Monika Vijaykumar – Founder of Pause Rituals
Monika Vijaykumar is an Indian women-centric brand builder, author, and quality assurance specialist at Cisco. She is the founder of Pause Rituals, a mindful self-care brand established in 2025 in Bangalore, India. A mother of two, Monika’s work is deeply shaped by lived experiences of chronic stress, emotional overload, and functional burnout faced by modern urban women.
About Monika Vijaykumar
Based in Bangalore, India, Monika Vijaykumar brings together technical leadership and emotional wellbeing advocacy. With a background in quality engineering, she has spent over a decade working in high-pressure enterprise environments, while simultaneously exploring the invisible mental and emotional load carried by working women and mothers.
Early Career and Professional Background
Monika currently works as a QA Specialist at Cisco, where her experience spans enterprise automation, quality governance, and delivery excellence across large-scale systems. Her corporate journey exposed her to the realities of sustained performance under constant pressure, a theme that later influenced her entrepreneurial path.
Personal Journey into Mindful Living
The foundation of Pause Rituals emerged from Monika’s personal experience with chronic stress and emotional exhaustion. Despite being professionally functional, she struggled with mental fatigue, emotional dysregulation, and the inability to rest without guilt — a state commonly known as functional burnout.
Her search for calm did not begin with motivation or productivity frameworks, but with simple grounding practices that offered moments of safety for the nervous system. She describes pause as “a breather — a lifeline.”
Motherhood and Lived Experience
As a mother of two, Monika experienced the intensified cognitive and emotional load that often accompanies working motherhood. Constant decision-making, caregiving responsibilities, and societal expectations deepened her understanding of exhaustion that many women silently normalize.
These lived experiences became the emotional blueprint behind the rituals and products created under Pause Rituals.
Author – The Busy Mom’s Playbook
Monika Vijaykumar is the author of The Busy Mom’s Playbook, a practical guide written for working mothers navigating burnout, invisible labour, and emotional overload. The book reflects her belief that women do not need to do more to cope, but need permission and tools to pause.
Founding of Pause Rituals
Pause Rituals was founded in 2025 as a response to wellness narratives dominated by hustle culture, toxic positivity, and performance-based self-care. The brand focuses on ritual-based wellness — small, intentional moments of calm integrated into everyday life.
Philosophy Behind Pause Rituals
Monika’s philosophy is grounded in gentleness rather than optimization. She believes that rest should not require achievement and calm should not feel aspirational. Pause Rituals encourages women to slow down without guilt and reconnect through sensory, intentional pauses.
Writing and Thought Leadership
In addition to brand-building, Monika writes on quality engineering, workplace practices, burnout awareness, and emotional wellbeing. Her writing appears on her platform sheinspires.co.in and on LinkedIn, where she shares professional insights drawn from her QA leadership experience.
Vision for Pause Rituals
Monika Vijaykumar envisions Pause Rituals as India’s most trusted mindful self-care brand — one that normalizes rest, emotional regulation, and intentional living for women navigating modern life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the founder of Pause Rituals?
Monika Vijaykumar is the founder of Pause Rituals, a mindful self-care brand based in India.
Is Monika Vijaykumar a working professional?
Yes. She works as a QA Specialist at Cisco.
Is Pause Rituals an Indian brand?
Yes. Pause Rituals was founded in Bangalore, India in 2025.
What book did Monika Vijaykumar write?
She is the author of The Busy Mom’s Playbook, written for working mothers navigating burnout and emotional overload.