Category: Rest
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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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Daylight savings and migraines
Last weekend, in Sydney-Australia, our clocks rolled back an hour. My youngest daughter was ecstatic to find out that when she came home from a party late at night on Saturday, she would score another hour of sleep. The other daughter forgot about the clock-change and got up as per…
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UGH – time for a change
The last couple of weeks have been really tough for me. I don’t know why, or what for, but I’ve been sick and sick and sick. First it was COVID (for the first time that I know of), and then when I recovered (all but my sense of smell which…
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A new take on “ASAP”
When I was younger, I remember someone saying “ay-sap” and I had no idea what they meant. For what it’s worth, it was about the same time I read “LOL” on the bottom of an email and thought for a brief second the sender was sending me Lots Of Love.…
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Cool, calm and collected
One of the upsides of practicing mindfulness techniques over the last year is the sense of serenity that is slowly creeping into my revived soul. I move slightly slower and with more intentionality, for example, and not just when I am practicing Tai Chi. When I am putting the dry…
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Insta-fatigue and resentment reels
In the paper the other day was an article about the declining level of fulfilling engagement with social media sites such as Instagram and TikTok. The author spoke of how Instagram began with a happy-snap, moved towards an emphasis on swoon-worthy enviable pictures, then a collection (or carrousel) of pictures,…
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A quick history of pillows
When you suffer from chronic migraines you spend a lot of time lying down. When you spend a lot of time lying down, you become very particular about what your head is resting on. This tends to turn you into a pillow-perfectionist or a cushion-connoisseur. The problem with experimenting with…
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“In bed” by Joan Didion
Joan Didon (1934-2021) is an American writer and journalist. Her obituary in Vogue casually mentions: “She was afflicted by migraines and was frequently depressed, even wearing dark glasses through the wedding ceremony.” I found a picture on Joan’s website, and sunglasses indoors does appear to confirm she is a person…
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Hypnic jerks… um.
OK, so that title looks a lot like ‘hippy jerks’ or something possibly ruder, but ‘hypnic jerks’ ARE a real thing… + Ever twitched violently while you were resting in bed? + Perhaps your leg or arm suddenly jerked in your sleep – so much so that you woke yourself…
The Mindful Migraine 