About this episode

Fr. Roderick reflects on the pressures of life and the importance of self-care through personal experiences.

Last week I found myself doing something I haven’t done in a long time. Instead of working on the mountain of deadlines waiting for me, I disappeared into video games for three days straight. On paper, that made no sense at all. I had twenty-two podcast episodes still to produce, unanswered emails, financial administration, requests for future talks, parish work, and a head full of open loops. The more pressure I felt, the more impossible it became to sit down and actually start. So instead of writing scripts, I escaped into the deserts of Arrakis and the forests of Viking survival games. At first I felt guilty about it. But slowly I started to realize something important: maybe this wasn’t laziness at all. Maybe it was my system trying to recover. In this episode, I reflect on something I’m only now beginning to understand about myself. The moment life becomes too externally driven, too full of expectations and obligations, I freeze. Not because I don’t care. Quite the opposite. The pressure becomes so loud that my brain starts looking for predictable worlds where nothing is demanded of me anymore. What surprised me most is that the solution did not come from forcing myself back…

People in this episode

Host: Fr. Roderick Vonhögen

Topics covered

• mental health
• pressure
• video games
• self-care
• reflection

Keywords

• pressure
• video games
• self-care
• mental space
• reflection

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Arrakis, Viking

More episodes of The Walk

• The Walk - Momentum Before Motivation · June 3, 2026 · 1h 2m
• The Walk - What Happens When You Challenge Your Own Beliefs? · May 28, 2026 · 1h 2m
• The Walk - Imagination Is Not Escapism · May 15, 2026 · 1h 5m

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