Roots of the Rise
Grounded wisdom for the journey inward and upward.
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, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 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 70 - Looking for the Good Men: Shifting Perspective for Balance and Healing
In this episode, we’re taking a closer look at how our personal experiences—and cultural narratives—shape the way we view men. While toxic masculinity and male violence are real and must be addressed, there’s another side to the story that’s often overlooked: the presence of good, kind, emotionally available men who are doing the work, showing up, and helping to heal the collective.
You’ll hear about a client’s honest frustration, a simple social interaction with two very different interpretations, and the invitation to explore your own biases and beliefs. This isn’t about denying harm—it’s about widening the lens.
As Father’s Day approaches, let’s challenge ourselves to notice the men who are doing it right. Because healing comes not only from calling out darkness, but from amplifying the light.
Welcome back to Roots of the Rise with me, sarah Hope. Today we're talking about something a little tricky our cultural narratives about men. It's easy, especially in the wake of so much harm and injustice, to paint all men with the same brush. But what does that do to our hearts, our relationships, our ability to heal? This isn't about dismissing the pain women have endured. It's about making space to also honor the good men, the ones who are showing up, trying, learning and loving well. So let's talk about it. Trying, learning and loving well. So let's talk about it.
Speaker 1:A client of mine recently said something that really kind of struck me in the moment. She told me she was just done with men. They're all pigs. She said, every guy I've dated has treated me poorly. My friend's husbands are cheaters, liars, abusive. You found a unicorn with your husband, and I get it. That's been her experience, and men like that do exist and they cause real damage. Also, yes, my husband is pretty awesome, but is he a unicorn? I don't think so. I'm sure you've heard someone lately go on about how awful men are Like.
Speaker 1:Right now, we're pretty down on men in this country. There's a lot of talk about toxic masculinity, about how men are doing so many things wrong. They're to blame for so many of society's problems. And, yes, absolutely, misogyny and sexism exist. I don't know a single woman who has not, at minimum, received a sexist comment. Most of us, myself included, have dealt with unwanted advances, sometimes very aggressive ones. You know, at least one in five women have been the victim of rape or attempted rape. One in four have experienced domestic violence. So, yes, we have a major problem of men on women, violence and abuse, and it needs to be seen, spoken about and stopped. And also, not all men are toxic, checked out or abusive. Most of the husbands and fathers I know they're solid, they're doing their best to love their partners, raise good kids, contribute meaningfully to their family and to their communities. And maybe that's why my client's comment hit me so hard, because her perspective on men is vastly different from mine. She and I had a really great conversation about this and she's comfortable with me bringing it up here and I really wanted to because I think it's such an important conversation.
Speaker 1:Being the mother of a son, when I think about all the women out there who just look at men as being a problem, that there's something innately wrong with them. Well, honestly, it kind of makes my heart hurt because someday that's going to be my kid all grown up, having people look at him or think about him that way. It just you know that's not what I want for him. And here's the thing when someone has been hurt by a man, especially repeatedly, it makes sense not to want to engage anymore. It is completely understandable to feel guarded, even furious. We've been conditioned as women to be cautious, to never walk alone at night, to avoid stairwells and parking garages, to carry keys like weapons, and we've learned this from history, from both kind of the global societal history, but most of us from personal trauma from the women who came before us. So that fear, that mistrust, it makes sense and it's totally valid. But and this is important there's a difference between honoring the wound and living from the wound. When we start to believe that all men are inherently dangerous or broken or selfish, we end up reinforcing the very narrative we're trying to dismantle.
Speaker 1:Let me give you an example. I think this originated with Marshall Rosenberg, but I'm not entirely sure. So here we go. Just imagine two single women are chatting at a party. A man approaches, introduces himself and asks how they know the host. One of the women turns and smiles at the man, says her name back and starts engaging him. The other woman fumes quietly, is immediately angry and put off. What's your impression of this man? Which woman do you identify with? Did you think like, oh, this is so nice, he introduced himself and, you know, is just trying to make small talk as you do at parties? Or did you have that same oh. Who does he think he is barging in like that?
Speaker 1:Now let me give you some backstory. One of the women grew up surrounded by good men, supportive dad, kind brother, respectful partners. So when this man approached, she felt flattered and open. It was a pleasant interaction. When she welcomed the other woman, her father left when she was three. Her mom had a string of boyfriends who never stuck around. Her own relationships were marked by betrayal and control. So when that man approached, she felt defensive and irritated, convinced he was intruding. Same scenario two completely different experiences, all because of past conditioning.
Speaker 1:This is confirmation bias. In action, we tend to see what we expect to see. If we expect men to be awful, guess what you'll notice most Guess the conclusion that you will jump to. Wayne Dyer says when you judge another, you do not define them. You define yourself.
Speaker 1:Right now, in this culture, in this country, we are swimming in anti-male sentiment and, like all stereotypes, there's a kernel of truth, of course. After centuries of patriarchy, men are now facing the consequences of generations of harm and bad behavior. But is that helping anyone heal? Because here's what I believe If you expect bad behavior, you'll find it. If you believe all men are pigs, you will filter the world that way. But if you start looking for good men, you will find them too. Where attention goes, energy flows.
Speaker 1:And so, during this week leading up to Father's Day, I want to take a moment to encourage and acknowledge all the good men who are out there, the ones who show up with integrity, who work hard, who nurture and protect. The men who are actively unlearning harmful conditioning, the ones who are leaning into their divine masculine, who are steady, supportive, loving, leaning into their divine masculine, who are steady, supportive, loving. If we want to create a more peaceful, connected world, we cannot just keep tearing down the bad. We have to start lifting up the good, not blindly, not naively, but intentionally, with discernment and with heart. So here's a simple journaling prompt or just a thought experiment to chew on.
Speaker 1:Take a moment today and check in with yourself. What are the beliefs you hold about men? Where did they come from? Are they still serving you? Are they helping you experience the kinds of relationships you truly want? If you want to take it one step further, I invite you to spend the rest of this week looking for the good in the men around you, both past and present.
Speaker 1:Look for the random moments that indicate a man is trying to do the right thing or is doing good. Immediately, what comes to mind is the other day I was in the grocery store and I saw this like teenage boy, um walking out with uh flowers, holding flowers, and I couldn't help but think, ooh, who is he going to give those to? Where are those going? Right? There are all these little examples men opening doors or reaching out a hand to help a woman walk down tricky steps. Some people are going to look at that and see it in a negative light, but me, I look at it as a man stepping into his divine masculine, stepping up to be the protector. We've lost our appreciation of the differences between men and women, of the beautiful things that they both bring, that both genders bring to any situation. And I'm not talking. We're not getting into gender ideology here. I'm talking about simply the divine, masculine and feminine, that every single human holds within them. We always hold both, and so it's a question of what are we stepping into? What are we embracing within ourselves and within others?
Speaker 1:I always tell the story when my husband and I first started dating, you know, we would go out somewhere, like to dinner, and before we leave left he would do this thing of asking me do you need to use the restroom? And the first couple of times it kind of like you know, I made me like huh that he was asking me the question. And then I started to get like annoyed, like what do you think I'm a full adult? I think I know when I need to go to the bathroom and I asked him about it. You know, like why are you doing this right? Why are you treating me like I'm a child who needs to be reminded to use the facilities? And he said well, you know we're about to get in the car and I just want you to be comfortable.
Speaker 1:And I realized that it was coming from this place of actually really deeply caring about me. It's not that he didn't think I could handle it, just like most often, it's not that the man thinks that you can't open the door for yourself or that you're not capable of walking down tricky steps. It's them stepping into that taking care of, it's their strong way of nurturing the divine feminine has this kind of soft, gentle approach right. But men, they have this. Take charge. Let me do this for you, let me help you navigate something difficult, and that's a beautiful thing that we want to encourage in our partners. So now, whenever my husband does it well, actually he hasn't done in a very long time because now we actually have a child, so we're both a little more concerned about him using the bathroom before we go anywhere. But if he were to do it again, I would really appreciate it. It would make me smile because I know that it is his way of communicating love for me.
Speaker 1:So I know I just went off on a little bit of a tangent, but I think that this is what we have to do. We have to start reframing our experiences with men to notice the small kindnesses, the quiet efforts, the steadiness, the steady presence that they bring, and I really want my hope is that we're able to bring more balance to the conversation about men, not by denying the harm, but by recognizing that there are good men and they are trying to, you know, be kind of the best examples of masculinity that we all want from them. And if we can recognize that, that will create the healing. Not, you know, healing doesn't come from denying pain, it comes from widening our lens. So let's begin to see with a little more clarity, a little more compassion, our lens. So let's begin to see with a little more clarity, a little more compassion and a little more hope. So that's it for today.
Speaker 1:If you have questions or if something came up from you while listening, it likely did. This conversation might've been a little triggering. I hope that I properly conveyed that I'm not trying to deny or dismiss any of the wrong that men have perpetrated across the years. I'm just trying to balance out the conversation because by the time my son starts to date, I hope that he isn't constantly bracing to be accosted for wanting to do the quote, unquote gentlemanly thing and open a door for a woman. I hope that we are at a point where we can recognize the good in the masculine and not have men tiptoeing around, worried to act in a way that feels appropriate for them in a way that they want to be loving. They want to show their protective, loving side, for fear that they are going to be told that they are being toxic for it.
Speaker 1:But what do you think? Where are you at in this whole conversation or in this whole thought experiment about men, toxic masculinity, positive masculinity, all of it? If you have thoughts you want to share, click the message me button If you're listening on Spotify, or email me at roots of the rise at gmailcom. I'd love to hear what you think and if you found this helpful or at least made you think a little bit, hit, follow or subscribe or leave a review. I really appreciate it. Remember, 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.
