I Thought I Was Over This

I've learned a lot in my over five decades of life as a fellow human and professional psychologist who holds other people's stories, often having trauma.  The experiences that went into creating this episode are the following: I've faced a life threatening experience where another human threatened my life, I've been an unexpected witness to harm done to another, I've been with people when they've died and I've professionally sat with high ranking military and police officers who have taught me the mental discipline it takes to transition from work to civilian life. 

This episode is especially created for first responders, military - present and former, professions who witness death as well as individuals who have been undone by also experiencing a person's death or injury, usually in some sudden incident. 

Take a listen to find the way back to feeling grounded and to help work the traumatic event through your nervous system so it doesn't "stick" and become a mental health concern like chronic anxiety, PTSD, addictions or OCD.

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.

Join 'A Moment of Pause' Newsletter: https://drkimber.activehosted.com/f/5

Fierce + Gentle Retreats - fiercegentleretreats.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

This episode was recorded a month before the latest round of mass shootings here in the United States.  I grieve for the families who lost children in Uvalde, TX and their whole community, and those who lost loved ones just weeks earlier in Buffalo and Laguna Nigel.  We live in a prosperous country with one of the highest rates of death by gun violence.  This painful reality affects even those who don't directly suffer.  Perhaps you felt it in your own bodies: when we hear stories of profound violence, we wonder if such a horror might happen to us, and we instinctively shift into fight or flight mode.  Our bodies aren't made to hold such worry.  It will wear us down and if it goes on long enough, cause physical manifestations of stress.  When we are in a place where anxiety and the "what ifs" are easily accessible, they can take over everything and before we know it our muscles are tight, our heart is racing and we are no longer in a grounded place.  Where we need to be is a place where we can manage our feelings, for our own sake, and so we can be helpful to others who need support, and be able to participate well in conversations about how to address our violent society.   Today's episode is practicing how to get out of an anxiety spiral and into the peace and calm you desire.  

If you haven't tried our Pause episodes before, welcome.  Different from the sleep season episodes where we get into stories and content, here we put into practice training our minds and connecting with our body, these episodes are identified by the white raven on the podcast cover art.

In this episode we:

1. Discuss What An Anxiety Spiral or Catastrophizing looks like 
2. Example of a worry trigger
3.  Quiet Your Mind
4. Invite your worry to show up
5. Practice noticing where anxiety and worry show up in your body
6. Return to Calm or Normal

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.

Join 'A Moment of Pause' Newsletter: https://drkimber.activehosted.com/f/5

Fierce + Gentle Retreats - fiercegentleretreats.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

When fear kicks in, every sense in your body turns up to high alert - ready to engage into fight or flight.   We can’t help being triggered by fear, but we can help our response to that fear.  This episode takes you through a routine Dr. Kimber uses as a trauma survivor when fear strikes at inopportune time, like out of a deep sleep.

Listen in as Dr. Kimber shares her experiences, science-backed studies, and her tips on how you can get out of the anxiety spiral or trauma reactions. 

This episode will help you - 

1. Identify your thoughts that are fear based.
2. Understand the power (and not in a good way) of visualize the bad happening
3. Identify helpful ways to frame your thoughts in situations you know you’re prone to anxiety and fear
4. How to identify confirmation bias so you can rest better.
5. Regulate quicker after anxiety or trauma reaction.

Though this episode tries to have very trauma language sensitive, Dr. Kimber gives an example of her own life that may be triggering if you've had a similar situation.  Be aware of what is happening in your body as you listen to this episode in order to be in a learning posture rather than a retriggered episode.  

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.

Join 'A Moment of Pause' Newsletter: https://drkimber.activehosted.com/f/5

Fierce + Gentle Retreats - fiercegentleretreats.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

Welcome to a 'Pause' Episode, different from the sleep season episodes where we get into stories and content, here we put into practice training our minds and connecting with our body.  Each episode offers you something different and is identified by the white raven on the podcast cover art.

In this episode we:

1. Ground Your Body
2. Quiet Your Mind
3. Count Backwards as Needed

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.

Join 'A Moment of Pause' Newsletter: https://drkimber.activehosted.com/f/5

Fierce + Gentle Retreats - fiercegentleretreats.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

Most of us have moments of waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to fall back asleep.  If this happens repeatedly night after night it will take a toll on our mental and physical health. 

In this episode, I will address several scenarios that can wake us up in the middle of the night.  Here, I’ll discuss what happens with your body when you wake up, and how you can approach your sleep according to the why you wake up. 

Tune in and listen to how you can navigate middle of the night insomnia. 

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.

Join 'A Moment of Pause' Newsletter: https://drkimber.activehosted.com/f/5

Fierce + Gentle Retreats - fiercegentleretreats.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

Welcome to a 'Pause' Episode, different from the sleep season episodes where we get into stories and content, here we put into practice training our minds and connecting with our body.  Each episode offers you something different and is identified by the white raven on the podcast cover art.

In this episode We:

1. Ground Ourselves
2. Notice where we feel, in our body, the support of others
3. Notice where Shame is in our body
4. Identify what we need to shift shame from connection with others
5. Learn Butterfly Hug - Trauma technique for shifting mood states

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.

Join 'A Moment of Pause' Newsletter: https://drkimber.activehosted.com/f/5

Fierce + Gentle Retreats - fiercegentleretreats.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

Today we are sitting down with my daughter, Eden and her roommate, Paige to dive into the dynamics of living with a roommate, specifically how you can protect your sleep quality while sharing a living space. Eden and Paige are freshmen in college, and they had the opportunity to choose each other as roommates. The process involved filling out a questionnaire, many of the questions were related to sleep habits. 

In the episode today, Paige and Eden talk about how they have worked together to get the necessary rest for their busy college lives. They share their shared bedtime routines and how their sleep habits have evolved as they settle into college. 

In This Episode

2:48 - Navigating your sleep routines with your roommate

4:29 - Creating a wind-down routine with your roommate 

6:33 - Avoiding the dreaded all-nighter 

9:05 - What do incoming freshmen need to know to get enough rest in the first year of college 

12:14 - Kicking procrastination and developing better study habits 

15:40 - What to do when roommates don’t fall asleep at the same 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.

Join 'A Moment of Pause' Newsletter: https://drkimber.activehosted.com/f/5

Fierce + Gentle Retreats - fiercegentleretreats.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

Today I'm joined by my husband, Dennis Del Valle, leadership and executive coach and licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.  We are talking about sleeping with your partner today.  Getting good sleep when you aren't the only one in the room can definitely be a challenge, especially if a partner snores or struggles with restlessness.  

This episode will give you words for your experience if you struggle!  We dive into shame, feeling done to by the other, how to navigate sleep needs with a strategy where it's a problem to be solved not a personal defect.  We even take on a common misuse of a biblical passage for those of you who may carry this burden in your marriage.

Join us!  Dennis shares his journey of being a snorer as well as a body with sleep apnea.   He dives into what he did to help himself - starting with a sleep study and how aging required him to enter back into the process of getting help.  I thought I was over this - is everywhere in this episode as we discuss a need to be flexible and open to new problems as they arise and how to address them with connection and most importantly, SLEEP!

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.

Join 'A Moment of Pause' Newsletter: https://drkimber.activehosted.com/f/5

Fierce + Gentle Retreats - fiercegentleretreats.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

Welcome to a 'Pause' Episode, different from the sleep season episodes where we get into stories and content, here we put into practice training our minds and connecting with our body.  Each episode offers you something different and is identified by the white raven on the podcast cover art.

In this episode we:

1. Lie Down
2. Get Our Eye Masks or Stuffed Animals
3. Transition our Mind using a Breathe In and Out Mantra
4. Count Backwards
5. Nod off to sleep 

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.

Join 'A Moment of Pause' Newsletter: https://drkimber.activehosted.com/f/5

Fierce + Gentle Retreats - fiercegentleretreats.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

We are talking about sleep routines today.  Getting to sleep is helping your body transition from a state of dysregulation to rest.  By engaging with structure and routines, we help any left over dysregulation from trauma or stress, including devastating loss, get worked through out body.

This episode will present a series of suggestions to help your nervous system make that transition into sleep. Each body and every nervous system is different, so some of these tactics will work better than others for you. 

You are a sacred human being and you deserve a gentle transition during the evenings. So what does your nervous system need? And when can you set aside time to work on one of the strategies from this episode? 

Join me as we look into building awareness and meeting your nervous system where it's at so you can help it get to bed and sleep.  We start with dinner...

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.

Join 'A Moment of Pause' Newsletter: https://drkimber.activehosted.com/f/5

Fierce + Gentle Retreats - fiercegentleretreats.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