We love when our graduates take the time to write about their zivaONLINE course experience, And we want to amplify their message! Check out Faith Abbott’s review of zivaONLINE which she originally shared on her blog, Faith Ash Wellness. In it she covers,
- Her unstressing period and how it affected her
- Why 2x a day is so important
- The effect the practice has had on her day-to-day life
Enjoy Faith’s story below!
This blog has been a long time coming. I’m so excited to finally share my zivaONLINE course experience which is a 15 day training from Ziva Meditation. I waited a couple weeks after I completed the course to write this blog so I could speak from a more informed perspective in terms of the effect that it’s had on my life, post-course. I actually kept a journal that I recorded in after every day so I could remember the details to share with you guys. It was a really positive experience for me. I didn’t know what to expect going into it. Prior to the course, I was never sure if I was meditating correctly, or how one was even supposed to meditate, but I wanted to learn.
What is Ziva Meditation?
Ziva Meditation is meditation for high performance. It’s meant to reduce stress & migraines, aid in better sleep, and increase productivity. The science behind it shows that Ziva Meditation actually changes your brain. The first part of the meditation technique lights up your prefrontal cortex, improving clarity and focus over time. The second part of the technique lights up your whole brain, and over time strengthens the corpus callosum (the connection between your right and left brain). Most people are over-working the left side (I know I am), so it’s good to practice using our right brains.
Why I decided to try it:
2019 has been a year of healing for me: mind, body, & soul. So for me, this meditation course was an attempt at de-stressing and healing inwardly. I have never properly meditated before, but I have read a lot about its healing benefits and how it enables people to be more effective and efficient at life, so my hope was that it would help me on my journey towards healing autoimmune disease while giving me some new tools that I can use to continue to cultivate inner peace.
What you should know going into it:
You shouldn’t embark upon this course during a high demand time in your life. You also shouldn’t embark upon the course if you know that you are going to have to make important life decisions in the next two weeks.
Why?
Because meditation works by de-stressing you on a cellular level. So the stress that we have been accumulating in our cells, has likely been lying dormant for a long time (for most of us, a lifetime), waiting to come out. In Ziva, you use a mantra to anchor or “de-excite” the nervous system and create order. Fight or flight excites the nervous system and speeds up the molecules and excites the cells, so it is hard for the stress to leave. But when you hold the mantra in your awareness, you create the “de-exciting” phenomenon and create space for that stress to come up and out.
This process can cause some detoxing (called unstressing) which can look like physical symptoms of itchy skin, nausea, using the bathroom a lot, tears coming out, lots of talking, brain fog, insomnia, etc. For this reason, you want to give yourself grace during the two weeks while you’re doing the course, and time and space to cope with the symptoms coming out, which is ultimately for the greater good.
Like Emily says (or sings lol)…“Better out than in!”
How it works (logistics):
Ziva Meditation online is a 15-day course that you log into via the website. You login first thing in the morning, before you have coffee, eat, check emails, etc. The first few sessions are only about 15 minutes, but they get a bit longer towards the middle and end, but never beyond 35 minutes. They start with instructions from Emily Fletcher, the creator of Ziva Meditation, and they end with guided practice.
There are 3 parts to the “practice.” Mindfulness, meditation, and manifesting. At the beginning of the course, you go through guided mindfulness practices with Emily, then you move onto mindfulness and meditation, and then finally you get to the manifesting portion towards the end of the the course. There is sometimes homework, like a video to watch or a recorded call from past students and Emily. I recommend following through with the homework, as they really enhance the course by helping you understand just how much meditation positively impacts you from a neurological perspective, social perspective, and emotional perspective.
This meditation is a twice-a-day practice. The first meditation of the day works by de-stressing you from recent stress, and the second meditation of the day taps into stress from your past. Ultimately, over time, you de-stress entirely – which is one of the goals. It’s important to do both meditations and I notice a difference when I do. Emily speaks a lot about how to fit it into busy lives and even how people manage to meditate in their offices, public places, etc. I mean, since I started I have had to also meditate when and where I can. This weekend was laying out by the pool- which was actually really nice!
My experience:
I took notes every day, but I don’t think it’s necessary for me to share every single note, so I’m going to just put the highlights from my notes on here.
Day 3: I was up all night with a migraine. I’ve never had a migraine before, but we had only done mindfulness exercises up until this point, so I’m sure if there is a correlation here or not.
Day 4: This was the first day of meditation. On this day I realized that I had only ever done mindfulness practices, not real meditation. After I meditated properly for the first time, I felt really really tired and relaxed. By the end of day 4, I already felt different. Just more at peace with my health struggles and “zen,” if you will.
Day 5: I was up all night last night. I didn’t get one second of sleep. I’m sure this is due to “de-stressing.” [Ziva note: it was!]
There was a big difference here in my adrenaline. I encountered a situation where there would usually be conflict, but I felt a sense of complete calm. No physical symptoms of heart rate elevating, which is rare because I’ve been struggling with that with my thyroid symptoms. I attribute this to the meditation.
Day 7: I was up again all night last night.
Day 8: Was finally able to sleep and I didn’t have de-stressing symptoms after this
Conclusion:
I did experience unstressing, but it was 100% worth it. Ziva Meditation has had a HUGE impact on my life. I feel more at peace, and I walk around with a sense of calm. Things that used to push my buttons or make me anxious have much less of an effect on me. They kind of just roll off of me and I’m able to think more rationally, where I wouldn’t have been before. I definitely feel like I gained another tool in my toolkit to holistically manage health struggles, but even more so to become a more happy, productive, and effective person in my day to day life. Emily helped this quote become reality – “what you seek is in you” (this is written across her studio in NY and now I know why).
The important thing is – I notice a massive difference in the way I feel physically and emotionally with this meditation practice. If I skip a day, I feel it…big time. It’s incredible to have access to something inside of myself that’s free, quick, and easy and has so many benefits. I would do the course 10 times over.
I would recommend this course to anyone who is interested in meditation. It’s accessible and worth your time and money. Thank you to Emily Fletcher for working so hard to bring this information to the general public. I’m sure it’s changed so many lives.
If you are interested in getting a “sneak peek” before investing, check out this video to meet Emily Fletcher and hear about her ethos. She’s captivating, intelligent, and a fantastic guide for this course.