Waterfall Lessons: Pausing Brings Personal Growth

Lessons of the Waterfall

Waterfalls make powerful teachers. When you visit them with an open heart, there is much to be learned. Last week, this waterfall told me something that keeps ringing through my mind:

In order to grow, you must remember to pause, allow, rest, reconnect, and listen.

Waterfall also said – you do not always have to be performing a task. In fact, the moments where you are engaged directly with what is in front of (and inside of) you are the ones where you experience your own transcendental moments.

This message is timely and poignant, and so, I share it here with you.

Finding Pause (and giving yourself permission to take it)

We live in a fast paced world. We are parents, teachers, students, teammates, caretakers, ceremonialists, and people that other people rely on. We are people with phones that connect to text messages and the internet, zone of information and empowerment but also – home of time sucking. Some of us are people who are goal oriented and feel happiest when ‘busy’.

In that space of movement, where we are answering texts, planning the next lesson, dealing with so and so’s problem – we achieve so much. But when and where are we listening to ourselves? When are we connecting meaningfully with our families (if we have them) and/or the Earth? When are we making our own selves, our positive relationships, our wellbeing the focus?

Yes, ensuring people are fed and clothed is wellbeing focused. Yes, making sure the bills get paid and creating jobs for other people is as well. There is love in these tasks and personal fulfillment. They are still very ‘task’ oriented.

What happens when we give ourselves permission to slow down with task achievement for an afternoon?

The answer: major life revelations, deep rest, rejuvenation, and empowerment.

The power in pause

Give yourself space to not push toward a task is an incredibly powerful thing to be able to do. When a person says things like this, sometimes the ‘shut it down’ part of people can say, “I have too much responsibility to do x, y, z”, or as my old MA supervisor said to me when I told him to get outside, turn off the news for a few days and enjoy his property,

“People who spend too much time in introspection lose their touch with reality and become a burden.”

The tone was more harsh than I am willing to put on my own website – but I mention it because we have met that thought in self or others. In fact, we have been programmed to have it. In a highly capitalist, information oriented world where being ‘plugged in’ is a sign of power, authority, value, and participation: the idea of taking a few moments to not do that seems foreign. This is a limiting mindset that stops people from experiencing emotional development and spiritual growth. They ‘busy themselves’ through some of the best moments they may have in their lives. They judge others for having them. We see what happened to our society from letting that perspective rule for too long. Thankfully, you are here at a website like this to help move beyond it.

(For the record, I have never seen someone take regular spaces to take care of their wellness go off the deep end.)

Pausing from fulfilling the expectations of self to others and others on us gives us a moment where we can have different parts of the human experience

What happens when we put down the phone or stop scheduling meetings – what happens when we say, this afternoon, we are going to walk through the cherry blossoms or just take a personal day? Putting on music, taking that long walk, or reading a book about something that interests you (that is not directly work related or that you are not reading to ‘share with others’, just purely for you) helps put you in a more receptive state. It takes you from ‘give, share, externalize’ into ‘rest, receive, feel inspired’.

One of the reasons people avoid pause moments is that in them, we also may come to deep emotion or discomfort about something being busy had repressed. When we slow down, especially during high impact solar cycle peak moments or during potential soul growth moments, we sometimes come into some bands of things we had not realized or not yet understood or dealt with. Though the initial response can be to want to stuff that down thinking that solves something, the truth is, the more one does it, the worse we feel. The people who resist the idea of taking pause tend to be the ones that need it the most.

What I can tell you is that time and again, over the thousands of personal healing moments I have had and however many more I have walked my community through: the reward of being real with yourself is usually a HUGE boost in conscious awareness and connectedness. You may have bliss. You may even shift your life path.

Easy Ways to bring pausing in

The most important advice is to let go of the idea that this is not possible. Pausing can be invited in slowly and surely in 10 minute intervals.

1. Go to a park and while there, do not scroll, text, or email. Sit on a bench or walk around and enjoy the environment.

2. Wake up before everyone else in your household and make ‘you time’. Meditate, play music, write, dream, be inspired.

3. Plan an outing ‘just for you’. Do something that nurtures you and makes you feel loved and excited. Go do it and while doing it, do not get distracted with unnecessary noise. (I have one of these planned to go visit the cherry blossoms in my region and I cannot tell you how excited I am for that.)

4. While I highly advocate taking these moments alone, they are also powerful to bring into your family and friend group. Going to waterfalls, parks, to enjoy the community, and to do things that are not directly task oriented like going to a sport or running an errand creates space for a different tone of interactions. For me, nature immersion is always number one. (This is why I teach it.) Not being on a clock, and most especially, getting outside in nature, changes the way that we perceive the moment. It also puts our body into ionic restoration state. We see the eagle flying over, feel the snow, get to laugh as we run through a trail. In so doing, we are building stronger relationships with nature, our loved ones, and ourselves. This is ‘pause’ to ‘be in the moment’.

• Come back for content about planning a nature based activity + suggestions. This is a theme for the upcoming season.

5. If you are able, give yourself a few days where you get to ‘unplug’ from everyday responsibilities. *Avoid the urge to super plan those days.* If you have a cabin or vacation home (or one you can rent/borrow), plan to do it. If not, staycations are rewarding. They encourage you to get to know different parts of your area which can wind off in making you feel more accepted, nestled in, and grounded.

6. REST AT HOME. There are plenty of people who are on the go constantly. If you are these people, this is your permission: have a day where you watch films, have a kitchen party, sleep longer, and or do nothing.

It is not always about taking the big 3 day span – but sometimes it is. Practice listening to yourself about what types of pauses you need and vary your approach. This is where you get to be creative and uniquely yourself.

What are the benefits?

The point of pausing is to allow yourself to receive the lessons, healing, inspiration that comes when you stop ‘focusing on others’ or ‘driving toward that task’. In doing this you are:

• Caring for your soul and body (which aspects you achieve depends on your strategy)

• You feel more rejuvenated for your everyday tasks

• You have gotten the chance to catch up with friends or family

• Allowing yourself to create (and have) nurturing life experiences that remind you of what is good in the world

• Creating happy family memories & encouraging wellness in your loved ones

• Learning something about yourself

• Deep spiritual healing (in particular if you had been initiating it in your practice. Taking time to slow down is part of letting it all sink in and ‘click’)

RESTING IS PART OF THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE and it does not make us lazy. Being alone as well as with with family, friends, and nature is HEALTHY AND POSITIVE.

Wherever you are, honor yourself. Honor the journey. Remember to have fun with it.

You are worth it. Plan Pauses into your schedule for this season

A loving reminder that when you do this, it is highly possible for good things to happen. I will be talking all about how to work with nature to create powerful moments for pause and reconnection all season. Come back here for inspiration on where to go and what to do to enhance the experience. (You may even like to sign up for one of my online courses that go in depth about it.)

If what you felt in this story resonates—if you’ve been sensing that your body, your soul, and the Earth itself are asking for a slower, deeper way of being—know that this kind of connection can be cultivated.

The practices I teach are rooted in exactly what this waterfall offered: pause, presence, and reconnection through the living world. Over the years, I’ve shaped that work into a guided pathway called Plug Into the Planet, where I share how to work with Earth as a source of grounding, restoration, and spiritual integration.

Join me when you’re ready: https://indicrowacademy.learnworlds.com/course/spiritual-grounding

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READ visiting places of cultural significance: https://crow-medicine.com/2025/04/06/stories-of-our-people-healing-through-land-connection/

About Katie: https://crow-medicine.com/learning-at-indicrow-academy/

I just received a new recording set up & am updating my videos in course content to improve quality. I will tell you more about them next week when they are ready. I teach people how to plug into nature and learn how to receive messages like the one I relay here. Keep abreast of the newsletter from the email list to know when it is released!

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