As a neuroscientist who is also interested in “wellness” (the modern, less shame-inspiring replacement term for “self-help”), I sit at an interesting, albeit somewhat uncomfortable, vantage point. On one hand, I see a new and exciting era emerging, in which science is getting leveraged toward the development of truly useful practices for enhancing people’s lives. On the other hand, I also see a lot of misuse of the word science as a marketing tool to sell everything from supplements to esoteric breathing practices to brain-machine-interface devices. To be clear: There are some very interesting, even powerful tools emerging in all corners of the wellness arena, but most lack the essential components that I, personally, would want to see before dedicating my time, energy, and money to them.
Those criteria are:
All that might seem like a tall order, but I believe it is reasonable to ask for that from the self-designated teachers, coaches, gurus, and web personalities who hock this stuff. So when I heard that someone named Emily Fletcher was giving a talk on meditation at a conference I was attending, I figured I would skip it. Another American “yogi”—seen that one before. Fortunately for me, the Internet connection worked only from inside the conference room, so I decided to handle e-mail in there while Emily spoke on the stage.
Looking back, I’m so grateful I made that choice. I think it was Emily’s words—“These neuroscientists are catching up to what meditators have known for thousands of years: that meditation actually makes our brains better!”—that got my attention. After all, she was basically taking a jab at me. But as I listened further, I realized, This woman really gets it. First off, Emily possesses the unique skill of being able to make something as “tranquil” as meditation truly exciting, while at the same time grounding it in both its ancient roots and real modern scientific inquiry. She knows the classic jargon, but she isn’t afraid to assign user-friendly definitions to the various terms surrounding meditation and mindfulness practices. I find this incredibly useful. For example, nowadays the word meditation seems to be used as a catchall for any eyes-closed activity besides sleep or coma, and mindfulness is even less well-defined. Emily has a different, far more organized take on all this. In Stress Less, Accomplish More, she educates you: Mindfulness is really about the now, whereas meditation is about letting go of stress from the past. She even defines manifesting (a word I’d frankly never been comfortable with) as a set of actionable steps. Whether everyone agrees on these definitions is less important than the fact that by putting them out there, Emily breaks down the major barrier to getting you into a daily practice.
Stress Less, Accomplish More beautifully establishes a why to each step. All the incredible benefits of engaging in a regular meditation practice that people tout—better sleep, calmer state of mind, less reactivity, better sex, and so on—still exist, but in Stress Less, Accomplish More, Emily teaches you what to expect during the actual practice itself. That is a unique and powerful gift, and no, it doesn’t require that you spend ten days sitting in silence. It is about small, actionable, daily steps to achieve large, specific benefits. And she teaches you how.
So now, three years after hearing Emily speak and learning the Ziva Technique, I have come to realize that I was fundamentally wrong: Emily is not just another American who spent some time in India, picked up some lingo, did some stretches, and came back to the United States to tell us about it. Emily is a deep scholar of meditation, and is clarifying what both ancient and modern meditation really is, how it works, and, most important, what it can do for you. Stress Less, Accomplish More brings together the very best of what is possible in terms of educating you on meditation (my criterion #1 above), what you can expect at each stage (#2), how to do it (#3), and some of the many incredible benefits it can create (#4). Somehow (perhaps it is her Broadway training?) Emily also makes this process incredibly playful, fun, and entertaining. That wasn’t on my list of criteria, but perhaps it should be #5, because as you’ll soon discover, Stress Less, Accomplish More is anything but boring, and it very well may change your life.
—Andrew Huberman, Ph.D.
Professor of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine