Fresh Starts and Fun Goals: Reset Your Mindset for 2024

This episode explores strategies for setting realistic and meaningful New Year's resolutions. It emphasizes the importance of mindset shifts, intentional goal-setting, and practical tools to maintain motivation. The discussion includes guided meditation techniques to reduce stress and improve focus, helping listeners reset their mindset for success in 2024.

In this episode we will:

~Mindset Matters – Cultivating a positive and growth-focused mindset is the foundation for achieving long-term goals.

~ Actionable Goals – Breaking larger goals into smaller, manageable steps makes them more achievable and sustainable.

~ Meditation for Clarity – Incorporating guided meditation can reduce mental clutter and improve focus, making it easier to stay on track.

Meditation Music byhttp://sonicyogi.com
http://sonicyogi.com
https://open.spotify.com/track/7lpLx4vtoQusvoqidRY6vN?si=0db8efd9082c40eb
https://open.spotify.com/track/0Qotx90teY3iZ00PgUCwty?si=44a1c18c52e24e1f

Listen to Sonic Yogi on:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2xJT8mRbrqa7rTY6d4y5Fq?si=q2YYpPSzQOmu4R8-W4jkpw
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sonic-yogi/722350162https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sonic-yogi/722350162
https://amazon.com/music/player/artists/B00FQMVVIC/sonic-yogi?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_Y5q68A8LSQQGzl01PQC7Uaw6c

https://youtu.be/p2jtMEkdh6g?si=rVq-Q8o85mI75S4_


INTERESTING MENTIONS:

Shantaram Inspiration:
The literary example of seeing everyday objects through the lens of admiration reminds listeners to appreciate the beauty in their surroundings.

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The Host for this podcast: Cheri Augustine Flake, LCSW The Stress Therapist and Author


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TRANSCRIPT:[00:00] Stress Therapist: Hey, beautiful people, what's up? So New Year's Eve means different things to different people. You might be geared up, ready to go tomorrow, your whole life is going to change. Or you're like, forget it.[00:10] I never do New Year's resolutions. It's over. There's a happy middle. There's a medium. There's a gray area that you can live in happily. And I'm going to show you all about it today.[00:21] So relax and settle in and listen up, because your stress therapy session is about to begin right now.[00:42] Hey, beautiful people. It's time for some stress therapy. A podcast about how to meditate and get better at stress for people living in the real world. Finally, a place to park my 25 plus years of experience of working as a psychotherapist in the mental health field.[00:57] And now your host, me, the stress therapist, Sheri Flake.[01:16] Hey, beautiful people, what's up? Okay, we're going to talk about New Year's resolutions. Do not hang up. Do not turn this off. Do not walk away. Give me a chance to show you how New Year's resolutions can not only work, but they can actually be fun.[01:32] Okay. The way that we've been going about New Year's resolutions, you're absolutely right. If you've given up on them or if you're like, gung ho, but, like, secretly know that by, like, January 20th, you're going to be miserable and sad and feel bad about things.[01:45] You're probably in your 20s, but if you're older than that and you have lost a little bit of hope, it's only because you've been going about it all wrong. The way that we've been brought up to think about New Year's resolutions is just weird.[01:58] Like, first of all, we think that something Magical happens on January 1st. Nothing magical happens on January 1st. You will not magically be someone who runs two miles three times a week.[02:08] If you are not running at all right now, that is the same thing as saying, I am going to be playing Jimi Hendrix licks on January 1st this year, even though I have never picked up a guitar.[02:19] It's not reasonable. Even though your body could physically do it, it won't do it for long. You will be injured. You will have your brain talking. You're out of it.[02:28] Your ego will get all riled up and you will stop doing it, and you will not feel good about it. And after about 20 or 30 years of that, you're going to be like, I'm not doing it anymore.[02:39] However, there are some really Cool ways to make New Year's resolutions work for you and to make them fun. I mean, come on, let's think about this. Let's seriously think about New Year's resolutions for a second.[02:50] They are ridiculous. I talk about them on radio, I talk about them on tv. People have me on their shows talking about it all the time. The first thing you need to do is rethink what a New Year's resolution is.[03:02] Okay, first of all, it starts on an arbitrary day. I do not care what anyone thinks is happening on January 1st. There is nothing magical that day. There might be something magical in the stars or in the skies or how the planets lining or something like that, but you might have better luck looking into that.[03:20] Those types of facts where the stars are, how the seasons are working, whatever your horoscope, rather than just by going by January 1st. Okay, like it is just a day you can start.[03:33] Like with my clients who are learning how to meditate every day. I was talking to a client yesterday and we were talking about how she was going to add a minute or 30 seconds to her practice so she can ease up and move up the timing on how long her practice is.[03:50] You want to do that very gradually. So we only do it at 30 second, 30 second intervals sometimes or 1 minute intervals over long periods of time. So your brain sort of allows.[03:59] It doesn't really notice it's happening. And we decided that we would always do those on Fridays. Okay? So the idea of starting something new on a Friday doesn't seem like that big of a deal.[04:10] Starting something new on Monday all of a sudden feels like pressure. It feels, feels different on January 1, on Monday, after the holidays. Quote, after the holidays. Oh my gosh.[04:20] Why are we putting so much pressure on ourselves after the holidays? If do you think some magical time slot is going to open up after the holidays? When people say, hey, let's get together after the holidays, I'm like, what are you doing right now?[04:31] What are you doing today? What are you doing tomorrow? Are you going to eat lunch? I mean, come on, after the holidays? I mean, if some magical huge time slot opens up after the holidays, you are going to Puerto Rico.[04:41] You are not going to catch up on this and watch this show and call this person and all this stuff. I mean, come on, let's be realistic. So all that aside, all that crazy old school thinking aside, let's think new, let's be different, let's decide that instead of New Year's Eve or New Year's Day or the whole year or