Stress Therapy with Cheri Flake: Meditation & Stress Relief for Real Life · Meditation Teacher & Mental Health Counselor, Cheri Augustine Flake, LCSW: Meditation, Stress Relief, Healthy Habits, Spirituality, Mental Health, Self-Care, Self-Help, Happiness, Mindfulness

New Year, Real You

·33 min·2 clips

She turns resolutions into fill-in-the-blank goals, then says to pick only three or five.

She opens with a January 17, 2026 workshop announcement and frames "From Resolution to Routine" as a way to make meditation feel like a real habit. The event is at Vista Yoga in Atlanta. She also mentions a March retreat on Jekyll Island for listeners who want a deeper dive. After that, she turns to her New Year's warning. Her main point is that people expect too much from the first day of the year. She says you do not suddenly become a runner, a guitarist, or a meditator just because the calendar flips. Her argument is that long-term goals need longer timelines. She keeps returning to the idea that steady practice matters more than a dramatic fresh start. Start small. Check in once a month. See whether the goal is still working. Change it if it is not. She says it is fine to decide something is not for you. She even jokes that changing your mind is normal and useful. A Natural Life T-shirt story breaks up the advice. Her son returns the shirt because it does not fit. Dogs are fighting over a bone while she tells the story. The everyday clutter gives the episode some texture and keeps the talk from feeling abstract. She also treats meditation as something that has to be done, not just admired. She says it is as good for you as water, but only if you actually use it. The promotional pieces are woven into the same conversational flow. She points listeners to her website, social accounts, consultation info, and mailing list. The whole thing moves like a fast, confessional monologue. It jumps from holiday thinking to retreat details to habit-building to tiny home-life specifics without losing the central lesson. By the end, she lands on the same practical idea again: positive change works better when it is regular, flexible, and unhurried.

As heard by us

A practical reset on building habits through repetition, not a one-day burst.

This episode offers a practical reset on why January-style resolve so often falls apart, and how change works better when it stays smaller, steadier, and kinder.

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Why you'd press play

If your New Year's plans already feel too big, this one tells you to slow down and make meditation a habit.

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