The Radical Pause

Welcome to the very first episode of Root + Rise — a space to slow down, root into your inner knowing, and rise into soulful alignment with life. In this opening episode, host Rohini Walker invites you into a sacred pause: an intentional return to the body, to breath, and to the deeper voice of your inner or True Self.

We explore what it means to reclaim stillness in a culture of overstimulation, and how this radical act of turning inward becomes the foundation for self-trust, creativity, nervous system healing, and soul-body sovereignty. Rohini shares some guiding principles, and simple ways to carve out spaces of quiet presence — where your inner voice, long buried beneath noise and information, can finally be heard.

This episode is a reminder that your wisdom already lives within you. All it requires is space, stillness, sacred attention.

And the courage to listen.

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Connect with Rohini by emailing her at rohini@rohiniwalker.com or by messaging her on the Substack app here.

Intro & Outro Music: Coniferous Forest by orangery on Pixabay.

Transcript

Hey everyone, and welcome to the very first episode of Root + Rise — the space where we slow down, and attune to the deeper and vaster rhythms that govern life. I’m your host, Rohini Walker and I’m so happy you’re here. If you’re new to my work, here’s a little bit about the evolving creation that is this podcast, Root + Rise. The simultaneous both/and nature of rooting down and rising up at the same time, of descending and ascending is the essence of my process and praxis, in my own life, and in the work I do in the world. For me, it’s the essence of alignment, of living a life aligned with the soul, or the true Self.

Root + Rise is also the name of a beautiful online membership space that I facilitate, that was born on the Winter Solstice in 2020. We open for registration at the beginning of each season. So, my explorations and practical applications of rooting down and rising up include (but are definitely not limited to) inner alchemy, somatic experiencing and ecosomatics, attuning to Nature’s wisdom and to Indigenous wisdom through spiritual ecology, decolonial and soul-body liberation practice, mythology, eastern and western spiritual and esoteric traditions and regenerative land tending practices. So you can expect all of this to flavour what this podcast will be.

And woven into all of this is a devotion to the moment-to-moment, felt-sense alignment with and embodiment of the soul - to our inner authority and sovereignty; and from here, cultivating the subjective, somatic experience that we are inseparable from Nature, from the earth and from the cosmos; to really know and feel this in the body, beyond it being a nice-sounding conceptual abstraction. In my experience, life, art, creativity and transformation organically unfolds, or rises up, when we’re rooted in Nature within us and without in this way. Inevitably, this process also brings up our wounds, our traumas - both our own and inherited generational ones, not to mention those inflicted by the dominant culture. I’ve walked the path of resolving, and continue to walk the path of resolving, my own deep-seated, cellular structures of trauma, as well as supporting others in doing so - and this podcast will also inevitably be a resource for that.

So you can expect occasional excursions into storytelling, into myth & poetry; occasional channellings and downloads from the unseen realms that seem to be coming through thick and fast for so many of us right now, when we pause, when we tune out of the noise and make ourselves available; and you can most definitely expect ways to navigate, imagine, create and build new realities during these unsettling, turbulent and emergent times.

So I want to begin this first episode as I begin many of the spaces that I facilitate, by reminding you to run everything that I say through your own filter, to take what resonates, and to leave the rest. To practice feeling in your body what’s true and not true for you - and to let your subjective experience be your guide, regardless of anything I say, including any facts and information I may offer. I know this sounds obvious - maybe? - but it’s something I encourage us to keep remembering and rooting into, especially as we live through these times of just this relentless onslaught of information. We have to keep coming back to the body, to the felt-sense, of taking what resonates for us, and leaving the rest - free from any mental should-ing. This in itself is a radically disruptive and generative act. Deferring to our own subjective experience before we accept something into our inner ecosystems. Does this feel true for me? Is this correct for me?

So I often begin the spaces I facilitate with this simple prayer from the indigenous Kahuna tradition in Hawaii. A Kahuna is a shaman, and it’s also the word for an expert in any field. The reason I love this prayer is that even so-called experts from this tradition, from the Kahuna tradition, have the humility and wisdom to acknowledge the sanctity of the subjective experience. It points to expertise that’s free from arrogance and hubris, and free from the desire to control and dominate by being right and making any divergent perspectives wrong, something that the dominant post-colonial culture could do well to learn from. 

So here’s the prayer. Let’s take a breath, take a quick pause.

Take all that I say,
And toss away
Without a thought
All that does not
Strike within you
A recognition.
For you do not learn
Wisdom and love
You only encounter
Catalysts to remember it.
For it is all
Within yourself.

So for this first episode, I want to keep it super simple. Lay some foundations. And at the same time, this topic is something that feels not just relevant for these times, but truly necessary — and that is the deep medicine of carving out space and time to be with yourself, without distraction, without consuming any information - which in itself  is feeling viscerally unsafe to so many bodies and nervous systems these days, that essential simplicity of being with ourselves, of feeling the body located in the environment around us in the here and now, to feel our surroundings through all our senses, and ultimately to go within, discern, feel and hear the inner voice.

The one beneath the scroll, beneath the algorithm, beneath the notifications and constant input of information. The one that isn’t trying to perform or please or be “right” — but is just… true. Steady. Honest. The voice and presence of our inner authority, of our true Self. 

And to be clear, this voice doesn’t usually speak through the mind. It’s not always verbal, and it’s very rarely logical. It speaks through the body, through the heart, and through sensation, which is the language of the body and the language of the Earth, of Nature. The practice is to become familiar with the earth-body’s language and gently begin to trust its guidance. A lot of what I’ll be offering in future episodes of this podcast will be speaking to this.

So let’s take take a breath, let’s breathe intentionally for a moment before continuing.

We’re living in a time of unprecedented noise. The digital and online space is an ever-humming machine — always on, always buzzing, always pulling our attention outward. There’s a kind of frantic energy to it. Social media, news cycles, messages, ads, updates, alerts — it’s like standing in the middle of a really crowded street where everyone’s shouting really loudly to get each other’s attention, and where we’re expected to shout louder than everyone else to be heard, to be noticed, and to be seen. And somehow we’re expected to be well adjusted to this profoundly maladaptive situation. Somehow we’re expected to be a human being in a body on the earth in the middle of all of this.

And I get it. There is so much inspirational information out there. Not to mention the non-stop news cycles with more and more alarming and traumatic events in the world that we feel that we need to be constantly checking and plugged into and hooked into. But here’s the thing: if we don’t intentionally step away from all that noise, it becomes nearly impossible to hear our own soul and really, 

really need to start tuning into that inner voice, our soul’s voice.. And this is where all true creativity, all true evolutionary progress and generative innovation arises from.

And the soul is speaking to us. 

Through the heart and the body. Through the inner knowing that is intuition, that non-rational pathway to our inherent genius that we have been programmed to ignore and mistrust and abandon in favour of external sources of information. Our inherent genius that has access to so much more than we realise, especially now, especially at this time, if only we could pause, tune in and trust our inner guidance.

The inner voice — our intuitive knowing, our deep, true, capital ‘S’ Self — it doesn’t compete for attention. It won’t scream over the chaos and the noise. It waits. Patiently. Lovingly. For a moment of quiet. For a breath. For a pause.

And the more time we spend tuned in to external noise, the fainter that voice becomes. Not because it’s gone. But because we’ve stopped listening.  We stopped making ourselves available to it.

So this is a gentle reminder — or maybe it’s a bold nudge — to make space. Space where you’re not doing anything, not consuming any information and just. Being. 

Carve it out like your soul depends on it. Because it does.

And here’s just a few reasons why it’s worth prioritizing:

When we stop listening to ourselves, we start living from someone else’s script. We start shaping our choices based on trends, and opinions, and likes, and fears. And when we live with our attention forever directed outwards, when our sense of Self and self worth is “externally defined”, in the words of Audre Lorde, when we’re forever overriding our inner knowing, we give our power away. We get pulled into comparison, perfectionism, people-pleasing — and all of that takes us further and further away from our essence.

And when we live disconnected from our essence… everything starts to feel off. We might be doing all the things, following all the right steps, but something inside us feels flat. And Uninspired and unclear. Maybe even anxious or lost.

And that’s not a sign that something’s wrong with you.

That’s a sign that your soul, your True Self is trying to get your attention.

Now, I know that creating space for feeling and listening and attuning to your essence isn’t always convenient or easy. It can certainly feel deeply uncomfortable and unsafe. Especially nowadays. Our culture is obsessed with productivity, and performance, and staying “plugged in,” to the point where our value and worth - which are never in question, by the way - become conflated with how much we do, how many likes and “followers” we have. 

Resting? Reflecting? Turning inward? These things are often treated like luxuries — rather than the essentials that they are.

But here’s the truth: this is radical and necessary. Intentionally making the time to pause and go within regularly is a sacred practice. In a world that wants us distracted, intentionally tuning into ourselves is revolutionary. It’s an act of reclamation.

When we routinely pause, we become more and more intimate with our own energy, our own essence. We become more and more discerning about what’s our energy and what’s not ours - and gradually we discover that the simple act of taking the time to pause, and to attune to ourselves in this way organically creates the space to release what’s not ours. We don’t have to do any specific practices or techniques. We can if we feel guided to. But the simple power of non-performative, screen-free pausing and tuning in cultivates the space for that clearing and aligning to naturally happen. It’s basic energetic hygiene. We’re not carrying around and running energies that don’t belong to us - including energies we pick up from digital spaces - which is a root cause of nervous system overwhelm these days. 

And we get to be with and in our true Self, our soul, which speaks to us through the body and the heart, which holds our truth. It’s the part of us that knows what’s right for us — what we actually need, what brings us joy, what our next step is, even if it doesn’t make logical sense, even if it feels uncomfortable. It knows when something’s off. It knows when it’s time to leap. It knows when it’s time to rest. We can trust it, and we can come into a space of radical self honesty with ourselves in this way.

But we have to give it room to speak, and give ourselves the space to listen.

So what does that look like?

It doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be another thing to add to the to-do list. You don’t need a silent retreat in the mountains — although if you can swing that, that’s great. 

But it could look like: Waking up 10 minutes earlier to sit in stillness before you touch your phone. Or perhaps not turning on the phone for at least an hour before you wake up, and really being with the energy of the morning, of allowing the body to awaken and feel the day, and even of being present with the energies of the other human, animal and plant beings that you might share your home with.

It might be taking a slow walk in Nature, with your senses open, taking everything in through all of your physical senses without your headphones in, and stopping to be with any plants and trees that beckon to you

It could be journaling by hand, slowly by hand — not to be “productive” or to fix something about yourself, but to listen to yourself.

It could be sitting on the floor or outdoors on the earth, tuning into your body, your senses and your physical space with your hand on your heart and asking: What do I need to hear right  now? or What do I need to remember right now? And allowing the invitation to reveal what it reveals in its own time

It could be creating a sacred space in your home where your nervous system feels open and spacious.

It could be saying “no” to things that feel noisy and jarring to you, including online spaces, even if everyone else is saying “yes.”

It could be taking a 3-5 minute pause and dropping into the heart and the body before you move from one activity to another - and this is one I highly recommend for busy people.

Ultimately, it’s about creating regular pockets and spaces of time for being in your body and in your life and in your own energy without distraction. It doesn’t have to be complicated and fancy, and all ceremonial, especially if you’re a busy parent who doesn’t get much alone time. Even just going to the bathroom and taking a few moments to become present and tune into yourself, to your essence, your energy. 

Now, full disclosure  — if you’re not used to doing this, when you first start off creating this space, it can feel uncomfortable. It can feel unsafe, even. And here I want to remind you to start noticing that discomfort is not always unsafe. And generative, life-affirming discomfort is rarely unsafe. Yes, silence can be confronting if we tend to avoid it. Stillness can bring up difficult feelings that we’d rather ignore, that we’ve maybe been ignoring and avoiding for a very long time. But that’s part of the medicine.

Your inner voice doesn’t just offer inspiration and insight. It offers truth. And truth isn’t always what we want to hear or experience. Sometimes we may receive messages that say “This isn’t working.” Or “You need to leave.” Or “It’s time to rest.” Or “You’re not being honest with yourself.” Or even: “You’re ready now — stop hiding.”

Often, we can start to feel the feelings that we’ve been stuffing away, the parts of us and our lives that we have been overriding because they’re not comfortable or convenient. Because there’s pain or hurt there. And in the space of our pause, we can bring radical compassion to all of it. And this is some powerful alchemy.

Whatever we experience when we take the time to slow down and pause, it’s always trying to get us back into alignment. To integrity - which is a place of integration. To our essence. And that’s the real gift.

Because the more we honor our interiority, our inner experience, the more our outer lives begin to reflect who we really are. Decisions become clearer - in fact decisions can become an opportunity to practice dropping-in to our embodied essence, our capital S self, rather than something to outsource to the analytical mind, or someone else, or to the machine. Boundaries become a space for exploration and discovery. We attune to the natural ebbs and flows of creative energy and stop trying to force things. Relationships become more honest. Life starts to feel ours again. It’s a reclamation. Not because life is now perfect, but because it’s becoming more aligned.

The form doesn’t matter as much as the intention. The willingness to step out of the noise and come home to yourself. Slowly, without any forcing, without any pushing. Just slowly, incrementally, with a little bit more presence each time.

So today, I invite you to become curious.

When was the last time you truly, intentionally tuned into yourself? Not to your thoughts. Not to your to-do list. But that deeper hum underneath it all — that quiet pulse of knowing.

What would it look and feel like to pause and tune in…a little more?

Maybe it starts with turning the phone off an hour before bed tonight. Or lighting a candle and just gazing at the flickers of the flame and just sitting in silence. Maybe it could be the powerfully revolutionary practice of starting to notice every time you reflexively pick up the phone to scroll, and in that space of noticing, choosing to pause and drop-in to the body and to your energy instead. Maybe it could be slowly moving the body or shaking the body without any censoring when you feel overwhelmed or disassociated.

Maybe it’s asking yourself: What am I pretending not to know?

Or What part of me have I been ignoring because it’s inconvenient and uncomfortable?

These are powerful questions. And we don’t have to force the answers to show up right away. But we do require the courage to be present and available when they do show up.

So let this be a reminder — you don’t require more content or more information. You don’t have to be more productive. Just pause, and listen. Offer yourself slow, sacred attention.

Because your inner voice?

It’s not lost.

It’s just waiting.

It’s just waiting for you to get quiet, to take a breath. To pause.

And to offer it some presence. To offer yourself some presence.

This is about getting creative about carving out big or small pockets of pausing and dropping into the inner space of our Self and letting that become the foundation on which our lives are built, letting that become our baseline. It’s profoundly empowering. And as we do this over time, we might discover that our presence starts to radiate something mysterious and delightful, something numinous even. And in time, the nervous system becomes a silent offering of peace to those around us who might need it. 

I want to close with two of my favourite quotes:

The first, by the wonderful Pema Chodron:

“Make a commitment to pausing throughout the day, and do that whenever you can. Allow time for your perception to shift. Allow time to experience the natural energy of life as it is manifesting right now. This can bring dramatic changes in your personal life, and if you are worried about the state of the world, this is a way that you can use every moment to help shift the global climate of aggression toward peace.”

And the second by Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychologist, neurologist and Holocaust survivor:

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.”

So that’s all for today, my friend. Thank you for sharing this space with me. If this episode stirred something in you, I’d love to hear about it — feel free to reach out to me via email or on Substack, the details are all in the show notes. 

And of course, please share, or leave a lovely review if you feel so called.

Until next time — Protect your peace. Honor your truth. And make space to listen. Especially when you’re feeling lost and confused and overwhelmed. 

Go within - all the answers are there waiting for your slow, sacred attention.