Selah in the Unexpected

I’ve been wanting to write about “pause” for the longest time.

Not the kind of pause we throw around lightly in our modern-day language. I’m talking about a deeper, more sacred kind of pause, one we’re often too busy, too triggered, too overstimulated to truly witness.

As I sit here reflecting, I’m reminded of one of my daughters, how she would always stop her games. Not pause. She would abruptly shut the whole thing down and restart again and again. It wasn’t a thoughtful break or a moment to gather herself. It was reactive. A complete shutdown when something didn’t go right. And then there's the amber traffic light… signalling us to slow down, but how often do we speed up or slam the brakes without truly preparing for what's next?

That amber moment feels familiar. Like what happens inside the nervous system.

A sacred shift. From sympathetic (fight, flight, freeze)...
To parasympathetic (rest, digest, regulate).

This moment, the pause it tells the body:
"It’s safe now."

It restores heart rate. It supports digestion. It rebalances hormones. It brings you home.

A Biblical Pause: Selah

For many of us raised in the church, the word Selah isn’t unfamiliar. We’ve heard it in Psalms, in hymns, in quiet prayers.

But have we truly stopped to let the weight of it settle into our bones?

Selah wasn’t just a poetic insert. It was an invitation:

To stop.
To breathe.
To reflect.
To cease striving.
To trust.
To allow God space to move before we rush ahead.

We are meant to live this not just recite it.

At Soulroots, a lot of our visual storytelling has centred around nostalgic imagery cassette tapes, tape decks, pause buttons. They’ve become metaphors for something deeper I’ve come to know through somatic practices.

The Shift Within

Somatic work has changed me not in theory, but in how I live.

As someone with a history of complex trauma,

I’ve spent most of my life in reactivity. I used to interpret someone else’s stillness as avoidance or weakness. Now I realise, many just didn’t have the capacity. Neither did I.

These days, I’m noticing something different.

I'm pausing.
And in that awareness, I’m realising just how little I paused before.

The more I pause, the more I feel my nervous system gently uncoil… and my spirit align with something deeper something holy.

It’s no longer about obedience for the sake of rules. It’s about wellness emotional, physical, spiritual.

This morning it happened again.

I saw the trigger.
I observed it.
I paused.
And I chose.

Free will is only truly free when we’re not ruled by trauma.

That pause gave me back choice. It’s where my connection with Christ deepens not in striving, but in the quiet noticing.

What Pause Really Does

1. Creates Space to Process Emotion & Thought

• A pause brings awareness.

• It interrupts the cortisol/adrenaline flood.

• It activates the prefrontal cortex (our regulation + logic hub).

• It's where we observe, not absorb.

“When you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Selah.” Psalm 4:4

2. Resets Internal Rhythms

• Our bodies are rhythmic: heartbeats, breath, sleep cycles.

• Trauma throws this off balance.

• A pause brings us back to the tempo of safety.

“My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14

3. Builds Capacity & Resilience

• The more we pause, especially when it’s hard the more capacity we grow.

• Our nervous system learns: “I can stay here. I won’t be overwhelmed.”

• Over time, this becomes embodied resilience.

4. Allows God to Enter the Gap

• In the quiet, God ministers to our inner terrain.

• The discomfort of pause is often where healing lives.

• It’s where Spirit meets soma (body).

“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. ” Isaiah 30:15

Pause isn’t passive.

It’s a sacred interruption

A reorientation.
A softening.
A slowing down of what rushes us away from ourselves and from God.

It’s not just about resting.

It’s about regulating.
It’s about reflecting.
It’s about being restored.

So when you find yourself in an unexpected moment, a moment that feels awkward, uncertain, unfamiliar, see if there’s an invitation there. A Selah.

Because sometimes the healing is not in the doing.

It’s in the pause.

If this resonates and you're ready to explore what it means to truly pause, not from fear, but from safety, we invite you to work with us. Learn somatic tools, reconnect with your body, and embody His love in real, tangible ways.

Or, if you're curious to go deeper, take a moment to read “Healing Isn’t What You Think” .