In this video, JJ Virgin recounts her personal experiment with Dr. Joe Dispenza’s meditation retreats that she began during the COVID‑19 pandemic. She initially committed to a six‑month meditation practice to improve her poorly developed meditation skills, likening the process to taking her nervous system to the gym. Over the course of several week‑long retreats (April, June, September), she observed gradual improvements in how she felt, which were corroborated by her team’s tracking. A notable outcome was an unexpected five‑pound loss, confirmed by a DEXA scan, which she attributes to her body exiting chronic fight‑or‑flight mode, allowing muscle preservation and fat reduction. JJ also connects meditation to increased productivity and time recovery, and she mentions HIIT training as a complementary method for strengthening the sympathetic nervous system. The overall narrative emphasizes consistent meditation as a tool for nervous‑system resilience, weight management, and enhanced daily performance.
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So a couple years ago during the pandemic, I started going to Dr. Joe Dispenza's meditation retreats. Perfect thing to do during the pandemic. All the other stuff was shut down. I'm like, I can finally focus on this. And I made a commitment to do meditation for 6 months, mainly because I was so rotten at it. And I was like, all right, I'm just going to give this a go and see what happens, do a little experiment. And what I likened it to is taking my nervous system to the gym. And the reality is You would never go to the gym for a week and go, I'm done, right? That's it. Check it off. And that's what, you know, when I went to the first meditation retreat, I'm like, cool, I'm gonna do this. It'll be a week. I'm done. I realized as I got into this, I go, this is not, oh, I need to really actually do this. And I really was bad at it, to be completely honest. I went with a group of friends. They're all like out there. I am sitting there like in my head the whole time. So I committed to it. I went to his week-long event in April. I went again in June. I went again in September. By September, I was like, You can't really tell if you're doing it right or not, but I was like, I think I feel better. And my team was like, you know, we've been tracking you since you've been starting this meditation and we do definitely notice the difference. Keep going. But one thing that happened, and I had the opportunity to sit with Dr. Joe in September. Now, April, May, June, July, August. So this was not even totally 6 months yet. It was right around that, that mark, but I was now committed. But this funny thing happened. I lost 5 pounds. Now I don't change things. Like I eat the same, I exercise the same, I track stuff, you know, sleeping the same, blah, blah, blah. And I was sitting at dinner with Dr. Joe and I go, so funny, I lost 5 pounds. He goes, yeah, it's the no thing diet. Dr. Joe says, hey, you got to become nobody, nowhere, no thing. But the reality was my body finally got out of flight and fight. Now if you're in flight or fight mode all the time, your body is breaking down muscle. You already heard what can happen with that. Sugar's going up, right? And I always had this little bit of belly fat and I was like, what the heck? Come on, right? And boom, gone. No, it's gone because I went and did a DEXA so I could see it. So remember, you gotta help your body be more resilient. And HIIT training is one way, trains your sympathetic nervous system to handle stress better. But meditation, fabulous. And I will tell you, when I went to Dr. Joan, I'm like, okay, oh my gosh, I'm so busy. How am I going to fit 20 to 30 to 45 minutes of meditation into my already totally slammed day? And what I've discovered is that I am way more productive when I do this. So I actually gain time back.
