Category: Resilience
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‘Everyday’ trauma and your pain brain
The other day I was waiting to pick up my daughter from a nighttime school event. It was running late, and I was getting a bit huffy and puffy about having to sit around and wait. It wasn’t that I had to be anywhere else, more that I just didn’t…
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Bedroom basics for pain-isolation
When I get migraines, I become extremely sensitive to light and noise. ‘Normal’ sunlight suddenly seems way too bright, and people talking becomes amplified in my head, as if someone turned the volume up to 11 on the 1-10 dial. My traditional treatment was to go to the quietest, darkest…
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Purple reign
The first Friday in June is traditionally Migraine Awareness Day in Australia. That’s today! I can’t, however, bring myself to write “Happy Migraine Day” – instead, I thought I’d write a post about the color purple. Everywhere I looked on the fundraising sites, it was purple, purple, purple. The purple…
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Compassionate communication
As the mother of two teenage daughters, I feel like I am perpetually putting my foot in my mouth and messing things up. I love my children without measure and would never mean to hurt them… and yet… even I can say things that are less than all-loving. My eldest…
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Migraine jump-scares
OK – imagination time: pretend you’ve agreed to watch a horror movie with your friend. You’re not a huge fan of the horror genre, but your friend talked you into it because the movie is supposed to be ‘cerebral’ as well as ‘visceral’. So here you are, seated in the…
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The narrow road of healing
Many, many years ago I read “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”* (c. 1702) by the Japanese poet Basho. The way I remember it, it was a travel diary written in Haiku. It covered every part of his journey cross-country, from sore feet to squeaky bed frames, to the…
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Learning on the go
Yesterday was Mother’s Day in Australia, and I’m proud to say that amongst some other treats, I got a lovely beanie and scarf for the upcoming Winter season, (in my new favorite shade of mossy-green), as well as a heat pack… my girls know me so well! Although… I’m not…
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“Unlearn your pain”
I’m always on the lookout for information that will change the way I relate to and understand my chronic pain. In my search, I came across a book online called “Unlearn your pain” by Dr. Howard Schubiner. (The book is on his website here). The title alone made me optimistic……
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Therapy for chronic pain
In Australia we don’t usually say ‘therapy’, we say ‘counselling’ – but they mean the same thing: talking to a professional in the hope of feeling better. When it comes to living a life with chronic pain, I think it can help. I know I keep going back to the…
The Mindful Migraine 