Category: Resilience
-
Love and migraines
Happy Valentine’s Day to the romantic souls amongst you. The day apparently originated as a means of honoring the martyr St Valentine, who used to administer services, including marriage, to the early Christians of the Roman Empire (and was killed for his actions). The more you read, the more you…
-
Metamorphosis and migraines
In a recent post I wrote about ‘Re-finding the I in Linda’. I spoke about wanting to minimize the impact migraine was having on my identity and reclaim a sense of my old self. I’ve since realized that approach, though natural, is potentially misguided. It’s unlikely that I’ll ever be…
-
Why pain-scales need modifications for chronic migraines
A couple of posts ago (here) I showed you a pain-scale of 1-10 (replicated in the top line of the picture below). In the graphic, I used little faces to show the increasing sense of distress that goes with the increased pain. For irregular migraines the scale works well, you’re…
-
Dream analysis for migraines
One of the first things my neurologist recommended I do as part of my new holistic approach to healing my migraines, was therapy (we call it counselling in Australia). He recommended CBT (cognitive behavior therapy) which I’ll post about soon. (Un)fortunately, there was no one doing that form of counselling…
-
Vitamins for migraines
A quick web search for ‘what are the best vitamins for migraines?’ reveals recurring answers: vitamin B2 (riboflavin), Magnesium and Coenzyme Q10 (an antioxidant). Additional ones that appear on some sites but not others include vitamin D, Melatonin, Feverfew (a daisy) and Butterbur (a marsh-land shrub). When I asked my…
-
Manifesting migraines away
Manifesting is the act of making something happen by imagining that it will. It’s sort of a combination of ‘positive thinking’, ‘mind over matter’ and ‘the law of attraction’. I believe that we do have a certain amount of control over our localized destiny, and as such I see no…
-
Mindfulness for migraines
Mindfulness is the number one, overarching tool that has helped me reduce my migraine triggers (stress, fatigue, posture) and increase my resilience to the triggers I can not avoid (genes, hormones, climate etc.). As a result, I have managed to reduce my migraines from 3+ days a week (every week for…
-
Walking for migraines
As part of my intention to increase my physical wellbeing, I have begun walking everyday if possible. On sick days it might involve a short walk to the end of the street and back, and on rainy days I might give myself the day off (and walk laps of my…
-
Long meditations for migraines
Although I rarely have the time and patience, I do occasionally experiment with longer running meditations. Meditations, such as Jon Kabat-Zinn’s ‘the mountain’ remind you to sit still and straight and noble, whilst the vagaries of pain and emotion flow over you and you remain unmoved. I know it’s not what…
The Mindful Migraine 