Today's Heartlift with Janell

A Question to Carry: How do we discern God's gentle nudges when our emotions are loud? What if God's guidance is more often a gentle nudge than a dramatic sign? In this episode, Janell explores how discernment grows through quiet attentiveness, gentle acceptance, and learning to walk at the unhurried pace of love. Discover how God accompanies us—not with pressure, but with presence—as we t...

As we celebrate the Fourth of July and America's 250th anniversary, what if we paused to ask a different kind of question? What keeps returning? In this episode of The Heartlifter Way , Janell explores how God often speaks not through dramatic explanations but through gentle repetition—a recurring longing, a meaningful metaphor, a tiny oak tree with its acorn still attached. Discover how paying at...

Meditative Exercise: The Three Pots Metaphor for Discernment and Growth Have you ever felt stuck, overlooked, or frustrated by a season that seems to lack visible progress? In this episode of The Heartlifter Way , Janell explores the wisdom of three simple terracotta pots—one empty, one sprouting, and one blooming—and how each stage reveals something essential about spiritual growth, discernment,...

What if God's invitations rarely arrive as explanations? What if they come as images, stirrings, symbols, recurring questions, and living metaphors that quietly ask us to pay attention? In this episode of The Heartlifter Way , Janell Rardon explores why discernment begins not with certainty, but with noticing. Drawing from the unexpected wisdom of a moonflower vine growing in her backyard gard...

A Birth Season is not about a dramatic transformation. That is so countercultural. Everything online tells us: Reinvent yourself Scale faster Launch bigger Hustle harder Push through the pain But there is a gentler way to live: Notice. Listen. Journal. Pray. Walk. Tend. That's The Heartlifter Way in six words. 🌿 Connect with Janell Rardon & Heartlift Wellness Website: janellrardon.com Ins...

What if the wilderness is not a sign of God's absence—but an invitation to encounter Him in a deeper way? In this thoughtful and soul-stirring conversation, Janell sits down with Old Testament scholar, spiritual director, and author Noel Forlini Burt to explore the sacred role of the desert throughout Scripture and our own lives. Drawing from her book, God in the Desert: A Spiritual Theology o...

Part 2 of Janell's conversation with Mary Van Geffen, author of "Parenting a Spicy One," invites you into a deeply healing and empowering conversation on what it means to embody your royal stance. So many women move through life disconnected from their inherent worth, shrinking themselves beneath the weight of comparison, fear, people-pleasing, or emotional exhaustion. But what if reclaiming your...

What if your strong-willed child isn’t a problem to fix—but a person to deeply understand? In this compassionate and honest conversation, Janell sits down with parenting coach and author Mary Van Geffen to talk about raising “Spicy Ones”—deep-feeling, wonderfully strong-willed children who often challenge traditional parenting approaches. Together, they explore why parenting these children can fee...

In this gentle conversation with Elizabeth Berget, author of "Love Like a Mother: How the Sacred Work of Motherhood Reveals the Maternal Heart of God," we continue exploring how enlarging our understanding of God’s maternal tenderness can transform the way emotionally weary women experience faith, healing, and belonging. Together, we reflect on the sacred work of nurturing, caregiving, c...

"All of us are born with a deep need of mothering." -Elizabeth Berget In this tender and deeply meaningful conversation, Janell sits down with Elizabeth Berget to explore the sacred, unseen work of motherhood and how it reflects the nurturing, compassionate heart of God. Together, they talk about the beauty and exhaustion of caring for others, the quiet sacrifices mothers make, and the ways mother...

What if your body has been trying to tell you something? In this gentle Mental Health Awareness Week conversation, Janell explores the quiet connection between emotional health, the nervous system, and the body’s wisdom. Through her personal cardiac healing journey and reflections on somatic awareness, “Listen to the Quiet Language of Your Body” invites emotionally weary women to slow down, notice...

What does it mean to surrender during a healing journey? In this gentle Mental Health Awareness Week conversation, Janell shares how her cardiac event became an invitation to stop striving, slow down, and listen to what her body and soul truly needed. “Healing Requires Surrender” explores the courage to release pressure, honor limits, and allow healing to happen slowly, honestly, and gently. If yo...

"Rest is anything that connects your mind and body" (Tricia Hersey, The Nap Ministry In this tender Mental Health Awareness Week conversation, Janell shares the hard-earned lesson her cardiac healing journey taught her: rest is not weakness. “Napping is Holy Work” explores the guilt many women carry around slowing down, the wisdom of listening to our bodies, and the sacred invitation to...

Strong women need rest, too. Rest is not weakness. Rest is wisdom. Your body was never designed to carry endless pressure without care, restoration, and gentleness. This Mental Health Awareness Week, may we release the guilt around slowing down and remember: healing often begins with rest. Visit Janell's revised and revitalized website: ⁠Heartlift Wellness⁠ Join a community of thoughtful women on...

In this opening episode of our Mental Health Week Series, Janell invites emotionally weary women into a gentler way of carrying life. Together, we explore the quiet exhaustion so many women hold beneath the surface while trying to stay strong enough for everyone else. This conversation offers compassionate encouragement, emotional honesty, and spiritually grounded hope for women longing to be seen...

"There's an accessible way to do mornings, a real way to do mornings, so that you can wake up to a life you love. In the hardest seasons of my life, I found a way to make mornings not just bearable, but beautiful." -Jennifer Dukes Lee, How To Love Your Morning: Faith-filled Habits to Build a Life of Joy and Purpose One Day At a Time What if your mornings didn’t feel rushed… but restored? In this g...

A Note: Formerly “Today’s Heartlift with Janell,” this podcast is evolving into The Heartlifter Way—a gentler, more embodied path forward. If you’ve been here for a while, you may notice we’re beginning again—gently. And I’m so glad you’re here for what’s next. Notice that we've started afresh with "Episode 1." Ending at Episode 365 and starting again at 1 is actually beautifully symbolic : 365 →...

Feeling stretched thin or spiritually dry? In this episode, we sit down with author Alyson Pryor to explore the beauty and practicality of personal retreat. Drawing from her book Come Away and Rest , Alyson shares how creating intentional space with God isn’t just for the few—it’s possible even in the middle of a busy life. You’ll learn simple, meaningful ways to step away, quiet the noise, and re...

Your Genesis 2:7 Beginning is a guided audio meditation created by Janell, rooted in the Heartlifter Way pillar of Retrain Your Brain . In this sacred pause, you are invited to journey back to your very beginning—when God breathed His life into you. As you return to this origin moment, you gently release survival patterns and awaken to a deeper truth: you were created to flourish. Let this meditat...

"Wayfinding is the cognitive and corporeal process and experience of locating, following, or discovering a route through and to a given space. It involves both thinking and physically moving through space. It isn't about signs, it's about HOW people navigate from Point A to Point B. It involves: orientation, route decision, route monitoring, and designation recognition" (travelwa...

"Most days in Jesus' life were ordinary. Most of ours, too." -Amy Lauren Peeler This week's guest, Amy Peeler, author of Ordinary Time: The Season of Growth, writes, "Normal is necessary. And routines are for things that bear repeating. The church calendar is marked by feasts and fasts, by holy days and special seasons. But more than half the church year is marked by what the church has called Ord...

Send us a text In this bonus episode, No Hint of Shame , Janell shares a powerful, hope-filled conversation with Dr. Curt Thompson, author of "Anatomy of the Soul" and "The Soul of Shame." Dr. Thompson's work + message have been pivotal in Janell's emotional healing, so it is with great joy she brings his healing message to you. Dr. Thompson writes, "Where shame at...

What does it mean to restory your life? Mary DeMuth, literary agent, author, and podcaster, joins us today to talk about her newest book, Restory Your Life: How Jesus Reframes Your Past, Rewrites Your Present, and Redefines Your Future. Mary writes, "Maybe your story feels too messy. Maybe the wounds of your past still haunt you, keeping you stuck in cycles of pain, regret, or doubt. Or maybe you’...

"What if fruitfulness wasn't something you had to strive for? What if it ripened naturally from a life rooted in the True Vine?" -Bette Dickinson, The Art of Vinemaking: Spiritual Flourishing in a Productivity-Driven Culture In a culture that equates fruitfulness with productivity, The Art of Vinemaking offers a countercultural invitation: to move at the pace of abiding rather than striving. Join...

Ned Bustard, author of St. Patrick the Forgiver , joins us today to share about the fascinating life of the real St. Patrick and to help us discover a remarkable story of love and forgiveness. As we move through the Lenten season, it is important to pause and ask, "What makes forgiveness so difficult, and is it even possible?" Ned Bustard says, "Forgiveness is a gift. It is our calling. It is our...