Roots of the Rise
Short episodes with grounded wisdom for healing, growth, and reconnecting to your true self.
Roots of the Rise is a soul-centered podcast hosted by Sarah Hope—Ayurvedic health practitioner, spiritual mentor, meditation teacher, biodynamic craniosacral therapist, and energy healer. Drawing from thousands of hours of client work, group facilitation, and her own journey through childhood trauma, grief, and the profound rediscovery of love and joy, Sarah offers a grounded, heart-led space for inner transformation.
Short episodes (10–20 minutes) released on Mondays and Thursdays, offer bite-sized insights, ideas, and practices for inner growth and self-development. Whether you're seasoned on the path or just beginning to explore, this podcast gives you digestible nuggets to stay inspired—without overwhelm. It’s perfect for those who want to stay engaged in the work, curious newcomers feeling overloaded by long-form content, or anyone wanting to understand a loved one's journey from a broader, more accessible perspective.
Sarah’s intention is to expose you to a wide range of spiritual concepts, therapeutic tools, philosophies, and practices—all in service of helping you become the healthiest, happiest, most authentic version of yourself. The journey can be hard. It can feel lonely. But you’re not alone. Come walk this path with her—learning, healing, and rising, one grounded step at a time.
This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Sarah is not a licensed therapist, and nothing shared here is meant to replace the guidance of a physician, therapist, or any other qualified provider. That said, she hopes it inspires you to grow, heal and seek the support you need to thrive.
Roots of the Rise
Episode 90 - Reconnecting with Your Inner Child for Deeper Emotional Healing
Inner child healing helps us acknowledge the childhood wounds that still affect us as adults. This practice allows us to release shame, begin true emotional healing, and finally feel worthy of love. When we recognize that we are "a nesting doll of every age we've ever been," we can start addressing the pain our younger selves experienced and find lasting transformation.
• Too often, we judge ourselves as adults for the things we did as children just to survive
• Childhood trauma and wounds are valid and deserve attention, even if we think we should be "over it" by now
• We develop coping mechanisms to numb or avoid feeling pain, which can become automatic behaviors
• Real healing begins when we allow ourselves to feel everything we've been stuffing down
• Inner child healing often involves speaking directly to the child we once were and giving them what they needed
• Recognizing your innate worthiness of love is the foundation of self-acceptance
• Practice gentle self-exploration by identifying difficult memories and asking what you needed at that age
• Having support from friends, mentors, or therapists accelerates emotional healing when exploring painful memories
Remember: your past does not define your worth. You are worthy of love, healing, and the life your soul is meant to have. Know who you are, love who you've been, and be willing to do the work to become who you want to be.
Rehoming Your Rescue Dog Is Hard | Bill Burr: Paper Tiger
Related Episodes
Episode 68 - The Six Essential Questions for Inner Growth and Getting Unstuck
Episode 5 - Beginner’s Guide to Journaling Methods That Work
If you have childhood wounds that still affect you as an adult, or wonder why the pain you thought you'd outgrown keeps resurfacing, this episode is for you. We're talking about why we need to honor the inner child within us who's still suffering and longing to be seen. I'll share how inner child healing has helped me acknowledge old wounds, release shame and finally begin to feel worthy of love, and how it can do the same for you. Welcome back to Roots of the Rise with me, sarah Hope. Today is my birthday, which is always kind of a mixed bag. It's never been a day that I just was happy about. There's always been some sadness associated with it. Birthdays were always filled with a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1:Growing up, my mother had a lot of expectations. There was definitely a correct way to respond to her gifts. I couldn't just like them and be casual about it. I had to love them, even if I didn't right. And you know, as a child I was pretty lonely. I didn't have a lot of good friends. I had a couple who really got me through high school. I honestly don't know what I would have done if it hadn't been for my one best friend and my high school sweetheart. I don't know that I would have survived. So you know, birthdays were always kind of a non-event when it came to my friends, so it was pretty lonely. You know, it's really not until the last decade or so I've actually allowed myself to be vulnerable enough and that I felt you know good enough about myself to form deep, meaningful, real friendships. And you know, of course birthdays also. They bring up my adoption, that old wound of I'm not wanted. For a long time I thought that core wound was going to stay with me forever. It still comes up now and then, you know it's still there, but it's no longer the pervasive thread of my existence. As Glennon Doyle said, we are a nesting doll of every age we've ever been, and I think I'd add that we ignore that at our peril.
Speaker 1:I once worked with a client, this big, strong, strapping man, the kind of guy you would ask to walk you to your car if the streetlight was out in a sketchy neighborhood you would never imagine that anyone could physically hurt him. But in our work together he showed me what happened to him as a little boy and that child. That child was hurt badly. That child was beaten emotionally and physically by one of the people meant to love him the most his dad in this case. You know that little boy was powerless and sitting with the image of this big, strong, grown man. You know that little boy was powerless and sitting with the image of this big, strong, grown man. You know he looks like a Viking, overlaid with the small child he once was. It stayed with me for days, you know the contrast was haunting.
Speaker 1:Too often we judge ourselves based on the adult we are now, for the things we did as children, just to survive. As we get older, it's easy to dismiss what we went through in our early years. It's easy to forget how small and helpless we once were. It's so tempting to judge ourselves by who we are now strong, capable, self-aware, the woman who knows her worth, the man who can stop most threats in their tracks. We judge our actions as teens and young adults, and even little kids, based on the understanding we've developed as we grew, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
Speaker 1:But all those harmful actions I'll speak just for myself. They stemmed from wounds I refused to look at, from the deep-rooted belief that emotions are dangerous, that they are to be buried, not felt. All the ways I hurt people. That's where it came from, you know, but the five-year-old version of me didn't have strength, didn't have that cognitive understanding. You know, to that child dad was a giant. You know you couldn't stop the harm, no matter how hard you tried to that child mom's words were gospel If she said you are worthless. It must be true. We assume that because we've outgrown our childhood clothes, we should also have obviously, of course, outgrown the pain and fear from those years. But it doesn't work like that. It took me a long time to admit that the emotional wounds from my childhood were real, were valid, needing attention. For years I hid from them, trying to dodge not just the pain but also the shame, like the shame of still being affected, the shame of thinking shouldn't I be over this? Now? It happened like five years ago, a decade ago, 20 years ago. Why am I still crying about this? You know that kind of programming. It leaves you lost when it comes time to actually deal with emotions.
Speaker 1:There's a hysterical Bill Burr sketch about this. I'll link it in the show notes. Fair warning, there's a lot of swearing. If you're unfamiliar with him, this is not like. Listen to it in the show notes. Fair warning, there's a lot of swearing. If you're unfamiliar with him. This is not like a listen to it in front of mixed company situation. Anyway, he's talking about giving his rescue dog away and just stuffing down, bottling up the grief and the anger which then explodes over unsuspecting victims.
Speaker 1:And I think we've probably all done that at some point. You know we try to stuff something inside, but it always finds its way out in a way we didn't really mean. But real healing begins when we allow ourselves to feel it all. Everything you've spent so much energy and time stuffing down, putting in a box, putting it on a shelf in the back of the closet the hurt, the anger, the guilt, the sorrow, the rejection, the abandonment, the longing and ultimately, of course, the shame. Esther Perel says where there is nothing left to hide, there is nothing left to seek.
Speaker 1:I cried every single day for 10 days straight during my yoga teacher training in 2016. It was awful. I mean it was horrible, but it was also a deep catharsis and it was the turning point I didn't even know I needed. You know. That was when I finally acknowledged in a really deep way the small child still inside me, desperate for the unconditional love of her parents. For the first time, I actually brought her out into the light instead of hiding her away, instead of pretending she didn't matter, that her feelings weren't valid, because that's what I was told, I mean all throughout my childhood, that's what my mom would tell me that I didn't have a right to feel the way that I felt.
Speaker 1:All of this to say inner child healing is a real thing. It's a practice where we, in a very real way, speak directly to the child. We once were telling that younger version of ourselves exactly what they needed to hear, but never did never heard. It's used in like a lot of different modalities, but I didn't experience it until my thirties, during the spiritual mentoring program I took, and I couldn't believe how powerful it was to not only acknowledge how deeply hurt I had been, but also to state clearly what I had actually needed at the time and then offer it to myself.
Speaker 1:It was devastating and liberating to realize that all I had ever really wanted to know was that I was worthy of love. It sounds like a well duh like. Of course that's what it was, but you know, when you're in it, it's very hard to see what it is that you're actually needing. I needed to know that there was nothing wrong with me. Nothing wrong with a five-year-old girl who didn't want to practice violin seven days a week. Nothing wrong with a 12-year-old who got less than an A. Nothing wrong with a 15-year-old who wanted to spend time reading instead of playing Christmas music on the piano for her mother. You know it was inner child healing that allowed me to finally say it's okay, you are not a bad kid, there is nothing wrong with you. You are perfect just as you are. You are loved, you are worthy of love. You know I finally allowed myself to feel all the feelings, the hurt, the anger, the guilt, the sorrow, the rejection, and finally truly face the shame I felt. I finally stopped ignoring the truth.
Speaker 1:You cannot heal what you hide. If you truly want to heal, you must allow yourself to feel. I know it's a horrible, overused cliche. You must feel it to heal. It must allow yourself to feel. I know it's a horrible, overused cliche. You must feel it to heal it. But it's also true.
Speaker 1:The ways we learn to cope with pain can become so automatic, so deeply woven into the fabric of our lives that we stop recognizing them as coping mechanisms at all Food, alcohol, work, addiction in all its subtle and overt forms avoidance. Maybe it's shutting people out. Maybe it's tying your worth to your productivity. Maybe it's believing you're only lovable if the dishes are done, the project is finished, the birthday cake is perfect. You know, so many of these behaviors exist for one reason to numb or avoid feeling. And that makes sense. I mean, who wants to feel pain? No one, Especially when it feels like once you open that door, the pain might never stop. That's actually what we're going to talk about in the next episode, but for today I'm going to give you a couple prompts here, but before I do, here's my PSA.
Speaker 1:If this episode has already stirred things up for you, if you've already gotten a little emotional, felt that pull of like oh yeah, I know exactly what she's talking about, then please, for the love of all things holy, follow these prompts gently, do it with help. We are not meant to go into scary, dark basements by ourselves Like bring a friend who has a flashlight, a mentor, a therapist, even just a simple supportive friend who will lift you up or hold you while you cry. I will never forget the friends I made during my time, during that yoga teacher training where I cried for 10 days, the way those women held me as I came completely undone. It was their support that made me feel safe enough to allow all that pain out. So please give yourself that grace, not just because it will be easier, but because you'll actually be able to go further, to accomplish more. It will accelerate your release and your healing.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, with all of that said, here are the prompts. The first one this is kind of a life layers prompt. I want you to just notice the layers of your life, the years that you revisit easily and the ones you avoid entirely. What makes some so easy to return to and others so hard to face? Maybe it's not years, maybe it's relationships. I very much feel like my life has been chunked into the chapters of the intimate relationship I was in. All of the relationships I've had has been immensely pivotal for me and I can almost, you know, attach major change with the man that I've been with and what I've learned from that relationship and how I changed, and it kind of prepared me for the next stage. So for me, if I was looking at this life layers prompt, that would likely be how I would kind of chunk things, as opposed to ages, but maybe for you it's work, or maybe it's where you lived, I don't know. But the important thing here is to kind of figure out the different phases, the different layers, and then notice, kind of, what are the emotions that are attached to them. You know, because we don't just avoid memories, we avoid feeling what the memories bring up in us. So that's one way you can do this. You can kind of begin to investigate.
Speaker 1:The second one is about self-love. So I want you to ask yourself which part of you do you love the most? Which part of you do you love the least? Why? Whose voice is saying you are so amazing? Whose voice is saying you don't belong and you never will? Did that programming get established when you were 15, 10, 5, from the moment of birth? And I just want to acknowledge and send some love to you. If you hear me say which part of you do you love the most and you think to yourself. If you hear me say which part of you do you love the most and you think to yourself nothing, I don't love any part of me. You are not alone.
Speaker 1:So many of us have had moments in our life that we can't think of a single thing we like about ourselves, let alone love. And if that's you, I'm sending love to you because you are worthy of it, because it is your birthright, and I'm so sorry that you were not loved the way every child deserves to be loved. Or if it was a relationship that you were treated in such a way that you began doubting your innate worthiness. Can you hear me getting emotional? You know, I just I just so know how it feels to feel worthless, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. But I also know what it feels like to finally turn the corner and begin to love myself. I mean, really, that's the whole point of this podcast, that's the whole point of the work that I do. You know one-on-one why I facilitate retreats and learn to teach meditation. It's because I know how awful it is to just feel like you don't want to be here anymore, and I'm so incredibly grateful that there is actually a path out of that. And if I can share anything, if anything that I share in these episodes helps throw you a lifeline or helps you investigate or think about things in a different way, or think about things in a different way, then I've done my job. So went off on a tangent there. Let's bring it back in, okay.
Speaker 1:So, whether or not you picked the life layers or the self love prompt, I want you to pick some element of what came up for you as you were thinking about those. So maybe you remembered, like the first time you got bullied in school, or the year your dad left, or a memory of your grandpa telling you you'd never amount to anything. You know something difficult but not all consuming. You know, maybe your grandpa hurt your feelings and it stuck with you, but it didn't like completely devastate you. You know, again, whenever I do these, whenever I give you something to think about or a technique to try, I never want you to start with a Mount Everest, something that is like the worst and biggest and scariest thing in your closet. You know, pick something that hurts, but not something that takes you to your knees. You want to be gentle with this. Unless you are fully supported. If you have a therapist, a mentor, someone trained to help guide you through the process, if you're gonna like go deep, okay. So you picked your element and then use whatever you have in your inner development toolkit to start investigating it.
Speaker 1:Run it through the questions that Byron Katie provides in Loving what Is? That's a great resource you could ask some of the essential questions that I went over in episode 68. You could do the journaling protocol I described in episode five. I'll link all of that below and while you do, I want you to keep in mind however old you were at the time this happened. Recognize that you were only able to process it at that level.
Speaker 1:Ask yourself what did I need at that age? What was it I was wanting to hear? What beliefs did I establish in myself at that time based on what happened? And what do I know now to be true? And how would my life be different if I had always known this truth For me, what do I know to be true that I am worthy of love. How would my life be different if I had known that? My whole life, like let me count the ways right, all the different choices I would have made, the different choices I would have made the different paths. I would have taken the ways. I would not have hurt people or myself for that matter. It's not sitting here and wanting to go back and change the choices I've made. I love my life. I love every beautiful mistake quote-unquote that I've made, because I am where I am living, the life I always wanted.
Speaker 1:The point is to acknowledge that you would have made different choices, to be able to see clearly just how influenced you were by this erroneous, damaging belief that got instilled in you at a young age. It's to acknowledge that and recognize it. You know I'd alter Esther Perel's quote a little bit. You know she says when there's nothing left to hide, there's nothing left to seek. I'd say, when there's nothing left to hide, there's nothing left to escape or judge.
Speaker 1:I'm going to leave you with a little reading from John O'Donohue's book To Bless the Space Between Us, and this one is for your birthday and it's one of my absolute favorites. Honestly, the whole book is beautiful. It's just full of blessings for certain events and it's all just gorgeously written. So I've modified what I'm going to share slightly just for brevity, but I highly encourage you to get the book. It's just beautiful. So today, on my birthday, this is what I want to share with you.
Speaker 1:Blessed be the mind that dreamed the day the blueprint of your life would begin to glow on earth, illuminating all the faces and voices that would arrive to invite your soul to growth. Blessed be those who have loved you into becoming who you were meant to be, to be Blessed. Be those who have crossed your life with dark gifts of hurt and loss that have helped to school your mind in the art of disappointment when desolation surrounded you blessed. Be those who looked for you and found you their kind hands, urgent to open a blue window in the gray wall formed around you On this echoing day of your birth, may you open the gift of solitude in order to receive your soul. Enter the generosity of silence to hear your hidden heart, know the serenity of stillness to be enfolded anew by the miracle of your being. That's all for today.
Speaker 1:If you found this episode meaningful or thought-provoking, I hope you'll share it with someone you think it might resonate with. Remember your past does not define your worth. You are worthy of love, of healing and of the life your soul is meant to have. Know who you are, love who you've been and be willing to do the work to become who you want to be. Just a quick reminder this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. I am not a licensed therapist and nothing shared here is meant to replace the guidance of a physician, therapist or any other qualified provider. That said, I hope it inspires you to grow, heal and seek the support you need to thrive.
