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, 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 74 - Beyond "If Only": Finding Joy in the Present Moment
Destination addiction—the harmful "if only" mindset—prevents us from experiencing joy in the present moment. Despite setting goals and making plans, we miss the perfection of right now when we believe happiness exists only in some future state.
• Dr. Andrew Huberman says "the most dangerous thought in life is 'if only'"
• The trap of saying "I'll be happy when..." prevents enjoying present joy
• Moving beyond suffering is the true destination in life
• Heart-based meditation trains us to feel the goodness in each moment
• Acceptance helps us stop fighting reality and appreciate what is
• Using touchstones (physical objects) can remind us to practice gratitude
• Presence isn't about perfection but returning to yourself as you are
• Joy isn't waiting somewhere in the future—it's a skill we build now
Email me at rootsoftherise@gmail.com with questions. If you found today's episode helpful, hit follow or subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review.
Related Episodes:
Episode 2- You are meant for happiness
Episode 6 - Curiosity Required
Episode 7 - Heart Based Meditation
Episode 59 - Discovering the Facets of the Heart and Their Healing Wisdom
Episode 68 - The Six Essential Questions for Inner Growth and Getting Unstuck
Welcome to Roots of the Rise with me, sarah Hope. Today we're talking about destination addiction, that potentially dangerous thought of if only potentially dangerous thought of. If only Dr Andrew Huberman said this the most dangerous thought in life is if only Nothing that follows those words comes true. Embrace reality, think, pick a course of action and execute. Adjust as needed.
Speaker 1:The amount of time and energy people waste wishing things and others were different instead of leaning into their agency is tragic. It's all about where to place your attention and efforts. It's practice that over time becomes a reflex. Focus and refocus on where you can build. End quote. I agree with all of that.
Speaker 1:We have to actively take part in our lives. Complaining about this, daydreaming about that, wishing things were different, that's not going to do much for you. You have to actually take steps to change your life. But there's another element we need to recognize, which is that only being focused on the future prevents us from fully experiencing the joy available to us in the present. How many times have you caught yourself saying I'll be happy when, or things will be better when? We often live under the illusion that something has to happen in order for us to be happy? We have the short and long-term goals, the next year, next month, next week, tomorrow and today goals. We evaluate every moment and make plans and think that there's some magic in doing so that will prevent us from being struck unawares by the fickleness that is existence. The truth is that there's only so much we can control. Goals are good. They're important. Desire is important.
Speaker 1:The problem arises when we fail to see how good we have it in the present. How many times have you heard someone say something to the effect of I can't believe. I thought I was fat when I was 20, or I thought I had it bad when I was 16, at home with my parents, being on my own is so much harder. Or, you know, adulting is hard. You don't know what the future will bring. Disaster could strike, your house could burn down, you could get laid off, you could get diagnosed with a difficult disease. You know, when we set our sights only on finding happiness in the future, we fail to recognize the grace and joy that can be found in the present. So what's the actual destination if it's not this? You know dream we have of how life will be better when so often you hear life is about the journey? Well, not if the journey is horrible, not if you feel like your journey is one full of suffering and pain.
Speaker 1:Life is about getting beyond suffering, which is really the destination, if you want to call it that, and this is important. It's important to get beyond suffering. I mean, goodness, how sad is it to think life is suffering and then you die? I've heard people say this. That's not much of a life. So if the goal is to get beyond suffering, if that's the destination, well, once you get there, what's next? Well, there we get to enjoy life, we get to know the perfection of who we are, we get to expand our understanding of ourselves and the universe.
Speaker 1:Life isn't about being on the journey if we're going around a hamster wheel of the same patterns and programs we've always experienced that bring us pain. It's about growing, not just for us as individuals, but also for all the lives we touch, for the ripple effects of these changes we create, but also for all the lives we touch for the ripple effects of these changes we create. So we need to be present to our current existence, so that we can notice all the beautiful moments along the way that make the journey palatable, as we quest to spend more and more time in the bliss of being. It's okay that you're not there all the time, that you have moments of numbing and tapping out and not being present. Being present 100% of the time is a big ask, okay. It doesn't mean, though, that you aren't advancing down the trail. It just means you haven't moved yet from presence being a state to it being a trait.
Speaker 1:This is one of the reasons why I love heart-based meditation. It trains us over time to feel the goodness of this moment without needing it to be any different. Heart centering takes that even further, which is the secondary practice of the heart-based meditation technique. It allows us to feel more deeply the perfection of every moment. You can also find this through other meditation practices or things like journaling, because there are other methodologies out there that can help you really appreciate how much beauty there is in everyday moments, in your regular, everyday, mundane life. I just happened to have found that heart based meditation and its other practices has been the most beneficial, the most effective and the fastest for me, especially combined with cultivating the facets of the heart, things like acceptance.
Speaker 1:So often lack of acceptance is what keeps us from wanting to be fully present. We think something shouldn't be happening. Life isn't supposed to be this way. But once we're able to accept the various events in our lives, even the difficult ones, we're no longer plagued by regret and grief. We're able to come into full enjoyment of the moment, because we trust that the present is perfect, that everything is unfolding perfectly. Clearly. This is a lot easier when the present moment involves like a night out with friends and pizza versus, you know, getting in trouble at work. But if we can cultivate a deep respect for the unknown perfection of our lives, life gets a whole lot easier. You know, we don't need to wait for that moment five years from now, when you realize that getting in trouble at work was actually a godsend, because it made you realize how much you hated the job and was the catalyst, the thing that you know kind of propelled you into switching careers. We don't need to spend days or even years regarding a past decision we made.
Speaker 1:Because we become so focused on the joy of the present, the past loses its hold on us and the troubles of our present, the things that are making us think, oh, I don't like my life right now, this is uncomfortable, this is hard, I don't want to be doing this right now, and we all have those moments. Well, if we're able to step back and stop thinking about getting out of it it and instead think about what we are getting out of it, things change. This is why it's so important to have a set of questions to ask yourself that help you shift your focus from how miserable you are, how awful things are, into well, what am I here to learn about this? What is this situation teaching me? How can I grow from this? But way too often, that's not where we go. That's not our default position. Instead, we're thinking about how do I stop being uncomfortable? Right, we get into this mindset of destination addiction, of things getting better when. So how do we get out of it? What do we do? The first is, like I said, to have a set of questions that help us shift from this. You know, everything's awful. I don't want to be here mindset to a growth mindset, and I'm going to link the episode in the show notes that goes over some of my favorite questions to ask myself when I get in that place.
Speaker 1:The second thing that we can do is cultivate gratitude, Because what happens when you know we're uncomfortable is that we just obsessively fixate on all the things we want to change in our life, all the things that are going wrong, and gratitude is one of the other tools that we can cultivate that helps us get out of that mindset. So I want to give you one of my favorite gratitude practices, which is using a touchstone. This is where you use a physical object as a tangible reminder to pause and be fully present with something good in your life. Maybe it's every time you put your wedding ring on. You remember how grateful you are for your partner and sit fully in the presence of that love. Every time you put the leash on your dog to go for a walk, you become fully present to all that it offers you. Maybe it's solitude, or time in nature or exercise. Maybe it's every time you grab the snack you made for your kid and hand it to them in the back seat right after you've picked them up from school, to be fully attentive to whatever they have to say about their day. Do this every single time. You do that action or touch that particular object and see what happens. But also, please remember to be gentle with yourself as you experiment with this.
Speaker 1:If you notice that you are drifting off into, if only thinking that's okay, just notice it, laugh at yourself, just acknowledge that you are human, that you are doing the best that you can. Presence is not about being perfect. It's about returning to yourself and accepting yourself exactly as you are. I know this is hard. I teach this stuff all the time and I still have moments where I know this is hard. I teach this stuff all the time and I still have moments where I slip into destination addiction, when I think if only I just have to get through this in order to get to that. We all do it. This is a natural part of you know, existence. Really, our challenge is just to a notice when, when it happens, b accept that it's happening, not judge ourselves for it, and C return to a place of gratitude, a place of trust that everything is in fact going to be okay. Remember, joy is not waiting for you out there somewhere. It's a skill we build right here, in this moment by cultivating all these things.
Speaker 1:And that is it for today. If you have any questions or something came up for you, please feel free to email me at rootsoftherise at gmailcom. If you found today's episode helpful or thought provoking, hit, follow or subscribe, share it with a friend, leave a review. I really appreciate your support. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and 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.
