Category: Strategies
-
Personal boundaries for chronic pain
Somewhere, long ago, I remember hearing the notion that ‘personal boundaries are like picket fences.’ The idea was that you can be immersed in a community and set apart. Fences act as a demarcation between a shared space and what is private. They create the reassurance of a line that…
-
Humming the pain away
The vagus nerve runs from your brain, behind your ears and down to your stomach. It helps your nervous system move between ‘fight and flight’ mode and ‘rest and digest’. In an attempt to reduce chronic pain, anxiety, or even just give yourself a lift on those days when you’re…
-
Power poses for pain
I tend to avoid ‘bang-crash’ movies, but the other night I was feeling good, so I watched the first half of Marvel “Avengers”. Suddenly something occurred to me. Other than the Mark Ruffalo character (who has the potential to turn into the Hulk if he gets aggravated), everyone else in…
-
Duck-duck-swan
When I was younger, I found anacronyms helped me remember things. “Roger Of York Gave Battle In Vain” was for the order of the colors of the rainbow. Or you might be old enough to recall “My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.” (Of course, kids today no…
-
Drinking water in slow motion
“Drink more water” is the catch cry of chronic pain curers and well-wishers everywhere: this post is not about hydration… not the normal sort anyway. This morning was like any other. Tai Chi, farewell hubby, walk the dogs, and then the manic scramble to get the kids out the door…
-
‘Mindful-lite’ and ‘inchstones’
When I look back on the beginning of my holistic healing journey, I realize that I was a bit ‘intense’. Due to my chronic migraines, I had reached such a low place, and needed to make such drastic changes, that I went into ‘bed-bound bootcamp’ mode. The program that I…
-
World Migraine Summit
Ok, so I totally tempted fate yesterday by saying that I was ‘over’ my migraine attack. A few hours later, I was back in bed, completely wiped out, no dinner for me. At the risk of showing my age, I feel like one of those antique ‘roly-poly dolls’ or the…
-
Migraines in The Matrix
Sometimes it can feel like you’re living in an alternate reality to everyone else, like the movie The Matrix. This is not, however, the sort of Matrix I want to talk about today. There will be no advice on how to bend spoonies, for example. (As an aside – if…
-
Fuel and migraines
Right at eye height, on the shelf in my fridge this morning, there was a food container. On the side of the container were the words ‘fuel your journey’. It made me think not only about the nutrition that we require to keep our bodies going, but also how quickly…
The Mindful Migraine 