>>Ta-toot-ta-tooooom<< (that’s me blowing my own trumpet!) Today is another one of my monthly blogging anniversaries. From a very early stage, I promised myself that I wouldn’t wait for BIG milestones, instead, I would celebrate the little inch-stones that occurred along the way.
Today I am 23-MONTHS old – early next year it will have been a full 2 years since I started The Mindful Migraine Blog. It’s both exciting and humbling to realize that I am still here, still writing (my biggest original fear was I would run out of ideas… now I have 100+ ideas for blog posts in my trusty notebook waiting to be explored.)
As well as doing my regular blog-roll to shout out as many blogs as possible, I thought I would also use this monthly-anniversary post to give you a sneak peek behind the curtains at some of my blog-stats and underlying attitudes.
Here’s three of my ‘golden rules of blogging’ that work for me:
First up – COMMUNITY – the main reason I started blogging was because I was lonely. I had been sick at home for so long, with no one else that was going through a similar level of chronic pain incapacitation, so I started to feel as if I was the only one in the world who felt the way I did. The blog helped connect me to similar-others and remind those others that they too were not alone. Since then, I’ve been thrilled to become part of the wider BlogLand community, and it still drives so much of what I do, encouraging me to read and comment on as many other blogs as I can, and ensuring all my interactions are as encouraging as possible – yay us!
Second – GENEROSITY – when it comes to blogging, there is often the thorny question of monetization. When you spend a lot of time and energy on a project it is natural and fair to want to be compensated for that time and energy. Perhaps it’s coffee-money, ad revenue, or ebooks sales. It’s your blog, so you do you – you’ll get no judgment from me. That said, I made a decision early on that I wouldn’t seek payment from other people who were as sick as I was and probably struggling for spare cash. I made up my mind to be ad-free and give away everything and anything I create in the hope that it will help others. If you ever do see an ad on the page, let me know, as I pay to have them removed and I’ll be grumpy if they somehow sneak through!
Third – AUTHENTICITY – whilst I do experiment with AI images occasionally, (I worry about the environmental impact so don’t do it often anymore), I am adamant that I will not use AI to write my posts, mainly because I don’t enjoy reading posts that sound robotically cut-and-pasted. Another reason I started this blog was because there was a lot of material online ABOUT migraine people, but almost nothing that was consistently written BY migraine people. I wanted to hear from people like me, talking about the real sh!t that affects us day to day. Now that I’m that writer, you get strange detours, odd grammar, terrible punctuation, and the warts and all descriptions of projectile vomiting and the like… that’s my reality – so that’s what you get. It does mean that I might disappoint a few people who are looking for super-serious-facts, but I can only do what I can do, and if sometimes I’m curious about non-medical things and non-mindful practices… even experimenting with the occasional short story… that’s me – a variable Gemini!
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OK, so here’s a few stats if you’re interested. In the last 12 months, I’ve written 165 posts, which Jetpack Stats tells me equals 167K words. I’ve had 16K visitors and about 16K likes (that’s a lot of 16s so I looked up the Angel Number 16, and it signifies personal growth, positive change, and the importance of maintaining a positive mindset – nice!!)).
The country that represents the most readers in 2025 was the USA by A LOT – so, thank you guys – you rock!! Australia was the second highest reader group (thank you family and friends for your ongoing support and thanks also to my neurologist Dr S who recommends my site to his patients!). Then it’s the United Kingdom, India and Canada rounding out the top 5. At the risk of sounding petty, there were a few countries that only visited once in the whole 12 months (Malta, Fiji and Zambia – I’m looking at you (feel free to tell me what would make my content more suitable / engaging!!)) It really gives me the warm and fuzzies to know that there are people all round the world, from more than 100 countries, supporting BlogLand and each other – yay team!
Posts that got the most comments in 2025 were the two that highlighted personal updates (one great / one not so great) – which is, I suspect, because you are all so supportive and kind and part of that amazing blog-community I mentioned above. Meanwhile, the number #3 spot went to a recent post about sleeping better (which probably speaks to a common thread that unites so many of us, regardless of health issues). This year, the top three posts that received the most comments were:
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As well as sending a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who visits, I also want to shout-out 12 blog besties who have been SUPER supportive of my blog this year and very chatty (which I LOVE!) – be sure to share the love by dropping in to one or two if you get time:
Across the Oonaverse – It’s Oona’s world. The rest of us just live in it.
Beyond Sirius Sea – Boo! I’m a ghost writer inspired from above
Jo-AnneRamplings – Remember Your Life Matters
Las Vegas Photoblog – Photo Perspectives of Las Vegas
Offshoots Photography – Seasons and More
Regular Girl Devos – the perfect blend of faith and self-care
RichardBist.com – An Exercise in Self-Indulgence
THIS HAPPENED – poetry & art as sadhana in Shiva’s service
Thoughts about leadership, history, and more
Tip of My Iceberg – If you can’t see it, is it real?
Wings of the Wind | Est. September, 2009 – ReEst. April, 2010
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Lastly, I want to do my usual monthly routine of a shout-out to the latest 3 blogs that have crossed my digital path and subscribed to be part of the team:
Kim Upton – Everything I’m about to tell you is true.
Lignes invisibiles – Invisible lines associating ideas, creating images.
waysofthinking.co.uk – An Exploration of Thought for the Mindful
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Thanks again and again to all of you for reading – I’m looking forward to spending more time with you all in 2026! There will be one more post this year, then I’m off on a digital-detox for 3 weeks. Best wishes to you and yours (including your blog if you have one)!
Take care taking care, Linda x
The Mindful Migraine 
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