The Mindful Migraine

When I first started my holistic healing journey just over a year ago, I woke up and decided I was sick of being sick, and it was time to take things into my own hands so I could get better.  The first thing I did was to write a program of mindful activities which I stuck on the fridge.  The second thing I did was to start up a Spotify account with a playlist I called Healing Music for Migraines.  The third thing I did was to fuss over the image that was attached to that music channel… (priorities right?!) 

Back before I knew about The Getty Museum’s free-to-use-images, I found what I believe to be a royalty-free image of a stained-glass window to use for the playlist (it’s a very long story, but the fire at Notre Dame in 2019 and my fear for the stained-glass rose windows (which are simultaneously so strong AND so fragile) is what made me decide to start my PhD).  That picture is still in use, but when I started to add other playlists, I recognized that I would need more ‘window’ images (it can be a bit painful to be the sort of person that likes everything matchy-matchy, but that’s who I am!)

About the same time that I decided I needed more playlist-pictures, I also started to meditate more.  I began to learn about mandalas and how they can be used as a tool for contemplation during meditation, often colored or shaped to match the petaled-chakras:

[Image source: The 7 Chakra Colors and Their Meanings – Color Meanings (color-meanings.com)]

Don’t ask me why, but around about week three or four of my healing journey, I announced to myself; “I need my very own healing mandala!”

I remembered that I had made some mandalas while I was at university from scrap paper, and went looking for them in my old portfolios.  I was a bit disappointed – they were good for their time, but their colors were a bit sedate, even bordering on too depressing for what I wanted… I needed “get out of bed and heal” vibes!

Without really understanding what I was supposed to do to make a digital mandala, I remembered seeing ‘kaleidoscope’ tools where you could wrap a slice of photo around and around, until it created a circle.  That’s when I came across a site, with a photo of some pot plants in front of stained-glass windows.  Perhaps it was the colored glass, but I didn’t even bother to change the photo and went to work adjusting the do-dads to make the slice wider, longer, rotated this way that… until I ended up with something that seemed to resonate with my version of what it means to heal:

Here is the website that I used (NOTE: I tend not to trust free sites to be virus-free, so I always use ‘print screen’ or take a screen shot of my creation rather than use their download option): Creating Kaleidoscopes from Photos

What I find interesting (in hindsight) is that the picture I ended up with, includes the top 4 chakra colors (violet, purple, blue, green) for crown, third-eye, throat, and heart… and the ambitions of I understand, see, talk and love… with the tiniest pinky-red stripe of “I am” halfway out.

It was a complete coincidence, but it’s interesting to think that I ended up with colors that gravitated towards my migraine-pain-head, and the later realization that healing myself was about finding my voice and working on a sense of self-love that had been missing for so long.

Equally curious, is that both the outer edge and the innermost sections are versions of pale blue “I talk” which represents communication, expression, creativity and inspiration… how perfect for a blog!

My suggestion is you have a go at playing around with a similar site and try to make something that ‘feels right’. You can then choose whether to look up what the colors mean. Or else, do the reverse, and think of the aspects in your life that you are hoping to heal, and set out to manipulate the mandala to align with those ambitions and colors.

If you’re not keen on a digital version, have a go at a painted version, or, I recently discovered, when you look up ‘mandala’ on the templates tab of a new Word document a mandala coloring-in page comes up.  Or, you can print out and color-in some of the ones that I made and posted on my Resources Page that were created from all the playlist mandalas I ended up pumping out to glorify my Spotify account!

The point is, if you think having a personal healing mandala will help you, in the same way that making a migraine mood board did, then have a go, print it out and put it up on your wall or stick it on the fridge. These days there are printing services that let you add your mandala to a t-shirt, a baseball cap, or keyring – or even a coffee mug (which is what my kids did for my birthday!)

Speaking from first-hand experience, it can be VERY empowering to see these colorful reminders everywhere that help convince you, YOU CAN HEAL!

Take care taking care, Linda x