Stress Less, Accomplish More: Meditation for Extraordinary Performance Hardcover – February 19, 2019

I first wrote this review upon completing 10 days practicing the Z Technique. Today, March 26th, I decided to update the review after practicing it for 35 days. Since it's already affected the quality of my life for better, I feel compelled to express my appreciation by sharing a review with you where I'll include additional notes while updating it.Let's divide it into 5 parts. First a brief summary from each chapter where I hope to include key excerpts highlighted while taking notes. Then I’ll share reasons why I ended up choosing to read the book. Following that, there are personal notes from the book and the practice. Next, I’ll share thoughts to whom I’d recommend reading it. Last, I hope to clarify and discuss some negative reviews I've just read prior updating here. Please feel free to jump to whatever part of the review you prefer.SUMMARYThe book is divided into 3 main parts. Part one is dedicated to explaining why we should all meditate. Part two is about learning the Z Technique—a method composed by mindfulness, meditation, and manifesting. Last, we explore how meditation can affect our relationships positively.[Introduction] Emily got into meditation by noticing how radiant and centered her colleague at work felt. Although Emily was performing at her dream job, she was struggling with anxiety, insomnia and getting sick and injured often. After her first experience, she signed up for the course and, during the last decade, she keeps experiencing benefits from her daily practices. In the mean time she became inspired to share with more people, quitting her job to embark on a teacher-training process in India. At the end of the introduction she says that “it doesn’t matter what your profession, ambition, religion, expertise, or experience is. Meditation is simply a tool to help you reach your goals; it’s never the goal itself.”[Chapter 1] Here we delve into meditation per se. Emily explains common excuses many of us make such as not having time in our schedule, having a past failing experience, or just misunderstanding the practice itself. By comparing meditation to food, she shows that meditation can be broken down into a number of styles like how we differentiate blueberry from broccoli from sweet potato. After that, she clarifies the differences between mindfulness and meditation practices. From there we are introduced to her method, Z Technique, which involves both mindfulness and meditation together with manifesting. One of her messages here is to make it clear that “meditation isn’t a belief system or religious practice; it’s a technique that will allow you to remove stress from your body while strengthening your mind.” Last, we’re asked to reflect honestly why we decided to read the book, how stress is affecting our performance, and to rate the quality of our sleep, work, relationships, stress, intuition, creativity and health.[Chapter 2] This chapter is a primer on the effects of meditation on well-being. Emily shows that although stress is innate and important for our survival mode, we’ve been experiencing stressful moments more often than ever before. We learn how meditation rewires our brain to become more creative and innovative when it comes to problem solving through neuroplasticity. One of the highlights in this chapter is about adaptation energy, which means “the ability to handle a demand or a change of expectation.” Through an everyday example, she shows that meditation can genuinely refill our reservoirs of adaptation energy by allowing us to tap into this source of energy.[Chapter 3] Whereas earlier we focused on meditation, here we explore the effects of accumulated stress. I didn’t only highlighted the following sentence, but also wrote that down in my notebook: “If we want to get rid of stress from the past, then we need to add the deep body rest of meditation.” Emily then explains the difference between the benefits of physical exercises and meditation. When we exercise, we excite our nervous system and increase our metabolic rate, helping us get rid of stress from today. When we meditate, however, we de-excite our nervous system and decease our metabolic rate, helping us get rid of stress from the past. At the end of the chapter, she explains that during the first few weeks after beginning the Z Technique some people may feel an uncomfortable response as our body and mind release stress that’s accumulated over our lifetimes.[Chapter 4] Now we shift gears toward sleep. After a brief introduction to the sleeping cycles, she explains that sleep and meditation aren’t the same type of rest: “Sleep is rest for your brain; meditation is rest for your body. You need to have both to thrive, and meditation allows you to do both more effectively.” She clarifies that stress builds up over time if we can't rest enough—forcing our brain to use our sleeping time for stress release rather than rest. We learn that the state of consciousness achieved in meditation is up to 5 times deeper than sleep. Taking that into perspective, a 30-minute daily meditation practice can be like giving an extra 2 hours of sleep. According to her, “because you’re resting your body rather than your mind, your brain can prioritize intense de-stressing and repairing the body during meditation.”[Chapter 5] It’s special to know meditation can improve our overall health. Emily doesn’t fall short of explaining how “meditation does more for the body than helping to ramp up your immune system and stave off illness, though; it can actually promote healing on a cellular level.” She empowers the benefits of Ayurveda—which is all about optimizing our personal health through harmony with the environment.[Chapter 6] This chapter is filled with good intention, supporting the natural aspect of growing older. What Emily points out is that we can become the best version of our age right now. By practicing regular meditation “your body will have the chance to undo physical damage, and your mind will come to a place of acceptance and celebration of what your life has been up to this point.” Later she adds that “meditation helps your body repair injuries and illnesses that have stuck around due to stress’s long-term effects on the body, in the form of lost or disrupted sleep, systemic inflammation, a state of chronic acidity, a decrease in mental alacrity, and pain.”[Chapter 7] This was my favorite chapter. Emily argues that “we live in a culture that mistakenly believes it’s possible to acquire our way to happiness” by explaining that we’ve been infected with “I’ll be happy when…” syndrome. This syndrome drains our mental and physical energies from the present moment in the hope of creating a better future for ourselves. She doesn’t encourage us to throw out our ambition, but instead, “simply be wary of allowing your ambition to control your fulfillment and believing you’ve to be unhappy now in order to be happy someday.” Happiness, after all, is found in the present moment. Meditation helps to tap the source of fulfillment when our body releases bliss chemicals and, as a result, we feel less confused by what we should do because we’ll be making decisions from a place of contentment rather than suffering and panic.[Chapter 8] Now it’s time to explore the Z Technique. Here we learn how to implement Emily's method step by step. As noted before, it consists of mindfulness, meditation, and manifesting, where “mindfulness helps you deal with stress in the present moment; meditation gets rid of stress from the past; and manifesting helps you create your dreams for the future.” She educates us on how to choose proper time of the day to meditate, how to keep a comfortable and welcoming physical posture, and a straightforward explanation to put meditation into practice. She makes sure to reemphasize that we meditate to get good at life, that “the Z Technique is for busy people with busy minds and it’s designed to be integrated into your life on the go.” After explaining the details of the practice, she shares a recap that goes as follows: [1] Sit with your back supported, head free. [2] Have a timepiece near you. [3] Begin mindfulness—come to your senses for 1 to 2 minutes. [4] Gently let the mantra float to you for 13 to 14 minutes. [5] Let go of the mantra but keep your eyes closed for a safety stop for 2 minutes. [6] Practice manifesting during the 2-minute safety stop—imagine a dream as if it’s happening now. [7] Open your eyes and deliver your greatness to the world. She finishes the chapter by sharing 5 important thoughts/scenarios we normally experience while meditating, and she by no means forgets to explain ways to counterbalance these thoughts/scenarios when they appear.[Chapter 9] This chapter is about nurturing the benefits of Z Technique once we’ve moved through the initial weeks of mental and physical detox. She encourages us to follow our intuition, increasing our confidence in trusting where it leads us. She adds “give yourself permission to encounter the world authentically and deliver your fulfillment to the real needs you’re uniquely positioned to meet.” Meditation is a trainable way to access flow states. The end of the chapter is quite profound, we learn that meditation lights up parts of the brain related to empathy and generosity.[Chapter 10] After learning the Z Technique we’re encouraged to get better at life—not only ours but also the lives of people around us. According to Emily, our habits should be reexamined periodically to make sure they’re still consistent with our current beliefs, priorities, and goals. She adds that successful individuals in any field are willing to adapt to habits continuously. One of the biggest benefits of meditation is consciousness expansion, which means “how we connect with the world and our place in it.” She says “the more consciousness a person has, the more joy, peace, equanimity, and connectedness that person will enjoy.” Meditation accomplishes that when the practice allows the right and the left hemispheres of the brain to communicate with each other effectively. At the end of the chapter we learn how to become the best version of ourselves by trusting our intuition and, therefore, being genuinely confident.[Chapter 11] This chapter is filled with “tools for improving our sexual performance.” My favorites are: [1] By balancing the left and right hemispheres of the brain when we practice meditation, we increase our attention and awareness, and therefore we become fully committed to the moment, “which is the only time an orgasm can happen.” [2] Besides developing new synapses and neural pathways in the brain, meditation also increases the function of a neuron responsible to perceive what our partner is feeling. As Emily explains, “this helps you to receive more pleasure from seeing your partner have pleasure, which will make you a far more intuitive and generous partner.”[Chapter 12] Here we explore the facets of stressful events. “The gap you’ve between stimulus and reaction—that split second that less stress affords you to choose how you’ll respond to a given situation—can affect the direction of your entire day as well as the days of the people around you.” Emily then complements “your ability to pause, consider, and intentionally choose your response, rather than being launched involuntarily into fight-or-flight mode, is a direct reflection of your own resilience and your ability to lead.” Although we all know how we should act, we act in accordance with the level of stress in our nervous system. To counterbalance that we’re encouraged to develop a daily discipline to act more in accordance with what we know to be true. Meditation, according to the her, “rids you of the stress that clouds your mind and taxes your body, allowing you easier access to the ideal self that already exists within you.” When we flood our brain and body wth dopamine and serotonin day after day we create positive interactions with people around us, projecting the best version of ourselves.[Chapter 13] The last chapter contains strategies to help meditation become a nonnegotiable part of our routine. Besides scheduling an appointment with ourselves to practice Z Technique twice a day for only 15 minutes, Emily shares tips to find a space to sit and practice meditation without excuses. After all, “it takes 2 percent of your day to drastically improve the other 98 percent.”WHY I DECIDED TO READ THE BOOKI’ve first heard about Emily a few months ago while reading the book Game Changers, by Dave Asprey. In chapter 13 Dave says he learned along the journey that “there’re tons of people spending a lot of time meditating and getting far fewer benefits than they could, just as there’re a ton of people exercising but not getting all the benefits of the effort they’re exerting.” That passage stuck in my head because it made sense—I felt that it could be applied in many areas of our lives. More important, though, Emily was one of the few experts that helped him take his practice to the next level. Throughout the pages Dave explains Emily’s breathing technique as well as her viewpoints on meditation. I can’t lie: it sparked my attention.I ended up pre-ordering the book only a few days prior its release. My motivation was, and still is, to learn and explore new ways to improve the benefits of meditation without preconceptions. I say ‘without preconceptions’ because, although I’ve practiced yoga since I was 18 and embarked on meditation and mindfulness practices later, I wanted to have a fresh perspective, being open to the unknown. It’s a trait I try to cultivate—encouraging us to appreciate the small things of everyday life. A couple of years ago, while reading the book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, by Shunryu Suzuki, a passage made completely sense to me: “The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities. It’s the kind of mind which can see things as they are, which step by step and in a flash can realize the original nature of everything.”PERSONAL THOUGHTSI enjoy Emily’s comprehensive writing style. The book covers more than meditation and stress management. In fact, the content is both important and compelling—encouraging me to pause and reflect uncountable times while reading it.Just before sharing some of the benefits I've felt during the first month, let me explain how I read the book and put the Z Technique into practice. Since I was excited to start practicing it, I decided to first read only the Introduction and Chapters 1 and 8—by the way, Chapter 8 is where we learn the details of the practice as noted above in the summary. Then, in the following 6 days I read it throughly.Even though I’ve been meditating consistently for a couple of years, introducing Emily’s method brought me noticeable benefits during the initial days—and continued during the entire month. I often mediate in the evening, about an hour or so before bedtime. During this first month, however, I’ve suspended my evening practice, choosing instead to practice Z Technique twice a day, first sitting in the morning and second sitting late in the afternoon. To put it in a nutshell, it’s been a positive experience.I honestly don’t know exactly why, but the morning sitting is the one that has made the biggest difference. Let me share with you what I’ve noticed so far: [1] I became more conscious of my breathing throughout the day. [2] It seems that my overall performance at work, specially when making decisions, became slightly smoother and more intuitive. [3] Also, I noticed that my morning journal entries appear to be more on the positive aspect of life.RECOMMENDATIONAlthough at first we may feel Emily focuses the writing on the needs of those who have previously felt like meditation failures for being ‘too busy’ or not being able to ‘clear their minds’, I can assure that it’s an inclusive and valuable piece. We all can take advantage to improve our “cognitive function and creativity, while simultaneously releasing stress and improving overall mental and physical health.”If you’ve been reluctant for whatever reason, please give it a try. On the other hand, if you’ve practice regularly whatever style you enjoy, Z Technique has its value to improve your well-being. The one group of people I’d potentially encourage to skip the reading is composed by those who are primarily interested in meditation only as a spiritual practice.CLARIFICATION OF NEGATIVE REVIEWSWell, I’ve just read a few unfavorable reviews prior updating this review. I sincerely understand their frustration. It’s fair to say we’ve personal beliefs, preferences, and needs—and, as a consequence, we express them differently. That said, let me share insights to clarify the 3 main objections reviewers have blamed. I hope Emily gets the chance to read these thoughts below.[1] Some have argued that after reading almost half of the book they couldn’t find any meditation practice. I understand their pain, specially these days when we we’ve been overwhelmed by external distractions. Taking the time to read a book from cover to cover became a difficult activity. As an example, let’s say we decide to read a book about healthy lifestyle—where a diet program is the highlight of the book. The question is, have you seen any book in this category where the author outlines the diet program before providing the essential information required to apply the diet? After reading the book and listening to the audio, I feel like Emily could have shared the details of Z Technique right in Chapter 2—after the long yet important Chapter 1—instead of making the reader wait till Chapter 8.[2] In terms of book length, instead of 270+ pages, I agree that Emily could have shared virtually the same message in less than 200 pages. Although it didn’t bother me at all, if I were the writer, I’d have merged Chapters 2 with 3 into a single one. The same goes for Chapters 4, 5, and 6. And also in between Chapters 9 and 10. To counterbalance that, I'd have explored a bit more in depth mindfulness, meditation, and manifesting separately.[3] Perhaps the harshest criticism is about “being a sales pitch for the online course.” Well, I agree with the reviewers. She could have been smoother in that aspect—specially these days we're so sensitive to unnatural advertisements. Taking that same example of a hypothetical healthy diet book, we tend to reject authors who try to push their natural supplements throughout the book. Again, if I were the writer, I’d have commented about the online course only once in the book, specifically in the Introduction, to explain how the heck the book came to life. Besides mentioning her online course a handful times, we also see her students saying highly about the online or live courses through the Case Studies. Although most of the times necessary to contextualize the reader, at the end, it’s a bit overwhelming. Anyway, listening to her audio—where I could pay attention to her voice comparing to the book itself—I felt she was quite genuine.I hope this updated review helps you in some way before making any commitment.Take care,Haical

This book is truly fantastic, for many reasons--and I'm about to get to the Top 10 things that I've learned reading it...But I actually want to address the top "negative" review I see here on Amazon that seems to have garnered a lot of attention. It says that Ms. Fletcher doesn't actually teach HOW to meditate in the book, and I'm a little incredulous and wondering how many people have been turned away from the book due to that review.I was almost screaming at my glowing screen (ALMOST screaming and not doing so because I meditate, yo!)--What is this in Chapter 8? Emily lays out the Z technique for mediation in it, and it's a COMPLETE book. Yes, she does have live classes and an online course (I've taken the online course and it's GREAT)--but you do NOT need those to be able to use Emily's method for meditating after reading this book.Whew! With that off my chest, here are some of the things I learned while reading this:1. Mediation does NOT equal Mindfulness. This has to be first. I thought I was an "expert" meditator, as I have been doing it for several years, I've used the apps (Headspace was my gateway drug), and have taken other courses, even from a bonafide monk--which was also a great course--but what most everyone teaches is NOT mediation, it's MINDFULNESS, and there is a big difference between the two. Emily's method starts with Mindfulness (that's all of the sensory exploration and thinking about your breathing and such) and then it goes into real meditation. The difference is explained beautifully here.2. How STRESS is the silent killer of our society...the "Black Plague" of our century, and is responsible for the majority of doctor visits...and MEDITATION (not mindfulness, see #1) is certainly A cure for that, and honestly, it is probably THE cure for it. I love how detailed and wonkish Ms. Fletcher gets on this. She is fully armed with research, and gets science behind her in this method. It's not just airy fairy, woo-woo...no, it's practical and it WORKS.3. Why TWO sessions a day are so much better than one. I love this one. I used to be a one time a day meditator/mindful-tator (?), and I loved it. It had a lot of positive benefits, like being a lot slower to anger, and lengthening the time between stimulus and response in my behavior (I almost always choose a response rather than just REACT to things now)...The two sessions a day goes to work on stored stress, and actually clears it out of your system. I've experienced this now, and fully believe it.4. How to reach the "BLISS" state. This is again related to #1. True meditation to me, feels a lot more like sleep--it's not, as I'm sitting upright and not snoring or anything--but it's one of those timeless types of things where I set a timer, meditate, and wonder "where did those last 15 minutes go?" because I'll (naturally) come out of the meditation just feeling...light and energetic and peaceful. It's pretty amazing. I had only reached that state TWICE during what I used to do while meditating, and I did it 3x my first week with this technique, and get there almost every time now.5. Meditation = Sleep x 5. Doing the right meditation is literally 5 times as restful as the same amount of time sleeping. Emily backs this up, and explains how that works...and after doing my early afternoon (I have a 2:30 alarm set on my phone that plays 'Mediate' by INXS that reminds me each day to do my second meditation) I completely buy in to this. When I don't get much sleep on a particular night, I will throw in an extra meditation session, and feel so, so much better...AND I don't have the afternoon "energy crash" I used to experience before this method.6. Thoughts aren't the enemy of meditation...EFFORT IS! Have you thought that maybe meditation just doesn't work for you because, "MY mind is too active...thank you"? I used to have a ton of thoughts going on being a somewhat ADD entrepreneur and all, but I got so much better at it. And the key? Don't force it. I call it "releasing the result," and when I do that, the session goes much better. Also, a session where you're still having thoughts visit you is still effective, and much, much better for you than NOT taking that time for yourself. Relax, amigo!7. I'm not a BAD meditator when those thoughts come around. I used to judge myself on my meditation "skill," but now see how absurd that is. Meditation is a practice, and you get better as you do it. Not each session will be a slam dunk home run...and that's completely cool. I am waaaaaay ahead of the game just by getting to that chair twice a day. Emily says celebrate your success and forget about perfection. It made me feel better to know that she's been doing this so many years, has been to India to study it, teaches it to thousands...and she still says she hasn't done a PERFECT meditation. Thank you, Emily! Pressure relieved.8. Right Brain, Left Brain differences and how we become much more in tune with our right brain. I loooooove that Emily geeks out on this stuff...and then delivers it to me, all neatly packaged with a scientific bow so my somewhat questioning nature trusts what she says. Then I try it, and it's validated.Emily shows that we get in much better touch with our right brain by doing meditation. It makes us more creative, and we are able to integrate most everything in life better because of it.I attest to this...I am more creative now than I have ever been, and humbly speaking, I was very creative beforehand. But I like to have a journal handy for after my sessions, as it seems like I can solve most anything in the "enlightened" state I feel immediately after a true meditation session.9. How to PROPERLY Manifest. I'm not a big fan of The Secret...the whole, "oh, just visualize it and do nothing, and it will come to you," kind of woo-woo that claims to work without action. But when you manifest right, it really helps you get CLEAR on what you want to have happen in your life, and clarity creates power. For me, I'm so much more likely to DO what I need to do to get the results I want when I'm manifesting like Emily teaches. It's great, great stuff...and truly life-enhancing.10. (And there were a lot more) You meditate not to get good at meditating, but to get good AT LIFE!!! As in love with meditation as Ms. Fletcher is, she doesn't lose sight of this important fact. Mediation is a TOOL to live better. It's not the end result in and of itself. And that is so, so very important.I can confidently say that I'm better at life due to my meditation practice. That's not woo-woo, it's a measurable fact. My workouts are better, my sleep is better, my time between the sheets (aawwww yeah) is better, and I'm just plain getting more done and leading a better life.And what Emily teaches is at the root of much of this. Meditation improves nearly every aspect of life.So--those are 10 things I've learned. I hope this is helpful for you, and that it encourages you to get, read, AND PUT WHAT'S IN THIS BOOK INTO PRACTICE in your life.I know you don't know me--but I promise that learning this will help you tremendously.Thank you!

I'd been trying to meditate for many many years without success - but this book did the trick. I'm finally able to understand what meditation really is. Of course I'm a beginner but I'm on the right track. I strongly recommend this book.

The book starts about 120 pages in and ends about 10 pages later. Everything before and after is just pointless waffle and shameless self-promotions.

I bought this having watched Emily on You Tube and it really does live up to the blurbs. She is enthusiastic and this feeds throughout the book. I do the meditation every day....and whenever I feel like wavering (even having done this since 30th November 2020) I pick it up and re-read through to get energised.

Libro muy útil para toda perros a qué quiera aprender a meditar , o qué quiere mejorar su técnica de meditación .

I thought this book was perfect. I've seen a few reviews complaining that there's too much why and not enough how, but I totally disagree. Meditating shouldn't require a book of 'how to' it's essentially a simple technique not meant to be overthought. The book helped me to clarify my why so that I can truly make a commitment to practice. I don't want to be inundated with too much how - simply bring yourself to mindfulness by quieting the mind and being present, then gently repeat the mantra until you slip into bliss. Bring yourself back up by manifesting joyfulness. Keep it simple sweety!