“Stress makes you stupid.”
Her words stopped me in my tracks.
It was a Friday night. I was out walking the dog trying to clear my head and burn off some steam after a really stressful week and a particularly intense interaction where I’d blurted out a bunch of inappropriate vitriol. I was angry, resentful, overwhelmed and most definitely stressed. Not one of my best moments.
To distract myself from my embarrassment and frustration, I’d turned on a podcast that seemed appropriate – How to Meditate When You Don’t Have Time. This summed up my relationship with meditation to a tee.
As I angry-walked through the neighborhood, those four words – “Stress makes you stupid” – struck me like a punch in the gut. I had to rewind and listen again. Because wow was I stressed and holy cow did I feel stupid.
I’ve had a long history of failed attempts at incorporating meditation into my daily routine. I’ve tried it all: the 21-day challenges, the apps, the classes, guided, solo, group, one-minute, 10-minute, 20-minute, seated, moving… I’ve done All. The. Things. And it never stuck. I don’t know that I’ve even made it all the way through 21 days before! (sorry Oprah and Deepak… I tried!)
The whole thing just felt depressing because I could never get my arms around it.
“We don’t meditate to get good at meditation; we meditate to get good at life.”
Interesting… tell me more.
“Meditation isn’t about clearing your mind! It’s like there’s some dude running around telling everyone this lie about meditation, and we’ve got to stop him! That’s not what meditation is!”
Wait, what?
Meditation isn’t about clearing your mind? Every minute I’d ever spent meditating had been chasing the holy grail of a clear mind, something I’d never achieved and just made me feel like a failure.
“Done right, 15-minutes of meditation provides deeper rest than an hour-long nap.”
Now Emily really had my attention.
And so, the moment I got home from my walk, I went straight to my laptop, looked up Ziva Meditation, and signed up for her main course. With a 3-day free trial, I figured I’d get a sense quickly if this was as different from the other meditation programs I’d done as it seemed.
That was October 22nd, 2021.
Today is February 9, 2022 and I am proud – and still amazed – to report that I have meditated not just once, but twice daily almost every day since.
Yep, you read that correctly. Not only has Emily taught me to become a daily meditator, she has turned me into a twice daily meditator. Had you told me this on October 21, 2021, I would have laughed in your face. And here I am, more than three months later, still at it.
(In fact, I’ve been holding off telling you about this because I wanted to make very, very sure it would stick. Even though we’re only 3+ months in, I can tell you I notice such benefits when I do both meditations and such setbacks when I don’t, I can guarantee this is part of my daily routine moving forward.)
Speaking of benefits, here are a few of the things I’ve noticed since I started practicing Ziva Meditation:
- While my stress load hasn’t decreased – in fact it’s increased significantly – I’m far better able to handle whatever comes my way.
- I’m sleeping better.
- I get a whole second wind of energy and creativity in the late afternoon after my second mediation. My productivity goes through the roof at the time of day when I used to lag.
- I’m more patient with my husband and kids.
- I just feel better overall… more “resourced”.
Now, if you’re thinking, as I was, “there is no way on God’s green earth I have time to meditate twice daily,” you need Emily’s program as much as I did. I cannot recommend this program enough. Check it out here.
