Want BIG Change?.... Use THIS Tip

In this episode of Stress Therapy, host Cheri Flake introduces a simple yet transformative concept inspired by Bill O’Hanlon’s book Do One Thing Different. She explains how making small changes in daily routines can improve brain flexibility, reduce stress, and foster personal growth. Cheri guides listeners through a calming breathwork practice, offering a practical tool to cultivate inner peace and mindfulness.

In this episode we will cover: 

~How small changes in routine can enhance neuroplasticity, improve mood, and reduce stress.

~Practical examples of “doing one thing different,” like brushing with your non-dominant hand or shifting the order of daily habits.

~Guided Ujjayi breathwork to calm the mind and create a peaceful, centered state.

Meditation Music byhttp://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/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:

Bill O’Hanlon’s book Do One Thing Different

https://www.heartwood-retreats.com : location for Cheri’s Georgia Mountain Retreats
https://www.jekyllisland.com: Location for Cheri’s seaside retreat

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

Join Cheri Flake on her Next Meditation And Yoga Retreat!
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OR
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Want Cheri Flake to be your therapist? If you live in Georgia gohttps://thestresstherapist.com/contact/ to schedule a free 15 minute consultation

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15903117.Cheri_Augustine_Flake

https://www.amazon.com/Honey-DONE-Productive-Household-Absolutely/dp/0997950919/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8: Honey Do To Honey DONE! A Simple System For A Productive And Happy Household With Absolutely No More Nagging!

A word from your host, Cheri Flake, LCSW: Feeling good after our Stress Therapy session? Awesome. Check out the show notes to connect with me, The Stress Therapist on social media or go tohttp://www.ilovetherapy.com/ to find out about meditation classes & meditation and yoga retreats.

TRANSCRIPT:00:00] The Stress Therapist: Hey, beautiful people.
[00:01] What's up?
[00:01] The Stress Therapist: So today we're gonna talk about an itsy bitsy, teensy, tiny little thing that you can do to totally hit reset on your brain, on your life, on your day. It's the easiest, simplest thing.
[00:14] It's so good for you. And I'm gonna tell you exactly what it is. So relax and settle in and listen up, because your stress therapy session is about to begin.
[00:39] 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.
[00:48] My 25 plus years of experience of working as a psychotherapist in the mental health field. And now your host, me, the stress therapist, Sheri Flake.
[01:03] Foreign.
[01:13] Hey, beautiful people.
[01:14] How's your beautiful self?
[01:15] The Stress Therapist: Okay, so today we're going to talk about the simplest thing. It's so simple. It's easy, breezy, lemon squeezy on how to get your life to be a little bit different, a little bit better.
[01:27] Help your brain be healthier, help your goals get met faster, and definitely wipe out some stress. Okay, so here's the deal.
[01:37] My friend Bill O'Hanlon, I mean

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, beautiful people, what's up?

Speaker 2 (00:01):
So today we're going to talk about an eatsy tea sea,
tiny little thing that you can do to totally hit
reset on your brain, on your life, on your day.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
It's the easiest, simplest thing.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
It's so good for you, and I'm going to tell
you exactly what it is. So relax and settle in
and listen up because your stress therapy session is about
to begin right now. Hey, beautiful people, It's time for

(00:41):
some stress therapy, a podcast about how to meditate and
get better at stress for people.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Living in the real world.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Finally a place to park by twenty five plus years
of experience of working as a psychotherapist in the mental
health field and now.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Your host me the stress therapist Cherry Flake.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Hey, beautiful people, how's your beautiful self? Okay, so today
we're going to talk about the simplest thing.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
It's so simple, it's easy. Breezy lemons squeezy.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
On how to get your life to be a little
bit different, a little bit better, help your brain be healthier,
help your goals get met faster, and definitely wipe out
some stress. Okay, So here's the deal. My friend Bill o'hanlin.
I mean, this guy is a badass.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
First of all.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Not only has he written like two thousand songs in
like two years or something like, he's something crazy. He's
written over forty books. Okay, he is a super badass
friend of mine. He's great. I was certified in hypnotherapy
a long time ago, and Bill O'Hanlon actually taught me
the Milton ericson sort of hypnotherapy ways and far superior

(02:01):
than when I learned first.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
And he's just super smart.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
He does all of these great classes online. I don't
know if he's still doing them because he's writing all
these songs. But he wrote one book called Do One
Thing Different, and I'll put it in the show notes.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
And I mean, my friend Bill, he hit the mother
loon man.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
I mean Oprah picked it up, loved it and slam bam,
thanks ma'am all of it. He just hits the big
time right, and everybody wants a little piece of this book.
And what's cool about this book is he's got forty books.
He's got tons of books. I've read tons of his books.
He's a great, super smart guy. But what's great about
this book is that it's very, very accessible.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
It's super duper simple, and you know.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
I love that, right, And so what he says is
the whole book is called Do One Thing Different. And
I'm gonna kind of summarize it here, but definitely pick
it up if or one of the myriad books that
he has written.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
And what's great.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
About this book is all he says is you start
by doing exactly that one thing different.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
So what does that mean? It means instead of walking in.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
The girl store and immediately turning right, what if you
turned left?

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
What if the next time you picked up your toothbrush
you did it with your non dominant hand.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Okay? What if you flost before you brushed?

Speaker 2 (03:16):
What if you put your socks on before your pants.
What if you meditated before you looked at your phone?
You know what I'm saying, Like, you're just doing the littlest,
teensiest tiny thing. What if you put your right shoe
on before your left shoe or whatever whatever you normally do.
What if you just changed one little thing? Why would
we do this? Why would we do this? Well? First
of aull, when you interrupt patterns, whether they're negative or

(03:41):
positive or whatever, you create flexibility in your mind. You
reduce the tendency to be stuck in ruts. Okay, And
when you do it often enough, you enhance neuroplasticity in
your brain, which means the ability for your brain to change.
You can change. It's not t'srue, the old dog's new
trick things. That stuff's not true.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
You can change.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
So your brain is super adaptable and it's constantly rewiring itself,
and this creates new neural connections. Okay, and then you're
able to learn quicker. You get all of these cognitive benefits,
these problem solving skills. You're quicker at stuff, you learn
things better. It's new ways of banking, and a better mood,

(04:24):
reduced stressed, all that stuff, right. Okay, But what the
big money idea is. Let's say that you decide to
do this right, and you're like, Okay, I can do that,
that's no big deal.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
I mean, I really want you that's your homework. You're
supposed to do this, Okay. I want you to try
it and tell me how you did.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
But let's say that you did it over and over
and over again, which is often my message here about
you know, you know, well, there's two messages.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Really.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
The idea that Bill is pointing out here is going
to be clear in about a minute.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
But what if whatever change you made was working towards
a goal that you have.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Okay, So, like I just signed up for this class
and it's on line, and I don't do good with
these things.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
I need to remember that I need to have an
accountability partner. That's the other thing.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
You got to know what your limits are, right, And
so every day, every work day, not every day, but
every time I go to work, I listen to one
of these classes online.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
And there's tons of them.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
I mean, it's just going on and on and on,
and it's really good information. But I'm just not that
good at just willing toly taking a you know, one
hundred hour cliff, that little change, you know, that little
thing that I'm doing before I do anything else. I
put it on, I listen to one of the videos,
and then I move on for the rest of my day. Okay,

(05:35):
that's one little change that I've been making every time
I get to my office.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
But one of the coolest.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Things about these little, small changes leading to big results
is that it really plays into this idea that you know,
we're all wanting to be a certain thing like we're
all trying to get to a certain place, but we
rarely realize that we're already there. Remember last week when
we talked about being present, or maybe two weeks ago whenever,
and the idea that now is all you have, you know.

(06:00):
The idea is also when you do one thing different,
you feel a little bit different, and if you're feeling bad,
that means that you're probably going to feel a little
bit better, right, And when you do a little bit
better and a little bit better and a little bit better,
after a while, you feel a little bit better and
a little bit better and a little bit better. And
after a good long while you are a lot better,

(06:23):
and you do feel a lot better rather than a
little bit.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
So these little bits really add up. And so what
you want is this.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Little by little movement, this pocal movement towards big changes,
rather than just deciding on some magical day that you
are magically changed, which we know from the New Year's
resolutionists mistake that that does not work right. And so
what you want to do is my friend Bill talks

(06:50):
about this. He came up with this solutions focused therapy.
That's I think he's the founder of it, but his
focus is on solutions, not on the problems.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
And yesterday I was with a client she was like,
why does this happen? Why is this happening to me? Why? Why?

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Why? Why why?

Speaker 2 (07:06):
And I get it, we want to know why, but
I'm not really sure how much that helps us. It's
way more important to focus on what works, taking little,
practical teens, tiny steps towards the solutions. Okay, and then
you can identify the little actions that actually help you change, right,

(07:27):
And it shifts your focus and all of a sudden,
you're not stuck anymore. Okay, you are moving towards solutions.
And it can feel a little harsh. You know, one
of my colleagues, Becca, she has her own podcast. I
think it's called In Her Alchemy. I'm not really sure.
Her name is Beca Clegg, but she says Sherry uses

(07:50):
kind confrontation in her therapy, which Charlie's got to kick
out of it. I mean, it's kind pretty descriptive, but
the idea is I'm not trying to be hard on you.
I'm not the right therapist for everybody, that's for sure.
And I think because maybe I have kind of confrontation.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
I don't know, but I do want you to.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
You know, it's important to know why you can't get
the ball over the net. Maybe your arm isn't strong
enough yet, or it's too weak, or your feet aren't
moving fast on or whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
It's good to know why. It's good to know why,
but it's way.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
More important to know what to do to move forward
and get that ball over the net. Because you're if
we could talk about it all day long, I mean,
it's the.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Talk talk talk talk, talk, talk talk. I'm so sick
of talking.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
I wish my therapy practice was all action and that
we were constantly talking about action and doing things differently.
What can you do differently? Because if you're not changing,
you're not growing and if you stop, you're gonna fall apart.
But if you slow down, oh you're gonna come out
on top. Okay, So that's our message there. So we're

(08:56):
gonna do something a little bit different. We are going
to take a break and then come back, but we're
not going to meditate. We're going to do a breath meditation,
a breath a pranayama practice where it's a little bit
different than meditation. It's using your breath to find some calm,
find some peace, and we're going to do that.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
It's one thing.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Different right after this break, Okay, I want you to
find a comfortable space sitting up.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
With your chin level to the ground.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
You can actually roll your shoulders a couple times back,
breathing in, breathing out. You can reverse that, allow your
shoulders to roll forward, breathing in, breathing out out. Maybe

(10:03):
roll your neck a little bit around one way, around
the other way. Maybe bring your right ear to your
right shoulder for a moment and come over to neutral,

(10:27):
and then over to the left, and then bringing your
chin level to the ground. You know, you might breathe
into your eyes and face, you know, crunching everything up
and let everything go. Allow your chin to be level
to the ground again, your shoulders to settle, your arms

(10:51):
and elbows and wrists and hands to settle.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
You can turn your palms downward.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
On your knees or thighs, and then your sitting position.
Allows yourself to sit up. Don't lean back or lean forward.
In fact, you could lean a little forward. Feel what
that feels like. Lean a little back to each side.
Then find your neutral upright comfortable position sitting up and

(11:18):
allow your spine to settle in your sacrum, your legs,
your knees, your calf's, shins, ankles, and feet to settle,
and for a moment, just find your beautiful breath. We're

(11:43):
going to do a breath called Ujaii breath. It is
a warrior breath, and it's kind of like if you
were going to fog a mirror, you would bring a
mirror up to your face. So go ahead and close
your eyes, take a breath in, bring your mirror up
to your mouth, and as if you were going to
fog it up. It's a very audible open throat, but

(12:10):
closed the epiglottis is a little bit closed in order
to make that noise. And now just simply close your mouth,
breathing out, fogging up the mirror, and now breathe in
with the same action in your throat. So the Uji

(12:41):
breath is a very audible breath. And regardless of what
your breath looks like, you know, you might slow it
down a little. It might be a little bit longer,
a little bit slower, a little bit deeper, shallower, whatever
it is. So allow the Ujai breath to come and go.

(13:08):
Bring all of your attention to this breath for just
a few minutes, and I'll leave you to it for

(13:28):
a few moments. O jaii breath, and I'll be back
to guide you out us. Okay, allow the breath to

(17:49):
fall away and have your breath just be normal, watching
it go back to its normal rhythm. Allow your brain
to handle however your breath looks right now in this moment,
and just noticing how you're a little bit different than
when we started. By doing one thing a little bit different.

(18:20):
Take a long, slow, deep breath in your nose, let
it all go out of your mouth, keeping your eyes closed.
Let's do that one more time, breathing in your nose
and out of your mouth, and allow this last breath
to be a deep, cleansing, beautiful breath in your nose, awakening, clearing,

(18:44):
knowing you're a little bit different than when you started,
letting it all go out of your mouth, and when
you're ready, you can open your beautiful eyes. Okay, I
hope this one little a different thing. Breathing together, using

(19:07):
breath to find inter calm, interpease. This idea of proniama,
following your breath and manipulating your breath in order to
bring yourself into a peaceful space. Is the one thing
different that maybe now it's your new favorite thing and
maybe you're gonna have a different kind of day. Who knows,
but let me know what you'r one thing different is,

(19:29):
And always feel free to reach out to me about
any questions that you have, any podcast subjects that you
want me to do. I just I absolutely adore hearing
from you. Have a lovely and lovely day.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
How y'all feeling after that stress therapy session?

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Good?

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Awesome?

Speaker 2 (19:46):
Check out the show notes to connect with me the
Stress Therapist on social media at the stress Therapist on
Instagram and at stress Therapy on Twitter. You can always
go to I Lovethapy dot com to find out about
meditation and you'll give you and other offerings that I
have there.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
If you live in Georgia and you're ready to be.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
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
by my mailers so you don't stress or miss one
thing until next time. Have a lovely, lovely day.