Stress Therapy with Cheri Flake: Meditation & Stress Relief for Real Life
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
Nobody Ever Says "I Shouldn't Have Listened to My Gut"
29 minutes Posted Apr 15, 2026 at 4:33 am.
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Hey, beautiful people. Let's talk about intuition โ€” that knowing in your gut that you can't quite explain but you absolutely cannot ignore. In this episode, I'm sharing the full story of how I spent months smelling smoke before my office actually caught fire, predicted the flood that came after, and what all of that taught me about trusting the voice inside that doesn't speak in words. We're getting into why meditation is the single best thing you can do to sharpen your intuition, how to tell the difference between ego noise and real guidance, and why "listen to the listener" is the most important thing anyone's ever said to me at a silent retreat. Plus we do a beautiful guided meditation together โ€” heart center breathing up through the third eye โ€” to help you connect with that wise, divine, knowing part of yourself. Because you already know everything you need to know. You just have to get quiet enough to hear it. ๐Ÿง˜โ€โ™€๏ธ ๐Ÿ’ก 3 Key Takeaways
  • Intuition isn't reserved for psychics or special people โ€” it's in all of us. Meditation is what turns up the volume. The more you sit, the more available your wise self becomes.
  • If the voice you're hearing is mean, identity-based, or ego-driven ("you're a bad person"), that's not intuition โ€” that's your ego throwing a fit. Real intuition tends to arrive quietly, from nowhere, and it doesn't attack you.
  • Nobody ever says "I shouldn't have listened to my gut." That alone tells you everything you need to know about how valuable this is.
๐Ÿ”ฅ Episode Highlights
  • The full fire premonition story โ€” six months of smelling smoke, middle-of-the-night office checks, a husband who thought I was losing it, and the call from State Farm that proved I wasn't
  • My six-year-old telling the police her mommy knew the office would burn down (great for the insurance claim, thanks kid)
  • Predicting the flood days later โ€” and pulling out every piece of paper and fabric just in time
  • Why the Waze vs. your gut dilemma is the most relatable intuition test there is
  • A psychiatrist who couldn't wrap his head around acupressure โ€” and how far we've come since then with mind-body-soul connection
  • The monk at a silent retreat who said "listen to the listener" and completely rewired my brain
  • A guided heart center to third eye breathing meditation
๐Ÿ“ฃ Mentions & References
  • ๐Ÿง  "Listen to the Listener" โ€” the teaching from a silent retreat that changed everything about how I understand intuition
  • ๐Ÿง˜ Heart Center to Third Eye Meditation โ€” a breathing visualization connecting your heart space to your place of knowing
  • ๐Ÿ’† Somatic Work โ€” body-based healing and why you can't throw a stick at the internet without hitting that word right now
  • ๐Ÿฅ Chinese Medicine / Acupressure โ€” thousands of years of wisdom we chose to ignore, and we're finally catching up
  • ๐Ÿ‘ฆ My son's take on therapy โ€” "You think everything affects your mental" โ€” yeah buddy, because it does
โœ… Try This Week
  • Next time you get a gut feeling โ€” even a small one, like which way to turn โ€” follow it. Then write it down. Start tracking when your intuition shows up and what it's telling you.
  • Sit for 10 minutes a day this week. Just breathe. The more still you get, the louder that inner voice becomes.
  • Ask yourself: is this thought ego or intuition? If it's attacking your identity, it's ego. If it arrived from nowhere and feels calm but certain, pay attention.
๐Ÿก Hang With Me
  • ๐Ÿง˜ Retreats โ€” ilovetherapy.com, click on Retreats. Meditation, yoga, and people who get it.
  • ๐Ÿ’Œ thestresstherapist.com โ€” therapy, retreats, and all the things
  • ๐Ÿ“ฒ @thestresstherapist on Instagram | @stresstherapy on Twitter
๐ŸŽ™๏ธ Produced and edited by Owen Flake.