The Mindful Migraine

When I was younger, I found anacronyms helped me remember things.  “Roger Of York Gave Battle In Vain” was for the order of the colors of the rainbow.  Or you might be old enough to recall “My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.”  (Of course, kids today no longer get any Pizzas since Pluto has been kicked off the list of planets… their ‘earnest mothers just serve them nothing’.)

About a year ago, when I first started my holistic healing journey, I tried to remember some of the key things that I could practice every day.  Before I began experimenting in earnest with Qigong and meditation, I started doing normal, everyday things that I knew would help.  I wrote them all down, mixed them around, and eventually came up with the anacronym “SWANEY”. 

I know it sounds incredibly childish, but pish-posh, I don’t care because it helped. What’s more, it also helped to imagine my chronic-migraine-self as the ‘ugly’ misunderstood duckling, who wasn’t really ‘broken’ or ‘wrong’, just wrongfully labelled and in need of finding my future-flock.  If I just tried to live my life more mindfully, and was patient, I’d end up where I was supposed to be (which was hopefully somewhere more-pain-less). 

Here’s the details of my super-simple anacronym for healing:

S = Sleep: establish a routine that incorporates enough, regular, sleep.

W = Water: stay hydrated, all the time, and then drink some more.

A = Attention: pay attention to what might be triggering your chronic pain.

N = Nutrition: eat well and regularly, and no skipping meals.

E = Exercise: try to keep moving to the best of your ability.

Y = Yes: you can get better; you just have to believe it.

It doesn’t seem like a groundbreaking post I know.  And nowhere near as long as usual.  But sometimes ‘less is best’ and it’s the simple things that can help the most. 

Every journey starts with a first step.  Why not make yours a step towards flying.

Take care little ducklings, Linda x