The Mindful Migraine

One metaphor that I use a lot to describe healing is the notion of a ‘journey’. As such, I was curious to discover a poster infographic for the ‘path’ into (and out of) chronic pain. The ‘map’ designed by a wellness app called “Curable”, starts at childhood, and covers how you learnt to cope with stress and the health experiences you have as you age. It then travels through to your brain potentially establishing neural-pain-pathways through repetition (paths within paths!):

[Image source: download the high-quality PDF on the Curable website, here: Infographic: The Path Out of Chronic Pain (curablehealth.com)]

A little over a year ago, I was definitely in the “#10 The Downward Spiral” zone of the pathway. Every morning was a reiteration of the perpetual misery of my chronic pain situation. But, as I’ve written about before (here), my neurologist eventually gave me the motivation that I needed when he told me that “more medicine doesn’t equal less pain – you need to change your lifestyle and mindset so that you can heal”.

The VERY NEXT DAY, I got out of bed and started the step “#11 Knowledge” – I made myself a program of activities to try, and started to learn as much as I could about my diagnosis, treatment options, and holistic healing techniques.

After that, steps #12 to #14 began to fall into place.

I still get migraines, BUT, I do feel like I have established a “#15 New Perspective” about my pain and what my life with migraine entails.

I noticed that the Curable website also has an associated blog about chronic pain (back pain, fibromyalgia and more) and had a Q&A about migraines and the mind-body connection, here: Can Mindbody Medicine Relieve Migraines? A Q&A with Dr. John Stracks – Curable Health

The website leans fairly heavily into the idea that migraine is ‘curable’ and I would caution people to be careful how literally they take that advice. Migraine is a complex neurological condition – but – I can confirm that you CAN make improvements in your life that increase your general wellbeing and help you gain some relief.

I haven’t tried the app itself, but it seems to include meditations, visualizations, Cognitive Behavior activities – so all the things I’ve been doing, but in one place (but maybe without the mindful movement exercises that have really helped me shift my pain). The website appears to give you a free trial period, then a monthly subscription – you can read more here if you’re interested: Curable: A Different Approach to Chronic Pain (curablehealth.com)

Even if you don’t take the enquiry any further, the “map” itself is a great starting point to explore your relationship with pain, and whether there might have been a few bumps in the road which pushed pain deeper into your sense-of-self. I’m going to delve into “my first migraine” soon, as I suspect that it holds some keys to “#3 Health Experiences” and potentially shaped my expectations around migraine-pain.

Curiosity is key!

Take care on your healing journey, Linda x.

[Disclaimer – if you’re new to the blog, please understand that I’m not a doctor, so this is NOT medical advice – be sure to check with your healthcare provider before you adjust your treatment options in any way!]