Author: The Mindful Migraine Blog

  • Dirty dishwater revelations: what your sink is trying to tell you

    Dirty dishwater revelations: what your sink is trying to tell you

    OK, so head’s up, this is by far the weirdest post I’ve ever made. After I had done the breakfast dishes and a few random items I’d found floating around downstairs (kids!), I went to let the plug out of the kitchen sink. I wasn’t in a good mood or…

  • Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – for healing

    Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – for healing

    In the year 1943, American psychologist Abraham Maslow published a theory about how humans address their needs in the form of hierarchical stages.  (Curiously, Maslow himself apparently didn’t come up with the ever-present triangular graphic that we associate with his theory). You’ve probably seen the graphic, but here’s a copy of it…

  • Breakfast for Dinner

    Breakfast for Dinner

    When I was growing up, our family aimed to have a proper sit-down dinner 6 nights a week.  My father would come home, we’d each sit in our regular spots at the dinner table, and as we ate, my sisters and I would recount what we’d done that day, what…

  • Meet the Burples

    Meet the Burples

    June is Migraine Awareness Month, as I recently mentioned. One of Migraine Australia’s initiatives for this month is the launch of “the Burples” aimed at helping draw attention to migraines in a fun way. There are three Burples on the webpage. As a hemiplegic migraine person, the one that I…

  • Pessimism: is it realistic or wrong?

    Pessimism: is it realistic or wrong?

    My daughters listen to a musician named Alec Benjamin.  He suited my mood last year as he tends to sing angsty woe-is-me songs.  This year, however, I’m trying to ‘lean into’ a more sunshine-and-happiness version of myself in order to heal.  There is, nonetheless, one song of his that sometimes…

  • Chronically Empowered Podcast

    Chronically Empowered Podcast

    This morning, I experienced a full-on jump-scare moment. I opened up LinkedIn while I was having my morning half-cup of coffee, ready to read through what other people had posted last night while I slept, and… OH! There was my chitty-chatty face chitty-chatting away in a video clip! You see,…

  • Make peace not war with your chronic pain

    Make peace not war with your chronic pain

    Some time ago, I wrote about the neurologist who said you should ‘make friends’ with your migraine.  When you’re in the depth of chronic migraine, it is very hard to imagine befriending a foe so painful… but – there is truth in this sentiment.  At the very beginning of my…

  • ‘Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde’ and me…

    ‘Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde’ and me…

    June is Migraine Awareness Month. It’s rather fitting I feel, given that June is also my birthday-month! Most of June falls into the Zodiac sign of Gemini which uses the symbol of the twins. I don’t know whether it’s a coincidence or not, but the word ‘migraine’ comes from the…

  • Tarot cards for pain

    Tarot cards for pain

    When I was at university, in my early twenties, I lived in a big share house.  I can’t remember what prompted us, but one of my friends and I began to practice telling fortunes.  She got very good at remembering what all the cards in the Tarot deck meant, whilst…