The Mindful Migraine

Tomorrow will be the second anniversary of my blog – yep, I will be 2 YEARS OLD! Now, I know that is NOT very old in the blogging universe, but to me it seems like an unimaginable achievement – truly, I can barely believe I had the urge to set this whole thing up when I was still so sick with daily migraines and busy studying my PhD… OR that I have lasted this long and you incredible people keep turning up to read what I write.

To celebrate – I want to throw a party – but, to give you plenty of notice, I’ll hold the party next month.

Now, I’m slightly hamstrung by the fact that I live in Australia and so many of you live overseas… my budget doesn’t extend to flying you all in from all over the world…!!

When I mentioned my dream, and my dilemma, to my blog-buddy Edward Ortiz, late last year, he suggested a virtual party, where everyone does their own thing, knowing that they are sharing the occasion together-apart… and it got me thinking…

To celebrate the magic of all the blogland friendships I have made and in order to keep manifesting big dreams – I WILL hold a virtual party – but if you can’t make it, just raise a cup to cheers being part of this beautiful online community wherever you are.

Getting a little excited about the prospect of a themed party, I looked up the site WeAreAdulting’s Ultimate List of 100 Party Themes for Every Occasion and discovered a few themes that resonated with celebrating our healing journey whilst feeling (un)well:

• Masquerade Ball (because all chronically ill people are great at wearing masks!)
• Fall Harvest / Spring Fling (because we live in opposite seasons, neither of which are current – but – I feel like I’m often falling and flinging!)
• Roaring 20s (since I often feel like I’m 100+ years old)
• Pajama party (given we’re so often house-bound and in comfy clothes… why not adopt the whole, if you can’t beat ’em join ’em mentality)
• Alice in Wonderland tea party (since AIW-Syndrome is a condition often associated with migraine aura (read more here))
• Black light party (I like any theme that involves keeping the lights off for the majority of the party)
• Polka dot party (with maybe some neon zig zags thrown in to emulate migraine aura… although that’s kind of triggering to think about!)
• Mocktail Madness (I can’t drink since alcohol is a trigger – but how about we rely on some mocktails to set the mood)
• Floral Fiesta (because it reminds me of Frida Kahola)

I also considered, and then rejected a few more party themes:

• 70s Disco (since I was born in the 70s – but the idea of strobes and glitter balls felt super triggering)
• All white (in my mind’s eye, we’d look as if we were in a hospital or a psyche ward… so um… no thanks!)
• Ugly Sweater Party (always sounds like fun, but it’s too judgmental… who gets to arbitrate what’s ugly and what’s not in life?)
• Pretty in pink (sounds rosy, but migraines are typically associated with purple as their fundraising / awareness shade, so pink seems… wrong)
• Taco Tuesday (always a crowd pleaser…. but it’s not a Tuesday!)
• Karaoke night (fun in principle – but impossible in a long distance reality)
• Hawaiian Laua (another popular theme, but I live in Australia, and it feels like cultural misappropriation)

So, after going through all 100 themes (yes, I really read them all), the ones that resonated most with me were probably the simplest: an all-purple virtual tea-party combined with influences from:

“76. Friendsgiving (Friends TV Show) – Inspired by the Thanksgiving episodes” – and whilst I don’t propose to have anything to do with the TV show – I am SUPER GRATEFUL to have YOU as my digital friend.

So…

PARTY TIME!

You’re all invited – rest assured you don’t have to be a blogger or a migraine-patient to join in, just log into Zoom and we’ll see who turns up for a chat (I did this 18 months ago and there were 4 of us – thanks again Robert, Sheila, and Tracy!!)

Because we’re celebrating 2 years – I’ve come up with 2 party times that will hopefully accommodate as many of you as possible, whatever your Timezone is in the world (I chose to deliberately miss the Valentine’s Day weekend – I would hate to get in the way of romance!!):

9pm (Sydney Australia time) on Saturday the 21st of February

and

9am (Sydney Australia time) on Sunday the 22nd of February

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I’m only on the free membership for Zoom, so the parties can only go for 40 minutes and are capped out at 100 participants (imagine!).

Here’s the Zoom link (if it asks for a password, it is Lind@):

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/7715158379?pwd=bSc1YBdziKPpjGMFQzqOunmoQRbb6u.1&omn=82961920345

I’ll send out a reminder next month closer to the date, but I’d love to see you there, with a cup of tea in hand!

Take care taking care, Linda x

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PS – I almost forgot! Here’s a shoutout to the most recent bloggers that have joined The Mindful Migraine Team – pop over and show them some digital friendsgiving love!:

Chronic Pelvic Pain Support – The Happy Pelvis

C.J. Riley – Tales of Life & Fantasy

Danigirlart

Dr. Seth Eidemiller – Emergency Medicine Physician (Healthcare)

exploreanywhere – explore anywhere in the world

Karen Gadient – Artist and Illustrator

– MIKE STEEDEN – – THE DRIVELLINGS OF TWATTERSLEY FROMAGE

Peter Rentrop – Cardiologist, Medical Director