Loving Kindness, Peace and Happiness for Everybody ~ Even YOU!
IT’S OUR 100TH EPISODE! Yes! And to celebrate, we will reacquaint ourselves with the idea of One Love in joining together for a loving kindness meditation. Remembering that we are much more the same rather than different, a reminder of how we can actually feel this love and spread will be covered today as well because we do makeup humankind after all.
In this episode we will learn:
~How to remember day to day, especially this time of year how we are ONE LOVE.
~tips on staying present during the holiday season
~A Metta, or Loving Kindness Meditation to feel and spread love with Sonic Yogi Singing bowls and music for a profound meditation experience.
Meditation Music by Sonic Yogi, Deep Sleep With Singing Bowls
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The Host for this podcast: Cheri Augustine Flake, LCSW The Stress Therapist and Author
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[00:00] Hey, beautiful people, guess what? I had to pop in in the middle of my break because I’m taking December off. But I had to pop in really quick while I’m showing you all these other amazing podcasters and tell you that today is my 100th episode. And I’m so excited because it’s such a beautiful time to come back in just for one episode, revisit you so we can have one love, a lovingkindness meditation together. Right now, it’s stress therapy tips and tricks that this psychotherapist wants you to know. So relax and settle in and listen up because your 100th stress therapy session is about to begin right now. 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. And now your host, me, the stress therapist, sherry flake sack of it. We’re going to take a teensy tiny break. Be right back. Okay, y’all. I can’t believe it, beautiful people. But here we are. And we have been together 100 times. Can you believe it? It’s so exciting. 100th episode, here we are. And I think it’s a really cool time. Whether you’re Christian or not, whether you’re celebrating some sort of religious holiday this month or holiday season or not, it’s always a beautiful, wonderful time because a lot of people are, and there’s a lot of love in the air to examine the idea of one love, that we are all one love, that with respect, to value, we are all exactly the same. We come from the human race. We come from this beautiful, beautiful earth. And when we think about our sameness rather than our differences, things look better. We feel better. If I was able to open up your body and take out your beautiful soul, it would fill up the entire universe and more. It would fill up galaxies and galaxies and light years and light years. That’s how valuable and beautiful and lovely that you are. And you share that with all these other people. And there is an opportunity here to feel connected rather than feel separate, to feel love rather than feel hate, to feel peace rather than feeling discord. And it’s an awesome opportunity to be in the very moment that you’re in because it is so beautiful and every single moment is a gift. And I know how cheesy I sound right now, and I don’t even care because it’s so good and it’s so loving and it’s filled to the top with juicy. And if you want some of that, then you’re going to have to spend some time in the sweet, sweet stillness. Paramahansa Yoga Nanda said, live in the present. Launch yourself on every wave. Find eternity in each moment. The future will take care of itself. You don’t have to worry about it. You don’t have to change it. You just sit in your loving, beautiful present moment, this beautiful stillness. And you can find your future in being in the present. Because nothing’s going to happen in the future. It’s all going to happen right now. And nothing ever happened in the past. It happened all right now, and you don’t want to miss it. And sometimes during this time of year, people say, oh, I can’t believe it’s Christmas. This is one of my pet peeves. I can’t believe it’s Christmas. I can’t believe it’s the holidays again. I can’t believe it’s the new year again. I can’t believe 2023 is over. Whatever. Maybe you can’t believe it, but the reason why you can’t believe it is because you’re not spending any time in it. You’re thinking about next week, or this holiday party, or this gift you need to get, or that person you need to acknowledge or this thing you need to do or that cocktail dress you need to buy or whatever, rather than being in the very moment you’re in. And there is a juicy loveliness in doing that. And one of the ways that I like to think about how we can remember how we’re all exactly the same, even though we don’t think we are okay, we all think we’re extra special, extra horrible in some way, right? Because we’re attached to these ego identities. But one of the ways is this cool hypothetical question. And the question is this. Imagine that you don’t know anything about yourself. You don’t know your age. You don’t know if you’re young or old. You don’t know if you live in the north or South. You don’t know if you live urban or rural area. You have no idea. You don’t know how you look. You don’t know if you’re black or white or brown or man or woman or child or baby. You have no idea if you had to choose, though, who or what you might support based only on what you think is right, who or what do you think you would choose and why? Changes things a little, right? You don’t know if you’re rich or poor. You don’t know if you grew up neglected or loved unconditionally. You know nothing. And so who would you vote for? What would you care about? It’s kind of a cool question, and I think it’s a reminder that we are one. Love and spreading that can be a lot simpler than you think. Feeling that can be a lot simpler than you think. And I’m going to bring you through a meditation right now where we’re going to fill ourselves up to the top with love. Regardless of where you are in the country, or who you are, or how you were raised, or what you think or believe or think is important, how you can fill yourself to the top with human kindness and love and spread it and bring it to everyone else during this beautiful time of year, when we often reflect about where we’re from, who we are, who we love, what we’re doing, and we also get ready to make goals and create things. And so, for a couple of weeks during this holiday season, towards the end of the year and the very beginning of the Year of the 2024, our shiny New Year, I’m going to be introducing you to other podcasters from the ethereal network of shows that I think you’re going to love. And then I’ll be back to help you work on these goals and creating goals that cater to you. Who you are, what you want, not what your neighbor’s doing, not what this chick on Instagram’s doing, not what this other person’s doing. I mean, people are talking and talking and talking and oh, my goodness, who cares what lights you up? What brings you joy? And I’ll tell you this, other people knowing about it or understanding it is not where the joy comes from. It’s the innate act of doing and being who you were meant to be and utilizing the gifts that you were given from this universe, or God, or Buddha, or Jesus, or Paramanza, Yogananda, or Batsy, or Susie or whatever you call it, we’re going to focus on that coming in mid January. Until then, I’m sending you so much love and light. Get yourself situated, get yourself whatever you need to feel love. Take a couple of deep breaths during this quick little break we’re going to take. And when we come back, we’re going to do a meta loving kindness meditation. Oh, wait. Before we go to break, before we meditate together, you need to know that we have some amazing music for your meditation today. And I’m going to be using it like crazy because I reconnected with an old friend who happens to be the Sonic Yogi. He is a super badass guitar player, an amazing musician. 20 years ago we had the same manager in the music business and then I went to go see a concert with the Sonic Yogi. Did not know that my old friend Jonathan Adler was the Sonic Yogi and enjoyed the most amazing experience. I am hoping that you too have an amazing experience with this meditation music. It is actually using science to talk to your brain, to get you to calm, to get you to settle. This is not someone who took like a weekend workshop on how to be a sound healer. This guy knows exactly what he’s doing and I think you will find that that is the truth. When you have this experience with him, you can find all of his music@sonicyogi.com. Go to the show notes if you want to become one of his millions of listeners. I mean, this guy is so awesome and he has given us some music today to enjoy during your meditation. So again, we’re going to take a quick break and then we’ll be back.
[09:12] To listen to amazing music while we meditate.
[09:15] Love you. Be right back.
[09:30] Take a long, luxurious breath in. Let it all go out of your mouth in a comfortable seated position. Allow yourself to settle in. Let your head Settle with your chin level to the ground, your spine straight. Allow your limbs to find a comfortable place to settle. You might find that allowing the backs of your hands to rest on your knees or thighs is a comfortable spot. You might Want to turn your hands around and allow the palms of your hands to be on your knees and thighs. You might even put your fingers In Gyan Mudra, making The okay sign where your first finger and your thumb are Touching, resting, resting comfortably and just allow your shoulders and spine to settle in and take another long, slow, deep breath in your nose and let it all go out of your mouth and bring your attention to your third eye, to the space between your eyebrows, this place of wisdom and knowing. And as if you could breathe into this area, allow your breath to move in your third eye out of your third eye, calling on the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, Christ, consciousness, the universe’s wisdom, the source, whatever energetic field you want to call on that has the wisdom and knowing beyond our wildest dreams, whatever you call it, breathe in, breathe out this wisdom, this knowledge. Take your time. A few moments here to call on guidance from the field San your attention to your beautiful heart center. IMAGINING THAt YOur BReaTH Is green and bright. Breathing in your breath into your heart center. Now from breastplate to spine, from shoulder to shoulder breathing in this lovely, green, beautiful breath that the earth just gives and gives and gives. There’s AlWAys BReath for you. It’s always there, exactly how much you need lighting up your heart center. And this bright, neon green breath as it comes and goes. AnD IN YOuR mind’s eye, I Want you to think of a PErSon that is so easy to love. It Might not even be a pErson. PErHApS IT’s A pet, JUSt SOmE sentient being that Is so easy to lOve. You Bring this Picture Into YOuR mind’s Eye of this Lovely being. BreaThe IN THaT green, beautiful breath, and as you breathe out, send lovingkindness. Send Meta Maitri to this sentient being. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live your life with ease, at peace. And as this image moves away from your mind’s eye, take a few breaths, breathe beautiful breaths, and bring to mind someone that you know, but not really. Perhaps you see them at a store that you frequent. Maybe you know them from a place that you visit, or maybe you see them at a club or a place where you belong, a gym, a library, a church, just a place that you go to a grocery store. And you might not even know their name, but you see them. And whoever comes to mind first is probably just the right person. Fill your awareness with this sentient being, and again, fill yourself up with that green, beautiful breath of love and light, sending it out to this person. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live your life with ease, at peace. And now allow this person’s essence to leave your awareness and bring to mind a person that you have a small grievance with, someone you’re just a little irked by. Nothing major. And again with that deep, green, beautiful, loving, heart centered breath. Begin. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live your life with ease, at peace. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live your life with ease, at peace, allowing the situation and person to leave your awareness once again. And just bring to mind your neighborhood, all the people who live around you. May we be happy. May we be healthy. May we live our lives with ease, at peace. And now, zooming out from your neighborhood, see if you can imagine your entire state, whatever state you live in or territory. May we be happy. May we be healthy. May we live our lives with ease, at peace. And zooming out now, you might want to imagine your entire country, maybe even your continent, getting that beautiful visual from the sky, looking down on this beautiful part of the earth. May we all be happy. May we be healthy. May we live our lives with ease, at peace. Taking another beautiful green breath in lighting up your heart, imagine that beautiful round earth, marble suspended in the black, starry sky, and wish the entire Mother Earth and every sentient being on it. May we be happy, may we be healthy. May we live our lives with ease, at peace. May we be happy, may we be healthy. May we live our lives with ease, at peace. And now take a few more loving, heart centered breaths. Ready your beautiful body for the most important lovingkindness. For the most important wish upon ourselves, turning that beautiful love inward. May I be happy, may I be healthy. May I live my life with ease, at peace. Take a few moments to luxuriate in this beautiful lovingkindness that you have created, this calm, this peace that you have wished upon all sentient beings, including your beautiful self. Remembering where you are, remembering who you are and what a gift you are. And when you’re ready, you can open your beautiful eyes.
[24:17] Close.
[24:22] I so hope that you were able, just for those few moments together, to feel love, to experience love, to feel like you’re sending love, to feel like your vibration is higher, that your energetic level is higher, and that you’re able to just feel a little bit of all this beautiful love that is coursing through the ether. This is a time of year where there is a lot of religious rituals, holiday rituals. It’s a tough time for people who have lost someone. There’s a lot of grief, loss. There’s difficulty in getting along with other people, in having to be in familial situations that we are the rest of the year able to avoid. For the most part, it can be really hard. But let’s not forget what can be easy. And if you give the littlest amount of effort to feeling and experiencing love, and someone squeezes you or gets you upset, what’s going to come out? Just love. That’s what’s going to come out. And so I’m going to be leaving you with, like I said, with a couple of ethereal network of shows over the next couple of weeks. And I will Come back in January to talk about creating goals that light you up, that come from you and what you want and your gifts from this universe, rather than what other people tell us we should be doing or what social media is pushing us or pushing on us to make us think we need to do, where you can get very clear on what really matters to you. Because every second on this earth is a gift. You just don’t know how long you’re going to be here. So what are you going to do with your valuable, beautiful, amazing time? And part of that, I hope, is going to be spent in stillness and silence. So you’re on your own during this time. Make sure that you take your time. Remember, take it. Actually take it and sit quietly every opportunity you get. It’s so good for your brain, it’s so good for your heart, and it’s so good for everyone who’s around you. I wish you love and peace and happiness and all things wonderful and loving during this amazing time of year. And I’ll see you in 2024. Have a lovely, lovely holiday season. Whoops, whoops, whoops. I forgot to tell you about my gifts that I was given on this universe a long time ago. Before I had kids, before I was a podcaster. While I was starting my own little private practice, I was running around with an Atlanta pop band. It’s pretty bubblegum, it’s pretty poppy. And our name was 13 stories and it was amazing. We had just enough success to make it really fun. And we traveled around and we wrote all these really great songs. We must have written like, I don’t know, hundreds of songs and maybe ten of them were good. And I think one or two of them were absolutely great. And one of them I think is spectacular. And it was my Christmas song. It’s called Christmas Makes me Hot. And I’m going to leave this with you over the holiday season and just so you can enjoy some lovely pop music. I mean, I love Mariah Carey too. I mean, I think she’s totally amazing and wonderful. But come on, we do have some space for a new pop Christmas anthem. And just so you know, if you love this song as Much as I do, I invite you to listen to it on Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music or wherever you go. I heart radio for your music Enjoyment. So here is my gift to you. It’s Christmas makes me hot by 13 stories. Here you go. Enjoy.
[28:12] Love. In a Christmas chat room we met online he told me that he had a beard and was a small guy. Did I mind? I told him I’m pretty sure myself. He mentioned he worked at the mall and was a Christmas elf I never thought it happened we fell in love so madly I’ve been loving Titans price. That’s on. My boyfriend called out Bradley I wait every day in line by sent this late to get a chance to say I want that up on Christmas Day oh I gotta see that l oh I gotta kiss my elm A little something for myself Every Christmas now Christmas makes me hot we’re the cutest Christmas couple you’ve ever seen he loves to trim my tree and everything we do is red and green he likes to sip Coke going ice skate he makes me toys by hand my sexy elf is great I’ve been so naughty with him But I love the purse it’s coffee talking suffers not making the list all work Throw another log on my elf song how can it be wrong when he gets off early and break that knock oh, I gotta see that elf oh, I gotta kiss my el A little dumb and for myself Every Christmas now Christmas make me ha sap north after the first I’m gonna measures pointy shoes and high voice It’s a Christmas curse I kiss his little shoulders they’re sweet tiny fuzzy sweaters I’ll miss my Christmas tree oh, Santa, don’t make him go back to the pole I’ll be here till next year sending candy letters praying for snow wild I am It’s a round my evergreen so in my heart I know he’ll be back next year to love me so oh, I gotta see that l oh, I gotta kiss my l a little something on myself Every Christmas now Christmas, Christmas oh, I gotta see that El oh, I gotta kiss my something for myself Every Christmas now Christmas makes me every Christmas Every Christmas.
[31:37] How y’all feeling after that stress therapy session?
[31:39] Good.
[31:40] Awesome. Check out the show notes to connect with me, the stress therapist on social media, at the stresstherapist on Instagram, and at stresstherapy on Twitter. You can always go to ilovetherapy.com to find out about meditation and yoga retreats and other offerings that I have there. If you live in Georgia and you’re ready to be one of my clients, go to my website to find out how you can sign up for a free face to face consultation with me. At the very least, jump on my mailer so you don’t stress or miss one thing. Until next time, have a lovely, lovely day.
