The Next Right Thing

By with Emily P. Freeman

Personal Journals Society & Culture Religion & Spirituality Christianity

What's The Next Right Thing about?

For the second-guessers, the chronically hesitant, or anyone who suffers from decision fatigue, best-selling author and host Emily P. Freeman helps create a little space for your soul to breathe so you can discern your next right thing in love. Because out of the thousands of decisions you make everyday, chances are a few of them threaten to keep you up at night. If you're in a season of transition, waiting, general fogginess or if you've ever searched "how to make a decision" on the internet, listen in.

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294: Standing at the Thresh...

09.26.2023

Today I'm talking with not one, but two guests. From their rural homestead in Charlottesville, Virginia, it's husband and wife duo Daniel and Lauren Goans, known as Lowland Hum. With the release of their brand new album From Self, With ...

The Next Right Thing episodes:

09.26.2023 294: Standing at the Threshold with Lowland Hum Today I'm talking with not one, but two guests. From their rural homestead in Charlottesville, Virginia, it's husband and wife duo Daniel and Lauren Goans, known as Lowland Hum. With the release of their brand new album From Self, With ...
09.19.2023 293: Making Decisions When Feelings Are Big Our emotions and feelings can take up a lot of space at the table. There may have been times we've gotten in trouble for them, either because we've shared too much and regretted it later, or we've been scolded or ...
09.12.2023 292: What Every Decisive Person Knows Today's questions, what do decisive people know that indecisive people don't know? Is there a common skill or mindset present in people who consider themselves to be decisive that those of us who are more indecisive might lack? Can we ...
09.05.2023 291: The Next Right Thing for Perfectionists Today's question: when is good enough great? We'll talk about when perfectionism keeps us stuck. I hope you'll listen in. LINKS + RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE: Subscribe to The Soul Minimalist on Substack Episode 325 of the Lazy Genius Podcast: ...
08.29.2023 290: The Next Right Thing in the Kitchen with Bri McKoy The kitchen is the room of our house where we make many of our daily decisions which means it also has the potential to be the root cause of a lot of decision fatigue. Today I’m glad to welcome one ...
08.22.2023 289: How to Find Relief From Information Overload If we're going to be on the internet, because we are, how can we stay sane and remain soul minimalists in the midst of the constant stream of information? That's today's question. Listen in. LINKS + RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE: ...
08.15.2023 288: This Could Be Why You Feel Exhausted Today’s questions: why do I feel so exhausted? How can I remain a soul minimalist while having a maxed-out schedule? Does our soul have rules? And if so, what the heck are they, and how can knowing them help us ...
08.08.2023 287: State of the Podcast 2023 This week I'm thrilled to celebrate another milestone: six years of The Next Right Thing podcast. Can we even believe it? Reflection is a key part of my own rhythm of life, so when I approach anniversaries of any kind, ...
08.01.2023 286: Psalm 63 It's the last week of Psalm Summer, and I'll be reading Psalm 63 from the New Revised Standard Version, then from the Contemporary English version, then from the Message. At the end of this series, we'll have all the Psalms ...
07.25.2023 285: Psalm 40 It's week three of Psalm Summer, and I'll be reading Psalm 40 from the New Revised Standard Version, then from the Contemporary English version, then from the Message. At the end of this series, we'll have all the Psalms for ...
07.18.2023 284: Psalm 1 It's week two of Psalm Summer, and I'll be reading Psalm 1 from the New Revised Standard Version, then from the Contemporary English version, then from Psalms for Praying by Nan C. Merrill. At the end of this series, we'll ...
07.11.2023 283: Psalm 16 It's the first week of Psalm Summer, and I'll be reading three versions of your most requested chapter, Psalm 16. When this series is over, we'll have all the Psalms for you as a collection in The Quiet Collection app. ...
07.04.2023 282: Psalm Summer: An Introduction It's time for Psalm Summer and today I'll share a few words about why I hold a tension with the Psalms. I'm hearing it among my friends, at retreats I've led, from graduate students I teach, and in the spiritual ...
06.27.2023 281: What's Saving My Summer Life Today’s question is a fun one. What’s saving your life right now, specifically when it comes to summer? It could be anything from a favorite product to a spiritual practice, a fun new show, or a meaningful relationship. When it ...
06.20.2023 280: Family Life and Spiritual Direction with John Freeman For the third year in a row, I’m hosting a conversation with John, who I have shared life with in marriage for 22 years. We have two college-age kiddos who have just finished their freshman year and one rising high ...
06.13.2023 279: Our Favorite Summertime Decisions In today's episode, I'll be sharing some of my favorite summer-time decisions and then we get to hear from YOU! If you're already feeling in a summer rut, I hope these ideas will help if you find you need a ...
06.06.2023 278: What now? For When You Don't Know What's Next If you find yourself at a crossroads in your life and you're asking the super common and also slightly terrifying question, "What now?", listen in. LINKS + RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE: We want to hear about your favorite summer decision! ...
05.30.2023 277: One Question to Ask Yourself Every Quarter This episode is called One Question to Ask Yourself Every Quarter, but of course you can ask it more often than that. It's a question I always have in mind, and it’s become such a part of my rhythm of ...
05.23.2023 276: Why Self-Care Isn't Selfish with Taylor Elyse Morrison I'm glad to welcome author Taylor Elyse Morrison, who's turned being bad at self-care into a career. She's the founder of the media company Inner Workout and the author of a book by the same name. She's a founder, facilitator, ...
05.16.2023 275: 3 Questions and 3 Books Today I'm thinking in threes: three categories of reading, three books I recommend and three questions to help you reflect on the last several months before heading in to the new season that's upon us. Listen in. LINKS + RESOURCES ...
05.09.2023 274: On Making Decisions Alone: A Conversation With A Widow I'm glad to welcome one of my dear, in-real-life, local friends to the show, Anna Kimbrough. Anna and her husband, Tripp, met when they were both students at Chapel Hill and were married for 23 years until the spring of ...
05.02.2023 273: A Spiritual Practice For The Hesitant If you’re someone who maybe grew up going to church or used to have a steady spiritual practice, but you’ve either grown tired, weary, bored, or skeptical, I get it, and you’re not alone. Maybe lately you’ve been curious about ...
04.25.2023 272: A Soul Minimalist's Guide to Your Birthday Birthdays can be fun and lovely, but also sometimes a source of our own chronic hesitation or decision fatigue. And this can add stress because we want to celebrate it, but we also may wonder how we can do that ...
04.18.2023 271: A Blessing For Friendship A short blessing for all kinds of friendship and all kinds of friends. Here’s to you, a friend to someone, and here’s to your someone who is a friend to you. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: The ...
04.11.2023 270: How to Listen When A Friend Asks For Advice What role do friendships play in our decision-making lives? How can we be friends people trust to come to when they have a decision to make? Are there any tips or tricks on how not to be an annoying friend ...
04.04.2023 269: Friendship Breakups with Laura Tremaine As we continue this short series on friendship, I'm glad to welcome one of my IRL friends, the author of one of my top 10 favorite books of 2020, Share Your Stuff. I'll Go First and host of the 10 ...
03.28.2023 268: What's Saving My Life: Friendship Edition What’s saving your life right now, specifically when it comes to friendship? It’s the first in a several-week series on friendship inspired by my friend and fellow author, Laura Tremaine’s new book, The Life Council, all about 10 friends every ...
03.21.2023 267: How To Handle Interruption Can we escape interruptions? You know the answer is we never will, but we can make partial, imperfect, or even settled peace with them. In this episode, I’ll offer some encouragement for when your life feels like one big interruption. ...
03.14.2023 266: On Being A Well by Macrina Wiederkehr Today I'll share words from someone else for all of us to listen to and carry with us and reflect on together. I've chosen a poem by Macrina Wiederkehr, a writer who has been a companion for me for many ...
03.07.2023 265: How to Know What You Want You have a decision to make or a move to discern. You ask a friend to listen and help you figure out your next right thing. And then they ask the question that is as dreaded as it is simple: ...
02.28.2023 264: Let's Talk About Fear Lately, I've been thinking a lot about fear, how and when it shows up, ways it lies and tells the truth, and what it means for us as we do the hard and holy work of making life decisions. Listen ...
02.21.2023 263: How to Human with Carlos Whittaker Today I'm glad to welcome our favorite hope dealer and host of the podcast Human Hope, it's Carlos Whittaker. His brand new book How to Human, just released last month. In it he shares candidly from his own life about ...
02.14.2023 262: For Who You Might Become The decisions we make are evidence of the person who we are becoming. In the middle of our right-now, messy, beautiful, boring, terrifying wonderful lives, it's good to reflect on who we've been, who we are, and who we might ...
02.07.2023 261: Where Trouble Melts Like Lemon Drops: A Story Doing the next right thing is just that -- it's the next right thing for now, not forever. It's the next right thing as far as we understand what is good and right and next. Today I'll share my own ...
01.31.2023 260: Your Next Right Thing Starter Pack After a short break, we're back with a starter pack of episodes to turn to for particular situations, especially for you who might be new here or are looking for helpful, actionable decision-making content. Today I'll share specific episodes for ...
01.03.2023 We want to hear from you! We're on a break! But not the Ross and Rachel kind, this one's only temporary. We're working to create content that meets you right where you are and we'll be back in a couple of weeks. But first, we have ...
12.27.2022 259: What Worked in 2022 On this final episode of the year, I'll share my list of what worked in 2022 as well as a few tips and resources for you if you want to make your own list. Listen in! Want help looking back ...
12.20.2022 258: A Blessing for Christmas Week A blessing for you and yours on this week before Christmas. You may recognize these words from Day 10 of last year’s version of The Quiet Collection for Christmas (2021). I hope they extend a welcome to you on this ...
12.13.2022 257: A Soul Minimalist's Guide for the End of the Year We have a little over two weeks until the end of the year with a lot of potential activity between now and then. Here's the soul talk we all need for the finish line. Listen in. Links + Resources From ...
12.07.2022 BONUS: The Quiet Collection 2022! Surprise! We have a bonus episode to share with you that The Quiet Collection for Christmas is ready and waiting for you -- and we've made it better than ever. Listen in to learn about the changes we've made this ...
12.06.2022 256: A Reading from John 1 At the beginning of the Advent season, it's good to remember the Light. Here's a reflective reading from John 1:1-18, read from The Message version, a translation by Eugene Peterson. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: John 1:1-18 ...
11.29.2022 255: Ask Emily Anything! Celebrating 20 Million What a gift it is to be a small part of your Tuesdays over the last five years! As we celebrate 20 million downloads, we're dedicating today's episode to answering your questions. I'll say some words about why I don't ...
11.22.2022 254: Honest Advent with Scott Erickson Today I'm glad to welcome back to the show author, artist, and spiritual director, Scott Erickson. We'll talk about one of my favorite Advent resources, his beautiful book Honest Advent. I read it last year and of course didn't finish ...
11.15.2022 253: The Enneagram and Decision-Making with Suzanne Stabile Today I'm glad to welcome our favorite Enneagram teacher, author Suzanne Stabile, to talk about the three centers of intelligence and how our stances inform our decisions. Suzanne is a highly sought-after speaker and teacher, known for her personal vulnerability ...
11.08.2022 252: An Unconventional Gratitude If you're feeling pulled in all directions, looking for grounding words but unable to form them, here's a short prayer of welcoming some things we need, some things we want, and others we would rather do without. Listen in. Links ...
11.01.2022 251: Why Sabbath is For Everyone with Ruth Haley Barton Today I'm glad to welcome Ruth Haley Barton to the podcast to talk about an important and often misunderstood spiritual practice: sabbath. Ruth has spent over 20 years as a student, a practitioner and a leader in the area of ...
10.25.2022 250: One Secret to a Light(er) Heart Doing the next right thing won't necessarily protect us from harm, regret, or embarrassment. But hopefully, it can be a practice that keeps us present, moving, and from being too hard on ourselves. Listen in. Links + Resources From This ...
10.18.2022 249: A Former Sign Language Interpreter's Guide to Listening What can we learn about listening from other listening professions? I'm not talking about counselors or therapists, but those whose job it is to hear on behalf of someone else. As a former sign language interpreter turned writer and spiritual ...
10.11.2022 248: Start With Hello with Shannan Martin All the world's a neighborhood and everyone's my neighbor. How to begin to live as such? Today's guest submits it's simple: Start with hello. Today I'm glad to welcome one of my favorite writers and also favorite humans, author Shannan ...
10.04.2022 247: What's Saving My Life (Autumn Edition) It's a question often asked and answered by writers and podcasters alike and it’s easy to see why — it’s simple, it’s direct, and it’s deeply thought provoking. Along with making a list of what I'm learning each season, I ...

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