This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Jessica Rush: Uh-oh, uh uh. Uh-oh, Mama's talking loud. Mom's talking loud. Hi, everybody. Welcome to this mini sode of Mama's Talkin' Loud. I'm Jessica Rush.

[0:13] Cara Cooper: And I'm Cara Cooper. Returning to chat with us today is Emily Fletcher, former Broadway performer and founder of Ziva Meditation, the leading expert in meditation for extraordinary performance. Today she's here to chat with us about something she has been working on for two years, collaborating with the folks at Sesame Street and Harvard to bring us Ziva Kids, a fun meditation training to help kids thrive. The skills children learn in Ziva Kids will change their brains forever, wiring them for resilience, emotional intelligence, and kindness. It seems like this is just what we need right now and for the future of our children's well-being. So, Emily, hello. Thank you for being here.

[0:54] Emily Fletcher: I'm so happy to be here. I was just remembering last time when we recorded, we were up in this beautiful like skyscraper in New York, and there was a massive storm happening, and the windows were bowing, and we're like, are we gonna make it out alive?

[1:07] Jessica Rush: Right. That was crazy.

[1:08] Cara Cooper: I forgot about that storm. That was wild.

[1:10] Emily Fletcher: And what a different time. I mean, the life we have lived since then, right?

[1:14] Jessica Rush: Oh, lifetimes really.

[1:16] Emily Fletcher: Oh, yeah. So many lifetimes. I feel like we're in purgatory and just like I I mean, I it's just waiting. You know, it's like I said this to Eric this morning. I said, I can't believe you know that that show was two years ago. I think it's because like there was no closure for any of us, right? Like this is sort of going off on a tangent, but it's like there was no finality in those moments, really. Like my show didn't close. We just didn't go back to work the next day or the next or the next, and now we're almost a year out. You know, so it's like this weird time warp, I feel like.

[1:44] Cara Cooper: Yeah, and that that closure's a big deal, you know, but and I think about the people who have died alone, or the people who died and they weren't able to have funerals and companies that have folded in this where they never got to say goodbye to their colleagues and what that does to the human psyche of just those open loops of not really ever taking the time to mourn. It's like if there's like someone goes missing, you know, and for decades they're missing. It's like we never really get the finality of like, oh now it's time to grieve, because there's still the glimmer of hope happening. And so it's a fascinating psychological and emotional reality that we're all having to navigate for ourselves and for our children.

[2:24] Emily Fletcher: Right. Which is well, that is why this is perfect time. Why you're here.

[2:28] Cara Cooper: Exactly. This is why Emily is here. We actually, Emily, when you left last last year, oh my god, last year, after we spoke, you had mentioned that Ziva Kids was in the works. And and then I kept to be honest, because I'm a student of Emily's. I took Ziva meditation way back when I was pregnant. I love it. She I think it's it is a game changer. It is life changing to meditate on the regular. Um, and I remember checking back over this past year particularly, you know, checking back on the website, where's Eva Kids? Where's the kids? When's it coming? When's it coming? And now it's here. Like no one's more excited about this than me. No one's more anticipatory of this course than me. Two years is a long time to be in development on something. I'm sure. I mean, did the pandemic have something to do with it?

[3:16] Emily Fletcher: I would assume. Yeah, it slowed things down in that we couldn't shoot, like we were supposed to shoot, I think in April, and then you know, things were locked down in New York City in April. I mean, people weren't even like really going to the grocery store in April. Like we just didn't understand the virus. And so we forget about like there was nowhere to rent a studio to actually shoot the course. So we ended up shooting in July. So that slowed us down a little bit. And then also, you know, when the pandemic hit, like I was in go time. You know, I did more podcasts and more live streams and more speaking at companies than I've ever done in my life because very quickly people started to realize oh, there's two pandemics here.

There's the viral one, but there's also the mental health pandemic that we're dealing with, and the long tail of the emotional and psychological trauma that happens from isolation and loneliness. Like we're starting to realize that now loneliness is worse for us physiologically than smoking. And you know, for adults, but then also for children, we have this uncertainty. So, anyway, long story short, the pandemic did indeed delay us, but we also just wanted it to be the best as it possibly could. Like, I've done three beta tests now, one for the content, one for the technology, and now for the value of it. And and people are loving it. The feedback is really exciting. Like the little kids, especially are wanting more.

Like, they're like, I want more days, I don't want it to end. And that is just the biggest compliment you could ever have because most people think about meditation, they think it's boring, they think I could never do it, they think my kid would never sit still, but the kids are actually like asking for more. So that is great.

[4:48] Cara Cooper: That's awesome. That's so exciting. Can you take us back? So pre-pandemic, obviously, we we talked to you about how Ziva Meditation became how it became about. Can you tell us about the inception of Ziva Kids? How this came to it to your mind and then to fruition.

[5:04] Emily Fletcher: Mm-hmm. So the it is our number one most requested course. For years, people have been asking me, like, can I please make something for kids? Can I teach this to my kids? I want my kids to meditate with me. You know, you know. I want to understand I want them to understand this style. And for years, I was like, no, no, no, it's not me. I don't teach kids, it's not what I do, it's not my area of expertise. I teach high-performing adults. And then I think it was becoming a mom. I think it was having a son and just how that fundamentally changes you. And when you realize that witnessing, there's really nothing more excruciating than seeing your child in pain and seeing your child suffering, and especially seeing your child suffering unnecessarily, right?

So, like one of my missions at Ziva is to eradicate the world from unnecessary suffering. And I get that some suffering is part of the human experience, right? Like mourning, loss, grieving, like that's that's just what you sign up for when you're here as a human. But unnecessary suffering, like insomnia, like anxiety, like you know, things that are solvable. This to me is just silly. Like, why are we doing it to ourselves? Certainly, why are we doing it to our children? And so um, I think finally becoming a mom, I was like, all right, it's time. And then I just made one phone call. Like it had been brewing for a long time, and I've been percolating for a long time, and I didn't know exactly what I wanted to look like, but I was pretty sure I wanted puppets, and so I made one phone call to a former Ziva graduate or Ziva student.

His name is Jake Basil, he's amazing, and he's a puppeteer at Sesame Street. And I just thought, you know what, let me just start here. And I called him, and it ended up being this two-hour conversation, and he was like, I can do the puppeteering. I would love to animate him, I can put you in touch with someone who can build him, I can put you in touch with writers. And so, and then it just started. And so I started working with a writer from Sesame Street, a puppeteer from Sesame Street, a builder from Sesame Street, and then I was in the my son was very young at this point, he was a baby, so I was taking these rye parenting classes, and this teacher was just brilliant. Her name is Dr. Christina Cohen.

She has two PhDs. She specializes in zero to six months, but she she has um clients. Um she's a therapist, like all the way up to 18 year olds. And so I reached out to her and I said, Hey, would you be interested in being a consultant on this with me? And she said yes. And then I found this woman named Haley, who is a mindful educator at Harvard. And then I also found Dr. Shafali, who has been on Oprah eight times. She wrote The Conscious Parent, The Awakened Family. Um, and so the the dream team of consultants on this course is is world class. Because I knew that I'm world class at teaching adults to meditate and high performers to meditate. I'm very aware that I was not world class at teaching children, and so I had to bring on like the best of the best.

And my son's only two and a half, right? So I don't even have real world experience with my own child yet. And so that's why we beta tested it so many times. And I just kept testing out the material, and now I feel super solid in it. So what Ziva Kids is is um for ages four to fourteen. It's actually two separate courses, one for four to eight-year-olds and then one for nine to fourteen-year-olds, and they learned the whole Ziva technique. So they learn mindfulness, meditation, and manifesting, and they're age appropriate both in the delivery and in the techniques. And the thing is that once they move, once your kid moves through the training, they have these tools to take with them for life.

They don't need an app or video or you or me telling them what to do. It's like you are teaching them that they can turn inside for their own resilience, for their own bravery, their own creativity, their own kindness. And um, and my my quest was to make how do we get the most powerful meditation tools out there, but make it as entertaining as possible so that the kids would want to watch it and want to do it.

[8:57] Emily Fletcher: So the parents would have to be meditation police, right? Yeah, because then that defeats like the whole purpose, right? And it's another thing you feel like you're failing at, and everyone's feel stressed, versus like, oh, here's this beautiful intimate bonding thing that we can do together as a family that will help us to feel better individually, to feel closer as a family, and to help create the life that we want. Like that's the manifesting piece, right? And children are so good at manifesting, they're already so in their imaginations that it's actually very easy to teach them.

[9:28] Cara Cooper: So tell us what one could expect, especially the four to eight. Obviously, that's what Jessica and the ages of our kids. Um we've we've signed in a little bit, but in your words, can you let us know what you know someone can expect when they log in to Z the kids for the first time? I know they're gonna meet Z Bunny, and tell us a little bit so our listeners can hear.

[9:44] Emily Fletcher: He's the cutest.

[9:51] Emily Fletcher: So Z Bunny is so cute. I it's like you're complimenting my own child right now. I feel this sense of like ownership. I mean, because we birthed him. Like we I can't, I have my whole team, right? As you know, I have a very big team, a staff at Ziva, and we spent hours selecting the length of fur, the color of fur, the fur combinations, the color of eyes. Like you to have a puppet's eyes close, just ever just in case you're aware, $2,000 just to make their eyes open and close. I was like, really? We could buy a small car for that, like a old one, but like a car. Um, but I was like, his eyes have to close because he's gotta be able to meditate. But anyway, I love B Bunny, I love him so much. My son loves him. His voice is so cute.

[10:40] Cara Cooper: Is the puppeteer doing the voice as well?

[10:43] Emily Fletcher: Yes, so Jake Basil, who's amazing, amazing, he did the voice and the actual animation. It takes two people to work him. Um, so it's two people on the body, and then Jake is doing the voice, and he's just an improvisational genius. He played Paddington Bear on Broadway, uh, and he's a Broadway performer, and he's on Sesame Street, and he's just like so, he just gets it. And because he's been meditating with Ziva for six years, like he's just the perfect person for this job. Um, and so we would do a lot of just like improv and riffing, and there's a lot of behind-the-scenes footage that's gonna be coming soon. Um, but to answer your question, when you log in, you are first given like a one-minute like what is this?

What's the best way to get the most out of your time? And then there's an adult training. So if there's three lessons, it's basically teaching you how to be a great sidekick. And then for the kids, depending on which age group you enrolled in, they're gonna get seven days of course curriculum. That's like the foundational training. Um, and each day move it builds upon the previous day.

[11:46] Emily Fletcher: So it's not like an app where you just go in and pick a thing, or like whose voice do I want? You want 20 minutes, 10 minutes. Do I want this teacher, that teacher? It's like, no, this is a matriculation, this is a course. I think people are paying me not to have 10,000 options on an app, they're paying me for efficacy and their time, right? Like, I've actually people like it's only seven days, it's only 15 minutes. I'm like, yeah, what if I told you it was for an hour a day for 45 days? Right. They're like, no, that would be a hard no. They just like make it work, right? So it is like the minimum viable product. It is exactly enough to get your kid to be able to do it on their own. And then once you graduate from the seven-day training, we have for the little kids, we have sticker charts.

And so if they meditate three days in a row, they get it. Um every day they meditate, they get a sticker. And once they get three stickers, then they get a coupon. And the coupons are really fun because they're activities that are offline that the families can do together. A one song dance party. The kid gets to decide what type of dinner they get to have that night. Um, you get to walk in the woods. Um, you can, you know, choose your vacation spot or whatever. So it's like it's fun things that the parents get to obviously curate the coupons, but we tried to make those rewards offline, right? Um, so that it's not more screen time. And then also the course itself is very gamified. So every time you finish a lesson, you unlock a badge.

So you're sort of becoming you're training to be a superhero along with Z Bunny. So Z Bunny wants more than anything to be a superhero. And every day he comes with a challenge, and I teach him a new tool, a new skill that helps him to unlock these superpowers that are inside of him. These superpowers like creativity, bravery, and kindness. And so each day, as your child finishes a day, they'll unlock a badge, and then by the end of the course, they're in full superhero status. And if the adults are doing their training, they've trained to be a good sidekick along the way. Yeah, it's so awesome. I love it so much.

[13:44] Cara Cooper: And Elliot, so we started, we got the beta a like a week or so ago, and I just kept looking for the right time because I wasn't sure what it was gonna be. And I was like, well, I don't want to just like throw it on her one day randomly. So let's like sit and have a minute. And then so imagine my surprise when I was like, Oh, you can literally just start at any time because they don't, it's not like you're jumping right in and showing them how to meditate. You know, you're not, you don't start there, and like you said, it's these, it's just seven minutes or 12 minutes. I mean, they vary, but we are on day three, lesson three. This morning we did, it's the belly balloon. Um, I so y'all, funny story.

This morning I said to Elliot, okay. So when I talked to Emily today, like, what can I tell her what one of your favorite things was? And Elliot goes, 'You know Emily? Very famous among the six.' And I said, 'Yeah.' I was like, Yes, she was on Broadway and like a dancer, and like took her class and she was on the podcast. I was like, and she's gonna be on again today. So what would you want me to tell her? I said, 'What is your favorite thing so far?' And because we're only on day three, but um, shake out the stormies is her favorite, which is what comes on lesson one. But like you were just saying, you build every day. So yesterday was our second bravery uh little bit into our superhero badge, and and you learned the superhero poses, and then this morning, going into the belly balloon, you said, All right, so let's what do we do first?

Let's shake out our stormies. So we sh, you know, and she knew what was coming, and then the superhero things, and it's just great because you're hearkening back to what they keep learning and just build on it, and um, yeah, I I mean it's it's adorable. Like I said, Elliot was amazed that I knew you, first off, and um, and she loves to shake out the stormies. She even stood up to do it, which I don't know, you know, it first thing in the morning for her to stand up off that couch, you know. I was like, Oh, good, okay, all right, we're doing this. You know, she likes to chill, she likes to snuggle and chill for a bit, but she was ready.

[15:49] Emily Fletcher: Yeah, that I mean, savor that. My son has never snuggled, not one time in his whole life. He's like snuggled one time. Gotta go. He's not a snuggler. Um, but I'm so glad. So, just so everyone knows what you're talking about. So, the Shake Off the Stormies, a couple of things here. Like, one of the big things, in addition to giving kids the tools to meditate, a big thing that was so important to me to instill in this course is that emotions that feelings are for feeling, to quote Glennon Doyle. Feelings who we love are for feeling. I mean, we could really have a whole podcast if you want to geek out on untamed. I could pontificate for literally hours. I can quote most of the chapters. I've read it 10 times.

The entire thing is dog eared, but yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, okay. So anyway, feelings are meant for feeling, and oftentimes I think that we as parents, because it causes us so much pain to see our kids having an intense experience, we do everything we can to squash it. And we don't mean to squash it, but it's like, ouch, this is hurting me. Your pain is causing me pain. So, and I don't know how to handle my own pain, so I'm just gonna try and shut you up, right? And we've all been trained since infancy. Shh, don't cry, have a bottle, shh, don't cry, have a toy, shh, don't be upset, have a video. You know, just oh, I'm in or in public, you can't feel your feelings in public. Just quiet down, quiet down, quiet down, shove it down, shove it down, shove it down.

And this has been our MO, us and our children since infancy. And so it's a lot of work to undo that. And we have to first undo it for ourselves so that we have the resilience as parents to hold a container big enough for the bigness of children's feelings. And you know, their prefrontal cortex is not fully developed yet. They're not regulating their emotions like we are. Thank God they're not, you know. And they've actually started to study like the physiological impacts of children who never have the space to express their emotions that are truly like stifled emotionally, and how that impacts us physiologically. Um, so anyway, it was important to me that we instilled in the very DNA of the course that feelings are for feeling.

And so in the first iteration of it, we called when kids felt these big emotions, we called them stress monsters, and we had these like little furry, like troll-like things or like little foosballs. And then I was just like, oh my god, Emily, what have you done? You can't call their feelings monsters. Like, no, that's the opposite. So we scrap all of that. Thank God. That's why you do a beta. Um, and then we had the idea to call them stormies, and this is so just it's the simplest, but it's so beautiful because it's like just like right now, it's snowing in New York City, right? And there's this snowstorm happening, and yet, if I were to get into a plane and fly above the clouds, the sun is still shining.

And the same is true for our emotions. We could feel extreme sadness and yet there is still bliss inside of us. You could feel extreme anger and yet still have fulfillment inside of you. And so, what Ziva Kids is teaching the kids to do is to go deep inside themselves to tap into the unchanging piece of them. The thing that is not swayed by test scores or soccer teams or cool kids' clubs or our parents' anxiety, but that they actually have access to their own fulfillment inside of them. And while your kid might not meditate every single day, 15 minutes, morning and afternoon after this class, that's not the point. The point is to teach them that they can turn inside for their own fulfillment, and that is a skill that, if truly mastered, they will take with them for the rest of their lives.

And it will impact the way they handle any breakup, any job interview, any firing, any death. Like it will change them fundamentally. Um, but really it's making them more themselves, right? And I mean, how beneficial to get in from the ground up, literally, right? There's not all this pack unpacking that they will have to do as an adult to get through to this part of themselves. It will be realized at such a younger age, you know. I'm jealous of them.

[19:55] Cara Cooper: It's like think of all the money they're gonna save on therapy. Right, and like, and as far as like price anchoring goes, people are like, oh, it's like, oh, you charge money for this course. I'm like, yeah, there are hundreds of thousands of free meditations for kids on YouTube, and none of them are gonna have like this level of impact, this level of matriculation, this level of power, this level of staying power, and and and so it's like you know, just speaking as like an entrepreneur, it's like we wanted to price anchor against like a therapy session, a violin lesson, of a baseball lesson. Like you can't you put your kid in baseball lessons, not because you necessarily want them to join the MBA, right?

Is that right? No, that's basketball. What's the MBA? What's the basketball ones? Yeah, I should not make sports. Baseball's NBA, baseball's MLB. Carol. Oh, because I don't even know what MLB is. All right, so Emily, just stick to tap dancing. Okay, no, we're gonna go. We're gonna go. You don't put your kid in baseball lessons because you necessarily want them to like join the major leagues. Yeah, okay, good, go get it. Um, but but then being on a baseball team is gonna teach them teamwork, sportsmanship, hand-eye coordination, how to handle loss, and it's the same thing with this course, right? You don't your kid doesn't necessarily have to grow up to like be a monk or to be a meditation teacher, but learning this emotional agility, how to really feel and process your feelings, how to turn inside to figure out what it is that you want. Like these are legit life skills. That this is the kind of stuff where everyone's like, why didn't we learn this in school? It's like, well, well, now here you go.

[21:27] Emily Fletcher: Right. Well, and I the timing of it all is so great. I mean, Elliot, I have anxiety that and I've that was where meditation has helped me. And I know that she feels my anxiety, right? And she is an anxious little individual. She's always been a very like sensitive soul, like just and very empathetic towards others and feels all the feelings. Um, so what's been interesting is the amount of times, you know, I've bought the books, the, you know, the what ifs book and the the, you know, feeling the, you know, um child's book about anxiety, literally. Like, I've bought all these books, which are great, but and I read them to her and we talk about it, but I hadn't been able to really break through.

And I do have to say that like this is only day three, but I I can feel the shift in her when she's watching it and hearing Z Bunny have those feelings, like actually hear, not just not just have it be read to her or imagine a writer writing about it or a pretend um flat, you know, illustration. To hear Z Bunny have those feelings and then how he processes them, it actually I can tell that it's it's impacting her in a different way, and that she's thinking about it. And it's so cool, Em.

[22:40] Emily Fletcher: Well, and especially during this time, I feel like when we are our kids everything, we've been stuck in our homes with them, we are their teachers, we are we are their social interactions. So to be learning it from somebody else, you know, to have somebody else take the reins. We I um similarly talk about emotions, especially with my son, and also how to handle his sister's emotions, which are way different, but it's not the same coming from us. I mean, we are guiding them to the best of our ability, but from coming from someone else, it has that cool factor, right? You know, there's like, oh, look at this. Look at this, look at Z Bunny. I'm gonna be like them. Speaking of, I might Finn is just gonna adore it. He talks all the time about how he's working on becoming a superhero. He's not there yet, but he's working on becoming a superhero. So I feel like he's four. This is just gonna be like perfection for him, and I can't wait to to start.

[23:31] Emily Fletcher: Exactly.

[23:33] Cara Cooper: Yeah.

[23:34] Emily Fletcher: So this is definitely a pretty like tried and true thing. Like, even with kids with trauma, you know, they'll have a stuffed animal in the room, or they'll have like a neutral third party that the kid relates to that they feel safe with, that they can talk to. And even like in potty training, I'm like starting with the potty training with my son, and you know, sometimes they'll recommend that like it's the stuffed animal that's asked them if they want to go to the bathroom, or that's like congratulating them. So it's taking you out of the equation and creating a third party there that's neutral that they relate to and identify with. And um, you know, and that's really good for like the four to eight-year-olds.

That course is called play, but then the grow course, which is nine to fourteen, the challenge there really is getting the kids to want to do it, you know, like getting their buy-in even out of the gate. And something that I really try to share with parents is they have to want it, right? Like you can't make them meditate, you can't make them take the class. And so sometimes some tricks there are can you just play the video while you're coloring, or can you play the video while you're making dinner? Or even just to like get it around to get them kind of like listening out of one ear while you're doing your art homework or your homework that's not so intense. I'm just gonna play this in the background, and if you like it, great.

And then they're just gonna sort of like perk up. And since I don't have Z Bunny fully in the preteens class, he makes a few appearances, but I'm kind of like, these kids are too old for you, Z Bunny. They don't want you around. But then everyone secretly loved him. Like all the proteins were like, I'm so glad you kept bringing a Z Bunny, but don't tell anybody I said that. Um and I tried to wear like the coolest clothes possible. Like, look, I'm hip, I'm wearing a leather jacket. I'm not an old 41-year-old mom. You're I'm cool. Um, but what I think what I did that I actually think is smart is I tried to include as much video footage from other preteens, like other nine to even up to 18-year-olds.

Like I have this one eight-year-old student who's meditating every day, twice a day since he was 15. And he's like Captain of the lacrosse team and straight A student and going to college. And he very much is like, if I didn't have Ziva, I would not have made these grades. I would not have been able to handle my sports load and course load. And so since he's 18, you know, he's like a cool guy that people can look up to. So I just tried to make it because at that age you care about what your peers are doing, right? Like, no 41-year-old mom telling you to meditate is gonna do the trick there. So yeah, I think that's really smart. Like that is super smart because it's just what it is. We you know, don't try to change what they're gonna relate to in this moment. Let's meet them where they're at, right?

[26:09] Cara Cooper: So, Emily, tell us we're here because there's a big event, the launch of Ziva Kids, right? On February 23rd. Is that the special event? Tell us about it.

[26:19] Emily Fletcher: That's it. February 23rd, 1 p.m. And it's called How to Raise the Happiest Kid You Know. And I think it's catchy, but I just want to give like one qualifier about that title is that happiness is not the only valid emotion. They're all valid. And I would argue that the whole point of like why we as humans are on this planet is to like create as much joy as possible. And sometimes that means feeling the intensity of all the other emotions. But anyway, catchy title, you get the gist. Um, how to raise the happiest kid you know. And we're actually doing it at the Daybreaker headquarters. I don't know if you've ever heard of Daybreaker. There's this amazing like sober morning dance parties, and they've pivoted to being online.

So they have a green screen studio. They sometimes will have like 15,000 people around the world show up to these things. And um, anyway, we're doing an event, it's between me, myself and Z Bunny. It's kind of like a late night talk show where we're bringing on guest experts, we're gonna have live musical performances, we're gonna do interaction with the audience, and we're gonna have Dr. Mark Hyman, who is a 12-time New York Times bestselling author talking about how stress impacts the brain. Um, we're gonna have Dr. Shafali, who's been on Oprah eight times talking about how to become a conscious parent. Elena Brouwer, who's an amazing, amazing yoga and meditation teacher, talking about how to not be the meditation police.

I taught her son to meditate eight years ago. He was one of my first students, um, kids' students, and she has some pretty antithetical advice. Because I asked her to be a guest, and she was like, Yes, I'd love to. Oh my gosh, I'm so happy you're doing this. Thank God the world needs it. And I was like, Well, how has your son's experience been? And she goes, he never meditated. And I was like, okay, well, maybe let's not say that on the live event. But then I was like, wait a minute, just so then why are you doing this? Like, why are you willing to be a guest expert if, like, me teaching your son to meditate and he never meditated? Like most people would call that a giant failure. And she goes, No, it changed him.

It changed him cellularly, it changed his relationship with himself, it changed his relationship with my meditation practice. And she's like, and now he knows he can turn inside. And she's like, and he might be doing it where I don't know about it because he's doing it secretly. But she's like, it just him having the intro to it was enough to change him. And so I just thought, what a liberating thing to just even in the sales pitch, right? To be like, you can let yourself off the hook. Your kid does not have to meditate every single day. Because I imagine a lot of parents are gonna kick themselves out of the game before they even get in it. Um, and so I thought with someone like Elena, that'd be a really powerful thing to hear.

And she's also gonna teach um a technique of like laying hands, something you could do to your child to help them if they're having trouble falling asleep, and it's something they could do to themselves to self-soothe. And who else? So Dr. Shafali, did I say Dr. Shafali's gonna be there? Yep, Elena, yes, yes, and then me and Z Bunny. I may or may not tap dance, we'll see how it goes. I mean like a town hall, I love it.

[29:14] Cara Cooper: Exactly. So, how do you do you have to sign up? Where what do we think the best place to sign up is?

[29:16] Emily Fletcher: Ziva meditation.com slash kids, and then people can register for the it's totally free event, it's an hour long, and then this is like the kickoff. This is when registration opens for Ziva kids. Um, and we're also starting a Facebook group, so this is gonna be for conscious families, people who want to find like minded parents or grandparents, or anyone who is excited about introducing meditation to kids, and um, so it's gonna be fun because in that community we'll have like a whole class of people, you know, going through the training together, and it'll be our inaugural class.

[29:51] Cara Cooper: That's awesome. Is that is that the one that perhaps if you have the beta, you already are access to?

[29:57] Emily Fletcher: Yes, okay, that's correct. Yeah.

[29:58] Cara Cooper: Because I think you know, even with my own meditation practice, it comes and goes to be honest. You know, it's comes and goes. When I make the time and the space for it or just do it, I feel so different. But sometimes it's difficult to uh to do that for yourself. Um all in all honesty.

[30:18] Emily Fletcher: And here's the thing, which is not to interrupt this thought, but you having Elliot meditating is now gonna give you a level of accountability and you're gonna be able to be each other's buddies. Not police, but each other's buddies. Because likely she's gonna really start to crave it and want it and she might start to call you out. Well that's like mommy meditated today. And then you're like oh she does know it. You know she does know I'll be like I'm gonna meditate and she knows when I meditate and I actually signed her up for a mindfulness course uh just recently that she just started taking because we're homeschooling her just because I feel I can tell like she needs the awareness she needs the mindfulness she's so hard on herself she's so such a little perfectionist.

Like there's just and she feels so intensely. So I am so excited already three lessons in it's awesome and I think that I'm so thankful but my whole point why I started this thought was that to have even if you're someone who isn't meditating to have the support the parent support or the caregiver support that is that takes it to a new level Emily. I mean I do think that is something that I noticed when I got the email saying like hey parents here's lesson one for you to watch you know there's these three and here's our support group, and I thought, oh, how brilliant to have a space where you can then ask the questions or get clarification, or just like you said, have a community of like-minded people who are wanting to raise the best humans we can and ourselves be the best humans we can be.

[31:45] Emily Fletcher: Yeah, I love that. Raise the best humans we can. And you're right, like we and I'm glad we didn't make this decision, but I almost made it to where you couldn't even buy Ziva kids unless you had done Ziva online. So, like, unless you yourself as a parent had done the full 15-day adult training, I wasn't even gonna let you purchase the course. I know like everyone on the team was like, Emily, I appreciate your purity, but that's a terrible. And so then I was like, okay, well, then fine, we're just gonna build an adult training inside of the kids' course because so many parents will do something for their kids that they would never do for themselves. And so I figured, well, I don't want to rob these children of the opportunity to have access to their own bliss and fulfillment for their whole lives just because their parents think they're too busy to meditate.

And then hopefully the reverse will happen. Like if they don't, if they haven't already taken the course, they'll be like, oh, this is really working for my kid, and I like what she's saying, so let me now take the course.

[32:39] Cara Cooper: Totally, totally. I just feel like it's this is all for lack of a better word, preordained. I know you hit you know some road bumps with the pandemic and things were pushed back, you know, but it almost feels like the release of this is so perfectly timed, right? We are approaching the year mark of a pandemic that has altered the way we move through the world, and more importantly, how our kids learn and grow and interact with other people. And now, you know, we are moving towards normalcy, but to be armoring them with this newfound technique of how to kind of re-enter the world stronger than they were before, not broken down from the time, but lifted up. I think it it's just couldn't be more perfect.

[33:23] Emily Fletcher: Thank you for saying that. I really am trusting that that is true. And I just had this idea yesterday. It was like, what if Ziva kids could change children's relationship with isolation from one of punishment to one of paradise, right? That it's like, oh, I actually have everything I need inside of me. And I am gonna be more resilient because of this, and I'm gonna be more equipped to handle things for the rest of my life because of this, versus like, oh, look at all this trauma that's happened to me, and now I have to fix myself from it. Right? It's a very different POV. And I think that how we speak about this and how we speak about the impact on our kids really matters.

[34:03] Cara Cooper: Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm so excited. After I after we're done with this interview, we're we're meeting Z Bunny in the living room. I can't wait.

[34:11] Emily Fletcher: Yes, it's gonna be awesome. Thank you, Emily, for coming back and filling us in. You know, last February, it was all self-love, learning about the meditation, and here we are now with our kiddos, and I'm just so so thrilled that people are gonna have the opportunity to bring this into their children's world. And I the, you know, I just think it is the benefits are immeasurable. So teaching our kids to love themselves, right?

[34:36] Emily Fletcher: Yeah, and accept exactly and feel all their feelings.

[34:40] Cara Cooper: Exactly. Exactly. Thank you so much for being here.

[34:43] Emily Fletcher: Bye y'all.

[34:50] Jessica Rush: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Mamas Talkin' Loud. Special shout outs to Rachel Spencer Hewitt for our fabulous graphic. Kristen Anderson Lopez, Bobby Lopez, and Justin Ward Weber for our super theme song. Our producer Dori Berenstein and editor Alan Seales, and of course, the Broadway Podcast Network for bringing us to you. Have a good one.