Stress isn't coming from where you think it is - and managing it the old way won't fix it.

Dr. Gary Sprouse is back! In Episode 32, "Stress Isn't What You Think!" (March 16), Sabrina and The Less Stress Doc challenged almost everything we've been told about stress - that it's a workload problem fixed by breathing more, doing less, or taking a holiday. The real source, he argued, isn't your circumstances; it's how you think about them, with guilt, worry, and regret doing more damage than your to-do list ever could.

Now, in Part 2, we move from theory to application. Dr. Sprouse breaks down his practical tool: the Stress Reducer Loop Model. We unpack how stress actually builds in the mind, where people lose control, and - most importantly - where you can interrupt the cycle before guilt, worry, and regret take over.

This episode is focused on real-world application, giving you a clear framework you can use immediately at work, at home, and under pressure. If you want less stress without lowering your standards, this is the next step.

In this episode

• Why most of us misunderstand where our stress actually comes from
• The Stress Reducer Loop Model, explained step by step
• How stress builds in the mind — and the exact point where people lose control
• Where to interrupt the cycle before guilt, worry, and regret take hold
• How to apply the framework on the spot — at work, at home, and under pressure
• How to lower your stress without lowering your standards

Key takeaways

• Stress often originates somewhere different from where we assume, so the usual coping tactics miss the real source.
• The stress cycle has identifiable stages — and a specific moment where it can be interrupted.
• Catching the loop early, before guilt and worry compound, is what keeps stress from spiraling.
• Reducing stress doesn't require lowering your expectations of yourself.

About the guest

Dr. Gary Sprouse - The Less Stress Doc - is a physician, author, and speaker who has spent decades helping people reduce stress and "spend more time in their Happy Place." He has a unique perspective on where the majority of human stress originates and has developed practical tools to address it.

His book Highway to Your Happy Place: A Roadmap to Less Stress won a Gold Medal in the 2025 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY Awards). He is also co-author of the best-seller Mindset Matters with Jack Canfield.

Links & resources

• Website: https://www.thelessstressdoc.com
• Free chapter of Highway to Your Happy Place (plus a bonus worry-less tool): https://www.thelessstressdoc.com/download-free-chapter

Connect with Dr. Sprouse

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lessstressdoc
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lessstressdoc/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-sprouse-13842a74/

Breen Time is hosted by Sabrina Brown - life coach and management consultant.

New episodes every Monday on Brum Radio and wherever you get your podcasts.

Instagram: @breentimepodcast

LinkedIn: @breentimepodcast

breentimepodcast.com

Brum Radio: brumradio.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You make hundreds of small wishes every day. Most of them go unnoticed - because you've been taught that wishing doesn't count as real work.

What if that's exactly backwards?

In this episode, Sabrina is joined by Brownell Landrum - TEDx speaker, author, inventor, and explorer of metaphysical mysteries. Brownell's work sits at the intersection of science and imagination: her book The Art & Science of Wishing investigates what actually happens - in the brain, in behaviour, in lived outcomes - when a person makes a deliberate wish. She's also the creator of the Cosmic Wishes universe, executive producer of the Life is a Trip podcast, and the author of more than a dozen books spanning fiction, nonfiction, and children's storytelling. In this conversation, she and Sabrina dig into the mechanics of belief, the neuroscience of intention, and why disciplined imagination might be one of the most underused tools in personal development.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why wishing is better understood as a form of focused attention - and how that reframe changes what you do with your desires.
• What the science actually says about how intention shapes behaviour, and where the evidence is stronger than most people expect.
• How the stories we tell about ourselves function as a kind of internal operating system - and why changing the narrative is harder, and more powerful, than most self-help advice admits.
• The difference between wishful thinking and deliberate wishing - and why the gap between them comes down to one thing: disciplined action.
• Why belief isn't a passive state you either have or don't - and how you can actually build it incrementally.
• What imagination has in common with scientific method, and why treating your vision as a hypothesis rather than a fantasy shifts everything.
• How Brownell's exploration of metaphysical mysteries has shaped her view of possibility - and what she'd say to anyone who feels like their wishes are too big or too strange to take seriously.
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The most practical thing you can do might be the thing you've been taught to dismiss as daydreaming.

Breen Time is hosted by Sabrina Brown - life coach and management consultant.

New episodes every Monday on Brum Radio and wherever you get your podcasts.

Instagram: @breentimepodcast

LinkedIn: @breentimepodcast

breentimepodcast.com

Brum Radio: brumradio.com

Find out more about this week's guest: brownelllandrum.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some losses don't arrive once. They keep arriving - and the question becomes whether you can still build something meaningful in the wake of them.

This week, Sabrina sits down with Pamela S. Thibodeaux - award-winning author, life coach, and mentor based in Louisiana. Pam is the co-founder of the Bayou Writers Group and the voice behind Coaching in PJs, blending decades of writing about women's lived experience with a faith-rooted approach to coaching that's earned her the tagline "Inspirational with an Edge." In this conversation, she draws on her own story to talk about what it really takes to keep moving when grief isn't a single chapter but a recurring one.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why our culture struggles to talk about grief that doesn't resolve, and what gets lost when we treat loss as something to "get through" rather than learn to carry.
• How Pam distinguishes between the future we thought we'd have and the future that's still available to us - and why mourning the first is part of claiming the second.
• The role faith plays as a working tool, not a slogan, when you're rebuilding a life you didn't plan for.
• Why personal responsibility becomes more important, not less, in seasons when circumstances would justify giving up.
• The disciplined daily practices that compound into resilience over months and years - and why repetition matters more than intensity.
• How to recognise when "retreat" is wisdom and when it's avoidance dressed up as self-care.
• Practical guidance on building a meaningful life from the inside out, even when the outside hasn't caught up yet.

Grief teaches you that endings and beginnings often share the same address - and that walking forward isn't a betrayal of what you've lost.

Hosted by Sabrina Brown — life coach, management consultant, and your weekly companion in the work of becoming.

New episodes every Monday on Brum Radio and wherever you get your podcasts.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebreentimepodcast/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/breentime/

Website: https://shows.acast.com/the-breentime-podcast

Brum Radio: https://www.instagram.com/brumradio/

Connect with Pamela: pamelathibodeaux.com

If this episode raised something for you, support is available:

• Counselling Directory
• Samaritans
• Mind
• NHS mental health & talking therapies

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.