• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Bella Portaro Kueber Logo

Bella of Louisville

Live | Love | Louisville

  • Home
  • About
  • Life
    • Create
    • Dwell
    • Wander
  • Love
    • Celebrate
    • Evolve
    • Grow
  • Louisville
    • Culture
    • Humans
    • Food
  • Blog
  • Contact

Mind Over Matter – Choose Inner Peace

Life | 09.20.17

Meditation can help reduce stress, chronic pain as well as chronic disease states.

Is it kittens and sunshine once you start practicing? Nope. Your disease is still complicated as much as life always is but you’re not going to give up on breathing now are you? No you’re not because you know how valuable every breath is because you’re the one battling disease(s) that make it a wonderful gift.

Where to begin to shine some light within?

Start with mindfulness using John Kabat Zinn Mindfulness CD or MP3 available on Amazon or with a smartphone apps.

How to begin:

Begin with mindfulness meditation once per day for 5-15 minutes and then build up to 15 min twice per day as you feel ready. You can also try hemisync music for a deeper meditation as well as yoga breathing to calm the system down.

Yoga Breathing: Practice breath work to calm the body down.

Water Breath / Balanced Breathing: 4-6 breathes per minute.

When you breathe 4-6 breaths per minute, it has an adaptogenic effect on your nervous system. If you’re up, it will bring you down; if you’re down, it will bring you up. You can practice Water Breath standing, seated, lying down, and even while driving. Like drinking a glass of water, it’s always safe, always appropriate, and always healthful.

When to use:
Practice any time, day or night.
Use before high-stress meetings or presentations.
Use if you’re feeling sluggish midday.
Use during all yoga practices and low-intensity exercise.

How to Practice:
Inhale through your nose 1-2-3-4. Exhale through your nose 4-3-2-1. Repeat for at least 10.

Whiskey Breath / Down-Regulating Breath: < 4 breathes per minute
When you reduce your breath below 4 breathes per minutes, it triggers a strong parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system response, reduces your heart rate, reduces activity in skeletal muscles, and improves digestion.

This type of breathing is great after meals, in the evening, and most-commonly, right before bed. This practice should be done seated or lying down, and never while driving or doing anything standing or active. It’s extremely common for students to fall asleep while using Whiskey Breath, so it should be used with care, only when appropriate.

When to use: 
Can be used (with care) to reduce intense stress or anxiety.
After eating, this breathing pattern can aid in digestion.

How to Practice:
Sit down or lie down in bed

Inhale through your nose 1-2-3-4 Hold: 1-2-3-4
Exhale through your nose 4-3-2-1 Hold: 4-3-2-1

Repeat for at least 10 rounds; approx 10 min.

Practice only while seated or lying down; never while driving.

Smart phone apps to begin a meditative practice:

Headspace – Free for the first 10 days. – Life on the go? Turn spare moments of time into meditation to lead to a better day.

Insight Meditation Timer- Free – Great all-around app to use for guided meditations of many different types and lengths or just to use as a tool to time and track your meditation practice.

Calm – Free – Start your journey to a calmer mind with our meditation programs. Learn the basics with 7 Days of Calm or start your mornings with the Daily Calm.

Walking Meditations – $1.99 – Get your walk AND meditation done together. A good way to start out for individuals who feel they “just can’t sit still” to begin a meditative practice.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

I’m a 30-something Louisville dweller and aficionado. As you browse around please note that you’re in the sanctuary of the space I call home where my writing is about life, love, and the city of Louisville. I’m honored to have you here. Thank you for visiting my space.

READ MORE

Let’s Connect

Reader Favorites

  • Calm is a super power! 
  • Life isn’t perfect, but your hair can be.
  • Trendy Topics for Social Media

Footer

✨ 𝓉𝑜𝓅 𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑒 ✨ Compared to ✨ 𝓉𝑜𝓅 𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑒 ✨ Compared to other years, 40 posts in 2020 is scarcity at its finest when compared to other years of me posting almost every day. The time away has allowed me to get through one of the darkest years, so many of us have faced. While I’ve historically turned to my keyboard as a release of hardships, I’ve been unusually reclusive as I’ve focused on a silent health challenge, family, friends, work, and school as a guiding light. ✨ 2020 was a year I never really wanted, but I learned much about myself and tapped on inner strength to push through. ✨ Therefore I must be grateful for the lessons I’ve learned. 🙏 2021, please be kind. The world and I need it. #thankunext #surviveandthrive #ciao2020 #topnine
✨ 𝓂𝓎 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓁𝒹 ✨ “I can't h ✨ 𝓂𝓎 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓁𝒹 ✨ “I can't hide. How I feel about you inside. I'd give everything up. If I could just have you, be mine. Be mine, baby.” 🎶 𝓂𝑔𝓀 💛 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 62 𝒹𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝓉𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒻𝒾𝒻𝓉𝒽 𝒶𝓃𝓃𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓈𝒶𝓇𝓎 🥰 #foreveryours #mcmeveryday #herecomethekuebers #lovewins
🔥 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝑒𝓃𝑔𝓉𝒽 𝒾𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓌𝑒 𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝒶𝒹𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝓌𝑒 𝓈𝓊𝓇𝓋𝒾𝓋𝑒. 🔥 #fanyourownflame #putyourheaddownandwork #mentalfitness #bethelight
• 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹𝓈 • Today I choose to show up as the best “me” I can be, much like how the ocean shows us how to be. ☀️ The empowered me that battles my autoimmune diseases with radical approaches to heal all within me. 💪 The confident me. The me that handles both anything and everything the world tosses at me. 🌎 The me that faces the world with eyes of possibility, creativity, and solution. 🤩 The me with a heart full of hope and a head full of beautiful dreams. 🥰 The me that floods others with kindness and love. 🌊 The me that knows my strength is my best asset because it paves the way for all of my dreams, much like a powerful currant like the waters can be. 💛 The me that knows it will be okay. Because this life is much like water, it never stays the same as it ebbs and flows. It’s a mystical cycle that reminds us how small we are compared to the big picture of this journey called life. 🤗 How refreshing is that ocean breeze. • 𝓈𝒽𝒶𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇𝑒𝒹 • #writersofinstagram #wanderer #transformationtuesday #bellaoflouisville ✨
{ 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝒾𝓇𝓉𝒽𝒹𝒶𝓎 𝒸𝒽𝑒𝒸𝓀-𝒾𝓃 } It’s my birthday week, and while there is so much happening in our world that impacts each of us in a multitude of ways, there is still so much I’m grateful for. • I have a loving husband, kids, mom, extended family, and my fur babies. • I’m in remission with my autoimmune diseases. While I still have bad days, the good ones overshadow them. • I’m growing my career with education to continue chasing my dreams. • I have a loving roof over my head, cozy clothes on my back, and inner peace about things I cannot control. • It might not sound like much, but for me, life has given me more than I’ve ever prayed for. • I’ve “socially distanced” myself IRL and digitally with COVID to focus on family and my faith. I’m re-emerging into the world with a renewed sense of contentment and optimism. I’m ready to shed the 37-year-old shell to joyfully leap into 38 with all the hope I can muster. ✨ Cheers to this wild journey we call life! 🥃 #anotheryearwiser #cheers #celebrateeveryday
✨ 𝓁𝒾𝒻𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑒𝓈 𝑜𝓃 ✨ ✨ 𝓁𝒾𝒻𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑒𝓈 𝑜𝓃 ✨ I get by with a little help from my friends and mother nature. ☀️ #thankfulgratefulblessed to find solace and lots of laughter with great friends to push me through this week. 💛 #lifeiswhatyoumakeit #peacefulmindset #naturegram
Happy birthday, Ra-Ra! ✨ I felt the need to writ Happy birthday, Ra-Ra! ✨ I felt the need to write a strong caption, but how can I describe you or our friendship in a caption? I can’t. So much comes into my mind when I think of the growth we've both shared, witnessed, and supported. The world may keep us distanced, but you are in my mind and heart every day. LOVES YOU! 🎂🥂✨ #shewild #shefine #hurras
✨ 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑒𝓃𝑔𝑒 𝒶𝒸𝒸𝑒𝓅𝓉𝑒𝒹 ✨ Thank you, @whitneyharding_ for the kind reminder of the strength I have within me to persevere through the next few weeks of treatments. 💛 This challenge couldn’t have come at a better time. Thank you. I miss you and love you so! ✨ #challengeaccepted #autoimmunewarrior #womenempowerment #womensupportingwomen
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: API requests are being delayed for this account. New posts will not be retrieved.

Log in as an administrator and view the Instagram Feed settings page for more details.

© 2021 Bella of Louisville. Designed + Developed by Jelly Design Studio.