How to Connect with Your Roots
I'm Dr Victoria Ranade, a clinical psychologist, and I want you to know there is something inside you that is incredibly beautiful, more breathtaking than any sunrise or sunset. No matter what darkness you're facing, there's always light to be found, and this space is here to remind you of that, to remind you that you're not alone.
Over the past year, I've been on a journey to reconnect with my roots.
Recently, I took a trip that changed me. I went to Taiwan for the first time in my adult life. It's where my parents were born, and I grew up hearing many stories about it, but never been there myself. Growing up as a first generation Taiwanese American, I felt like I was living in between cultures oftentimes, and this betweenness over time just became my identity. But being in Taiwan and connecting to my heritage, something clicked. Visiting my dad's hometown, Chiayi, I saw what he had to do to survive, and why he became who he was. And something softened in me as I was able to forgive and let go of the ways he had sometimes hurt me as a child growing up. Understanding his life helped me understand my own, and with it came this deeper connection to my own roots.
There was also something deeply moving about seeing him in a place where he truly belonged. I'd never experienced him like that before in America; he's always been seen as different. And as a kid, I absorbed that feeling of differentness, this quiet message that maybe I didn't fit in either. But in Taiwan, he was just able to be totally himself. No need to explain or translate or have people ask him to repeat himself. And in witnessing that, something in me shifted. All this quiet shame I'd been carrying since childhood, shame I didn't even know was there anymore, just suddenly lifted and was released. Seeing him belong someplace helped me see and feel like I belong too.
Another thing that surprised me in Taiwan was how much I resonated with the slower island pace of life. In America, I've often felt out of sync, like something was wrong with me for not wanting to be part of the constant hustle and grind, and yet, if I didn't keep up, I'd feel like I was falling behind. But in Taiwan, I realized maybe this isn't something I need to fight. Maybe it's part of my inheritance too. My ancestors didn't live in a hyper-productivity culture. They valued community, slowness, and rhythms.
And suddenly the way I've always felt made sense. Perhaps it wasn't resistance, it was remembrance. And being there helped me trust that rhythm again, to honor it, to know it's okay to want a life that moves more slowly and meaningfully.
So being in Taiwan and exploring my roots felt like tuning into a frequency I didn't know I'd lost. It was like a remembering of something true, like watering a part of my spirit that had been dry for years. It was grounding to remember where I come from and that I'm not alone, because within me are my ancestors.
Learning to listen to the deepest voice within you, the voice of your truest self, the one that's always been there quietly guiding you, is how you connect to your roots.
It's there in the background when you tune into it, when you make time and space to listen, whether through stillness, journaling, prayer or meditation, you begin to reconnect with your own inner knowing. It can be incredibly grounding.
In DBT therapy, it's called Wise Mind, the part of you that balances emotion and reason, the part of you that is wise and knows. And in many spiritual traditions, it goes by many names, including your inner guidance, your highest self, atman, God, the Holy Spirit, whatever you call it, the invitation is the same. Make space to listen to yourself, because the voice within you is sacred, and it remembers who you are, because within you is an intelligence that is divine.
The world may have made you forget, but it's still there waiting for you to remember, to learn to trust yourself and to hear your inner voice. Because just like an acorn knows to grow into an oak tree, something inside you knows what you need. It knows how to grow, how to stretch and how to become fully you. All you have to do is listen.
And one way to support that listening is through breathwork or meditation. Even just a few deep breaths, slowing down, placing your hand on your heart and reconnecting with yourself in the present moment can be powerful. Sometimes just breathing with intention is enough to come home to yourself. This can help you feel more connected and help you return to your center.
It's important to be intentional about roots, because roots don't just happen by accident. You have to put your energy toward them and make space for them to plant and tend to them.
So this week, I want you to try this simple practice.
Pause and write down three roots in your life that you have or that you'd like to develop. It could be people, beliefs, places, or practices that help you feel safe, steady and strong. Reflect on how they've shaped you and how you can gently nurture them this week. Above all, know that you're not alone in the storm, that you have roots and that you're rooted. May you feel rooted today, standing tall in the truth of who you are.