Holy living Archives - Julie Naturally | Teen Health Coach

A Morning Basket for Adults: How to Start the Day Right

June 12, 2025 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Mornings can be a hectic and rushed time, even for homeschooling families. This is especially true when you’re responsible for getting the kids their breakfast, answering questions, getting children started on their projects, table time, or other learning tasks. Some families set out a morning basket filled with reading material and gentle ways to start the day that don’t require mom’s attention. But, sometimes we mothers still feel frazzled, cranky, and overwhelmed. One way to help is to create a morning basket for adults! Let me explain to you what I mean by this and how this little bit of …

8 Benefits of Journaling for Anxiety for Burned Out Moms

June 11, 2025 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Did you know that one of the benefits of journaling for anxiety is that it can save your life? Because of its effects on the mind and body, journaling has some surprising benefits. For example, according to Psych Central, research shows that journaling strengthens the immune system and acts as a stress management tool. Another example includes a visual journaling study with medical students. If anyone has a lot of stress and anxiety, it’s them. The study showed the promising benefits of journaling for the high stress environment in which they work. So, it quite literally can save your life …

8 great ways to use relaxing coloring pages

June 10, 2025 by Julie Brow-Polanco

There’s almost something magical about coloring books. Many kids love them. And now, adult coloring books are all the rage. These relaxing coloring pages recall youthful days with bright new crayons. Do you remember the joy of opening that new box of crayons with all the exotic colors and none of them broken or with flat tips? The only thing I didn’t like was the smell. Paraffin makes me sneeze, but I digress. Have you thought of these adult coloring books as a way to relax? Maybe you’ve only thought of coloring as an artistic activity, a form of self-expression. …

How to Have Faith When the Going Gets Tough

January 2, 2025 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Sometimes, God takes us to the desert to teach us how to have faith and fill us with new life. When we think of a desert, we don’t often think of it as a place full of life. The desert conjures up feelings of thirst, scorching heat, exhaustion, and death. If we fell out of an airplane, it would be the last place we want to find ourselves in. It is a landscape we usually pass through, not live in. And yet, God leads us there on purpose. He leads us there to test our faith and teach us, like …

20 Uplifting Bible Verses for Healing to Treasure

September 20, 2023 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Bible verses for healing offer comfort when we don’t understand why we are suffering with pain, chronic illness, a nasty infection, or trauma. They can also teach us about God’s character and promises during suffering and what God might be teaching us. When I coach people with chronic illness, we talk about Bible verses for healing on which clients can focus to help them renew their minds and set their hearts on Jesus. This empowers them to have the self-discipline to do the hard things they need to do to recover. I offer these Bible verses for healing to you …

Get the Holy Land Experience in a Subscription Box!

October 15, 2022 by Julie Brow-Polanco

I love Jesus, I love supporting small businesses and artisans, and I would love to have the Holy Land experience. However, I can’t afford a trip like that, so I do the next best thing. The Holy Land comes to me in a quarterly subscription box from Artzabox. This time, I got to experience the Negev, which is basically a desert. The Holy Land Experience If you go south past Jerusalem, past the fort of Masada and the Dead Sea, you will come to the Negev. It is to the Negev that Abraham went after leaving his homeland in Genesis …

Beautiful, Creative Ways to Pray with Drawing Near Art

June 23, 2022 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Have you ever felt like your prayer life was a bit stale? Or, have you struggled to teach your kids creative ways to pray to develop their relationship with the Lord? I know I have. I have tried creative worship ideas to bring new life to praising the Lord. But other than prayer journals, guided prayer, or prayer cards, I didn’t really know what else to do. And, my kids thought some of those things were a bit contrived, not really speaking to their creative, out-of-the-box selves. Most of them are grown now, but when I came across the Draw …

Gift Free Christmas: Some Favorite Ideas

November 15, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

When my children were small, having a gift free Christmas didn’t seem possible. We did limit the number of gifts so they never expected a shower of gifts on Christmas morning. With four children and a limited budget, this was a necessity. But, now that they are older (and all the cousins are, too), it’s time to revisit this idea. And, I can get them involved with fun, fresh ideas like these Advent calendars for teens. Without these kinds of things, my teens seem disengaged. When I say “gift free,” I mean purposefully choosing to forgo buying packages of new …

Being grateful when you don’t feel like it

November 5, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Being grateful comes easily when hubby receives an extra bonus at work. Or, when everyone enjoys good health for awhile and friends visit often. The car runs well and we avoided purchasing a “lemon.” But what about those years when hubby works overtime and instead of a raise, he gets a pay cut? Or, little Susie fights you about every. little. request. while Johnny catches every illness floating through the air. All of us have times when we struggle with being grateful. Sometimes the season of catastrophe lingers for years. If we’re not careful, we can slip into a state …

5 Reasons to Get Excited About Overseas Christian Missions

October 28, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Every year, my church has Missionary Christmas and they invite one of our missionaries to come and speak about Christian missions. It’s wonderful to see slide shows and hear about the impact they are having in Taiwan, Germany, India, and even in remote northern Canada. There is always an invitation to the congregation to be the next missionary. And, one of the things that always strikes me is that fewer and fewer young people want to go to remote places and share the Gospel. People have many theories about why this is. I think that false ideas about Christian missions …

Apologia Bible Curriculum: How to engage kids so they really learn the Bible!

October 7, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

If you’ve some of my other posts, you probably know that I don’t advocate giving prizes for Bible memory. I had very bad experiences with teaching my kids about God’s Word whenever prizes were involved. What worked the best was talking about my own testimony and how God has worked in my life. The second thing that worked well was helping them understand it better. That way, they not only knew what the Bible said, but they knew how to apply it. This was especially important with my special needs kids who don’t always make connections easily. I didn’t give …

Take an Amazing Journey with an Israel Subscription Box

September 20, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

My favorite Israel subscription box comes to my home once a quarter from Artza Box. I love getting a taste of the Holy Land and collecting new treasures for my home that reflect my faith. Here is the latest one: An Israel subscription box that delights all the senses Feast for the eyes and warms the heart One of my favorite things about these boxes is the collection of photographs, both panoramic and personal. I get to enjoy breathtaking, frameable views of the Holy Land that make my heart ache. And, I get to meet local people creating beauty that …

An ArtzaBox Review: A Beautiful Trip to Galilee

July 26, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Have you heard of Artzabox? These quarterly subscription boxes aim to take you to the Holy Land and walk in Christ’s footsteps. While a trip to the Holy Land is on my bucket list, this offers a great alternative. I can even use it in my homeschool to teach my kids about Israel. In this Artzabox review, I want to share with you what I received in the Galilee box. An ArtzaBox Review of the Galilee Box First, I just want to say that everything I received was high quality, full sized products made by local artisans in Israel. I …

Why inductive Bible lessons for kids are the best

June 9, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Generally, I don’t really like Bible studies for kids. I feel that they often make Jesus look like a nice man who helped people and Biblical history look like a Saturday morning cartoon show. My own children have told me that they find many programs ask obvious, silly questions. So, when I found these inductive Bible lessons for kids from Abby Banks, I got excited. The inductive method is awesome for adults and the SOAP method (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer) loosely follows this method in my Philippians and Romans Bible studies. Since it’s such a great method for adults, I …

Why goals are important to your mental health

December 30, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Many homeschooling families feel a bit lost without a planner or schedule. Using these tools is a form of goal-setting. But, we often fail to see why goals are important in other areas. We make vague goals that are really only dreams. Or, another popular idea these days is making a bucket list of things we want to do before God calls us home. Again, this is little more than a list of dreams that will never become reality if we don’t learn how to set goals. While it’s certainly fun to imagine ourselves doing wonderful things, the reason why …

How to Set Goals that Smash Through Ceilings

December 29, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Well, it’s that time of year again. It’s time to ponder what went well over the past year and what didn’t. After the flurry of activity, I like to spend New Year’s thinking about what I’d like to accomplish in the next year. But, how to set goals that will rock the new year? I try to avoid the usual list-making and vague goals since I end up falling short when I do those things. Instead, I choose one or two goals and then create a concrete plan. How to Set Goals that Smash Ceilings Most of us choose a …

5 secrets to staying calm in the holiday chaos

December 3, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

We all know that things often get crazy when we’re at the relatives house. It’s noisy. Kids are running around everywhere, maybe bickering, maybe yelling, but definitely getting in the way, right! And, oh no! Aunt Sarah made that dish Michael hated last year. Or, maybe Uncle Eric brings up politics again. With all the chaos, we need ways to stay calm while we’re away from home because it’s nearly impossible to use our usual methods to relieve stress. And, our kids need ways for staying calm so we don’t have any embarrassing incidents. Here are five secret weapons to …

How to enjoy stress free holidays: 7 tips

November 3, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

This time of year is supposed to be joyful, but many times, it brings stress and exhaustion instead. It is possible to have stress free holidays, but we have to be proactive about it. Why do we get so stressed out? What can we do to change that? Here are some of my favorite ways to enjoy stress free holidays. 7 Tips for How to Enjoy Stress Free Holidays Some of the tips I’m going to share may seem counter cultural. But, holidays are supposed to be “holy days,” days of remembrance, peace, and joy. It is culture and propaganda …

Using a Bible Commentary Gives Bible Study Depth

June 9, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Whenever I write Bible studies, I always use a variety of authoritative sources to help me. These usually include a Bible commentary, a concordance, a Bible dictionary, and study notes from other established sources. Some of these sources pose challenges for me. For one, the writing is almost always super tiny. Second, flipping through huge tomes to find meanings of words and scholarly interpretation takes a lot of time. I sometimes get lost in those books! It can also get confusing. I hesitate to set my high schooler loose on those books. I think it would overwhelm her, even though …

Embrace the Minimalist Lifestyle Daily

May 4, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Let’s return to the importance of ridding our lives of clutter in order to find calm. This idea truly cannot be overstated. Decluttering is the most important step to leading a less stressful life, as far as I’m concerned. Sometimes people focus so much on doing one big cleanup, however, that they forget to embrace the minimalist lifestyle daily. It’s so easy to let clutter sneak back in if you’re not careful. The key to keeping tabs on the mess is to minimize new acquisitions going forward. Although with a large family, everyone needs to be on board. Read on …

Embrace the Benefits of Good Habits

April 22, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

We’ve covered multitasking and discovered how it’s actually better in so many ways to focus on one thing at a time instead. You’ll also enhance your sense of calm when you can give your full attention to what you’re doing through block scheduling. Another thing that aids in feeling calm is to embrace the benefits of good habits and routines. Sometimes, we unschoolers take a fly by the seat of our pants approach, avoiding habit and routine. But, it’s good habits that help unschoolers successfully educate their children. And, Biblically speaking, God tells us to disciple our children and training …

Benefits of a Capsule Wardrobe

April 18, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Today, I’d like to continue on the subject of minimalism. However, I’ll be focusing on the clothing many of us tend to collect. Wardrobes can quickly become overwhelming, full of items we never wear or that don’t fit. It can be hard to get rid of stuff, though, when you’ve invested your time and money into obtaining them. In addition, our clothes are often a part of our identity. I can assure you that parting with some of your out-of-control clothing stash will make you feel lighter and offers a host of other benefits. Known as a capsule wardrobe, this …

Benefits of Minimalist Living

April 17, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

You now know what a negative effect clutter can have on your life. This includes both physical and mental clutter. Minimalism involves reducing the stuff in our lives, but it’s not just decluttering. It’s more a mindset that embraces simple living and purposefully leaving margin–financially, in time commitments, and in every area of life. The benefits of minimalist living go beyond material things. It’s about focusing on what matters most. This can also be experiences and people. There’s even a homeschooling style called minimalist homeschooling, which takes this philosophy one step further. There are many benefits of minimalism when it …

It’s Family Movie Night with No Cringe

April 8, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Have you ever settled in for family movie night and after about 20 minutes, you want to turn the movie off? I have. Sometimes, friends or family recommended the movie. Sometimes, I heard others raving about it. Personally, I like to read about the plot, scan the reviews for the negative ones (these often reveal more than the positive ones), and watch the trailer. But, even if the plot and the cinematography are well done, inevitably something disappoints. Mostly, it’s because reviewers and movie producers don’t care about the same things that I care about. But, this is not the …