I'm Emily P. Freeman and welcome to The Next Right Thing.

You're listening to Episode 358.

This is a podcast about making decisions but also about making a life.

If you struggle with decision fatigue, chronic hesitation, or if you just need a few minutes away from the constant stream of information,

and the sometimes delightful but distracting hum of entertainment, while you're in the right place for discerning

your next right thing.

I'm an author, a spiritual director, and an occasional workshop leader.

I live in North Carolina with my family, and through my work I've helped thousands of spiritually

thoughtful people overcome decision fatigue so that they can discern their next right

thing in faith, work, and life. Several weeks ago, I invited listeners to send me voice messages

answering this question. What have you tried that you're still not sure about?

We've already shared one full episode of your responses, that's episode 354,

which by the way, I love hearing your voices, so these are some of my favorite episodes.

Now, we couldn't include everyone's response in that one episode,

but there were several responses that came through that had similar themes. So today I want

to return to one of those themes that several respondents shared. And that is all about prayer.

Listen in. Prayer is a huge topic, which I knew when I sat down to craft this episode.

And so we'll dive in, but just know that I'll probably say too much, and there's so much more that could be said.

But to begin to narrow our focus, here is a sampling of some of the things fellow listeners of the next right thing had to say.

Hi, I'm Sarah Frazier from Charleston, West Virginia, and I've been trying out this idea of just being quiet and reflective in the mornings with a quiet house, just one little lamp on, but I'm not sure if it's working for

me because my mind gets distracted and I'm constantly thinking about my to-do list or what I'm

going to make for dinner or this issue or that issue or this stress or this

...