A month ago, while I was walking my two dogs, a lady who was visiting a neighbor up the road stopped me. She wanted to chat to my dogs. After her dog-whispering was complete, she started up a conversation with me. She mentioned she wasn’t feeling that well and began to list her aches and pains. I commiserated. One thing led to another, and we ended up talking about migraines (as I so often do). She mentioned that when she was younger, she used to get migraines, and said that her main trigger was breezes and drafts. Her comment caught me off guard, and before I had a chance to ask her questions, my dogs asked to move on.
At the risk of sounding judgmental (hand-on-heart I never mean to be), the idea that drafts could cause a migraine seemed a bit nonsensical to me, but I’ve been thinking about it ever since…
Can drafts cause migraines?
There is a modern movie version of Jane Austen’s novel Emma (1814-15) made in 2020. In it, Anya Taylor-Joy plays Emma Woodhouse, and Bill Nighy plays her draft-hating (draft-dodging?) father. There are several scenes in the movie where Mr Woodhouse has his servants move swoon-worthy screens this-way-that to protect him from the real and perceived dangers of real and perceived drafts. The episodes appear to be used primarily for comedic value and to make Emma’s father seem like a loveable, albeit eccentric man. There’s no indication Mr Woodhouse, or Mr Nighy, are migraineurs, but still… they seem acutely aware of the triggering presence of drafts.
(Image source: Emma-0248 (screenmusings.org))
About two weeks ago, I was walking the dogs again when a breeze started to blow. My hair was tickling my forehead. Not whipping it or whacking it, just meddling with it. As I walked along, I began to ‘feel my face’ and I realized how much tension had crept into the muscles of my forehead as it was being assaulted by rogue hair. “Squinty eyes and furrowed brow”, be gone I thought, and tied my hair back tighter. Even without hitty-hair however, the wind alone was causing ‘pug-puppy face’ all over again. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again and again; when your migraine-brain does a ‘welfare check’ on you, hunchy-scrunchy bodies and scowly-faces send all the wrong messages.
That’s when I realised: maybe drafts CAN cause migraines.
One of the most humbling things about a holistic healing journey is the amount of learning that you can do when you maintain an open mind. When you stop focusing on ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ or ‘helpful’ or ‘unhelpful’ and just let information flow over you like a breeze, it’s amazing how many nuanced ideas reveal themselves.
Hope a few blow your way this week.
Take care out there, Linda x
The Mindful Migraine 
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