Women Rocking Business Podcast With Sage Lavine

S1E22: Why Women Leaders Should Meditate with Their Kids

Meditation is incredibly powerful for business leaders… but did you know it’s also life-changing for kids too?

Emily Fletcher, founder & CEO of Ziva Meditation and best-selling author of Stress Less, Accomplish More, is here to tell us WHY women leaders should meditate with their kids.

Meditation can help both you AND your kids…

  • Do what you love well
  • Embrace your feelings & emotions
  • Unlock your inner superpowers

…so you can shine your brightest & feel your best.

Interested in starting meditation with your kids? Sign up for Emily’s kids program here.

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PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

S1E22: Why Women Leaders Should Meditate with Their Kids

Welcome to Women Rocking Business, where we are here to help you rock YOURSELF, rock your life, and rock the world as a woman entrepreneur, because the world needs you and the time is now. I’m Sage Lavine, CEO, trainer, unretired camp counselor, and best-selling author of the Hay House book Women Rocking Business. We had the honor of serving over a hundred thousand women entrepreneurs around the globe, just like you, who are here to do more, be more and have more by giving your gift to the planet. Let’s do this.

Hello everyone! Hello women leaders. Especially those of you who love meditation and who use meditation as another practice to grow your business. 

Sage Lavine

00:00:44

I am so excited to introduce you to Emily Fletcher. Emily is my new dear friend and colleague, and one of my greatest mentors in the realm of meditation and the benefits of meditation. Even if you don’t Meditate, but you know about the benefits, I’m so excited for this interview. For those of you that don’t know Emily, she has taught over 40,000 people to meditate, she’s the best-selling author of the book, Stress Less Accomplish More, which has been translated into 14 languages. Emily is the CEO of Ziva Meditation. She’s spoken at Harvard and Google and she teaches high performers like us – that’s us – to meditate. She’s got events coming up.

Sage Lavine

00:01:25

She’s aligned herself with incredible mentors like Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Shefali. She’s now helping launch, not just helping launch, she’s launching what I think what’s going to be the world’s most successful meditation program for kids and families. It’s time for our children to be meditating. So Emily, why did you create this? Tell us, tell us why.

Emily Fletcher

00:01:50

Okay. So this has been for years, I’ve been teaching now for over 10 years and this has been the number one most requested product. “Please, please, please, can you please help my kids? I want to teach my kids. Can you teach me how to teach my kids?”

I was like, no, no, no, it’s not me. I’m not the person to teach kids. It’s not my area of expertise. Childhood education is a whole other deal. And I just kept deferring it, deferring it. But then I had a son, I became a mom and I was like, “oh, like, I, I just get that.” Seeing your child in pain, seeing your child suffer, seeing your child anxious stressed… it is heartbreaking in a way that I didn’t really fully understand before and still, I was like, “Okay, well I’ll just partner with someone.” Right?

Emily Fletcher

00:02:31

It’s not my ball of wax. And I’ll just find a great KIDS, meditation teacher out there. I just couldn’t, I couldn’t find a program that I thought was good enough to give to my son that had the power of the technique and the entertainment value that would make them want to do it. So I was like, okay, “I guess it’s me.”

 I’ve been working on this for two years. I’ve been working with folks from Harvard, for the folks from Sesame Street, puppet builders, puppet writers. I mean, just truly like a dream team of the world’s best childhood education experts, child psychologists, puppeteers writers. We have created what I think that – you’re not exaggerating – I really want it to be the world’s best meditation training to help kids thrive.

Emily Fletcher

00:03:15

So just like I teach adults that we meditate to get good at life. Same thing with kids. Nobody wants to meditate for the sake of meditating. But everybody wants to be better at soccer, or better at school, or better socializing with their friends, or better at Tik Tok videos or whatever it is that you’re into. And the less stress you have, the easier it is to do what you love well.

Sage Lavine

00:03:36

One hundred percent. Who doesn’t want access to meditation meets Sesame Street? I mean, come on, we grew up with Sesame street. It’s why we all are who we are. I mean, just thank you for creating this and thank you for not giving up and thank you for not letting your resistance get in the way, because notice women out there notice Emily’s already built to some bigger meditation training program. She’s not stopping at that. She’s not in her resistance of, “Oh, I just am better with the adults. I don’t belong as the one to lead the kids.”

It’s like, no, who are the partnerships? What are the resources I need to call in so I can do this? And I’m curious, like, what do you see being the long-term impact of this project?

Emily Fletcher

00:04:15

My dream long-term impact is that the whole new generation of kids not only learn the skill of meditation, right? So that’s the baseline that they have these meditation tools to take with them for life. That’s the low hanging fruit here. The real impact that I want to have is for a whole generation of children to learn that feelings are for feeling. I know that seems sort of ridiculously simple, but we’ve all been trained since infancy. Like don’t cry. I have a bottle. Don’t cry, have a toy. Shh, don’t be angry. Have a video, have some Facebook, have some ice cream, have some pot, have some alcohol.

Emily Fletcher

00:04:56

I mean, not for kids, but as we grow up, we keep numbing and suppressing our emotions because usually our parents were not equipped to handle the bigness of our feelings when we were children. Right? Just like I was saying earlier, it hurts to see your kid in pain. It hurts to see your kid disappointed. So we as adults sometimes instead of making our own container bigger and making ourselves more emotionally resilient, we try and squash our children’s emotions. That is very hard to unlearn once you have learned it. It’s why all of us are spending so much money on therapy and meditation retreats. Sso it’s like, can we just install these tools and children earlier so that they realize, okay, right now I’m having some big, sad feelings and there is bliss and fulfillment inside of me at the same time.

Emily Fletcher

00:05:40

Yes. Right now, I’m having some big angry feelings and there’s nothing wrong with me. Right now, I’m really disappointed that that didn’t turn out the way I wanted and I’m perfect exactly as I am. Those two things do not have to be in conflict. So the way that we’ve baked this into the training… There are courses for ages four to 14. There’s actually two different courses. One has four to eight year olds and one is at nine to 14 year olds. In the little kids’ course, when I have a co-star, his name is Z Bunny. He’s a puppet. He’s awesome. Z Bunny is so funny. You’re going to love him. The bunny is training to be a superhero, right? So every day he has a challenge.

Emily Fletcher

00:06:21

Like we all do. When we’re launching a business, there’s challenges. Sage is like your Sage, right? She’s your Yoda, right? She’s a person you go to – the mentor. So I’m giving you Z Bunny, some tools along the way to help him unlock the super powers that he already has inside of him, unlock things like bravery, the bravery it takes to start a business. Things like kindness, the kindness that it takes to collaborate. Things like creativity, which we all have inside of us. 

So he’s learning how to unlock these superpowers and he’s training to be a full blown superhero. The kids are training along with him. Each day, as he’s facing the challenges, he has these big emotions and these represent the “stormies,” right? The thing I love about them being stormies is that you see that just like in nature, right?

Emily Fletcher

00:07:05

You have a storm and it rains. And then on the other side, it’s so fresh and clean and crisp, and that water served a purpose. It waters the flowers, it clears the sky. The same is true of our emotions. When we cry, we don’t break down, we don’t lose it. You don’t lose anything when you cry, except for toxins out of your eyeballs. Then right after that is bliss chemistry, right? So if we can train that and train our children to not be afraid of their emotions but to feel them…like what a gift.

Sage Lavine

00:07:36

It is such a gift. And I tell entrepreneurs all the time and women leaders, the way to success is to actually access all of the keys on your keyboard. Not just the happy keys, not just the, “I have all my shit together keys,” the keys of like, “I’m human and sometimes I need to cry and sometimes I need to be delightful and sometimes I need to be angry.”

When we can actually access all those keys, not just for ourselves, but to even bring those through, to even bring those through appropriately, as we lead, it sets us apart from other leaders, you know, most leaders are operating at this little octave of expression, you know, these few keys kind of in the mid-range.

Emily Fletcher

00:08:16

I think when you really look out there at some of the most compelling leaders and performers, and even when you look at the skills of parenting and mentorship, right, it’s like being able to access all of those and meet people there. So I just want to underline everything that you’re saying with an exclamation point, and to really talk to the parents who are busy and have their own dreams, and to really invite you all to bring your kids along with you. What would you say to the busy mom who’s like, “I’m so busy manifesting my own dreams. How am I going to find time to do this with my kids?”

Emily Fletcher

00:08:52

So, great question. Here’s the beautiful thing about this. Everyone thinks they’re too busy to meditate. We all think that we’re the busiest person in the land. Truly, like I’m a meditation teacher and I think I’m the busiest person in the land. So one, we have to stop our addiction to busy, but we can do an interview on that later.

But the beautiful thing here is that a lot of us will do for our children what we won’t do for ourselves, right? Like right now, I’m reading a whole book on potty training. I don’t really read that much. I liked to listen to books, except for Untamed. Speaking of like leaders being vulnerable, God bless Glennon Doyle and all of her raw honesty, P.S. that quote feelings or her feeling is Glennon Doyle’s.

Emily Fletcher

00:09:36

So anyway,  I’m reading this whole book on potty training for my son, which I wouldn’t necessarily do. I don’t read a whole book on a skill in a really long time. So it’s oftentimes we’re willing to do some of the things, ones that we won’t do for ourselves. So Ziva KIDS is the way in for you yourself to have a meditation practice, which P.S. is going to make you more money and help you have a better sex and grow your business then great, right? 

Then it becomes this whole like familial experience. This thing you can do together, you can hold each other accountable, not by being the meditation police, but as having a shared activity, that’s not screens. That’s not food.

That’s not spending money on something else. Right? It’s an activity you can do that’s going to increase your intimacy and your heart connection and all of your dreams. So that’s one thing. The other thing is to think about all of the time and money and energy that you waste solving. I don’t use air quotes, “solving” all of the problems that are caused by stress, right? Once kids get to be 12, 13, 14, they’re dealing with loneliness, they’re dealing with isolation. They’re dealing with, “I don’t know if I’m going back to school or not.” Our kids are holding an extraordinarily large burden largely for us, right? Like they’re not the ones that are being impacted by this virus like adults are.

Emily Fletcher

00:10:56

Kids have sacrificed a lot for our safety. We have to take responsibility for the long emotional and psychological tail of this. Because it’s not just a viral pandemic. There is also a mental health pandemic. And so, and not to freak anyone out or scare anybody, but it is a responsibility that we have to take seriously. I think that even for those people, who’ve convinced themselves that they’re too busy to meditate, which is a lie. That just means you haven’t found the right type of meditation yet. You haven’t found one that’s giving you a return on your time investment. But maybe if you do it with your kids, you’ll start to see like, “Oh, this thing really works. Oh, she’s happier. Oh, she’s making better decisions. Oh, she’s better in school.”

If it’s working for her, maybe it will also work for me.

Sage Lavine

00:11:40

I do not know where I’d be without meditation. And I don’t know where I’d be without Emily is meditation. I signed up for her  15 day course or whatever a while back. I’ve been doing it every morning, Emily, by the way. It’s like the restoration I get. I mean, you guys know the deal when we’re women leaders, when we’re on the front lines, it’s easy to have a night of sleep where we don’t quite get the sleep. We need maybe two nights in a row, maybe three nights in a row. Maybe our God forbid launch goes south and we have technical difficulties. I wouldn’t know anything about that. This stuff is gonna happen. How are you going to get the restoration? I mean, for me, 10, 15 minutes of meditation can literally be like half a night’s sleep.

Sage Lavine

00:12:20

It’s like, I can feel it in my body. It’s like woosh. It’s like I empty myself out. Then I know exactly what I need to do and I’m not spinning out and I’m not overwhelmed anymore. I actually get those insights when my brain comes down and I’m like, “Oh, I just need to do this, this and this.”

Imagine if our kids had that super power from an early age. I just want to say again, Emily, thank you for creating this. Thank you for being the receptive channel that you are to listen to the universe and to actually say, “You know what that is mine to do. If that keeps popping up in my head multiple times, it is mine to do.” I know as we’re wrapping up here, you actually are inviting people to jump into the course.

I’m just curious if you want to talk people through the actual details of the course, and then we’ll put the link to go check out the course.

Emily Fletcher

00:13:09

Yes. So once you enroll on the course, you can choose, which of course is most appropriate for your kids. So I said, I gave guidelines at four to eight or nine to 14, but if you have a nine-year-old, who’s super into puppets and creativity and imagination and great, they might enjoy the Play course, which is the younger kids. If you have an eight year old, that’s eight years old going on 24, maybe they, and they enjoy more science and more communal learning, then they might enjoy the Grow course, which is for a nine to 14 year olds. So you get to choose which course is the most appropriate for your child. In addition to the seven day core training, there’s also an adult training because I think that your kids are training to be super heroes, we have to train ourselves on how to be really good sidekicks.

Emily Fletcher

00:13:52

That includes not being the meditation police, not wanting to absolve any like preemptive guilt or burden of being like all, “Great, another thing I have to get my kids to do.” No. The best thing to do is to clean your own house, inspire them to meditate, invite them to meditate. Don’t make it like a “should.” So I just want to assuage that guilt right off the bat, but know that there is adult training inside of the course. The cool thing here is that once you move through the training, once your kid moves through these seven days. It’s a matriculation. Okay? So each day builds upon the previous day, your kid will have mindfulness, meditation, and manifesting to take with them for life. Okay.

Emily Fletcher

00:14:31

It’s designed to make them self-sufficient and I made it as entertaining as possible. I used my 10 years of Broadway. I used to be on Broadway. All my singing and dancing and Z Bunny is hilarious so that the kids would want to come back to it like their favorite Netflix show when they want a refresher. But the idea is that yes, we use technology to get the skills into them, but then after they learn it, no more screen time, it’s not tech dependent. We have a really beautiful onboarding reward system, meaning that they get a sticker chart, and once they get three stickers, they can do a one song dance party with mom or choose what they get to have to have dinner that night or go for a walk in the woods. So anyways, it’s a really holistic program that really can change the consciousness of not only your kids, but your whole family

Sage Lavine

00:15:18

It’s gamified! That’s exactly what we teach here at Women Rocking Business. You’re creating an experience for yourself and your child. Oh my gosh. I am so excited. I just encourage all of you to not only go jump into Emily’s meditation course for your kids that you get to benefit from alongside them. Aalso mily, you’re such an incredible presenter. I mean, can you guys feel all the different ways? All of the different places that Emily goes in her presentation. She pulls from science. She pulls from research. She pulls from inspirational stories. She pulls from her own experience and the investment that you’re going to make in this meditation course. I mean, just think for a minute, about a year from now three years from now, five years from now…where your child would be, where your child is going to be with the added skill of meditation.

Sage Lavine

00:16:04

I think as parents, it’s just not our job to try to teach that stuff on our own, right? Plug into the science of actually what’s working. I mean, Emily, this is no joke. She’s teamed up with Sesame Street producers and some of the leading experts on the planet and understanding like what really is going to help your kid understand the value of this? It’s about their super powers, you know? So go grab the course and Emily what’s one last story or illustration you want to leave us 

Emily Fletcher

00:16:36

Well, I guess we’ve just launched the course in beta. So it’s like we pick like 500 people to, you know, be our test group. We have, you know, now like hundreds of responses coming in, parents and children sharing how this is impacting them.

Yesterday on our team call, my head of marketing was like, “Y’all just have to get ready because I’m just going to be in tears for the next two months.” Because every time I read these, I start crying and then we went through and read the testimonials. I honestly can’t even pick one right now because I’m tearing up right now. But every single one I read makes my heart just explode open it out of my chest and make cry to Here. To see these kids who were bottling with insomnia or anxiety suddenly trust themselves and suddenly feeling like themselves again, if somebody’s able to dream again, instead of just worrying about what’s going to go wrong. It’s just is so heartwarming.

Emily Fletcher

00:17:26

I’m just imagining just in my meditation right now, I got a little like hippy-dippy and I was like, “What do I want the impact of Ziva KIDS to be?” Because it’s so easy to get into like, well, the login isn’t working and what’s our numbers and our conversion rate… it is so easy to get bogged down in the details – and those matter – but not as much as holding the vision of what you want this to look like on the planet. And I was just like, when I hear my son laugh, it is the best drugs I’ve ever taken. It is like pure ecstasy mixed with angels singing mixed with like heaven and that’s just his birthright. He was born that way. We were all born that way.

Emily Fletcher

00:18:07

And to give KIDS the ability to hold on to their happiness, right? To bring that bliss with them throughout their lives. Like, it sounds like a Miss America speech and I don’t care. That is what I want the ripple effects of this course to be.

Sage Lavine

Mic drop. Thank you for speaking the truth standing and the truth, listening and creating something that I know is going to change the lives of millions of people. Thank you for being the solution that the world is asking for. Thank you for bringing such a potent gift of meditation to the planet and making it packaged and palatable and playful and fun for our kids. I mean, these are the young people who are going to go and rectify a lot of the problems that we’re leaving them with on this planet.

Emily Fletcher

00:18:52

Thank you in advance, generation, thank you for cleaning up our mess!

Sage Lavine

00:18:57

You Emily for boosting them up for boosting them to go grab the course. I hardly ever let people make an offer for an actual course. It’s like, “Do you have a free gift? Do you have an ebook?” No, I just was like, Emily, what do you have where people can just go and get the goods you just got to go buy to course, you really do. And I can’t wait for you to have it. And I can’t wait to hear how you’re doin, loving it with your kids. Thank you for being a parent that cares enough on the PLANET. Thank you, Emily! Go rock it, everyone!

You’ve been listening to Women Rocking Business. I’m Sage Lavine. The next step is to join our private Facebook group. The Women Rocking Business Sisterhood and introduce yourself over there for the real and vulnerable conversation of what it really takes to launch and scale a business you love in that Sisterhood group. We have each other’s backs, each other’s sides and each other’s fronts. This is true collaboration. So go grab a seat in the Sisterhood because we can go so much further when we go together, you’ll find a link to the private Sisterhood group and do our upcoming events in the show notes.

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