It’s Migraine Awareness Month, as previously mentioned, and I’ve been thinking a lot about ‘awareness’ versus ‘information overload’. When I first started trying to understand my diagnosis of chronic migraine, I went looking in multiple places to try to find as much information as I could. I was particularly open to new ideas relating to treatment options. The problem was that there were SO MUCH information… AND… a lot of the sites were often in conflict with each other.
I was like those little kids that play with the hose in the garden at summertime… they think they’re going to drink a gentle little sprinkle of water, and instead feel the full force of a jet to the face!
[Image sources: Swimming and Playing in the Water & (After) The Perfect Storm]
How can we narrow our attention when it comes to seeking information?
One way is to increase your intentionality.
Being clearly goal oriented, for example, or limiting your go-to resources, setting defined time-limits for your search, perhaps asking your neurologist for a hit-list and so on. Even these approaches, however, can feel overwhelming.
At the risk of being totally ‘out-there’, what if we leave some things to chance? Or, what if we let our subconscious select our direction for us?
I saw a great use of the traditional find-a-word game on Instagram the other day on Rita’s site (she’s a holistic health coach). I’ll put the link in at the bottom of this post to make sure she gets full credit. But before I do, I want to borrow her idea to create a find-a-word that relates to Migraine Awareness Month… not in terms of migraines, but in terms of personal growth towards new wisdom of any sort. The ‘game’ works like this: where your eyes land is the message you’re supposed to receive / the direction you’re supposed to take.
Scroll down so that that the whole letter-matrix below is visible, then tell me – what are the first two words you see:
*
*
*
*
*
These two words now become your learning goals for the rest of the day / week / month… you decide how long based on how well they resonate. Instead of just seeking out information and attempting to retain it, put a slightly narrower-twist on it, let those two words guide you towards the best solutions.
At the end of the day, learning everything you can about migraines, chronic pain, or anything that’s going to help you improve your life, is worth it. Just do your best to pace (or place) yourself so you get the opportunity to drink it all in, rather than drown in information!
Take care, Linda x
PS – if you’re curious, there were 13 possible words you could have found in the puzzle above; clarify, develop, discover, dream, evolve, expand, explore, grow, learn, listen, master, teach, and transform. (There are also part-words that I noticed that might work too, such as lore, cover, earn and form, as well as mini-words like pan, ran, row which makes less sense, but might mean something to you if that’s where your mind’s eye took you).
PPS – Rita’s post is here and the website I used to make the find-a-word is here.
The Mindful Migraine 
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