The Mindful Migraine

‘AI art for migraines’ is the weirdest title I have written so far on my mindful migraine blogging journey. 

It came about for two reasons.  The first is that I’ve been thinking a lot about art therapy and how people gain so much comfort from mindful activities such as painting, knitting, scrapbooking and coloring-in.  There’s something in the calm, thoughtful repetition that allows the brain to take a rest and release some happy-hormones.  I began to wonder what form of artwork I could share; a photograph of a section of my daughter’s gem art that I helped with, or the little embroidery kit that I did on a recent holiday? 

The second reason came about when I decided to figure out how to set up Twitter-X and Instagram accounts to share my posts. That was when I discovered a thing called a ‘banner picture’.  (I’m not overly computer literate so bear with me while I muddle through what’s probably very obvious to the rest of you.)

It was (paradoxically) while I was thinking about art therapy and stressing over how to make banner pictures, that I read a newspaper article about AI art appearing in mainstream art competitions.  (For the record, I’m not very OK with it). I know I’m slow to the party, but I finally looked up AI art generators online and found one that works with word prompts on ‘Bing AI’ (there’s plenty of options out there, but this one allowed me to use it without extra signups).

One after the other, I put in a variety of different prompts such as ‘woman with a bad migraine painted nicely’, ‘a wall mural of a man with a headache’, or ‘make me a movie poster for a film called The Mindful Migraine’.  And one after the other, my computer came up with a variety of images.  I received many very generic images that were not worth posting here, but the machine also turned out some pretty good ones, often with recurring themes. 

My computer seems to get both the explosive essence of pain and the radiating warmness of mindfulness. 

Two of my favorites include the cartoon lady with a ‘pug-puppy frown’ who needs to practice the strategy of ‘feeling your face’, and the other is of a doctor meditating beneath a somewhat-alien-head (although I’m a little nervous about why his patients are all headed off like zombies into the blue!?).

Perhaps the weirdest, (but strangely most appropriate one for my blog), was the prompt ‘two women trying to meditate with a headache’, the result of which is at the top of this post.  They look very serene with their extra set of head-hands.  I only wish my headaches were so gentle! 

Perhaps AI generate art is not the sort of art therapy that helps mindful migraines (sitting in front of a computer monitor is never great when your head is sore) – but it was surprisingly fun!

AI ART CHALLENGE: I don’t think you can post pictures in the comments section, but if you have your own blog, then consider making some AI art for migraineurs and put the link below so we can all come visit you for a giggle-groan!

(PS – they’re brand new and very much a work in progress, but here are my Twitter-X and Instagram accounts if you want to stay in touch in a different way – hope they work for you: TheMindfulMigraine (@MindfulMigrain) / X (twitter.com) and TheMindfulMigraine (@themindfulmigraine) • Instagram photos and videos )

(PPS – I know the Twitter-x site name is missing an e at the end; the name was apparently too long – weirdly it makes me think of ‘mindful grain’ which makes me think of gluten-free issues…).

Take care, Linda x