The Next Right Thing

What do you do when you feel like your decisions are running counter to your bodily experience? How can you know when you are living a disembodied life?   My guest today has asked (and answered) these questions and more in her years-long work as a psychologist, a researcher, an author and a teacher. Dr. Hillary McBride is the author of the new release The Wisdom of Your Body where she writes about...

Some rooms are not for us. Other rooms are not for us anymore.  What do we do when a room we've walked into is no longer a room where we belong? Listen in.   Links + Resources From This Episode: Episode 138: Leave It Behind Episode 161: Change Your Mind Episode 162: Is It Time To Move On? Episode 174: Is It Time To Quit My Job? Order The Next Right Thing Guided Journal Grab a copy of my book  The...

What is the Daily Examen? How does it work? What is the purpose? And what does it have to do with discerning my next right thing? Today I'll share a spiritual practice that I've found to be personally transformative in my daily life. Listen in.   Links + Resources From This Episode: Episode 93: Borrow Prayers Episode 160: The Welcoming Prayer Episode 207: The Prayer of St. Francis Episode 167: Spi...

When I asked readers to send in their episode suggestions related to discernment and decision-making, one common thread ran through them all. Today we'll take a step back and imagine what we want even more than a right decision. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Do you receive One Last Thing? If not, join the list here. Seasons of Your Heart by Macrina Wiederkehr Order The Next Right...

What do you do when you feel like your life hasn't turned out the way you thought it would or the way you wanted it to? How do you keep going in the face of personal or vocational disappointment? My guest today has spent a lot of time not only thinking his way through the answer to that question, but he's lived his way through it and has brought us along through his own stories, questions, humor,...

What do we do when our next right thing is to wait for an indefinite amount of time or to hope in the face of what seems to be an impossible situation? Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: A Hidden Wholeness by Parker Palmer Order The Next Right Thing Guided Journal Grab a copy of my book  The  Next Right Thing   Find me on  Instagram @emilypfreeman Download a transcript of this, and ev...

One of the most helpful spiritual practices I've found in the last several years is borrowing the prayers of others when I can't find words for my own. Today I'll share one of my favorites and maybe it will be a favorite of yours too. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Order The Next Right Thing Guided Journal Grab a copy of my book  The  Next Right Thing   Find me on  Instagram @emil...

At the end of every year, I write down a list of what worked and what didn't work that year. I'll share my list of what worked for me this year as well as a few tips and resources for you if you want to make your own list. Listen in! Want help looking back before moving forward? Download these 10 Questions for Reflection and Discernment.   Links + Resources From This Episode: Order The Next Right...

A blessing for you and yours on this week of Christmas. You may recognize these words from last year's version of The Quiet Collection and I hope they extend a welcome to you on this Christmas, when we mark the day God moved in and everything changed. Now, God is making all things new, in you and in me. Amen. Listen in.   Links + Resources From This Episode: Order The Next Right Thing Guided Journ...

There are as many ways to approach the end of the year as there are people. Still, it's easy to be fooled into thinking there's just one right way to finish — Finish strong! they say. For anyone who feels like they might not be able to finish strong this year, your next right thing might be to just finish regular . Listen in.   Links + Resources From This Episode: Honest Advent by Scott Erickson 1...

A minimalist asks, "What am I holding on to?" A soul minimalist asks, "What has a hold on me?"   Let's ease some of the decision fatigue that can come along this time of year with another Soul Minimalist's Guide, this one specifically for Christmas. Listen in.   Links + Resources From This Episode: Episode 01: Become a Soul Minimalist Episode 181: A Soul Minimalist's Guide to Summer Episode 193: A...

Chances are at some point during the next four weeks, you'll find yourself feeling extra frazzled, lonely, or distracted despite your best intentions. Here's the simplest way to quiet your mind during one of the busiest months of the year: the 2021 edition of The Quiet Collection is here and ready for you! I'll tell you all about it. Listen in.   Links + Resources From This Episode: The Quiet Coll...

  What if the greatest theologians the world has ever known are those whom the world wouldn't consider theologians at all? I'm glad to welcome theologian and author of Abuelita Faith , Kat Armas, who tells the stories of unnamed and overlooked theologians in society and in the Bible--mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and daughters--whose survival, strength, resistance, and dedication to the next dee...

Our lives are endlessly complicated and our decisions are almost always laced with layers of nuance which is why it's always a challenge (one I love!) to create episodes about decision-making. Is it possible to share principles, perspective, and simple frameworks that are helpful no matter who you are or what decision you have to make? I say it is, or at least I try.   Today I've curated the top 1...

Today's conversation is between me and you—because today we celebrate 200 episodes of The Next Right Thing! What a gift it has been to be a small part of 200 of your Tuesdays. For the first time, I'm hosting an Ask Me Anything where you asked questions and I say words about my dream guests, my limited parenting advice, what the P stands for, and if I've ever thought about quitting. Listen in.   Li...

May this simple reading of Psalm 27 be a reflection you can return to as you discern your next right thing in love. This reading is from the Common English Version of the Bible. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Psalm 27 Other episodes like this one: Psalm 139 , Read Psalm 23 , Order  The Next Right Thing Guided Journal Grab a copy of my book  The  Next Right Thing   Find me on  Inst...

Today I'm joined by a writer who deeply understands what it means to live life on autopilot, chugging through the day "on fear and caffeine." As it turns out, that life is a train to nowhere and Shauna Niequist decided to get off. I'm happy to sit down with her to talk about writing, connection, and her next right thing. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Learn more about Shauna on he...

A lot of us are looking for our truest words these days. We're taking the hymns and choruses of our childhood faith, the verses we have memorized, our adolescent optimism, our adult commitments, our 2020 cynicism and our 2021 exhaustion and we're holding them all up to the light. We have thrown some things out. We are holding on for dear life. In the sifting, there's sure to be some mix-ups. If yo...

It's the list we all know to make when we're stuck in the decision-making process. There are helpful things about the pro/con list but we all know they don't work all by themselves. This type of list could be a good starting point, but what do you do next? I dedicated The Next Right Thing to anyone who's ever made a pro/con list in the middle of the night. If that's you, listen in. Links + Resourc...

What do we do when we wish we were different but struggle to make a change? What do we do when a thing we're good at (that is sometimes good) is also a thing that is sometimes trouble? Every strength has a shadow side and sometimes gifts come with burdens to bear. If you wonder what to do when your best gets the best of you, listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Friends University's Mast...

She believed that life was a series of unlimited choices, until she discovered at age 35 that her body was wracked with cancer. In the years that have followed, Kate Bowler has wrestled honestly with the reality she has been handed and the terrible advice she's received along the way, like that everything happens for a reason. Hers is a voice I never want to stop listening to and in her new book,...

If you need to get in that autumn state of mind, today's episode is for you. Maybe the season has caught you by surprise or you're feeling a little off but don't know why. It's time to clear the summer mind-clutter and move into fall like a soul minimalist. Listen in.   Links + Resources From This Episode: Episode 181: A Soul Minimalist's Guide to Summer Simplify by Joshua Becker Becoming Minimali...

It's a short trip from  helpless to  hopeless , just a shuffling of a few letters and you're there. If you've been struggling to hold on to hope over the last few weeks (or years), then today's episode is for you. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: La Foce Order  The Next Right Thing Guided Journal Grab a copy of my book  The  Next Right Thing   Find me on  Instagram @emilypfreeman Do...

We don't learn just from experience. Transformation happens when we reflect upon our experience. Of all the lists we keep, the most important isn't a to-do list but a list of what we're learning. Because you're not just doing things, you're becoming someone. Who? And what are you learning along the way? Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Pantsuit Politics end-of-month Instagram posts:...

May this simple reading of Psalm 139 be a reflection you can return to as you discern your next right thing in love. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Order  The Next Right Thing Guided Journal Grab a copy of my book  The  Next Right Thing   Find me on  Instagram @emilypfreeman Download transcript