The Mindful Migraine

OK, so if you’ve visited my blog before, then you know that I feel very conflicted about AI. Two years ago, I was so excited to discover AI could make images for me with the push of a button… and then… the novelty wore off. Especially when the whole internet seemed to swap out real photos of real people for a relentless deluge of AI slop.

In terms of writing, I have always preferred to give an authentic account from my personal perspective. The whole reason for my blog was that I found a lot of content online ABOUT people with migraine, but not a lot BY people living with migraine. The only tools I routinely use are the spell-checkers and google search. Very occasionally I experiment with AI-chat, but only when I’m asking it to generate a meditation prompt or the time I asked ChatGPT what it knew about me (here). When I do use AI, I am always up-front declaring that the words are not all my own.

Honestly, I can’t think of anything worse than a world that replaces all our stories with computer-generated narratives… ugh… humanity needs humans.

OK, you get it.

BUT

I just accidentally found a way to turn my blog posts into a Podcast Conversation.

I was skeptical, but I thought I would give it a go, and asked it to use “My 7 Top Tips for Healing” as the guide. 3 minutes later, the result was… I hate to say it… heartbreakingly… good.

There were a couple of glitches in the transcript where it assigned the male name to the female narrator, and one random heading appeared in the middle of the text, but – wow – it took a 2,000 word blog post that took me 2+ hours to write and edit (and takes you 7 minutes to read)… and turned it into a 4 minute master class.

AGH!

Bad luck podcasters, there’s a new (unhuman) duo called (who knows why) Mr Pip and Ms Mara moving into town.

Here’s the sound recording and the transcript, and whilst the slightly breathless American accent is not very me… wow… just wow…

Pip: If you have ever nodded along at a doctor’s appointment, paid, left, and immediately googled a second opinion — The Mindful Migraine Blog sees you.

Mara: This episode pulls from a post that lays out the foundational work of healing — the mindset, the safety, the self-worth — everything that has to be in place before any lifestyle change can actually stick.

Pip: Let’s start with the seven tips themselves.

Mara: The post opens with a clear provocation: there are things you need to do before you change your diet, exercise more, or meditate — and skipping them makes healing harder and slower.

The framing matters here. This isn’t a list of things to add to your routine. It’s a pre-flight checklist for your whole approach to getting better.

The first tip is commitment, and the post puts it plainly: “If you want to get better, you REALLY have to want to get better — make it your number one priority — don’t wait for tomorrow, a better opportunity or someone else to come along and save you — commit to change and make it happen.”

Which is a harder ask than it sounds. The post is honest that motivation falters, that we can be subconsciously attached to the status quo, and that enthusiasm fades after the initial flush.

Pip: Tip two builds directly on that — believing healing is possible. The post invokes the placebo effect not as a trick but as evidence: if you believe a tablet will work, your mind and body begin making it happen before the medicine is even absorbed.

So the naysayer reflex — “been there, done that, didn’t work” — is doing active damage, not just expressing reasonable skepticism.

Mara: Tip three goes deeper still: believing you deserve to heal. The post describes a subconscious voice that whispers guilt and shame, and argues that low self-worth will sabotage every conscious effort you make.

Pip: Tip four shifts to the nervous system — specifically, the idea that healing options can feel unsafe to a body that has been in fight-or-flight so long it has forgotten rest-and-restore. The post uses Maslow’s Hierarchy to make the point: you have to feel safe before you can make progress.

Mara: Tips five and six work as a pair. Tip five is gratitude — shifting focus from “less pain” toward abundance, practicing it deliberately each morning. Tip six is detoxification: removing the chronic negatives, whether that’s a difficult relationship, doom-scrolling, or disrupted sleep.

Pip: And tip seven closes the loop — actively increasing positivity at the same time you are reducing the negatives. The post is careful to note this is not a “cheer up” instruction; it is about building inner strength and resilience through repeated, intentional practice.

Mara: The post closes with a reminder that these seven steps are the foundation — once they are in place, every other change, every mindfulness practice, every medication, compounds on top of them.

Pip: A solid foundation, it turns out, is less glamorous than the house — but considerably more load-bearing.

Mara: Commitment, belief, safety, gratitude — it is a different kind of preparation than most healing advice starts with.

Pip: More next time — and if you have been nodding along, that probably counts as progress.

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Signing off, as me, the real me, impressed and depressed all at the same time, me… I’m not sure if I’ll ever listen to podcasts the same way again…

Take care taking care,

Linda x

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PS – if you’re a blogger and have WordPress and want to see if you can try the same technique, go to the backend (where your ‘drafts’ and ‘dashboard’ are) click on the ‘Media’ tab and it (may or may not) give you the option to “Create AI Podcast” – you then select which post(s) to use as the source material, hit click, and off it goes… then you get a draft blog post with the transcript and sound file… good luck and enjoy!

PPS – I just found this guide to help you know more: Generate an AI podcast from your WordPress.com posts | WordPress.com Support