Category: Creativity
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A paradigm shift in paradise
Every now and then something happens that causes you to see the world anew. Sometimes the paradigm shift is so profound it sticks, and you’re never the same again… other times, you have a moment where your brain goes “wow – how interesting – who knew!?” and then it flips…
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Doodle your pain away
I’ve written before about the art of distraction and how it can help you forget your pain… for awhile. Arts and crafts that have helped me include long-stitch sewing, taking photographs of “glimmers” (the things that make me happy) and making either a mood-board or coloring-in a healing mandala. I’ve…
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How do you name your pain?
In Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet”, the heroine whisper-wails into the night-air off her balcony; “O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?” After he doesn’t reply, she reassures him that she couldn’t care less what his last name is, or that his family is her family’s sworn enemy. Soon after…
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What is “quiet cracking”?
It feels like only yesterday I learnt the term “quiet quitting”, which refers to employees all but giving up on their job. They turn up to the office each day, but they put in the bare minimum of effort, without enthusiasm, and without anything close to an “above and beyond”…
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A story uncanny
I’ve been experimenting with ways to help people understand what it’s like to live with chronic migraine. This blog is part of my endeavors, as are the short stories I write under the genre-name I refer to as “Migraine Gothic”. After I’d written a few posts (here), I put several…
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Haiku for pain relief
Some time ago, I wrote a post titled “The narrow road of healing” which referenced the seventeenth century writer Matsuo Basho (1644-94) and his book of poems written on pilgrimage. The collection of poems included one that is considered ‘the most famous’ haiku ever written – “The Old Pond”: An…
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Feeling a little Picasso-ish
A little while ago, one of my blogging friends, Silver Apple Queen, left a comment on my post “Our Woven Selves” to say that when she thought about migraine metaphors, she imagined her migraines as Pablo Picasso paintings. And if you know anything about his abstract art, it’s not hard…
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Making a monster of your chronic pain
Many, many months ago I wrote about how living with chronic migraine was akin to a horror story filled with darkness and jump scares (here). Elsewhere, I suggested that one way to reduce your suffering was to imagine your migraine-mess as part of a silly sitcom rather than a horrible…
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Ellipses…
On this blog, I tend to write the way I think. Sometimes straightforward, sometimes in a slightly jumbled way that zigzags cross-country as it were, traipsing into the occasional dead-end or cul-de-sac… ending abruptly or circling back on myself. I try to tidy it up as best I can before…
The Mindful Migraine 