Why I Took a Break and Why Devoted Dreamers Is Back

If you’ve ever needed permission to slow down and start again, this episode is for you.

After a five-month pause, the Devoted Dreamers Podcast is back. In this season opener, I share why I stepped away from podcasting, what burnout taught me about identity and rest, and how God met me in a quieter season. 

I also share what’s changing in Season 14 and what you can expect as the show returns with a renewed focus on simple habits, faithful steps, and pursuing God-shaped dreams without burning out.

In case we haven't met yet, I'm your host, Merritt Onsa, a mentor for Christian women in midlife who want to turn their big ideas into purposeful work. I come alongside women like you to help you discern what God might be inviting you into and take faithful next steps without pretending to have it all figured out.

If you love Jesus, know you’ve been given specific gifts and experiences for a reason, and you’re tired of circling the dream instead of walking it out with God, you’re in the right place.

Welcome to the Devoted Dreamers Podcast!

NEXT STEPS:
Connect with Merritt: Website || Instagram || Book a Call
Leave a Review: Apple Podcasts/iTunes
Subscribe: on Apple Podcasts * on Android
Join the Dream Believers community

MORE ABOUT THE DEVOTED DREAMERS PODCAST:
Produced by Jonathan R. Clauson.
Theme music by Reaktor Productions.
Ad music by Komiku.

Transcript

Merritt Onsa: 
The Devoted Dreamers podcast is coming back in 2026. Hey, Dreamer, happy new year. It has been a minute. if you've been hanging out with me for a while, you know that last fall was a season of recovery for me. At the end of August, I decided to pretty suddenly put a halt to my podcast. I realized that I had

been on this treadmill of production for months and having also been caring for my mom for the previous four years until she passed away in May, having two young kids that are in school, have activities, have a spouse, have a job, this job. I was burned out, honestly. It's only been in the last couple of weeks that I've even been able to admit

to that word burnout. I was kind of avoiding it, shoving it down. But I knew that I was overwhelmed and I knew that I had too many plates spinning and I did not know what to do about it. And I was processing some really deep questions in the summer. A lot of it related to thinking about end of life stuff and realizing that we're not gonna be here forever. ⁓ I think losing someone

makes you consider that, that your life has an end date. We don't know what it is. We don't know when it's coming, but there were a lot of conversations I was having in my head. Like, is the way that I'm working today back in July, August, is that who I want to be in five years, in 10 years? Is that the way I want to be working and spending my time? And the answer was a very clear no.

And yet I didn't know what to do about that. How could I buy more time? You can't. You cannot have any more than 24 hours in a day. And so based on the things that I already had on my plate, the energy levels that I knew that I had, I just knew I could not continue doing all the things that I was doing. And so I had to let something go. And it needed to be something big. It couldn't just be like, you know, my husband takes over.

making dinner for our family every Monday night. Like, no, it couldn't just be that. It needed to be something significant that I felt was draining me. And honestly, it was the podcast. And that's not to say I don't care about you as the listener. In fact, I think I am better able to care about you as a listener of this podcast, having taken like a five month break. Now,

If I had planned this, I might've gone about it a little differently. I might've recorded this episode telling you about the podcast ending and then coming back or like giving myself a deadline or whatever. I might've done that a little bit differently, but in the moment I just needed to cut my losses. So that's what I did. I took a pause and I said, I am not even setting a return date because even that was pressure that I didn't want to feel. So I had this space. I had this time.

to step away, to process, get out of that production mode and forget that ⁓ the doing, the doing that was kind of making me feel like I was on the right track, ⁓ but actually contributed nothing to my worthiness, my value. ⁓ I needed to forget what that was like so that I could start again anew. And so the new year, happy 2026.

It feels like it's the right time to begin to live in a new way. And I think a lot of us are doing this right now. Isn't this what happens at the beginning of the year? But God has been so kind to me that in the last couple of months, as I've been processing, as I've been making space, as I've been trying to listen to what he would have me hear in a quieter season, there was one little phrase that came to mind and it was this.

He is pleased with me. Period. The end. I don't have to have a successful podcast. I don't have to record an episode that's telling you where I'm going if I'm gonna disappear for five months. I don't have to be the best mom on the block. I don't have to always show up prepared for Bible study or make sure that my quiet time happens every single day. He merely wants to pour his love over me. He wants to pour his love over me.

He is pleased with me and I needed to dwell in the love of the Father. I needed to remember that reality, that truth of my identity in order to be ready to come back and pour out to you. So from that identity, as a beloved daughter of the King, I am bringing back the Devoted Dreamers podcast. And it's allowed me to have some creativity about

how I want to do this, about how you're going to experience this show. I've been doing the podcast, like specifically interviews, in the same way basically since the beginning. So now for almost 10 years. I have varied the questions for my guests a little bit, but it's really followed the same structure and format and process for me on the backend, behind the scenes. And that's also what I wanted to shake up.

I don't want to keep doing it the way I was doing it. Podcasting has changed a ton in 10 years. And yes, I've added solo episodes in that time and those have been wildly successful. I get incredible comments about those episodes, but it's really fun to think about doing this in a new way. And in case you're new here, in case you have no idea what I'm talking about, about the way that I used to do the podcast.

I mean, those files, those archives are still there. I'm not gonna remove the past 350 episodes that exist of the Devoted Dreamers podcast. This is just a continuation of the thread that started in 2016. But if we haven't met, I'm Merritt Onsa. I am a mentor for Christian women in midlife who wanna turn their big ideas into purposeful work. I come alongside women like you to help you discern what God might be inviting you into so that you

can take the next faithful steps without pretending you have it all figured out. Because clearly I do not have it all figured out, but I'm probably a few steps ahead of you and I want to share what I've learned along the way, really valuable lessons, not skills or tactics necessarily, but really valuable lessons about how we walk with God into our God shaped dreams. So if you love Jesus,

If you know you have some specific gifts, talents, even life experiences that He has given to you and allowed for you, and you are tired of circling around that dream instead of walking it out with God, you are in the right place. This show is for Christian women who sense God stirring something up and want help discerning their next faithful step. If that's you, let's get started.

Let's get into a little bit of the nitty gritty of what you can expect if you're hanging out here with me for the next several weeks or months or years. First, I want you to subscribe to the show because every time a new episode drops, it'll show up in your app where you can download it or stream it however you like to listen to podcasts. But here's what's happening over the next

couple of weeks. I am relaunching my Habits series with nine, potentially a tenth, new episode all related to simple, I'll say easy, dare I say easy, habits that you can begin to implement today or tomorrow. These are habits that would take five to ten minutes or less.

One of mine, for example, for 2026 is to do these foot stretching exercises. And it's literally five minutes. And so that's what we're going into 2026 with specifically in the month of January, you're going to be receiving in your podcast app. I'm dropping an episode every other day, Monday through Friday. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you're going to get a short 10 to 15 minute episode from me about a specific habit.

And the reason I wanted to do this again in 2026 is because I still believe that as you grow a habit, as you see yourself tracking a habit or recognizing like, I've taken my vitamins every day for 15 days, you are more likely to continue to do that habit.

This is an opportunity, yes, to build some new habits into your life. Whether you're a resolution person or you're not a resolution person, I think you could take one or two of these nine or 10 habits and begin to implement something consistent in your life every day that would improve your health, your mindset, your relationship with God. I want you to walk away from these next couple of weeks of mini episodes with a new habit under your belt. Yes for the habit, but

Also, because of what it does in you, the confidence that it builds when you look back and say, yes, I did that. I put my mind to it and I did it. And that is the kind of ⁓ juice that we need. That's the kind of motivation that we need as devoted dreamers to be able to step into bigger dreams, bigger things that we wanna do in our lives. But we gotta start small. That's what we're all about here at Devoted Dreamers.

is the baby steps that will stair step you towards the bigger things that you want to accomplish, but you've got to start small. So join me over these next several weeks, these small episodes. If you love one in particular, I hope that you will leave me a review and let me know what you liked about that episode or that particular habit or the way in which you've gone about it. I wanna know what is working for you and the things that are resonating with you at this season of your life.

And then after the Habit series comes to a close, the podcast is going to look a little bit different for season 14, which is what we're entering into. Woohoo, season 14. And year 10, I started podcasting in ap, no, I started podcasting in June of 2016. So big anniversary this June. We'll see what God brings to mind that we can do to celebrate that. But the way that the podcast is going to be different this year,

is instead of bringing on a different guest every week or alternating guests and solo episodes like I've done in the past, I decided to figure out how to bring the podcast back in a way that would be light and give me energy and would be something that I was less likely to get burned out doing. And the thing, the through line with the podcast over...

all these years, what I have loved most about it is the conversations that I've been able to have with other women. And so instead of guests, I'm going to be bringing the podcast back with what I'm calling visiting co-hosts. So I'll bring a co-host in for, you know, three to five episodes about a specific theme or cover an aspect of pursuing a God shaped dream,

We're going to be asking each other questions, batting around ideas, thinking about things, big ideas, mindset issues, ways that we struggle, success that we've seen in our own work or in others. I think about this like colleges bring in visiting professors, well, I'm bringing in visiting co-hosts. I can't wait to share this new format with you.

And thanks for hanging out and hanging with me as I've been on a break. So now I'm back.

Episode one of my habit series, why small habits matter more than big goals this year is available immediately following this episode.

So if this is the year that you want to finally make some progress on your God-shaped dream, I'm Merritt Onsa. I'm your dream coach. I'm here to help. So let's get started. Meet me in the next episode.