A major part of mindfulness is breathing. It sounds a little suspect when you first hear about it – ‘breathing? I do that all the time already!’ What becomes apparent when you do a bit of research, however, is how badly migraineurs tend to breathe. I know that I tend to breathe shallowly, and when a migraine is coming I often find myself panting. I realized that when someone else is using short-rapid breathing, it is a sign they are having a panic attack. My migraine was either causing me to breathe as if I was in the middle of a panic attack – or – I was breathing in a way that was giving me a migraine.
At the most extreme end of treatment options, I have discovered there is a thing called ‘Oxygen Therapy’ which assumes the brain of a migraineur is deprived of adequate oxygen, and works to counter this loss by having patients breathe pure oxygen through a face mask, or in some cases, a hyperbaric chamber (used for scuba divers who get the bends).
At a much more ‘doable’ level, breathing exercises can be done as part of your daily mindfulness routine. They work by concentrating on your inhalation and exhalation, alternating on the use of your mouth or nose (even alternate nostrils), they tweak the pace of your breathing, and focus on the usage of your diaphragm muscles to maximize your efficiency.
Advantages of breathing exercises include; no equipment is required, you don’t have to pay anyone to do it with you, you can make each session last as long as you’re engaged, and, you tend to feel the results pretty much straight away, with long-term results accumulating over time.
For myself, after watching a variety of videos, I now almost exclusively nose-breathe throughout the day, my rate of breathing has slowed substantially (and I think it has correspondingly slowed my heart beat), I use rhythmic breathing routines when I feel a migraine coming to expel more oxygen than I take in, and I use circular breathing to help calm and distract myself during a full-blown migraine attack. (My neurologist encourages his patients to use breathing techniques during Botox injections to minimize anxiety and pain).
As with all self-help videos, be sure to check in with your doctor if it’s right for you and take your time to find the videos that work best for you. Once you find a video you like (perhaps it’s the scenery, the teacher’s voice, or the pace of the video that suits you), work your way through some of the other videos on their channel and make it a regular part of your mindful migraine journey.
(6 mins) Vagus Nerve Breathing Meditation | Camilla Sacre-Dallerup, Insight Timer
(8 mins) Dan Tian Tai Chi breathing
(8 mins) 5 Minute Guided Box Breathing For Stress & Anxiety I Alt Version (Pranayama) (youtube.com)
(8 mins) Four calming breathing exercises (youtube.com)
(10 mins) Breathe Easy: Easy Introduction to Breathwork for Calm
(11 mins) 10 Minute Guided Breathwork I 3 part breath + Breath of Fire
(12 mins) 5 Ways To Improve Your Breathing with James Nestor
(14 mins) Pranayama for Headache | Breathing Exercise for Headache Relief
If you want to read further about breathing for migraines, other migraine sites have more useful information, including some of the above youtube techniques described in words rather than videos:
Breathing Techniques for Migraine Relief (themigrainereliefcenter.com)
Relaxation and Paced Breathing Exercises for Migraine | American Migraine Foundation
Take care taking care, Linda x
PS – all the videos are grouped together in a single playlist over on YouTube: The Mindful Migraine – YouTube
The Mindful Migraine 
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