation is an active process that's enabling you
15:54
Speaker 2: to be better in other areas of your life. So
15:56
Speaker 2: in the process of meditating, you're just getting a higher
15:59
Speaker 2: return investment than just laying down and taking a cat nap.
16:04
Speaker 1: One thousand percent. And I would also say that same
16:07
Speaker 1: argument applies to, well, I'm just going to snooze for
16:09
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes in the morning versus no, I'm going to
16:12
Speaker 1: get up and meditate. Like, if you start to understand
16:14
Speaker 1: that with this style of meditation, specifically, you're giving your
16:17
Speaker 1: body rest that's five times deeper than sleep, then you
16:21
Speaker 1: laying in bed snoozing hating yourself for fifteen minutes is
16:24
Speaker 1: actually robbing you a four times the amount of rest
16:27
Speaker 1: you could be getting if you just get up and meditate.
16:29
Speaker 1: And once you understand that concept, then this idea of
16:32
Speaker 1: I don't have time to meditate flies right out the window,
16:35
Speaker 1: especially if you're a snoozer. Especially if you're a snoozer.
16:38
Speaker 2: Okay, so we've talked about these two strategies for managing stress,
16:43
Speaker 2: but how else can we rid the body of stress altogether?
16:49
Speaker 1: So I'll share like sort of like the I call
16:52
Speaker 1: it art math. It's not math math, but I think
16:54
Speaker 1: it's very helpful illustration of why, like an everyday, twice
16:58
Speaker 1: a day meditation practice gets rid of this stress in
17:01
Speaker 1: the body. So if you were just to meditate once
17:03
Speaker 1: a day, you're basically just handling all the new stress
17:06
Speaker 1: that you pick up each day. But if you meditate
17:09
Speaker 1: twice a day, then you're getting rid of not only
17:11
Speaker 1: the new stresses from today, but the backlog of accumulated stresses.
17:15
Speaker 1: And it's really the eradication of the backlog of stress
17:18
Speaker 1: that ushers us into higher states of consciousness and performance.
17:21
Speaker 1: So here's the math. Let's say you wake up on
17:23
Speaker 1: Monday and you pick up ten units of stress. Okay,
17:27
Speaker 1: you go to sleep Monday night. Sleep is RESTful enough
17:30
Speaker 1: to burn away seven units, right, So you've picked up
17:33
Speaker 1: ten sleep burns away seven. You wake up on Tuesday,
17:36
Speaker 1: and now you're starting your day with three. You pick
17:39
Speaker 1: up ten units again on Tuesday, maybe a little extra
17:42
Speaker 1: if it's election Tuesday, and then you go to sleep
17:44
Speaker 1: on Tuesday night burn off seven. Wake up on Wednesday.
17:47
Speaker 1: Now we're starting the day with six. Pick up ten,
17:50
Speaker 1: burn away seven with sleep. Now we have nine, twelve, fifteen,
17:53
Speaker 1: and this just keeps building up and building up. This
17:56
Speaker 1: is why people tend to get more stressed the older
17:58
Speaker 1: they get. It's why we start to have midlife season
18:00
Speaker 1: anxiety attacks and panic attacks. It's why forty percent of
18:03
Speaker 1: American women are on anti anxiety medication. So then we
18:08
Speaker 1: start meditating. Okay, and here's the math. On meditation. You
18:11
Speaker 1: pick up the same ten units of stress, because life
18:13
Speaker 1: is still life. But you meditate Monday morning. That burns
18:16
Speaker 1: away three units. You meditate Monday afternoon. That burns away
18:20
Speaker 1: three units. So you've picked up ten. Meditation is now
18:23
Speaker 1: handled six for you. You only have four left. You
18:27
Speaker 1: go to sleep Monday night. Sleep burns away seven four
18:30
Speaker 1: minus seven. You wake up on Tuesday. Now you have
18:32
Speaker 1: negative three. Pick up ten, burn off a total of
18:35
Speaker 1: thirteen with the sleep and the meditation. Now on Wednesday
18:39
Speaker 1: you're at negative six, then negative nine, negative twelve, and
18:43
Speaker 1: bit by bit, day by day, meditation by meditation, we
18:45
Speaker 1: just keep chipping away at this backlog of stress as
18:48
Speaker 1: we've accumulated until we get rid of the entire backlog
18:51
Speaker 1: we've ever created. And that process for most people can
18:54
Speaker 1: take about seven to ten years, depending on how stressed
18:58
Speaker 1: we were as children, how old we are when we start,
19:01
Speaker 1: and how regular we are with the practice. But to me,
19:03
Speaker 1: it's like, wait, you mean in a few years I
19:05
Speaker 1: could get rid of all the stresses I've ever accumulated.
19:09
Speaker 1: You mean it doesn't take life times, and so I
19:11
Speaker 1: think that's pretty exciting. You know, it's not a quick fix.
19:14
Speaker 1: It's a practice, but it is the fastest, most effective
19:17
Speaker 1: means to eradicate stress that I've ever found.
19:20
Speaker 2: For those individuals who are getting just really frustrated, maybe
19:24
Speaker 2: they've tried meditation or some of the tools that you've
19:27
Speaker 2: mentioned over the last little bit before, and they just
19:30
Speaker 2: feel as though they're not working. You mentioned the word practice,
19:34
Speaker 2: and that's exactly what it is. It's something that you
19:36
Speaker 2: have to consciously work toward. For those individuals that are frustrated,
19:39
Speaker 2: what do you tell them on how to better embrace
19:43
Speaker 2: a practice?
19:45
Speaker 1: Great question. So the number one biggest obstacle to meditation,
19:50
Speaker 1: number one reason why people feel like their failures when
19:52
Speaker 1: they start meditation, and they'll say things like, oh, I
19:55
Speaker 1: want to meditate, but my mind is just so crazy.
19:57
Speaker 1: I want to meditate, but I can't sit. Still want
20:00
Speaker 1: to meditate, but I have add you know I hear
20:02
Speaker 1: this all day every day. You can meditate. Everyone can meditate,
20:06
Speaker 1: just like everyone can sleep. Everyone can meditate. Everyone has
20:10
Speaker 1: the innate ability to sleep. Everyone has the innate ability
20:12
Speaker 1: to meditate. The question is, are you using a technique
20:15
Speaker 1: that's right for you or are you trying to use
20:17
Speaker 1: a technique that was made for a monk? And do
20:20
Speaker 1: you have any training? Because if you don't have any training,
20:22
Speaker 1: and if you're doing what most of the apps are teaching,
20:25
Speaker 1: which is derivations of things that were originally made for monks,
20:29
Speaker 1: then you're going to feel like you're failing because you're
20:32
Speaker 1: going to be assuming that the point is to clear
20:34
Speaker 1: the mind, right, Like how many times have you heard
20:37
Speaker 1: We'll just clear your mind. Just sit down and take
20:39
Speaker 1: some breaths, and if thoughts come, just let them pass
20:41
Speaker 1: by like a cloud. Just clear the mind. So here's
20:44
Speaker 1: some really good news for anyone who has felt frustrated
20:47
Speaker 1: with meditation, anyone who's felt like a failure. The good
20:50
Speaker 1: news is that the mind thinks involuntarily, just like the
20:55
Speaker 1: heart beats involuntarily. So trying to give your brain a
20:59
Speaker 1: command to shut up is as impactful as trying to
21:01
Speaker 1: give your heart a command of stuff beating it does
21:04
Speaker 1: not work. And yet this is the criteria by which
21:06
Speaker 1: everyone is judging themselves as to whether or not they
21:08
Speaker 1: can meditate, and it's why they feel frustrated and it's
21:11
Speaker 1: why they quit. So the good news about ZEBA is
21:14
Speaker 1: that you don't have to clear your mind. Okay, You're
21:16
Speaker 1: allowed to have thoughts in this style of meditation. As
21:19
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, those thoughts are an indicator that
21:22
Speaker 1: stress is leaving the body, so you can actually be like, oh,
21:25
Speaker 1: thank you and goodbye, thank you and goodbye. And then
21:27
Speaker 1: our litmus test for whether or not the meditation is
21:30
Speaker 1: working does not become how successful was I making my
21:34
Speaker 1: brain flat line? Which ps only happens when we're dead.
21:37
Speaker 1: Our litmus test for is it working or not becomes
21:39
Speaker 1: am I better at life? Am I happier? Am I
21:42
Speaker 1: more present? Do I have a higher sex drive? Am
21:45
Speaker 1: I healthier? Am I more creative? Am I more present
21:48
Speaker 1: with my family? And then if all those things are happening,
21:50
Speaker 1: then we're like, oh, good, meditation's working even if I'm
21:53
Speaker 1: having thoughts.
21:54
Speaker 2: Right, okay, So that's promising then, so it's just really
21:58
Speaker 2: committing at the end of the day.
22:01
Speaker 1: Well, it's first knowing that meditation is a skill. So
22:04
Speaker 1: I would not say for someone to just white knuckle
22:06
Speaker 1: it and just sit down and be like, oh, I'm
22:08
Speaker 1: going to meditate, especially if they don't have any training
22:11
Speaker 1: and they're trying to clear their minds, because then it's
22:13
Speaker 1: just going to feel worse and then they're going to
22:15
Speaker 1: do a meditation shame s viral. So know that meditation
22:18
Speaker 1: is a skill like any other skill, and it does
22:20
Speaker 1: take some training. But once you have a tool that's
22:22
Speaker 1: designed for you and not a monk, and you have
22:25
Speaker 1: some training in it, then it becomes like a no brainer, like,
22:28
Speaker 1: of course I'm going to meditate, Like I cannot imagine
22:31
Speaker 1: going through my day without meditating twice, Like I'm running
22:34
Speaker 1: a company, i have twelve employees, i have a toddler,
22:36
Speaker 1: I'm working on my second book, and so I cannot
22:39
Speaker 1: even conceive of getting through my day without my meditation practice.
22:43
Speaker 1: I need my brain to work at a certain level.
22:45
Speaker 1: And so instead of me thinking about it like oh,
22:47
Speaker 1: I'm going to white knucklace, I'm going to force myself
22:49
Speaker 1: to meditate. It's like I crave it. Now I see
22:52
Speaker 1: how much better I feel, and how much better I
22:54
Speaker 1: operate on the other side of it.
22:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. Now I can totally, totally, totally appreciate it.
23:00
Speaker 2: That so then my question for you one last thing.
23:04
Speaker 2: I mean, we're talking about how to rid stress from
23:07
Speaker 2: the body, something that I have been advised before. Actually
23:14
Speaker 2: can be a little off putting for some and maybe
23:16
Speaker 2: a little awkward feeling. But I am a big, like
23:22
Speaker 2: large sigh scream if it's safe kind of person, and
23:28
Speaker 2: I'll never forget that. I sat down with Sadie Lincoln
23:33
Speaker 2: early on in Hurdle. She's the founder of Bar three,
23:37
Speaker 2: and she taught me this exercise which was literally just
23:40
Speaker 2: like audibly letting out three deep breaths, and I just
23:45
Speaker 2: felt in that process. I mean, we did breathing before,
23:48
Speaker 2: but just the actual noise making made such a big
23:52
Speaker 2: difference for me.
23:52
Speaker 3: Have you ever done anything like that?
23:55
Speaker 1: I have, and I love Sadie. She's actually a ZeVA graduate.
23:58
Speaker 1: I spoke at her Bar three conference and we taught
24:00
Speaker 1: a bunch of the shop owners. They went through ZeVA online,
24:03
Speaker 1: which was really exciting, and so what's happening there is similar.
24:07
Speaker 1: So when you make audible sound when you're sighing, I
24:10
Speaker 1: mean a sigh is very similar to the two ex
24:12
Speaker 1: breath which we did earlier, but putting sound on it
24:15
Speaker 1: actually helps to stimulate the vegas nerve even more. So
24:18
Speaker 1: something you could do, I mean, sighing or screaming is
24:20
Speaker 1: great because it becomes cathartic. But you could also do
24:23
Speaker 1: that with simple humming of just you know, in through
24:26
Speaker 1: the nose for two and then humming for the count
24:28
Speaker 1: of four, and that's really nice to stimulate that vegas
24:31
Speaker 1: nerve as well. But I think, you know, I'm all
24:33
Speaker 1: about a good catharsis like screaming, punching, journaling, like because
24:38
Speaker 1: especially as women, so many of us don't have anger
24:42
Speaker 1: as a part of our archetype. We haven't seen healthy
24:45
Speaker 1: examples of female warriors or female rage actually, and because
24:51
Speaker 1: it's so stigmatized and it's so repressed in our society
24:55
Speaker 1: that it's tricky to have healthy outlets for it. And
24:58
Speaker 1: so one of the cool things about ZEBA is it's
25:00
Speaker 1: very much because it's getting rid of the stress from
25:03
Speaker 1: the past, it becomes its own catharsis. And that's a
25:06
Speaker 1: big part of my job as a teacher is to
25:07
Speaker 1: help people through those beginning days and weeks when you know,
25:11
Speaker 1: people can have some extra tears, some extra anger, some
25:14
Speaker 1: extra just bubbling up and out. And it's why we
25:17
Speaker 1: have a beautiful global community, and it's why it's really
25:20
Speaker 1: good to have some support as you start a practice
25:23
Speaker 1: as powerful as this one. But I love the sighing
25:25
Speaker 1: and the screaming, Yes, I love the screaming.
25:28
Speaker 3: Awesome.
25:28
Speaker 2: Well, I know that these these tools and these suggestions
25:33
Speaker 2: surely are going to be some things that I'm leaning
25:38
Speaker 2: into them over the next few days and weeks and
25:41
Speaker 2: god months to come. So thank you so much for
25:44
Speaker 2: your time and your helpfulness. And I would love it
25:47
Speaker 2: if you could give me some insight on how the
25:51
Speaker 2: hurdlers can keep up with you and follow you and
25:54
Speaker 2: all things ZEBA.
25:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'd say the easiest place to find everything
25:59
Speaker 1: is at our website, which is Zeeva Meditation dot com.
26:02
Speaker 1: It's ziva, which is a Sanskrit word that means bliss.
26:06
Speaker 1: So at ZeVA Meditation dot Com you can find our
26:08
Speaker 1: fifteen day online training. And the cool thing about that
26:12
Speaker 1: is that once people move through the training, you have
26:14
Speaker 1: the mindfulness, the meditation, and the manifesting to take with
26:17
Speaker 1: you for life. You don't need like Wi Fi or
26:20
Speaker 1: an app or headphones to be charged. It's like, who
26:22
Speaker 1: wants to go to their phone to meditate? It's like
26:24
Speaker 1: going It's like having an AA meeting and a liquor store.
26:26
Speaker 1: It's like, we want to be able to unplug for
26:28
Speaker 1: some moments of our day. So once you graduate, you
26:30
Speaker 1: have those to take with you. And then I also
26:32
Speaker 1: have a book that came out last year. It's called
26:34
Speaker 1: stress Less Accomplish More And for people who really like
26:38
Speaker 1: the science of why to meditate and they really want
26:40
Speaker 1: to understand like how it impacts your sleep and your
26:43
Speaker 1: sex and your productivity and your body age that I
26:46
Speaker 1: go deep into nerdtown on that and stress Less Accomplished
26:50
Speaker 1: More into nerd town. I dabble in nerdtown often, so
26:56
Speaker 1: I feel you well, thank you so much.
26:59
Speaker 2: I am over at at Hurdle podcast and at Emily
27:03
Speaker 2: a Body Another Hurdle Conquered.
27:06
Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time.