Pause: Ground Yourself: Dr. Kimber’s Guide to Somatic Awe Walking [Pause 67]

Welcome to another calming episode of I Thought I Was Over This with Dr. Kimber Del Valle. In today's "Pause" segment, you're invited to gift yourself a few mindful moments through a somatic practice known as "awe walking". Dr. Kimber, a clinical psychologist and somatic experiencing practitioner, guides listeners on how to regulate their nervous system and reconnect with a sense of ease, even in the midst of life's challenges. 

Drawing from her childhood adventures in nature and decades of professional experience, she offers gentle prompts to help you get grounded, shift your focus, and rediscover wonder in your everyday surroundings. 

Let's get your shoes on and go outside to enjoy this guided practice. Consider it your invitation to notice the details, soften into your day, whatever is happening, and return to presence. 

So grab your headphones, step outside, and let Dr. Kimber walk you through the practice of finding awe, calm, and compassion—one step at a time.

Check out past episodes and more information here: https://www.drkimber.net/podcast-info

Please remember that this podcast is not a replacement for treatment by a healthcare or mental health professional. This content is created for education and entertainment purposes only.

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Music licensed from http://www.purple-planet.com

Connect with Dr. Kimber:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr_kimber/
About My Work: https://www.drkimber.net

Fierce Gentle Community: https://www.drkimber.net/fierce-gentle

Book: Still: Making A Whole When Parts Go Missing

Transcript

0:00

Foreign welcome to an episode of Pause where you are gifting yourself with a somatic practice. Here is where I help you regulate your nervous system, get grounded, reconnect with what has been disconnected, and I hope help you find ease to really navigate whatever stress and difficulty is in your life. I'm Dr. Kimber Del Vallier, a clinical psychologist, somatic experiencing practitioner, and I desire nothing more to help you reduce your feeling of agitation, anxiety. Because we can't often change things, situations, but we can 100% change how we're showing up. It's not easy, takes a lot of practice, and that's why I am here with you. I'm helping you do the hard practice. And today we're gonna do some awe walking. As I'm talking to you, if you don't have your shoes on, if you're not already listening to this on a walk, I want to invite you to do that. And the thing about awe that I know. Long before we had research that supports the concept of awe, I grew up in the country. And one of the ways that I reset on a daily basis was to go explore my surroundings. Some of my favorite things to do in the country was to find the ant hills. We had these massive anthills, or massive to me anyway. There's probably places around the world that they are even bigger than the ant hills that I grew up with. But I could stand there making sure that the ants weren't crawling on my feet. I could stand there for a long, long time just watching them moving sticks around, moving eggs. I could see their eggs sometimes. And I admit the first couple times I would disturb a nest, if I can call it that, to feed my own curiosity, because I wanted to know what is in the world of ants. And it was fascinating to me. And that's an example of giving into awe. Whatever was going on in the busy house in which I was growing up, I could go and explore. And that's the invitation right now that as we go out on this walk together, I want to encourage you in this moment to grab your sunglasses if it's sunny. But I also take awe walks at night, most of the time not in my hometown in the LA county area, because there's the light pollution, is real, is big. So sometimes I go out and admire the moon phase, whatever it is, I can sometimes find the Big Dipper. But believe me, when I am out in dark night areas, as I just was in Montana and Washington and another place, Sedona, I love frequenting, I will go out and just be in Awe of the universe. When the Milky Way is so clear, it's incredible. So you can do walks at night? Absolutely right. All walks are all about getting in touch with something greater than yourself. Getting in touch with the forces of nature, getting in touch with. We live in just a mind blowing universe. When we think of it in cells, when we think of it even in stars, the number of stars in the sky are unimaginable. Then you think of the dirt, the number of grains of sand, grains of dirt, if we call them that. Right. Like just there's so much in nature and so allow nature to pull you out of your current situation for a moment. So as you walk, I invite you to notice your feet on the ground, your big toe pushing off all the way to the heel. And the invitation is that you don't critique how you're walking. If you know there's a certain way you're supposed to walk, just enjoy. Enjoy in this moment that you're upright. If you find that your legs are not moving, then enjoy that feeling of gravity, right? If you find yourself using a walker or a wheelchair, enjoy in this moment that the way that whatever sensation you have can feel that gravity is bringing you to a place where you don't have to effort. You don't have to effort. You're being supported. So notice right now the invitation is what's making solid contact with that beneath you. And I want you to play with your pace because when we're really wound up, there is a temptation to walk really fast. And you know, no judgment, but if you find yourself in that place, walk fast and then see if you can slow down. As you slow down, whatever that pace, just see what can you notice if you look around, what are the trees? If you know the trees, can name them. Notice the difference in texture in leaves. Over at the fierce, gentle community that I run, one of the members was noticing the different textures of bark as she was walking in different places and in different countries. If there's bark available to you, notice that in this moment. And if you can hear in the background, my cat Princess has joined us and is meowing just to give a flavor here of animal. She's representing the animals. So I want to invite you to notice the different greens around you. Notice the different greens. Taking the tongue off the roof of your mouth can soften our jaw by taking your tongue and putting it gently behind your back teeth, the top of your back teeth, or making it heavy, also making a slight gap between your top teeth and your bottom teeth, just allowing the softness to enter your face by softening your eyebrows, softening your cheeks even as you're moving, even as you're moving and as your eyes are taking in what's around you, I invite you even there to soften. Right. And again, if you are outside, I really encourage you to have sunglasses on. It can be very helpful for long term protection with your eyes. But again, you know, I, when I don't have a good pair, it does alter how things look. And so maybe you want to lift them up every now and then to get the true color, do that right. But also wear them. And I know there can be some controversy around that. And do right you do you. This is just an invitation. As someone who has glaucoma in her family, I like, I take precautions as I can and notice now what is the farthest thing away that your eyes are taking in? Notice that farthest thing away. And now what's one of the closest things to you that isn't you, that's not you. What do you notice even if it appears at first glance that you're in a very boring place? Maybe there's only dirt around you. What happens if you crouch down and look at the dirt, the pieces, Is there variation? Is there, are there rocks, are there smaller creatures that you could see that if you are walking very fast, you can't. If you see a flower, what happens if you literally go up and smell it? Or just notice the variation of the petals? If you won't harm it, what happens if you touch it? What do you notice about the texture? And then taking a moment as you are in this place, what sound do you hear the farthest away? Maybe there's multiple. And now what is the closest sound, especially if you're walking, could be your breath. But if you're also walking, see if you can hear your feet. Again, without evaluation, what sounds do you hear closest to you? And as you're walking, what are you drawn to? Are there colors that you're noticing? Birds? Where I am, I see lots of lizards and I like to note the differences. And I love when I see one without a tail. Like yay for survival. Good for you. Likely a bird came and tried to have you for lunch or dinner or snack and you got away. What is your eye drawn to? Where does your mind go? Are you able to stick in this present moment as you're walking? And there's been times in my life I've been walking along the beach and the waves, they're so. I love the rhythm of the waves. It's A very familiar sound to me, being in Southern California near the beach. But there are also times I notice it can sound so loud because maybe of whatever I'm going through or distracted by or. So there can even be these things that start annoying us in nature. And the task in this moment is notice what else is present. If you have something, if the sun is so hot right now, what else can you notice that's also true at the same time? Because that is life. We have so many mixed up things mixed up in terms of it's complicated, it's not all good or bad. There's things that we have to tolerate and hold and build capacity for that we wish that we didn't have to, right? And so that goal there, the idea is, how can you notice what else is true so that you can focus on that? Because our minds, our minds are made. Your mind is made to notice what, what is uncomfortable, what doesn't feel good. So ask it to notice what else is true. And that's how I use awoks. Whatever is going on, whatever I'm noodling on, whatever I'm stewing about, it helps me in this moment notice what else is happening. And eventually that helps me then get to a place where I'm regulated, as Dr. Dan Siegel talks about, wherein I can get to my window of tolerance. And from that place I can return to whatever it is that I need to think about more creatively, maybe more empathically. You know, when we take a walk after an argument, if we take a walk after an argument and we're thinking about all the ways that we're right and all the ways that we're misunderstood, that does nothing that doesn't help your system. You've just taken your conversation with someone else and now you've become a solo conversationalist in your mind. It doesn't help regulate your nervous system. Instead, we have to get present, we have to notice the world around us, and we use nature in that way. Notice that. And then that will help you as you get regulated, then you can turn back after you're regulated. And the Gottman's research from their Love Lab in Seattle says that when we're flooded, when we're dysregulated, for a woman's body, it can take 20 minutes minimum to come back into regulation. And for a male body, it can take 40 minutes, 40 minutes, 40 minimum to come back down. And I found that true. When I was working at ucla, we did an anger management class, my co worker and I, and that was very common. That was actually to find that it takes longer than you think to come back down was so validating and relieving. So I want to leave that for you to think about. Right. It can take your system a lot longer than you think to come back into regulation. And I want to leave you here, hopefully walking. And if you have headphones in, taking them out and noticing the world around you offline. I want you to remember that you are a sacred being and that you matter. And if you want to follow along, I have events that are happening, I have communities. Please check me out@drkimber.net Dr. K I M B E R.net or until next time, deep breaths, Take the tongue off the roof of your mouth, soften your eyes and soften your jaw. Take care. Sam.