Your Next, Best Step

For years, I read 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that says, “pray continually” and felt slightly defeated by it. Continually? How? I cannot even continually remember where I put my keys. Here is what I have come to think it means. Join me for the newest episode on Your Next, Best Step (Ep 109): “Popcorn Prayers: When You Are Too Tired for a Quiet Time” where we walk through a simple 3-step popcorn prayer th...

Have you ever been so tired that even your quiet time felt loud? You love God. You want to pray. And then real life walks in wearing muddy shoes — and your “quiet time” becomes “Lord, help me not lose my mind” whispered in front of the fridge. Today, Coach Janet J names something almost too simple: that ten-second prayer counts. In this episode you will learn: Why short, scattered prayers may be t...

What if the number on your banking app has nothing to do with your worth? This short gives you a 60-second mental shift you can run anywhere. No spreadsheet. No budget app. Just three words on a small piece of paper, placed somewhere only you will see. Save this one for the next time you open the app and feel that little tug of “should have known better.” Ready for the full episode? It is called T...

The Christmas bill is still here. And it is June. If you have been making payments since the new year and the balance is moving slower than you hoped, you are in good company. Researchers describe what you are feeling as a loop, and the way out has almost nothing to do with the numbers. This episode is for the woman who thought this would be gone by now. The woman who feels a little tug of “should...

If you are caring for someone whose mind is slipping away from you, here is a gift that often goes undiscussed. To dive deeper, check out Episode 107 where Coach Janet will walk you through a Scripture that holds steady when memory does not and two researched frameworks that name what you are living through. "Loving Someone Who Does Not Remember You" Ready for your next step? FREE 5-Minu...

If you are loving someone whose mind is slipping away from you — a parent with dementia, a husband with Alzheimer's, a sibling or friend whose memory keeps shrinking — the grief you carry has a name. Most people will never name it for you. So we are doing it here. In this episode, I sit with one of the most under-discussed experiences in the sandwich generation: caregiver grief. The kind that...

Researchers studying what they call spiritual dryness have found something worth knowing, so if God feels silent right now, let me share a sentence to help you carry it if you're in that season. Then join me for the latest YNBS episode (106) where we walk through a small, repeatable practice that may bring you closer to God than another devotional plan ever could. "Has God Forgotten Me?...

There is a question many faithful women carry that they will not say out loud. It surfaces at two in the morning, in the carpool line, in the middle of the worship song everyone else seems to feel. Has God forgotten me? If you are still praying, still serving, still showing up — and God feels silent anyway — this episode is for you. Here is what you will walk away with: Why God's silence ofte...

“The sun may stay up late. That does not mean you have to.” Join me for a short prayer to make the longest day a little better as we lean into the reminder that that God made the day, the night, summer, winter, and the limits inside all of it. Feel free to check out the latest episode of Your Next, Best Step (105) for a gentle reminder for the woman who is running on backup battery this summer - &...

The longest day of the year sounds beautiful. So why are you running short on patience by 6:12 in the evening? If summer feels less like a season of joy and more like a season of slow depletion, you are in the right place. The science says it is not your character. It is heat, evening light, and modest sleep loss all chipping away at your emotional bandwidth at the same time. In this episode, I wi...

Holidays can be layered. Most of us carry gratitude and grief in the same family tree, and the night before can leave a heart feeling restless. Here is a small practice you can use tonight. I call it The Naming Practice. Three steps, about sixty seconds. Name the gift. Name the gap. Receive. It is a quiet way to hand the day to God before you sleep. Full (Ep 104) of Your Next, Best Step is live no...

Father's Day is coming, and the truth is, your father story may be more layered than a greeting card allows. Maybe your dad is wonderful and you cannot wait to call him. Maybe he is gone, and June makes the missing harder to ignore. Maybe your stepfather raised you, your grandfather was your safe place, or a man who was never family at all fathered you when no one else did. Maybe your story h...

When was the last time you were actually in the picture? Here's a quick reflection to help you jump in the next time someone says "Hey, get in here with us!" Then join me for the full episode - "The Summer Your Body Dreads" (Ep 103) - to dig deeper on why summer turns up the volume on body image, and one small shift you can make tomorrow morning before you even get dressed...

Summer sounds adorable in theory. Sandals, sunshine, long porch evenings. And then your actual body has to participate — sleeveless tops, shorts, family photos — and the dread starts climbing. If that feeling has shown up the way the temperature has, you are in good company. Researchers actually study this, and there is a kinder way through it than gritting your teeth until September. In this epis...

The summers we remember most from childhood almost never cost anything. A sprinkler. A porch. Reading in front of a fan. Nobody booked those memories. They happened because someone decided that simple was enough. Join for me for the full episode (#102): The Vacation You Cannot Afford And the One You Can Ready for your next step? FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download): YourNextBestStep.com  W...

By mid-June, your social media feed has become a slideshow of everyone else's vacations. Italy. Cruises. Beach houses. Matching linen outfits in front of mountains. Meanwhile, you are looking at the grocery total and the gas prices, wondering if your summer is somehow falling short. Here is the thing. The vacation you cannot afford is rarely the trip itself. It is something underneath the tri...

The four stages anger becomes when we will not deal with it ---- and what Ephesians 4 actually invites us to do instead. Join us for a full episode where we'll walk you through what your body is doing while you keep the peace, two common disguises resentment hides behind, the question that may tell you everything you need to know, and a three-step practice you can use tonight. "The Resen...

Have you ever finished a conversation, smiled, said something gracious, and then forty minutes later replayed every word and realized you had been keeping a very detailed mental ledger? You may be calling that patience. It might be something else. This episode is for the woman who prides herself on being "the patient one" — and is starting to wonder what it is actually costing her. We ar...

If you are over forty-five and a question keeps surfacing — What if this is all there is? — researchers have a name for what you are experiencing & what the data says about the women who keep walking through it. Join us for the full conversation in EPISODE 100 of Your Next, Best Step! Ready for your next step? FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download): YourNextBestStep.com  Weekly encourage...

That question that wakes you up at two in the morning. The one you have never said out loud: What if this is all there is? It is the secret weight underneath every other midlife question. Underneath the wondering about your body, your purpose, your marriage, your faith. And on the one hundredth episode of Your Next, Best Step, we are going to sit with it together — and walk you through the answer...

Forgetting a word mid-sentence can feel terrifying, but the National Institute on Aging confirms that occasional brain glitches are a completely normal part of aging. Don't panic over a single forgotten word - instead, focus on long-term patterns and talk to your doctor only if it starts disrupting your daily life.  Join for the full episode (099) “When You Google “Early Signs of Dementia” at...

Have you ever Googled early signs of dementia at 2 AM after forgetting a word, walking into a room with no idea why, or losing your keys while holding your keys? You are not alone, and what is happening may not be what you fear most. June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, and this fear is in the air for a lot of women right now - especially the woman noticing her own memory slipping in way...

Your goals from January were just a sincere guess based on a version of you who hadn’t lived the last six months yet. Cut yourself some slack, thank the past version of you for trying, and give yourself permission to update the plan for who you are today.  Join us for Your Next, Best Step’s episode “The Six-Month Check-In You Actually Need” where you can learn what goal-adjustment research says ab...

Six months in. Half the year is behind you, and the goals you wrote down in January are looking different from where you are sitting now. Some still fit. Some have shifted. And some, when you look at them today, might feel like they belong to a different woman entirely. This episode is your compassionate mid-year check-in. Most women set intentions in January and reach June with a low-grade guilt...

Ever notice how a quiet weekend can feel peaceful one week, but incredibly lonely the next?  From the outside, solitude and loneliness look identical. What separates them is a single concept from psychology research: agency . Join us for the full conversation on the latest episode of Your Next, Best Step: "What to Do When Summer Feels Lonely" (Ep 097) Ready for your next step? FREE 5-Min...