Back in 2020, Val joined me on my show when I interviewed her about her book,
400 Friends and No One to Call.
Now, she has a new book out with Bloomsbury Publishing January 8th called Healing Through Wonder: How Awe Restores Us After Trauma and Loss.
Dedicated to survivors of trauma and loss, Healing Through Wonder shows us how our sense of wonder can be a vital source of resilience, hope, and connection.
If I had the opportunity for an interview, I'd like to share inspirational moments of awe that changed the lives of people profiled in my book. I can also provide encouraging neuroscience research about how awe and wonder help us through trauma and grief. Finally, I offer my own story of a breathtaking moment with a blue heron when I was close to ending my life by suicide decades ago--and how my sense of wonder has given me the will to live ever since.
"Val Walker's profound journey through trauma and spiritual exploration is both heart-wrenching and inspiring. This book beautifully captures the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of connection and awe."--Shari Botwin, LCSW, Keynote speaker, Media Contributor and Author of Thriving After Trauma: Stories of Living and Healing, and Stolen Childhoods: Thriving After Abuse.
"Healing Through Wonder is a powerful work — urging readers to draw upon their own resilience, particularly a sense of wonder as they cope with loss. This book is a gift to anyone who is bereaved." — Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, Senior Vice-President for Grief Programs, The Hospice Foundation of America, Author, Disenfranchised Grief, Grief Is a Journey, When We Die
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Val's story of healing began in her darkest moment.
Homeless, running from a violent partner, and battling suicidal depression, she found herself sitting by a river holding a bottle of pills in one hand and a bottle of red wine to wash them down in the other. Out of the twilight sky a majestic blue heron circled and landed just a few feet away. Something in the heron's piercing eyes caused her to stop swallowing the pills. In that moment, she realized that there was just too much beauty and magic in the world to give up.
Thus began a decades-long quest to understand how wondrous encounters can spark healing from trauma and grief. This inspiring guide shares stories of profound, transformational experiences from four profiles alongside her own, and unpacks the neuroscience that explains how wonder helps our brains and bodies heal.
TALKING POINTS FOR HEALING THROUGH WONDER
Even brief moments of awe can reduce rumination and worry, calm and ground our bodies, and shift our focus to the present moment--and neuroscience shows us how this happens.Awe and wonder emotions have been mostly underappreciated and underexplored until very recently, so most of us underestimate the power of awe:
A moment of being awestruck by something amazing and meaningful gives us resilience and hope for the future.
Shared experiences of awe have a remarkable way of breaking us out of isolation and loneliness.
We feel less lonely when we share a story of an awe moment of something amazing that took our breath away (such as hearing a song that gave us chills, seeing a magnificent sunset or solar eclipse, spotting a cardinal landing near you, or waking up from a dream with a powerful message.
We can share our awe and wonder stories in person as well as through writing, videos, photos, and other media.Awe and wonder moments can be invited into our daily lives, not only in nature, but through music, groups of people at concerts, arts, and sports events, signs and synchronicities, epiphanies, immersive art, wondrous poetry, and much more.Keeping our minds open and curious is a gateway to awe and wonder experiences.
ABOUT
Val Walker received her MS in rehabilitation counseling from Virginia Commonwealth University and is a rehabilitation consultant, speaker and writer. She is a contributing blogger for Psychology Today and the Health Story Collaborative. Walker is the author of The Art of Comforting (Penguin/Random House, 2010) which won the Nautilus Book Award, and 400 Friends and No One to Call (Central Recovery Press, March 26, 2020.) She deeply believes we can break through the barriers that isolate us by building community, friendships, and a sense of belonging.
www.valwalkerauthor.com
www.valwalkerauthor.com
