Meditation is “a tool to help de-excite your nervous system so you can get rid of stress in your body which is going to help you perform at the top of your game in every area of your life.”
Emily Fletcher, founder of Ziva Meditation.
She found out about the health and energy benefits of meditation during her 10-year career on Broadway. She says:
“I was doing ‘A Chorus Line’ [she is in the center in the photo] and I was understudying three of the lead roles which means that you show up to the theater and have no idea who you’re going to go on for.
“Sometimes I would start the show as one character and then halfway through they would switch me to a different character or I’d be chilling in my dressing room doing my taxes and they would say ‘Emily Fletcher to the stage’ – and I would start panicking because I wouldn’t know which part I was going on for.
“Long story short, I started having insomnia – I couldn’t sleep through the night for 18 months; I started going gray at the tender age of 26, and I was miserable.
“So I went to this meditation class I liked what I heard, it made sense to me.
“On the first day of the first course I was ‘meditating’ – I didn’t know what that meant but I was doing something different than I had ever done before and I liked it.
“And then that night I slept through the night for the first time in 18 months and I have every night since and that was eight years ago.”
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Embracing Our Emotions with Ziva Meditation founder Emily Fletcher and actor Travis Van Winkle
This audio is from the video version of an episode of her podcast (“Why Isn’t Everyone Doing This?”) by Emily Fletcher – episode titled “Embracing Your Emotions with Travis Van Winkle.”
Host Emily Fletcher: “I am so delighted to share this conversation with you – today’s guest is one of my new favorite people. He and I met at a friend’s birthday party and we were stunned with how much we had in common – we both practiced the same style of meditation, we both studied in Rishikesh, India, we both used to be actors.
“He is still an actor, and happens to be a star of the Netflix series FUBAR with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“Today we’re gonna go deep into why isn’t everyone training their emotions – something Travis Van Winkle has been doing for the past 20 years.
“Emotional training does not just have to be for actors it’s actually something that all of us can do.”
Emily Fletcher also says she is striving to “take these sacred potent ancient tools and make them more attractive and accessible to a mainstream audience.”
She notes that she shared with her guest Travis “one of the practices I call Emotional Alchemy – we’re basically just like dancing your feelings and alchemizing them into like pure Life Force creation energy.”
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Learn more in her free class:
Secrets to Reduce Stress, Overcome Anxiety, and Improve Sleep
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Dr. Mark Hyman says about the Ziva Meditation program by Emily Fletcher: “I am calmer, less anxious and have so much more energy…”
More testimonials:
“Ziva changed everything.
“It has given me the clarity and confidence to make big strides in my career and positively transform relationships with my family, friends, and money.”
Amber Shirley, Certified Life Coach
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“I used to go through life gripping everything so tightly, I also had terrible stage fright.
“Since learning Ziva meditation, everything shifted. I rarely have performance anxiety anymore.
“Even during The Sound of Music performing live for millions of people, I wasn’t nervous.”
Laura Benanti, TONY award winner and actor.
She talks with Emily Fletcher about how valuable her meditation training has been:
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Learn more in free class:
Secrets to Reduce Stress, Overcome Anxiety, and Improve Sleep
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How does stress affect our brain?
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“The benefits of meditation and mindfulness for creatives and performers are numerous.”
Mihaela Ivan Holtz, Psy.D., LMFT helps creative people in TV/Film, performing and fine arts.
She also writes about the pleasures and emotional challenges of being creative on her site Creative Minds Psychotherapy.
Here is an excerpt from one of her related articles:
The benefits of meditation and mindfulness for creatives and performers are numerous.
As a creative and performer you need to be in touch with your inner space and sense of self.
At the same time, you have multiple demands that require your attention.
Your creative and performing space can easily get crowded with normal life stress, worries, fears, relationship issues… even the good life events.
Sometimes, becoming challenging to remain present when you need it most.
Finding Equanimity
Meditation is the practice of being present and aware of the in-the-now moment with equanimity.
As equanimity, comes from the Latin “equal spirit,” it means being “OK” with what is going on in-the-now, regardless of what that moment presents.
This does not mean that you have to like the present moment!
It means that you do not have to become reactive, be in denial, or act out about the present moment.
You can learn to choose your reaction.
Meditation on the Go
While meditation requires you to devote time to be with yourself, mindfulness is more like meditation on the go.
Mindfulness allows you to practice being in present moment while doing work, connecting with people, even watching a show… engaged with different people, activities, and situations.
Meditation and mindfulness practices are effective in developing more clarity about the present moment, responding from an emotional cleaner place, and having more access to your abilities.
Read more in her article
Meditation & Mindfulness
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Lena Dunham on Using Meditation for Creative Work
Lena Dunham has found meditation helps her creativity:
“I often find that if I’m sort of up against the wall creatively and don’t understand how to fix a problem and feel totally at a loss, if I meditate and take that time, when I emerge the idea has sort of almost happened without me, because it was sort of in their the whole time, the solution, and meditating allowed me to calm all the noise around it and let it emerge, and that is one of it’s greatest uses.”
See related article for longer video and more:
Lena Dunham on Creating and Meditating
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Some related articles:
Michael O’Keefe, Mindfulness and Acting
Meditation for Emotional Health and Creativity
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Douglas Eby (M.A./Psychology) is author of the The Creative Mind series of sites which provide “Information and inspiration to help creative people thrive.”
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