[APPLAUSE]
EMILY FLETCHER: Hi, friends.
Thank you so much
for being here.
I am really excited
about the turnout.
We weren't really sure how
many people we would have.
I like that we're
standing room only.
And hello to our friends
who are watching online.
So this talk is
titled "Why Meditation
is the New Caffeine."
And I love that these
two words are even
being used in the
same conversation
because why would any
of us drink caffeine?
Because we want to get
more done in less time.
So it leads me to believe
that meditation is really
starting to be thought of, now,
as a productivity tool, which
is exciting to me because this
has been my mission with Ziva
Meditation is to re-brand
meditation as a productivity
tool.
So before we start,
I want us to get
on the same page on
a few vocab words.
Remember, like, we're in
third grade, just vocab.
So Ziva is a Sanskrit
word that means bliss.
It's one of the many Sanskrit
words that mean bliss.
It's also a Hebrew
name that means
one who is radiant or kind.
And since bliss,
radiance, and kindness
are very common side
effects of meditation,
it felt like a good fit.
Plus, I thought
it would look good
on a t-shirt, which it does.
And PS, when I say the word
bliss, I don't mean happiness.
When I say bliss, I mean a
calm, quiet inner contentedness.
It's the piece of you that
knows that everything's
going to be OK.
And it's possible to experience
bliss even when you're sad,
even when you're angry.
Bliss is sort of like this
background piece of you
that knows that it's all
going to work out just fine.
So the word meditation, though,
is a little bit trickier
to define because we all
have our idea of what
we think meditation is.
The word meditation is
sort of like the word food.
You know, so we're all
enjoying our lunch today,
and so just like
different types of food
will do different
things to the body,
different types of meditation
will do different things
to your brain and
nervous system.
So one of the things we're
going to cover in today's talk
is the differences between
the two most popular styles
of meditation and how they
affect the brain differently.
But I'm really just
thrilled that we're even
talking about meditation and
caffeine in the same sentence.
So today, we'll cover
that-- why meditation's
the new caffeine, the two most
popular styles of meditation
and how they affect
the brain differently,
when stress is
actually good for you.
Stress is getting sort
of a bad rap these days.
We're going to talk about
when it's good for you.
And then, also, how
to not let your goals
get in the way of your success.
I'm going to take
a shot in the dark
and guess that most of you
guys are overachievers,
in this room, and
very ambitious,
and goals and results-oriented.
So yes.
So before we talk about why
meditation is the new caffeine,
I think that we have to
look a little bit deeper
into what caffeine does
to our nervous system
and what meditation does
to our nervous system
because interestingly, there
are quite a few similarities.
Both will make you
feel more energetic.
Both can make you
more productive.
You have to do both
of them every day.
You have to stop the inertia
of your day, to do both.
So you know, Jerry Seinfeld
has been practicing
the same style of meditation
that I teach for 40 years.
And he likens it to a cellphone
charger for your mind and body.
He's like, you meditate,
and on the other side,
you come out more
refreshed, more recharged.
So this is what it can feel
like, after we drink caffeine.
So as I was preparing
for this talk,
I did quite a bit of
research on exactly what
caffeine is doing to the body.
And some of the
things surprised me.
I thought that caffeine
was just simply
a stimulant, that it
just sort of stimulated
your nervous system and
that's the reason that you
got more productive.
But it's not as simple as that.
Molecularly, caffeine is very
similar to a chemical called
adenosine.
Now, adenosine is the thing
that your brain produces
throughout the day-- which
is what makes you sleepy--
and is the thing
that cues you to go
to bed at the end of the night.
So when you ingest caffeine,
these caffeine molecules
are very similar to
adenosine, so they
block your brain's
adenosine receptors.
So it disallows your brain
from knowing that you're tired,
which is why you're
able to do more.
You know, mid-afternoon,
you're like, oof,
I've got to take a nap.
But you're like, I don't
have time to take a nap,
so let me drink some
coffee, instead.
And then you're
able to power out.
Sounds good so far, right?
But now we've got to talk
about the differences
between meditation and caffeine.
Caffeine is essentially
artificially hijacking
your nervous system.
It's disallowing you from
feeling how tired you
are because that caffeine
is mimicking that adenosine
and blocking those receptors
in your brain, which is not
that bad for you,
in and of itself.
It's not hurting you
while it's happening.
But the other thing
that caffeine does
is that it stimulates more
neural activity in the brain.
And when your pituitary
gland notices this increase
in neural activity,
it thinks that there's
some sort of an
emergency happening.
And so it triggers
your adrenal glands
to start releasing adrenalin.
And as you guys probably
know, adrenaline
is the number one
stress chemical
that gets released in your body
when you launch into a fight
or flight stress reaction.
So basically, caffeine will
make you more productive.
It will make you
feel more energized.
But there's quite a cost
that you have to pay.
There's quite a price that
you have to pay for that.
And really, that's
the come down.
So you drink too
much coffee, and you
start to get the
nervous shakes, right?
Or afterwards, you
feel even more tired
than you were
before you started?
This is really the
price that we pay.
I liken the human
body to a casino--
you can cheat it
for a little while.
You can come out ahead
for a little while,
but ultimately,
the house is always
going to win because
your body is,
in fact, a perfect accountant.
So now let's talk
about what meditation
is doing to the body.
Excuse me.
I think I have a little
adrenalin going right now.
I talk really fast
about meditation,
and you get a little dry mouth.
So meditation will also
make you more productive.
And it will also energize you.
But it does it very
differently than caffeine does.
What meditation does is
that it gives your body
rest that is arguably
somewhere between two
to five times deeper than sleep.
So this is not an
insignificant point.
When you meditate,
you're giving your body
rest that is somewhere
between two to five times
deeper than sleep.
And when you give your
body that deep rest,
you're essentially de-exciting
your nervous system.
And when you de-excite
something, you create order.
When you create order
in your nervous system,
then all of those stresses
that we've been picking up,
through our decades
of overachieving,
can start to leave the building.
So imagine that you have a
pot of water on the stove.
If you turn up the heat
on that pot of water,
and you excite the
molecules, they're
going to start to
move very quickly.
And if you're trying to
extract something out
of that pot of boiling water, so
you have like a grain of rice--
PS, the grain of rice
represents stress
in this analogy-- you're
trying to pull that stress out
of the pot of water.
When it's excited and the
molecules are moving quickly,
it's very hard to do that.
When you meditate, you
de-excite the body.
So it's like cooling
down that water.
It's de-exciting the
molecules in that water.
So imagine it was almost frozen.
It would be sort of slushy,
and you could easily
go in and detect that rice
and pull it out of the water.
Same thing with
stress in our body--
we meditate, we give
our body that deep rest,
de-excite our nervous system,
and it's easier for stress
to leave the body,
which is one of the ways
that meditation makes
us more productive.
Contrary to popular
belief, your stress
is not helping you in the
productivity or performance
department.
I'll talk more about
that in a moment.
But what I'm
interested in right now
is really talking
about the rest.
If you're resting two to
five times deeper than
sleep when you meditate,
then when you come out
of that meditation, then you
are, in fact, more awake.
A 20 minute meditation
is basically
the equivalent of doing an
hour or an hour and a half nap,
but you don't have
the sleep hangover.
So you go into meditation,
give your body that rest,
and when you come out,
you're more awake.
You are, in fact,
more conscious.
And a few of the attributes
of having more consciousness
are the ability to
hold many things
in one awareness,
the ability to detect
subtlety-- subtle differences
in things-- and the ability
to detect themes, all
of which are going
to make you more productive,
but in a sustainable way
versus the way caffeine does it,
which is just costing your body
a little bit more.
Now, PS, I should
say that I'm not here
to, like, give anybody
any rules or be like,
put away that coffee.
You're like, damnit, why did
I bring coffee to this talk?
My personal philosophy
on drugs are
that if the pros outweigh
the cons, then enjoy.
Right?
But I just think we
have to understand
what the pros and
what the cons are
and what they're costing us.
Oh, and PS, there
are some monks that
have been experimenting
with coffee and meditation
for hundreds if not
thousands of years.
Some people report that I'll
drink coffee before I meditate,
and it proves to be a really
fascinating experience.
Now, this is dependent
almost entirely
on what kind of meditation
that you practice,
which leads me to
our second point
that we're going to
cover today, which
is the differences
between the two most
popular styles of meditation.
I noticed we've got
some new people in.
So just by a show of
hands, how many of you guys
have tried meditation before?
Great.
Amazing.
And how many of you guys have
a daily meditation practice?
Great.
I love it.
Who here has tried
meditation and hated it?
I know I did.
OK.
Awesome.
I'm still down that you're here.
Way to give it another shot.
And then we talked about who's
drinking coffee every day.
Almost everyone.
Right?
Yeah.
OK.
There's two styles of meditation
that are the most popular
and the most common,
right now, in the West.
One of them is mindfulness.
Has anyone here heard of
mindfulness meditation?
Yeah.
So, and that's a lot of what's
happening here at Google.
You know, Chade-Meng Tan,
or Meng, as he's known,
you guys probably
know who he is--
he started an initiative here
called Search Inside Yourself,
which I think is-- oh,
hello, that wasn't me--
which is actually a great title.
And it's a
mindfulness-based training.
I had the great, good fortune
of meeting with Meng last year,
when he was just starting
the Search Inside
Yourself training.
There's mindfulness, which is
basically a directed attentions
type of meditation.
And then there's a non-directed
attentions type of meditation.
And this is what I teach.
It's basically a self-induced
transcendence style.
So we've got mindfulness.
And then we've got a
self-induced transcendence
style of meditation.
Now, mindfulness is more
of a waking state practice.
It's generally taught over
the course of eight weeks.
You meet once a week
for eight weeks.
And it can be quite gentle.
And the results are a bit more
gradual because it's something
that you're integrating
into your waking state.
It's basically the practice
of bringing yourself back
into the now.
So if you're
walking, you're like,
here I am, walking, I'm walking,
I am walking, I'm sitting,
I am sitting, I am-- here I
am, sit-- I'm washing dishes,
here I am washing
dishes, I'm really
feeling the water
flowing over my hands.
And this sounds very simple.
But if you think about how
much we're multitasking
and how much information
our brains are ingesting
all of the time,
largely due to you guys,
this idea of doing
one thing at a time
actually becomes quite novel.
We actually have to start
to retrain ourselves
to single-task,
which, I would argue,
gives you more computing
power for the task at hand.
Now mindfulness is derivative
of a monastic practice.
It was originally
developed for monks.
And this was news to
me because I always
thought that whatever
monks were practicing
must be much more powerful
than what people like
us would practice because
they're monks, right?
So they must be, like,
levitating or floating
or, like, gaining enlightenment
on their first day.
But it's actually the opposite.
If you're a monk, then your
contribution to society
is meditating.
You have the time to
meditate, basically, all day.
If you're walking, it's
a walking meditation.
If you're gardening, it's
a gardening meditation.
And this is their
contribution to society,
whereas something that we
might practice is different.
Now, in India, you're either a
monk or you're a householder.
And it doesn't do you
any good to pretend
to be a monk if
you're a householder.
And when I say householder,
I basically mean,
so we have a job and a
family and stuff to do.
So if you are a householder,
you have less time
in your day with
which to meditate,
which actually
means that you need
to practice something that
is a bit more powerful.
You have less time in the
day with which to meditate,
so you need to really
go in and clean house
so that you can deliver that
fulfillment to your day.
So you're like, y'all, I've got
stuff to do-- all I can do is,
like, come in, I've got
to answer some emails,
and eat my lunch while I listen
to this meditation caffeine
talk, and hopefully, it'll
make me get more done.
And ultimately, it will.
Point of the story is that all
meditation is good for you.
But there are two main
branches, and they
come from different
styles of meditation.
Now, obviously I'm
biased, OK, because I
teach this self-induced
transcendence
style of meditation, and
it's totally changed my life.
So I'd love to say that this
was a non-biased account
of the differences between
the two, but spoiler alert,
it's 100% biased.
But this self-induced
transcendence style-- you're
basically accessing a fourth
state of consciousness,
different than waking, different
than sleeping, and different
than dreaming, where the right
and left parts of your brain
start to function in unison.
Now, the good news
is that regardless
of what style of meditation
you're practicing,
they are both going to
have a lot of benefits.
One is the ability to be more
present in the right now.
Two is that it actually--
both styles of meditation
are going to
increase the strength
and, really, the
thickness of something
called the corpus callosum.
Now, the corpus callosum is
this thin strip of white matter
that connects the gray matter.
It is the bridge between the
right and left hemispheres
of your brain.
So we've known for a long time
that meditators have thicker
corpus callosums
than non-meditators,
but we weren't able to prove
if it was causal or correlated.
Now, because we have
advances in neuroscience,
we now know that the
longer you meditate,
the thicker this
corpus callosum gets.
Cool party trick, but who cares?
Why would anyone want
a fat corpus callosum?
Well, everyone should.
And here's why.
Here's a Cliff's Notes
version of the difference
between the right
and left brains.
Your left brain is in charge
of the past and the future.
It's in charge of
language, critical thought,
analytical thought, math,
balancing your checkbooks-- all
really important activities,
but for most of us,
we've been taking our left
brain to the gym, especially
you guys.
Just think, take action,
achieve, make money,
so you can be happy
in the future--
really working out this
past, future muscle.
Meanwhile, our poor little
right brains are atrophy.
Now, your right brain
is the piece of you
that's in charge
of the right now.
It's the piece of you that
is in charge of intuition,
inspiration, creativity,
music, connectedness.
And it is the place that you
get your creative problem
solving ideas.
It is the place where
you get those downloads.
So I think that any conversation
about productivity, especially
in a field where innovation
is currency, then meditation
has to be a part of
that conversation
because while we have been
valuing this left brain
analytical part of our
mind for far too long,
it's gotten out of balance.
You know, if you look at
a human brain, it's 50/50.
And I don't think that
nature makes mistakes.
I don't think that
nature gave us
50/50 of a brain if it
wanted us to use 90/10.
So all we're doing when
we're meditating is
that we're taking
our brain to the gym.
You're strengthening
this corpus callosum,
which is going to
allow you to come up
with these creative
problem solving ideas,
even when you're in a
high stress situation.
So your boss is yelling
at you, and you've
got a really short
deadline-- instead
of going into panic mode
and fight or flight,
you're going to be
able to still access
this whole other realm of
creativity and inspiration.
Sounds pretty good, huh?
Call me crazy, but I
don't think that stress
makes you more productive.
A lot of people
say that it does.
I teach a lot of CEOs, and
I teach a lot of actors,
and they have two
different stories.
My CEO clients will say,
Emily, I need my stress,
I need my angst, that
is the thing that
gives me my competitive edge.
No, it is not.
That is just false.
And I'm going to explain
why, in just a moment.
And with my actor clients, they
say, Emily, I need my stress,
I need my angst because this
is where I get my creativity,
this is where I
draw from my work.
Nope.
No, it is not.
You get your creativity from
this right part of your brain.
We think our ideas are our own.
Our ego gets involved, and
it's like, it's my idea.
Nope.
You're just
downloading that thing
from this beautiful,
creative cloud in the sky.
Getting a little
altruistic for Google.
I'm going to move on.
Let's move on to our
third point which
is when can stress
actually serve you?
When can stress actually
be good for you?
Stress is getting sort
of a bad rap, these days.
It's being called the Black
Plague of our century.
And I don't think that that
is an over-exaggeration.
I would agree with
that statement.
However, there are times
that stress is good for you,
and I'm going to get into those.
But first, we've got to
understand how and why stress
affects our body in
the way that it does.
And in order to
understand that, we
have to go back in time
a few thousand years
and say we're, like, hunting
and gathering in the woods.
I don't know why this is the
move for hunting and gathering,
but just go with it.
So say we're hunting
and gathering,
and out of nowhere,
this saber-toothed tiger
jumps out at you and
with the intent to kill.
So your body is going to launch
into a series of chemical
reactions.
First, your digestion is going
to flood with acid to shut down
digestion because it takes a lot
of energy to digest your food
and you need all hands
on deck to fight or flee
this predatory attack.
That same acid will
then seep into your skin
so that you don't taste
very good if you get bitten
into by that tiger.
Your blood will start
to thicken and coagulate
so that if you get bitten
into, you don't bleed to death.
Your vision will go
from here to here
so that you're not distracted
from your opponent.
Your bladder and
bowels will evacuate
so that you're
light on your feet
so you could fight or flee.
So the nervous poos you
get before an audition
or like a-- or you guys
don't have auditions,
but like a presentation,
that's your body trying
to protect you.
Your heart rate will increase.
See?
People are laughing
because they identify.
Your heart rate will increase.
Your cortisol levels
will increase.
And your immune system
will go to the back burner
because who cares if
you're going to get cancer
if you're about to
be killed by a tiger?
Again, we need all hands
on deck to fight or flee
this predatory attack.
So this series of chemical
reactions is very good for you.
It is very useful if your
demands are predatory attacks.
Now, I don't know when
the last time any of you
guys got attacked
by a tiger was.
But my guess is it
wasn't very recently.
Now, obviously, there are
some high demand situations
where it's good for your
body to get stressed.
If you get into a car
accident, or if you
get jumped in the back
alleyway, or if you
need to lift a
car off of a baby,
these are all great times for
your body to get stressed.
And this series of
chemical reactions
is really going to serve you.
It's actually not bad
for your body to get
stressed-- it is toxic for
your body to stay stressed.
This fight or flight
thing-- yes, great.
It's good for it to happen.
But then, if it's a
few thousand years ago,
and you're actually
engaging in fighting a tiger
or outrunning a
tiger, then you get
to burn off those
stress chemicals.
And this is why a lot
of people say to me,
well, Emily, exercise
is my meditation.
No, it's not.
Exercise is exercise.
Meditation is meditation.
They do very different things
to your nervous system.
When you exercise, you
excite your nervous system.
You increase your
metabolic rate.
When you meditate, you
de-excite your nervous system,
and you decrease
your metabolic rate.
Now, exercise is great for you.
When you get in the treadmill
and you start running,
you can outrun that
tiger, you can burn off
the stress chemicals from today.
You get in a boxing ring,
you can fight that tiger,
and you can burn off the
stress chemicals from today.
But if you want to handle the
dog that barked in your face
when you were seven or the fight
that your parents got in when
you were 10, then
you actually have
to de-excite your
nervous system.
So basically, what
I'm saying here
is that exercise can handle the
stress happening that you're
picking up on each
new day, provided
that you're
exercising every day.
If you want to handle
the backlog of stresses
that you've been accumulating
so that you can really
start to perform at
100%, in this case,
we need to de-excite
the nervous system
and create order so we
can get that right side
of the boiling pot.
So everyone clear on that, about
when stress is good for you?
When you're actually in a
life threatening situation.
And it's good for
it to have them,
but if it stays in your body
over a long period of time,
it can do any number of
terrible things to you.
It's basically the equivalent
of pouring acid in your body.
Every time you get
stressed, every stressy
thought that you
have, it creates
adrenaline and cortisol, which
are acidic stress chemicals.
So it's like putting a penny
into a thing of Coca Cola
or a thing of hydrochloric acid.
It's going to break
down prematurely.
Same thing with our body.
If you're stressed, your body
is going to age much faster than
if you are alkaline,
which is what?
When you meditate,
your brain produces
dopamine and serotonin, which
are bliss chemicals, which
are more alkaline in nature,
which can actually slow down
the aging process.
Any questions, so far?
I've talked really fast.
And I've already covered
the first three points.
Any questions or
comments or disagreements
about any of that, so far?
Yeah.
FEMALE SPEAKER: So you
talked about how meditation
strengthens the [INAUDIBLE].
EMILY FLETCHER: Mhm.
AUDIENCE: Does
meditation do anything
to beef up the actual
[INAUDIBLE] right brain?
EMILY FLETCHER: Yes.
Yes, it does.
So I went to this neuroscience
conference, last year.
And I was so
excited because I've
been studying these,
like, beautiful, flowery
Vedic analogies for
about eight years.
But I finally got to go to
this neuroscience conference,
and I got to see, on the
gross manifest level, what
meditation is
doing to the brain.
So if you look at a scan of
a waking state non-meditator,
imagine that there's four
quadrants in the brain.
In your waking state, these
two quadrants light up.
And then, when you
meditate, these go dark.
And these two light up.
So basically, when
you're meditating,
you have a different brain than
you do in your waking state.
Well, cool party trick.
But how is that going
to help me do more?
Well what happens is that
over time of waking state,
meditation, waking
state, meditation,
waking state, meditation,
what starts to happen
is that all four quadrants
start to light up
at the same time, regardless
of whether you're in meditation
or in your waking state.
So you know, it's basically
like these neurons
are firing in the different
parts of the brain.
And after enough times
of going back and forth
between the states
of consciousness,
the brain starts firing
on all cylinders.
My meditation teacher
says that, you know,
we're saying that we use
somewhere between 3% and 10%
of our brain capacity.
My teacher says that the very
fact that we're arguing over
whether it's 3% or 10% suggests
that it's more like 3%.
I'm fascinated to see
this new movie, "Lucy."
It's probably going to be
pretty-- well, I don't know.
Maybe it's great.
I don't know, but I'm
fascinated to see it.
Does that answer your question?
FEMALE SPEAKER: Yeah.
EMILY FLETCHER: Great.
What other questions
do you have?
Yes?
AUDIENCE: So sometimes when I'll
introduce people to meditation,
one of their big objections is
sort of like with your clients,
when they say, I
don't want to let
go of my anxiety or my stress
because that's the edge that
keeps me motivated
and productive.
EMILY FLETCHER: Mhm.
AUDIENCE: So like
how we usually want
to address that, when people
are worried about letting
go of the thing that's
pushing them forward?
EMILY FLETCHER: Yeah.
It's a great question.
And I think it's a
really valid concern
because if you spent your
whole life only being motivated
by adrenaline and only
being driven by anxiety
or competition, then
it's terrifying to lose
that because you don't know
what's going to motivate you.
Now, the beautiful
thing that I have found
is that as you start
meditating, you start actually
wanting to move
towards the positive.
You start being inspired by
and motivated by creativity
and creation for the
sake of innovation.
But that's hard to
communicate to someone
who hasn't had that
visceral experience yet.
So here's my analogy, and
please forgive me, y'all.
I'm a really good tap dancer.
I am not a technician.
But here goes.
Let's imagine that the
brain is a computer.
OK?
And let's say that
you have 10 million--
I don't even know if
this is possible-- let's
say you have 10 million open
windows on this computer, which
is, PS, by the time
you're 20 years old,
you have something
like 10 million
precognitive commitments
in your brain,
which basically means that
any time that you've gotten
stressed, it's left a little
open window in your brain.
So let's say that Hulu and
GChat and YouTube and Facebook
and Vimeo, and Vine-- you've
got all of these things open,
and you're like, whew, maybe
I should get back to work,
maybe I should write an email.
And you go to write an
email, and the cursor
is like 20 spaces behind.
You're like, bleaugh,
stupid computer,
can't even type an email.
Well, the computer is more than
capable of typing an email,
but you're spending so much of
that computing power running
those 10 million open
windows from the past
that you're robbing yourself
of your full potential
for the right now.
And every problem gets
solved in the right now.
Also, all of your
bliss and fulfillment
is experienced in the right now.
Eckhart Tolle wrote a whole book
about it, "The Power of Now."
So I liken it, really, to
an overworked computer-- too
many windows open
on the computer,
and you're robbing yourself
of your full performance
capabilities.
It's basically like
your body's so busy
preparing for this
imaginary tiger attack
that you don't have
all of your resources
available for whatever
your task at hand is.
Does that make sense?
Great.
Yes?
AUDIENCE: I don't know
what [INAUDIBLE]--
EMILY FLETCHER: Let's see.
Maybe it'll be a segue.
AUDIENCE: But I'm curious
about the specific topics
that you have. [INAUDIBLE]
examples [INAUDIBLE]
these would be the mindfulness
because I think [INAUDIBLE].
EMILY FLETCHER: Yes, I am.
Thank you for asking that.
And I didn't mention
that, but yes.
I have one more topic
to cover, and then I
want to actually walk you
through a mindfulness guided
visualization, which will
be-- it'll be a directed focus
attention.
We'll all be guiding
you through the things
that you can bring
your attention on.
And then we'll practice--
don't be scared--
and we'll practice a five
minute silent meditation.
Then I'm going to give
you some tools to try out.
And I like to call it the M
word technique because it's not
quite meditation.
This self-induced transcendence
style of meditation--
again, I'm biased,
but I liken it
to the Porsche of meditations.
It is fast, it is powerful, and
I think it makes you sexier.
Call me crazy, but I don't think
that stress makes you sexy.
And so, if you
really want to learn,
it's recommended that you,
like, kind of do the whole kit
and caboodle-- that you
get the key to the car
and get the driving
instructions, at the same time.
I do have a course
happening this week,
which we'll talk
about, but I want
to give you guys a taste of it.
And during it, don't try
to be an expert meditator.
Don't try to get it right.
Just notice what the
experience is like for you
and whether you want to fight
or flee during the meditation,
itself.
I'm also going to teach you
guys a breathing technique.
And it's super simple,
but it actually
helps to integrate the right
and left parts of the brain.
It's an alternate
nostril breathing,
so we'll all look
really silly together.
But it helps to oxygenate the
blood and oxygenate the organs.
And it'll help to balance
the right and left part
of the brain.
And even, you know, you could,
like, put a little folder up
at your cubicle, or in
your office, and do it.
And that would be
like a little shot,
a little meditation shot
for your mid-afternoon.
Good.
So this will be our final
point, before we actually
try some meditation.
And it is how to not
let your goals get
in the way of your
success because again, I
imagine that you guys are
all very ambitious, very
results-oriented, very
career and goal-oriented,
which is great.
However, the trick here is
that we can have a tendency
to delay our happiness or
delay our self care until we've
accomplished that
one final thing,
just until we get that one
more zero in our bank account,
and we just finish
this one project,
or I just hire this
one more employee,
then I'll start
going to the gym.
I'm going to start meditating
as soon as I finish
this giant project that
my boss needs from me,
I am going to take a
vacation as soon as I make
this amount of money, and that
the main themes that we delay
our happiness for
are money, education,
and romantic relationships.
We think, well, as soon
as I have enough zeros,
then I'll be happy-- as soon
as I have the perfect job,
then I will be happy-- as soon
as I have the perfect partner,
then I will be happy.
But as Carrie
Bradshaw so eloquently
said in "Sex and
the City," you're
only going to have two out of
the three in New York City.
You're either going to
have the perfect boyfriend,
or the perfect job,
and no apartment,
or the perfect apartment,
perfect job, but no boyfriend,
but you're never going to
have three out of the three.
So if you're waiting to
have all three to be happy,
it's going to be a
really long wait.
My analogy, here,
is like, imagine
that you're sitting at
the bottom of a mountain,
and you're looking
at this mountain
that you want to climb.
You're like, OK, I'm going
to do it because once
I get the top of
this mountain, then
I will have achieved success.
Then I can be proud of myself.
Then I will have validated
myself to my parents,
and they can justify that
expensive college tuition
that they paid for.
So we start climbing
the mountain.
And then we get to
the top of a mountain,
and we're still not happy.
We still don't have the ability
to access this present moment
awareness.
And now we've proven to ourself
that we can climb the mountain.
And now we see all of
the other mountains
that we have yet to climb.
So then we think, oh,
well, my happiness
must be at the top of
this next mountain.
So we start climbing again.
Get to the top of this
mountain, you're like, oh, crap,
I'm still not happy.
More and more mountains
that we can climb.
And so this can sort
of go on indefinitely.
So I would suggest that instead
of waiting until you finish
your To Do list to
be happy, instead
of waiting until you've
accomplished all of your goals
to give yourself permission
to take care of yourself,
what if you start taking
care of yourself now?
What if you give yourself access
to your bliss and fulfillment
inside of you, start
your day with that,
and then use your To Do
list, use your desires
as an indicator of how
and where to deliver
your gifts to the world?
Sounds a little hippy dippy.
Sounds a little esoteric.
But just try it out,
and see what happens.
My personal experience,
and what I've
seen from my over 700 clients
that I've taught to meditate,
is that when you start to
approach life and this attitude
of what can I give,
then life starts
giving you a lot more back.
Instead of going into life
with like a what can I get
and being needly attached
to, well, this person
has to show up, or else--
or I have to get this job,
or else-- or you have
to ask me to marry you,
or else-- or I have
to get this job,
or I'm not good enough,
this-- it's very hard for life
to show up when you've got a
death grip on your desires.
And if you insert a meditation
practice or some really solid
self care and stress
relieving techniques
into your day,
every day, then you
are quite innocently and
quite spontaneously going
to start approaching your life
from a place of fulfillment--
what can I give to this
versus what can I get.
And what happens is this
beautiful, reciprocal
upward spiral.
Should we try some meditation?
Yeah.
Any questions before
we try some meditation?
Great.
Yes?
AUDIENCE: Before, you contrasted
[INAUDIBLE] meditations.
So where does yoga fit in?
EMILY FLETCHER: Ah.
Thanks for asking.
So I think I teach Vedic
meditation, V-E-D-I-C.
It comes from the Sanskrit word,
Veda, which means knowledge.
Knowledge of what?
Knowledge of nature.
So it's basically
like using natural law
to help us get to
where we want to go.
You know, you
de-excite your body,
you start to access the place
from which we get our desires.
Yoga-- so Vedic meditation
comes from the Vedas.
The Vedas is an ancient
body of knowledge,
like 5 or 6,000 years old.
And the Vedas are the
same body of knowledge
that give us yoga,
acupuncture, feng shui,
and Ayurvedic medicine,
Ayurvedic cooking.
They all come from the same
ancient body of knowledge.
So yoga is basically,
you know, those series of
poses that you move through.
It's called an asana practice.
And asana is a Sanskrit
word that means seat.
So if you take a yoga class,
I mean, there's chair pose,
but then there's all
those other asanas.
And they're all called seat.
So why is that?
Ardha candraasana, Trikonasana.
So all of them, each asana,
somewhere in the word,
has the word seat.
Why is that?
Because each of those
poses is preparing the body
to become a seat
for consciousness
to come and sit in.
And actually, yoga was
designed for teenage boys who
couldn't sit still and meditate.
So they would move them
through this asana practice
so that they could meditate.
So yoga was actually
designed to prepare the body
for meditation, which I think
is so beautiful because yoga,
obviously, has gotten
so popular in the West,
and I think it's really paved
the way for this new meditation
awakening that is happening.
But I think that the combination
of yoga and meditation,
specifically this style,
is really beautiful.
Thanks for asking.
Yes?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] coffee.
Now, how about food?
EMILY FLETCHER: OK.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] relation
between the [INAUDIBLE]
meditation?
EMILY FLETCHER: Yes.
There is.
Basically, we're just a giant--
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]?
EMILY FLETCHER: What's that?
AUDIENCE: I was wondering if
you could repeat the question.
EMILY FLETCHER: Yes.
So the question was, we
talked about the relationship
between caffeine and
meditation, but he
was asking about
the relationship
between food and meditation.
Does the type of food
and when you food,
will that impact your
meditation and impact
the quality of the meditation?
And the answer is absolutely.
It's very similar-- the
impact of food and caffeine--
because when you eat food, your
metabolic rate has to increase,
and then the food gets
turned into energy.
So if you eat a big meal and
then sit down to meditate,
you're not going to digest
your food very effectively,
and you're not going to have
a very fascinating meditation.
So it's really ideal
to meditate first thing
in the morning, before
breakfast, and then again,
somewhere mid-afternoon,
before your evening meal.
Now, and the type of
food matters quite a lot.
You know, again, we're
just chemistry sets,
so any chemical that you
put into your chemistry set
is going to affect
your chemistry.
And there's a whole
beautiful science
around this, called Ayurveda.
And Ayurveda is basically
using your food and meditation
and exercises as a way
of balancing your body
or balancing your-- I call it
a Dosha, which is a body type.
And if you're interested,
I can definitely
give you some more
information on that.
Mhm.
Great.
Yes?
AUDIENCE: So I really
like your distinction
between happiness and goal
achieving and all of that,
because we [INAUDIBLE].
EMILY FLETCHER: Mhm.
AUDIENCE: So and you
also say that goals--
you can become a goal
achiever, but does
that-- it's just a
never-ending hill.
We just keep on climbing it.
So it almost seems
like happiness
is completely separate
from achieving goals.
You don't even need
the goals to be happy.
That's the feeling I get.
And then you tie
it to, like, you
think it's the more important
need than achieving goals?
But do we even get to be happy?
Like, what if I'm
completely selfish?
All I care about is myself.
But can I not be happy?
Or am I being
completely selfish?
EMILY FLETCHER: I think
that's such a great question.
And I think, at the end of the
day, all of us are selfish.
And most people
come to meditation
for very selfish reasons.
We come to meditation because
we want to get more done.
We want to look better.
You know?
We want to not
get sick as often.
We want to be more creative.
So great-- I don't really
care what selfish reason
people come to meditation for.
But what starts to
happen over time
is that you're
filling yourself up
from this inexhaustible source.
The cellphone charger analogy
that Jerry Seinfeld uses
is very apt because if
you're plugging-- you know,
we just think that
this electricity just
comes from-- like, there's
just endless and limitless
because for us, in our
lifetime, it has been.
So, but basically, this is
what meditation is doing.
It's allowing you to plug in
to this inexhaustible source.
And if you fill
your reservoir up
with bliss and
fulfilment and happiness
and adaptation energy
every day, twice a day,
then it's going to
start to overflow.
Like your vessel's actually
going to start to get bigger.
But you're going
to actually need
places to give that fulfillment.
And so it's going
to be quite innocent
and quite spontaneous
is that you're
going to look for
places to help people.
But it won't feel
like martyrdom.
It won't.
It'll actually feel
selfish because it's
going to make you feel better.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
EMILY FLETCHER: Yeah.
AUDIENCE: I think, when
you enter into meditation,
how do you kind
of track progress?
I know it sounds--
EMILY FLETCHER: Oh.
AUDIENCE: How do you know
whether you're doing it right
or when you're
ready [INAUDIBLE]?
EMILY FLETCHER: It's
a great question.
The question was, how do
you track your progress
as a meditator?
How do you know if you're
ready for the next step?
And different styles of
meditation are different.
And also, different
people are different.
So you know, if you haven't
had a very high demand,
high stress life, and you're
learning at 70 years old,
your unstressing
process is probably
going to be quite intense.
I teach kids to
meditate sometimes.
And actually, the youngest
I've ever taught is four.
And he was nailing it.
He just did this
meditation thing,
and afterwards, he was like, I
really enjoyed my meditation.
Did you enjoy yours?
And he was so into it
because kids already
have access to this creativity.
Their right brains are--
they're still alive.
So different people will
have different experiences.
[LAUGHTER]
EMILY FLETCHER: We
just die a slow death.
The older we get, the
more stressed we get.
But, so everyone is different.
However, you know, there's
these awesome companies, now,
that have these body data
monitoring bracelets.
So I actually recommend
that, you know,
if people have enough time
between coming to my intro talk
and taking my four-day
course, I recommend
that they get one of those
fit bits or the Up Jawbone
bracelets.
And basically, these things can
track how deep your sleep is
and how much activity
you have during the day,
and checking your heart
rate, your body temperature,
and how much movement you
have throughout the night.
So it can actually tell
you how deep your sleep is.
And I have a kind of cool
story from a client in LA.
He had one of those bracelets.
And his sleeping pattern,
before he took my course,
it used to go light, medium,
deep, wake up for 18 minutes,
light, medium, deep, wake up
for 18 minutes, medium, wake up.
And that took him about
eight or nine hours.
And then the bracelet broke.
And he took the
meditation class.
And then he got it back.
And then, after about
10 days of meditating,
he tracked his sleep again.
And his sleep pattern
went light, medium, deep,
for six hours, medium,
light, wake up.
So he actually shaved three
hours off of his sleeping time.
But he would wake up
rested because his sleep
became more efficient.
So this is one of
the main arguments
I make to people who say, I
don't have time to meditate.
The practice that I teach
is 20 minutes, twice a day,
so it's a 40 minute investment.
Well, if you're shaving
even one hour off
of your sleep at night, because
your sleep is more efficient,
then you're already
in the black.
Right?
The return investment is already
higher than what you're making.
And that's not even to speak
of the increase in productivity
or the happiness or any
of that kind of things.
And so it's different
for everyone,
but there actually
are physical things
that you can plug
into your phone
and track your own progress.
But ultimately, it's do I have
a little bit more patience?
Do I have a little bit more joy?
Are my listening skills
a little bit better?
Am I enjoying my life
a little bit more?
Do I feel like I have a
little bit more to give?
We want to judge
the meditation based
on how we're performing
in our waking state,
not how many or few
thoughts we have
when we meditate, which
leads me to the number one
misconception of
meditation, which
I think is important
to talk about because
without solid
meditation training,
and because there's so many
misconceptions about it,
most of us go into a
meditation practice, thinking,
well, I have to give my
mind a command to stop.
So then it looks like this.
OK, brain, stop thinking.
I'm hungry.
Well, that was a thought.
Now I'm thinking about
how I'm thinking.
Oh, crap.
Now I'm thinking
about how I'm thinking
about how I'm thinking.
And I quit.
And I can never meditate
because my brain is too crazy.
And I hear this all the time.
You're like, Emily, I get it,
meditation is so good for you,
everybody talks about
it, but I can't do it
because my mind is crazy.
We all think that we're the most
stressed person in the land.
We all think that we're the
busiest person in the land.
But the truth is that giving
your mind a command to stop
is impossible.
No one can give their
mind a command to stop.
The mind thinks
involuntarily, just
like the heart
beats involuntarily.
So if you judge
yourself at how good you
are at giving your
body a command
to stop an involuntary
action, then you're
always going to
feel like a failure,
and you're going to quit
in like one weekend.
And this is a big
part of what I teach
in my course is that
I give you permission
and let you know that
thoughts are not the enemy.
Thoughts during
meditation are actually
an indicator that stress
is leaving the body.
So yes.
Did that answer your question?
Great.
All right.
Let's go ahead and
dive in because I
don't want to keep
you guys late.
I want to give you
at least five minutes
to go to your next
1 o'clock meeting.
So let's try a
little meditation.
So we'll start with this
alternate nostril breathing
technique.
And then I'll give you
a guided visualization,
and we'll try just a few
minutes of a silent practice.
So if you have
phones or computers,
you want to put those
things on silent.
That would be swell.
And we'll all take
our right hand.
And don't worry-- we'll
all look silly together.
And just close
your right nostril.
And exhale through
your left nostril.
And then inhale
through your left.
And then switch.
Close your left nostril
with your ring finger.
And exhale through your right.
Good.
Inhale through the right.
And then switch, closing
the right nostril,
exhaling through your left.
And inhale through the left.
And then switching,
closing the left nostril,
exhaling through the right.
So this will be our pattern--
out, in on one side, and out,
in on the other.
And you can go ahead
and close your eyes
and start to do this
in your own time.
What I'm interested in
is that when you inhale,
you fill your lungs all the
way to their full capacity,
and that when you
exhale, you completely
empty your lungs to the
very bottom of your exhale.
And you'll start to notice is
that at the top of your inhale,
there's a little, tiny space
before you begin the exhale.
And you don't have to force
that or push it, but just
allow yourself to float
there for even instance.
And then the same thing.
At the bottom of
the exhale, you'll
notice that there's
a tiny little space.
Allow yourself to notice that,
and float there at the bottom
before you begin the inhale.
Let's try this for
a few more cycles.
But now I want you to
imagine that on the inhale,
that you're bringing this
breath and this energy up
through the base of your
spine, letting it travel up
through your spine, and
then exhaling, and sending
that breath and that energy
out through the middle
of your forehead.
This is creating a beautiful
cycle of breath and energy,
really enjoying
the full expansion
of your lungs and
the full exhale.
As you're inhaling, imagining
that breath and energy
coming up through the base and
traveling up through your spine
and then sending that energy
and that creative energy out
through the middle
of your forehead.
And the next time you come to
an exhale on the left side,
you can keep your eyes
closed, but gently
drop your hands into your lap.
And I'll walk you through
a guided visualization,
or a mindfulness exercise.
So as you inhale, it
could be a gentle inhale,
but I want you to notice
the most predominant sound
you can detect right now.
So I just want you to
hear what you're hearing.
It might be my voice.
It might be the air conditioner.
It might be your
neighbors breath.
But just notice the
most predominant sound.
And on your next breath, see
if you can shift your awareness
to the most subtle sound.
It could be the sound
of your own breath,
or maybe your hair rustling
against your neck, or maybe
a sound far away in the city.
Now, keeping the eyes
closed, on your next breath,
I want you to shift your
attention to your sight.
So even with your
eyes closed, I want
you to see what you're seeing.
Perhaps you can notice the cells
floating in front of your eyes,
or perhaps you can see where
the light is streaming in
through your eyelids.
But just allow yourself
to see what you're seeing.
This technique is called
come to your senses.
We're going to work through
all five of our senses,
noticing the most predominant
and the most subtle.
And on your next inhale,
allow your awareness
to gently rest on the most
predominant tactile sensation.
For most of us,
since we're sitting,
it'll probably be
your bum in the chair.
Or perhaps you have
a pain in your knee,
or you have a tickle
in your throat.
Just notice whatever that most
predominant tactile sensation
is.
And on your next inhale, see if
you can notice the most subtle.
This might be as subtle
as the breath coming
in and out of your nostrils.
It might be as subtle as the
hair on the back of your neck.
Really tuning your
attention to the more subtle
physical sensations.
And now, on your
next breath, I want
you to taste what
you're tasting.
Even though you're not
eating anything currently,
perhaps you can
taste your mouth wash
from this morning or the coffee
that you drink beforehand
or the lunch that you had.
Maybe your mouth
tastes acidic or dry,
but just noticing that most
predominant taste sensation.
And on your next
inhale, see if you
can shift your awareness
to the most subtle.
And if you're not tasting
anything, that's fine.
Just notice that.
There's no right or wrong here.
Now, on your next
inhale, I want you
to smell what you're smelling.
I want you to smell the most
predominant smell in the room.
It might be your own hairspray
or your neighbor's lunch
or who knows.
But just allow yourself to smell
the most predominant smell.
And now, shift it
to the most subtle.
So maybe it's the fact that
you don't smell anything,
or how does this room smell
different than your home?
Really good.
And on your next
breath, I want you
to see if you can
allow your awareness
to rest on all five
senses at the same time.
So enjoying your sense of
hearing, your sense of touch,
your sense of sight,
your sense of taste,
and your sense of smell,
all simultaneously.
Awakening all five
senses in the body,
jettisoning yourself
into your right brain
and therefore,
into the right now.
And the truth is, if you can
bring yourself into the right
now, the truth is you are fine.
Every single one of us
are drowning in abundance.
You have a place to sleep,
you have food to eat,
you have people who love you.
We just need to bring our
awareness into the right now.
So now, take a nice, deep
inhale, and just exhaling
any extraneous stress.
I want you to try
a silent meditation
for just a few minutes.
And very easily, very gently,
I want you to silently repeat
the word one, in your mind.
So you're going to use this
word, one, almost as a mantra.
And you're absolutely allowed
to have other thoughts.
You don't even have to focus
on it or concentrate on it.
You're just going to allow
it to be there as an anchor.
Just very easily, lightly
allowing this word to happen,
almost like an echo of an idea
in the background of your mind.
We'll be here for
about three minutes.
And then I'll ease
you out of it.
So don't try and be
a perfect meditator.
Don't try to stop your
mind from thinking.
Just easily, lightly
thinking the word one.
And keeping the eyes closed, but
letting go of the word inside,
keep the eyes closed
for just a few seconds.
Allowing ourselves
to easily, lightly,
gently start to float back
up to the waking state.
Bringing our awareness into
the room and into our bodies.
It's always important
to take a few seconds
at the end of your meditation,
with your eyes closed.
This is so you don't
shock your optic nerve
or shock your brain.
And you just give yourself
a little transition time
so that you can go back
to work totally refreshed.
Sometimes I like to use this
time as a time for gratitude.
Sounds like a silly practice,
but if you train your brain
to look for what's
going right, then you're
putting your
attention on the thing
that you want to grow,
instead of training your brain
to look for problems to solve,
which only makes more problems.
And taking a nice, deep
inhale, and exhaling any extra,
whenever you're ready,
in your own time,
we can start to very easily,
gently open the eyes.
Thank you guys so much
for being here today.
I really appreciate it.
You guys were an
amazing, amazing crowd,
so receptive and attentive.
I'm going to stick around if
you guys have any questions.
I'm going to give you
at least a minute or two
to get to your next meeting.
I do have cards up here.
This is my amazing
assistant, Sarah.
So if you guys have questions
or are interested in joining,
I have a course starting
here in New York.
I have a meditation
center on 38th and 8th.
And I have a meditation class
starting this Wednesday.
It's two hours a
day for four days,
and then you're an
expert meditator
and you have the practice
to take with you for life.
So if you're interested in
learning more about that,
you can meet Sarah.
And there is also
business cards.
And there's a place, if you
want, to put your email.
If you want to get some
more video goodness from me
or be kept in the loop, I
would love to stay in touch.
So I'll stick around over
here, if have any questions.
But thank you, thank
you, thank you.
Have a beautiful day.
FEMALE SPEAKER: And thank you,
Nina, for organizing this.
Yay.
Thanks, Matt.
