The Mindful Migraine

I’ve always been a huge fan of rebus puzzles – those graphic word games where you have to figure out a phrase based on the way that the text and pictures are arranged. 

Examples include the word ‘close’ written twice next to the word ‘comfort’ written four times (2 close 4 comfort = too close for comfort).

Here’s one I made on Powerpoint – can you guess what it means?:

*

*

*

The answer is: “Easy (E-Z) on the eyes”… which the image isn’t (sorry).

This sort of word-play is how I came up with the idea of being (dis)abled for a past post: I am simultaneously able-bodied enough to do many things, but also an invalid due to my chronic migraine, and therefore unable to perform at my peak… and sometimes unable to perform at all. 

When I imagine a phrase for myself as a sick-blogger, I often think of myself as a “slow coach” – it is a fun way of suggesting I’m something of a migraine mentor… just not a particularly energized one!

[Other ‘games’ can get darker though… take “invalid” – I meant it above in terms of being “a sick person”, but it can also mean in-valid: “illegal”, “worthless” or “null and void”.]

Perhaps because I’ve always played similar games over the years, I spot quirks within words at random times.  Not long ago, for example, I wrote about “arm sand” (which was actually a typo for “arms and”). About the same time, I was on the train going into university, and we pulled up at Town Hall Station.  On the back of all the bench chairs, and the walls behind them, were big signs to help you orient yourself on your journey: “Town Hall” was repeated over and over.  For some reason it suddenly occurred to me, that if the two capital letters were removed, all these signs would say “own all”… “own all”… “own all”…

I don’t know what the revelation says about me, my mindset in that moment, or my deeper opinions…

The point is, words are wonderful.

That’s why, when someone else points out a clever way with words, I am always so impressed (and a little bit jealous that I didn’t spot it myself!)  An example that blew me away, happened a while ago when I saw something in passing.  At the time, I remember thinking “oh wow – that is fantastic!” but almost immediately after, something called my attention away and the breath-stealing moment was over.  (So much for my mindfulness practice!)  It was only when I was thinking about what to write about here, that I suddenly remembered the power of the words, but sadly, can’t give an attribution to the original author.

What they had written was so simple and yet so profound (at least to me), and went something like this:

Universe = uni-verse = single song

Mindfulness often reiterates that we should pay attention to ourselves in the present moment.  But, as I have written about before, if you ONLY ever focus on yourself in YOUR moment, you risk practicing a form of Mindfulness that becomes “Mine-fulness”.  Your self-awareness becomes self-centered and possibly selfish.

The original version of mindfulness was embedded in 2,500 years of traditional wisdom, spirituality and morality.  It aims to help you increase your relationship with yourself, BUT ALSO your relationship to everything else. 

In a past post about the book “The Healing Art of Tai Chi,” there was an image in which our mind is linked to an infinite mind, our thoughts with eternal thoughts, our personal energy with a more cosmic energy, and our own body united to a universal body.

It was a nice reminder that “no man is an island” (from John Donne in the 1600s), or if you prefer, “The world globes itself in a drop of dew” (from Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 1800s (maybe)).

We are all sisters and brothers, in a way, all members and custodians of Mother Earth, all recipients of, and contributors to, the events that are unfolding around us.  In a similar way that Tao, or The Way, suggests that the path, the destination, and the traveler are all one and the same, all our individual voices, and unique stories, combine to create a single-song of the uni-verse.

Next time you’re feeling lonely – remember this post – remember that you are made of star dust and you are never alone.

Take care taking care of yourself and others,

Linda xox