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What if the secret to having it all isn’t doing more, but learning to be still?

This week something shifted for me. I came home from a Dispenza event and made a decision: I was going to make my entire day a meditation practice. Not just the hour in the morning—every. single. moment.

The drive to school. Standing in line. Watching my kids at practice. All of it.

And I’m telling you, I have never felt more present, more clear, or more free in my entire life.

In this episode, I’m sharing what happened when I forced my system to slow down, why stillness will lead to all the growth you seek, and how making these small shifts throughout my day unlocked a level of clarity and joy I didn’t know was possible.

Key Takeaways

• Why life IS the ceremony—how I shifted from thinking I needed big events to unlock change vs realizing big transformation comes from daily moments

• What happens when you stop running—how making your entire day a stillness practice creates more clarity than any retreat or strategy ever could

• How to chase big dreams AND stay present—why slowing down actually made me more productive, and how you CAN have both the massive ambition and the calm presence

 ____________________________________

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh:

The number one hands down secret to success is mental capacity. What if I made my day-to-day life a meditation? I have been able to just be, I do not want a life that’s so packed full every moment that I’m not present because what am I doing? Then what if it’s about how connected you are? How in alignment you are.

I have unlocked the secret to life. I swear to god. Embodied CEOs don’t chase trends. They pave the way. They lead from within. Move by purpose, unshaken by noise. When you are the source, you do not need permission. Hello everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I’m excited for this episode. Last week I recorded an episode about.

A big realization I had around fear, facing fear, how tricky it is, and really like this layer I’ve uncovered for myself and the amount of messages I got and emails we got back was so amazing and confirming sometimes when I talk about them more like, let me try to share with you what I am.

Experiencing and realizing in real time, I worry like, is this gonna sound crazy or is this gonna make sense to anyone or does it just make sense to me? So it’s really confirming when you guys resonate so much with something like that. So thank you. And I wanna share an episode similar to that just based on this last week because I am telling you guys this is.

The biggest transformation I’ve had yet. And the crazy thing is it’s not off the back of like a big retreat or a big experience, or a three day event or plant medicine or any of these things, right? It’s like actually these small dial twists that I’ve made that are changing my life. And I, I just think you guys are gonna get so much out of this.

So. I currently have never felt more present, more free, more clear, more happy, more filled with joy ever. And I’ve shared on this podcast, like I think my biggest struggle in my life is being present. And I think a lot of people feel that way, and I’m hyper aware of it, so I especially feel that way.

But I really struggle with how wired my brain is to constantly be going, because the way that shows up for me is I feel like, oh, you could be more present with your kids and just enjoy your life more and be more present, but you’re constantly going and chasing and it’s, it’s my personality type for sure.

And, and there’s huge benefits to it, and I’ve created a lot of quote success from it, but it’s also my biggest struggle. And, you know, I’ve shared on here all the time how much I struggle with that, how much I struggle with social media and just like the consumption of it and the, and the distraction it creates.

And I don’t know, like things just lined up that I have unlocked like a new, a new secret and a new level of, of presence. So I’m gonna share it with you guys, and then if you’re inspired by it, you can implement some of these things. And just my takeaways from it. So. I did go to a Dispenza three day event, and, and in that event you spend a lot of time in meditation, a lot of time.

And I had one experience. I don’t think I talked about it on that podcast episode. I had one experience that was wild. Meditation in a deep way can actually create an experience similar to plant medicine or similar to like if you’re on a substance, because your brain can actually create those chemicals.

I don’t know if that’s what happened or not, but in one of my meditations it was at the end of it and throughout the event, I kept wanting, I’m like, I really want a mystical experience. I wanna, I wanna see a being, or I want to like really like have that experience. And by wanting it, I was trying to control it and I was too focused on it.

And so in this specific meditation it was like. Not at all focused on that. It was actually a shorter meditation. It wasn’t even about like, you know, tuning into the mystical, all those things. So of course that’s when something happens, you know, ’cause the unknown and it was towards the end of the meditation.

And we, we sit up for a long time and we lay down and we’re laying down on the floor. And I basically left my body like I was stuck to the floor. And it was like, I came above and I was like watching myself and even if I tried, I couldn’t move and, and the meditation was like ending, right? People are starting to come out of it and like make noise and there’s like 1500 people.

So sometimes there’s a lot of noise. Sometimes, you know, there’s not, and. And what happened was in this, and this has happened in the past event, one person starts like cracking up laughing in a room of 1500 people and then all of a sudden, this sounds so weird, but all these people start laughing. But I’m like in this experience of like frozen and that starts happening, like they’re coming out, it’s at the very end of the meditation and someone starts laughing.

Then another person and it’s like this virus that goes around the room of laughter, which you’d think is funny. But I was so, I was so out of like where I was that I literally was like, I think it’s the beans. I think I’m hearing things like, is this real? And. It was just crazy. Like I couldn’t have moved if I tried.

I was like watching myself experiencing it. I couldn’t, I don’t know, I don’t know. Something happened and then ICI finally came out of it enough ’cause like everybody had sat up, like it’d been five minutes and everybody had sat up and is like starting to leave the room and I’m still laying on the floor.

And so I, I did eventually come out of it. And I was like, oh my gosh, like what just happened to me? I feel so crazy. Like I genuinely felt like I woke up in a different reality and I felt like I was in a period of time where I was like, there was no time. And I was stuck there and I woke up and I was like, in this days, like I didn’t even, I was like, I can’t go get food.

That’s what we’re supposed to be doing. I’m like, I don’t know. So I went outside and I literally just laid in the grass. And I didn’t care. Like there’s thou 1,015 hundred people, right? And I’m like brought my blanket from the meditation and laying in the grass and my husband was there with me and he’s like, I’m gonna go get lunch.

And I’m like, okay, I can, I can’t. I need to go outside and to lay down. Anyways, it was just such a profound experience that I genuinely feel like after. I, I woke up in a new reality and I don’t know what it means. I don’t need to know what it means, but something happened, something happened to my system so that I go on a solo trip.

And also throughout the experience, I kept getting the message like, you need to get off social media. You need to get off social media. It’s time for you to really go deep into. Some things you wanna work on without noise and you need to probably spend the rest of the year like with it off your phone and zero consumption.

And so I knew I was gonna do that, you know, leaving the event and so coming home next day. I did that. And so this whole week I have had, you know, been off social media and I’ve done that before. I’ve gone two months without logging into social media and the team keeps my account up and I look at content and a Word document, so it’s not like a brand new thing, but every single time I do it, I’m like, this is just so profound and I’m, I’m not saying that you have to do that, like I’m not, this podcast is not, Hey, you should get yourself off social media.

I’m saying whatever you need to do to put yourself in the present moment. Is the most powerful thing that you could do for your growth. So here’s what I wanna talk about, because here’s what I realized. I’ve spent so much time thinking that change needs to happen from a big event you know, a meditating three hours a day, like these extremes.

That’s my personality. I think it’s probably a lot of your guys’ personality. Is this like all in like, okay, I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna, I’m gonna take it to the extreme. Sure. Those things are profound, right? Going to the dispense event and going to retreats, I’ve gone to, like, I’ve had very profound experiences that have changed my life and changed my perspective.

But coming home this time and, and coming back into life, I’m like, you know what? I think life is the ceremony. What if I made my day-to-day life a meditation, meaning. Yes, I’ll do my hour and a half in the morning that I do and, and go deep in in that, and I’ve done that since I’ve done that for the last five, six months.

Yes, I’ll do that. But what if like when I’m driving, when I’m standing in line, when I am. All my back patio at the end of the day, what if I played with as many times a day as possible? I can bring myself to the present moment and instead of making the present moment this thing that I like do, and then I go into my day for the rest of the day and then I do it again the next morning, which is great, helpful, but I’m always like, let’s take it to the next level.

Not because I need to, but because it’s like, what would that be like? And so for me, I need. To be off social media for that to happen. I think for now, maybe I can get to a place where I don’t, but if it’s on my phone, in those white space moments, especially at the end of the day, I will turn to consuming.

And also, I don’t like how my brain becomes trained to create content on Instagram stories. So like. Instead of just living in the present moment, I’m thinking about capturing content and there’s a balance to that. So I knew that to do that, I need to cut the noise. I also knew I would need to cut the noise to face some things I wanted to face.

Because I knew that I used social media to run from those things and to not feel through certain things. ’cause it creates this, for me, false sense of connection and happiness that I knew I needed to address some of that like buzzing inside of me, right? Of like the lack of being able to be still. So I combined when I came home.

Continuing my meditation practice, which is about an hour to an hour and a half as soon as I wake up in the morning. That’s what works best for me. And then making my day a meditation. And that means as many times as I can, bringing myself into the present moment and becoming a, an observer. And I will breathe.

I’ll just breathe. Like, just literally focus on my breath for a second. Notice my body. What are you feeling? It. I swear to God, this is the most powerful thing that you could ever do in your life. Because what it does is it creates awareness. And what I have learned is that awareness is the first step. I used to have a mentor who said, awareness is the finish line.

’cause it’s like, once you have the awareness, then you can make the change. Then you, you know, you can, you can choose differently, but without awareness, you’re just stuck in patterns. You’re stuck in loops, and you’re stuck in, in a life that you, you may not even realize what’s happening. And so this week I, I could cry.

I am so happy because I have been able to just be like, end of the day after a busy work day where usually I’m wired. I’m thinking about like all that thing I forgot to say to this team member and I gotta do this and I’m behind on this, and all those things, all those thoughts that I, I have a hard time stopping once I’m in that mode for me.

If I get into work mode and I get into do mode, I can’t get out of it until the next, until I sleep. And this week it’s like I, I’ve slow, my system has slowed down. The end of the day comes, I don’t have social media to pull up on my phone. My phone’s actually pretty non enticing to me because I have like no apps on it.

I have text messages and it’s like. Great. You can actually really connect with people if that’s what you wanna do, but I realized I was using that to. Keep up the level of, of being wired and stimulation that I have during the day when I’m working because my brain was craving that and that was an escape because what am I doing when I do that?

I’m not looking at, I’m not looking internally. I’m not connecting back with myself. I’m not, I’m not paying attention to how I feel and. What I’m experiencing and the stories and the thoughts and the patterns, which is the most powerful thing you could do because then you can choose to change those. And so this week I’ve had like my pace of life is just slower, but yet I’ve been insanely productive.

And before I went on this last trip, I mean I was back in a season of like grind for a few weeks because we had our big launch and. I think it’s okay to have those seasons sometimes, but I find myself in my own pattern being one that continually falls into that and then like enjoys it but really isn’t enjoying it.

And so by having this space this week, I’ve been able to slow down and it’s like be with myself, which I think is. Was the hard thing for me is I didn’t wanna just be with myself. Because what happens when you’re just being with yourself? Well, there might be the emotions or the stories or the things that come up that we don’t want to experience.

So we fill our reality with noise. And the more I do this work and the more you know, I, I, I live the journey of an entrepreneur. The more, I think the number one hands down secret to success is mental capacity is connection to whatever you believe that’s bigger than you. Because where do you think the incredible guidance and intuition and ideas comes from?

It’s within you, but you have to have the space to have it. And when I look at our. Society and I look at entrepreneurs and I fall in this, okay? Like I am guilty of this, but I am so committed to making the change. When I look at it, it’s like the amount of overstimulated we are is actually insane. Humans are not meant to have this much constant noise.

And I would, I would say like my habits are on this spectrum of pretty good. I don’t, I haven’t slept with my phone in the room for years. I don’t look at anything. I don’t have email on my phone. I don’t look at stuff right when I get up. Like majority of people, it’s like, wake up, roll over, grab their phone.

But the, the level of noise and the level of just overpacked every moment of every day. The more I do this, the more I I go on this journey, the more I realize, like to me that is not success. I do not want a life that’s so packed full every moment that I’m not present because what am I doing then? And at the same time.

I still want to achieve massive dreams. I am still building the eight figure company going to be top in the world in CrossFit, like pursuing these dreams, taking my kids on trips like, and here’s the thing, I think people think you have to have the massively overpacked overloaded schedule and mental capacity and noise in your life to have that success.

To have the big company and the more I am around really successful entrepreneurs, they’re not like so busy that they can’t, they don’t have a moment. Now they’re ruthless with their time and energy allocation, right? And what they say yes and no to for sure, they are ruthless with that, but not because they’re so busy they can’t eat and they can’t enjoy their lives.

Because what is the point? So the more I do this, the more I realize that needing my schedule to be so packed and so much going on, and the constant stimulation comes from an addiction, my brain is chasing. And this week I have forced my system and forced my brain to sit in the massive discomfort of stillness and not.

Here’s what I want you guys to understand. This didn’t come from me going, you’re gonna start a meditation practice, or you’re gonna have a stillness practice, right? I already have that now. It’s like, no, you’re gonna find stillness all throughout your day. A hundred times your day is a stillness practice now, and the clarity, the insights, the.

Presence. The joy. Like I just drive now and I’m like, song comes on. I’m like, I just fucking love life, like, and I’m actually walking through some challenging things right now. I’m facing some things in my personal life that I have avoided for a decade or more. I’m walking through challenging things and I feel so much joy and so much peace and so much freedom, and it’s because I’m not running.

From anything inside of myself, I am eye to eye with it. Like, all right, what do you have to teach me? And for me, I use work goals, social media, all as an escape from that. And so this week I was like, we’re cutting it off. We’re cutting it off. You can’t, you can’t turn to that. Now at night, at the end of the day, when you’re exhausted and you just wanna numb out, no.

Instead, you’re just gonna be with yourself. You are gonna sit there and you’re gonna pay attention to your breath and you’re gonna be with yourself. And now, my entire day as a stillness practice, is it perfect? Am I walking around like, you know, a monk? No. You know, I still have so many thoughts and my brain wanders all the time, and that’s fine.

That’s his job. But I’m saying I think the most powerful thing you can do for your growth is not just like, let me implement this habit or do this retreat. Those are all great. Like, and I think those are great resets, you know, and I think, again, I have my meditation practice and that’s where I go really deep, right?

But the more you can make your life, the practice, your life, the ceremony. The more powerful it is because we learn through experience, and I could spend every morning meditating for hours, but if I come in my day and I lose that present moment and I lose that connection, it doesn’t even matter. Like what am I doing right?

Because I’m doing it so that it impacts me living out in the 3D world actually, you know, executing. So. Few points I’m making here is that like, how could you make your life the practice? How could you make life a ceremony? How could you do those small dial twists all throughout your day? For me, that’s changed my life.

Second is, how can you create an environment where you can be with yourself? In the tiny moments. Again, a meditation practice. You know, different routines are great, but how can you do it in the tiny moments throughout your day, driving, waiting in line, watching your kids practice? Like I’m watching my kids’ soccer practice, which she’s like way across the field.

I could hardly see her. And so, to be honest with you, a lot of times I would pull up my phone, you know, even if I’m like watching, then phone, then watching, then phone, I would pull it up, open Instagram. Scroll now, it’s not on my phone. And so I’m sitting there gazing out, watching her, and I’m being with myself.

So how can you, in the moments where you’re escaping, be with yourself more? And I’m gonna tell you, your brain is not gonna wanna do it. Like, trust me, I’ve had a dozen times this week that I’m trying to justify to myself why I should be able to put social media back on my phone and it’s fine. Or you know, why.

I need to call somebody or do something because my brain doesn’t like it. It does not like to be still, it’s also not wired, like it’s not trained to, to be still. But the more I do it, the more it’s becoming easy. And the more I’m like in the little moments with my kids that I’m present and I’m, I’m realizing like this is the point of life.

This is happiness because it’s not about the big trip or you know, the big experience and these things that we shoot for sure. They’re great, they’re awesome, you know, but it’s those little moments of presence. It’s like the little second that I normally would’ve walked out of the room when my five-year-old was doing something because I needed to go do the dishes or whatever in the house.

But now I’m like, but lemme just pause. Lemme pause for a second. Lemme just enjoy this moment for one second. It’s driving in the car with my kids to the school yesterday. Instead of my brain thinking about what I need to do that day and all these things that would happen, it was able to just actually be in the car ride, hold my 10 year old’s hand next to me for a minute, hear the songs.

It sounds maybe silly. I don’t know if it sounds silly to you, but I’m like, this is it. This is the point of life. It’s experiencing and living the depth of the little moments in your day and then realizing. There’s so much to be grateful for. There’s so much to be happy for. There’s so much joy. It it, yeah.

It’s been, it’s been incredible and, and the last point that I wanna make sure I really hit home, because I’ve never heard somebody talk about it this way before, and this is the realization I’m having, even as I’m talking this out, it’s actually helping me realize it even deeper, which is, I think you can have both.

I know you can have both. You can have the huge dreams that take. Actual time commitment. You can have the full life, you can do a lot of things. And it’s how you do it, how present you are, how connected you are, how in alignment you are. I was listening to Dispenza talk about, something that now that I have more space, I, I just consume that type of material instead.

And he, somebody asked him like, you know, he, he talks a lot about manifestation in the quantum field. Doesn’t matter if you believe that or not, but somebody asked him, you know, if you, if you believe that, how do you balance that with doing. And he said, I do so much. Like I am probably somebody who does most, more than most people.

Like, I mean, it’s insane what he does. He has kids who are way older, so he is not in that, that phase of his life anymore. But you can tell like he works his ass off. You know, he hosts all these huge events that go from like 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM every month, twice a month. And he said, but it’s how I do it.

That’s different because I do it from a place of flow and connection, and that’s the difference. That’s literally the secret, you guys. I, I think that we confuse if I’m doing something from flow and ease and connection and alignment and manifesting that it means I’m not physically having to work as hard.

But what if you could physically still work hard to, to the level that was in alignment for you and your dreams? Like the bigger the dreams, the more work you may have to put in the season of life you’re in. The more work you have to put in. What if it’s about how you do it? What if it’s about how connected you are, how in alignment you are, how much trust and surrender there is behind what you’re doing?

How much connection to what’s bigger than you and how do you get there, stillness. You get there by inward, by understanding that this entire journey of life is about remembering who we really are and our connection and our power. And that we already have all the answers. And this might sound totally woo, but I’m like, I’ve unlocked, I have unlocked the secret to life.

I swear to God, you guys, like I am a completely different person than I was seven days ago because of this. And, and the craziest thing to me is this week I have had a normal average week. All of this has happened in the small moments in my day because I made my day. The meditation practice I made my day.

The ceremony of life. That’s it. So, I mean, hopefully this gives you some actions that you can go and take, but I think the most powerful thing you can do in your life is create the space and capacity for yourself to connect back inward, which. That sounds so nice. Like, yeah, I’d love to connect inward, but it actually comes with a lot of challenge because to connect back inward, you have to sit with really uncomfortable feelings.

Like, let me tell you, it’s not comfortable. It’s like, I’m like a child, like throwing a tantrum a little bit. When, when my brain is like, no, we want stimulation. We, we want the busy, we want, we wanna be distracted. We wanna confuse distraction with productivity, we need that level of stimulation. And I’m going, no, no, I’m in charge here.

We’re not doing that. And it’s un, it’s uncomfortable as hell, right? Like, because your brain’s telling you I don’t wanna do this and it’s gonna fight you hard. And I think that’s why most people don’t do it is ’cause they just like give into that. You become the master. When you can do that, the level of clarity of connection, of purpose, of joy, of presence is gonna change your, it’s gonna change your life and go to the retreats, come to my event in January, it’s gonna be next level, just ’cause I continue to up level myself as a facilitator.

But let those be a reset and then the work happens in the day-to-day. It happens not even how you expect it to happen. Like it happens in the smallest of the twists of the dial. And you know, it can happen overnight. So maybe I sound like a crazy person on this episode. I don’t know, but I’m telling you guys like I’m thriving.

And the other crazy thing is. The amount of projects I’ve worked on in the company this week and things that we’re like launching and moving and how great things are going like, and I have felt more present as if I didn’t even work this week. And I have sat with myself and feelings and truth and you know, things that I haven’t voiced to people in my life more than I have in 10 years.

And that is leading to change that is so big. Scary, but it’s like, I want the life on the other side of this more than I want the comfort, and so I’m willing, it’s like how willing are you to face the shit, the fear, the discomfort, all those things that get stirred up when you’re creating a lack of predictability for your brain.

And a lack of the known. And a lack of like, oh, this is how we do things every day. That’s what your brain wants. When you do that. It’s gonna freak out. Your ego’s gonna freak out. It feels, you know, to the system, it feels like death. And the more you do that, the more free you are. Like freedom is what I keep feeling like I am now free from myself, from all these things.

And you know what, this is one layer. There’s gonna be another layer and another layer and endless layers. But I want the growth. I want to evolve and expand at such a level and such a rapid level because I have big fricking things to do here on this planet in my life. And I look at people like Dispenza and I’m like, I want that impact.

I will have that impact. And in order to have that impact, you gotta be so committed to the work like no other. So. My actions have to match that desire, and that means a whole lot of, of discomfort and growth and layer by layer. But also it’s like who you become in the process is the whole point. There’s no finish line.

I don’t need to get to a finish line. I don’t even, I don’t even know where I’m going, who I’m becoming in the process is the entire point. All right guys. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I do love your messages, especially on these podcast episodes because I genuinely sometimes feel like I sound like a crazy person and holy crap, if you went back and listened to the Emily four or five years ago, three years ago, two years ago, she did not sound like this.

So that’s how it should be. All right everybody, I’ll talk to you next time.