PRN - Pause Renew Next

13/06/2024

"The best predictor of a child's security of attachment is not what happened to his parents as children, but rather how his parents made sense of those childhood experiences." Dan Siegel

Making coherent sense of our own story doesn't just help us, although it certainly does that, too. It also helps the way we are able to integrate, relate, and pass on secure patterns of attachment to our children.

This week's PRN episode shares practical places to start in your own journey of telling your story. If you're interested in learning more about attachment, I did a podcast series last spring all about attachment as well. I hope you'll go check those resources out.

You can find and subscribe to PRN: Pause Renew Next on any podcast platform or at the website: pauserenewnext.com.

11/06/2024

As we near the end of our season about telling our stories, I want to leave you with some practical places to start in your own story work. Join me for today's reflection episode! Subscribe on your favorite podcast app or listen at the website: https://pauserenewnext.com/2024/06/11/tell-your-story-how-to-begin-your-story-work/

08/06/2024

A breath prayer of connection. 🩵 Did you know that co-regulation is one of the best tools we have for calming down and regulating our nervous systems? Co-regulation is the act of "being with" another human. We are made for connection.

Yet, there is One who is with us and can help us co-regulate even when there are no other humans around. The Lord is with us always.

I hope this breath prayer is both a relaxation tool and a reminder to your soul that the Lord is with you. In each moment. As you inhale and as you exhale.

07/06/2024

I'm focusing a lot these days on nervous system care. In a culture full of hustle and stimulation, we must pay attention to what our bodies and souls are telling us about their capacity.
Nervous system care is all about honoring our body's ability to regulate.

Here are a few ways I'm trying to do that...
*Spending time in nature.
*Saying yes to less than I used to
*Spending time with life-giving people
*Listening to my body
*Taking time to rest

I'm considering talking more about regulation and nervous system care on the podcast next season. Let me know if that's something you'd be interested in learning more about.

05/06/2024

New 12 minute reflection episode! 🎧 Subscribe to the Pause Renew Next Podcast on your favorite podcast platform, or listen here:
https://pauserenewnext.com/2024/06/05/stories-of-the-kingdom-the-good-shepherd/

04/06/2024

This blog post from 5 years ago popped up in my memories, and was a good reminder to me today about things the Lord is still doing in my midst. Maybe it will be an encouragement to you today as well.

Seen and Unseen by Ginny Detweiler | Jun 4, 2019 | Blog | 0 comments One evening, while wandering the perimeter of our property, my husband and I enjoyed a few moments of quiet conversation together. With four boys, moments of relative quiet are to be savored, and I was doing just that. Suddenly, my...

31/05/2024

As we close out May, we can be mindful of words that summarize our month. is a reflective practice I love that was started by .
My words this month are: gazing, transition, intentional, and receiving.
Join us!
Choose 4 words to represent your month of May. No judgment. No explanation.

29/05/2024

*Vulnerability Post*
Here I sit, not in jail, but at an urgent care, a state away from where I live. Here's the backstory of how I got here...
I have 2 kiddos that are neurodivergent. Transitions of any kind are hard for them. So, you can imagine that school ending and summer beginning presents a host of challenges. I have found over the last couple of years that it works well to take a short trip to help us kick off summer vacation and another one to celebrate summer before returning to school.

Unfortunately, my husband has been sick and has been running a fever the past 3 days. Finally, yesterday, exhausted from (just everything), I commanded him to go to urgent care before we left on our trip today.

He was given an antibiotic and a steroid for a bacterial infection in his lungs. This morning, he began to look like himself again, just in time for me to start running a fever. We checked into our destination, and again, two kiddos had difficulties with transition. After getting everyone squared away and fed, I hit the road to the closest doctor so that our whole vacation won't leave me laid up in bed.

Moms with neurodivergent kids may look like we have it all together, but much of life is HARD. No rest for the weary, it seems.

Still, even here, the Lord has met me this week. Allowing my husband to get better as I got ill so that we both weren't out of commission. Meeting a new mama friend who has an eerily similar story. Being able to visit a friend who had her own difficult situation early this week. Having amazing friends and prayer partners.

This isn't a post about my kiddos. They have their own stories to tell one day. This is mine.

So, if you feel like it, I'd love your prayers for health and emotional regulation in our home this summer.

And if you have a prayer request, drop it below, and I'll pray for you too.

25/05/2024

Even if it means watching your son and husband take off on a 5-month adventure up the Appalachian Trail! If you missed my conversation this week with Julie, I hope you'll go check it out. Her courage and faith will inspire you!
Find PRN: Pause Renew Next on your favorite podcast platform or listen here: https://pauserenewnext.com/2024/05/21/appalachian-trail-a-moms-perspective-with-julie-long/

25/05/2024

And just like that, it was summer vacation. Here's to warm weather, blue skies, and siblings getting along. 😍 Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone!

21/05/2024

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to hike the Appalachian Trail? It sounds epic, right? Well, today’s guest, Julie Long, is here to talk about her family’s Appalachian Trail adventure.
Listen here: https://pauserenewnext.com/2024/05/21/appalachian-trail-a-moms-perspective-with-julie-long/

15/05/2024

Today is an in-person podcast recording day! My friend Julie, aka , came over to chat about her family's Appalachian trail adventure. Of course, I was too busy talking (as I do) to snap a picture of us!
I'm still so thankful to my husband for making me this little office/podcast studio. It's always nice to have, but even more fun when I get to interview someone in person and share the space with them.
Look for that interview to come out in the next couple of weeks!

14/05/2024

New Episode! In today's reflection together, we'll be exploring the question: Are we supposed to bear fruit in every season? I'm also releasing this as a blog, so if you'd rather read than listen, go check out the blog post!
Subscribe to PRN on your favorite podcast app or listen here:
https://pauserenewnext.com/2024/05/14/tell-your-story-in-season-and-out-of-season/

14/05/2024

New blog! I'm exploring the question: Are we supposed to bear fruit in every season? I'm also releasing this as a podcast episode, so if you'd like to listen rather than read, go check out today's podcast episode!
Read here:
https://pauserenewnext.com/2024/05/14/in-season-and-out-of-season/

13/05/2024

I love this quote from .grubbs new book, Live Slowly: "When the pain of being weary and worn out is greater than the fear of missing out or letting someone down, you know you have started the biggest shift of all toward slower living."

As a counselor, I can attest that we will continue with lifelong patterns until we either no longer physically can continue in those patterns or find that those patterns no longer serve us. I have certainly found that to be the case for myself.

Shifting toward slower, intentional living looks a lot like finding the pace we were always meant for, rather than the pace we adjusted to in order to keep up.

08/05/2024

Tis the season for beautiful blooms! Peony, amaryllis, and iris, oh my! It's a shame to keep them all to myself, so I want to share. 💜
Where are you finding beauty this week?

30/04/2024

Have you ever thought about how God’s will intersects with your story? In this reflection episode, we’ll consider what we’re telling ourselves about God’s will and how that affects our thinking, our view of ourselves, and our stories.
Listen here: https://pauserenewnext.com/2024/04/30/tell-your-story-gods-will-and-my-story/

30/04/2024

is a fun and helpful practice as we collectively close out the month of April.
My words this month are: Productive, Blooming, Fatigue, and Friendship.
Join us!
Choose 4 words to represent your month of April. No judgment. No explanation.

22/04/2024

Look! My green beans are sprouting. I grow them every year, and every year, seeing sprouts pop up out of the ground feels exciting. And on that note, here is a pause, renew, next moment for you... Notice how one plant has two leaves, one plant is just sprouting leaves, and the other has barely popped out of the soil. They're sprouting at different rates.

This principle applies to people, too. We grow at different rates. We learn at different rates. We produce fruit at different rates. Yet, we all stretch toward the sun.

Don't look to your right or to your left to compare how you're doing. Just look up.

Look at the Son, and grow towards the Light. ❤️🌱

19/04/2024

"Create a life that you don't have to escape from." Have you seen that social media theme? It comes with different words and pictures attached, but the meaning is the same. If you curate your life, then you can live a stress-free, meaningful existence.

Except it's all a social media fallacy.

Only those with privilege can even begin to curate their lives. Those who can live in utopia, have not yet seen suffering come knocking on their door.

Even with the nicest homestead, the most organic food, the prettiest interior designs, and the most well-behaved children, life can be hard. Jesus told us it would be.
"In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world," he said.

If you're living for utopia here, you've missed the point. His kingdom is in the here and now, not in the curated version of our lives. Jesus is present, even in, and especially in, the difficulties. The ones that people may never share on social media.

So, if you find yourself looking for an instagram-inspired life and feel discontent, take heart. Your authentic, right now, flesh and blood, real and ordinary life is just perfect. God loves you right here, in this chapter of your story. Contentment awaits.

19/04/2024

Next to the door in my therapy office is a mirror. It acts as a helpful reflector for me to check my makeup or hair, but that's not why it's there. It serves for the use of clients before exiting the room.

Therapy sessions often bring about tears because they serve as a safe space to process, to be heard, to grieve, to name emotions, and to tell stories. Tears are one of the soul's ways of saying these things matter.

Walking out of that sacred space, back into "real life," requires transition time. A mirror check, silence, gentleness, a deep breath, or journaling help us to pause and reflect before jumping back into the hustle of the day.

This mirror is not just about keeping up appearances. It also reflects back to us our own eyes as a witness that the tears we cried mattered.

-care

16/04/2024

Today, we’ll be talking about 3 paradigms for relationship: independence, codependence, and interdependence. I hope you’ll join me for this 15 minute reflection episode as we consider how our relationship strategies affect the way we interpret our own stories.
Listen here:
https://pauserenewnext.com/2024/04/16/tell-your-story-3-paradigms-for-relationship/

12/04/2024

Yesterday, in between rain showers, I took a walk. The sky was gray. The ground was wet and muddy. Then, in the middle of my walk, I saw these beautiful flowers growing wild at the edge of the woods. They were peeking through fallen twigs, almost as if they had been planted there.

To those who are weary:
Perhaps you are like these wild crocus flowers, blooming bright and brave in the midst of a storm. It may feel like you've been misplaced, not planted purposefully. Make no mistake, your beauty shines right here. Right now. Through the mud. Even more so through the storm.

So, let your roots grow deep, friend. Shine on. You're bringing glory to God, and you're inspiring people you didn't even know were watching.

06/04/2024

One of the primary ways we learn how to regulate our own emotions is by co-regulating with other safe people. On this week’s podcast episode, counselor Deni Huttula shared that even if we don't have a lot of emotional experts in our life, the Lord himself can help us regulate our emotions.
If you haven't gotten a chance to hear the episode, I hope you'll go check it out! https://pauserenewnext.com/2024/04/02/building-bridges-of-emotional-regulation-a-conversation-with-deni-huttula-lcmhc/

04/04/2024

This is the epitome of spring break life, am I right? My glimmers this week have mostly consisted of being in the sunshine with family.
As a reminder, glimmers are the opposite of triggers. They are moments of joy, safety, and connection.
What glimmers have you noticed this week?

02/04/2024

New Episode! 🎙 My guest today is my friend and colleague, Deni Huttula! We're talking about emotional regulation and about her book, The Bridges of Chara. Deni is so insightful, and I'm thankful to have gotten to sit down and chat with her! You can listen to the podcast here:
https://pauserenewnext.com/2024/04/02/building-bridges-of-emotional-regulation-a-conversation-with-deni-huttula-lcmhc/

28/03/2024

"The joy and well-being we long for are found only in relationships that shift our nervous systems toward connection - a process called regulation. Every temptation is about reaching for the benefits of regulation without the risk of relationship."
- KJ Ramsey

17/03/2024

Here's one thing that's bringing me joy today. Sprouts! What is one glimmer of gratitude or joy in your life today?

07/03/2024

My goodness, if you haven't gotten a chance to hear Leah Stirewalt's story, I sure hope you'll go listen to Episode 152 and 153 of the PRN: Pause Renew Next Podcast. Here are just a few nuggets of gold from those episodes.

Her words have challenged and encouraged me, and I think you'll feel the same! 💜

05/03/2024

New Episode! In the second part of my conversation with Leah, she shares about the unexpected difficulties she has faced as a parent. Leah is a single parent of four adopted children, and she honestly talks about the realities of that journey. She also speaks about being a special needs parent.

Leah is so honest and authentic in telling her story, and it is a story that we all need to hear. Whether or not you’re a single parent, an adoptive parent, or a special needs parent, you will come away from this episode with compassion and new understanding for some of the “invisible” needs of our communities and churches.

Listen here: https://pauserenewnext.com/2024/03/05/solo-parenting-children-from-hard-places-a-conversation-with-leah-stirewalt/