Category: Strategies
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What is the Alexander Technique?
I recently came across a comment that went something along the lines of “AT helped me end my migraines” – HOORAY! – I thought, but also, what was AT, and was it something that could help me? Turns out it stands for Alexander Technique, and as Philipa Batty writes in…
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Will this upset the Mindfulness Police?
When I first started practicing mindfulness, it was practice in the sense of a “learning experiment” rather than a “regular habit”. I relied heavily on YouTube videos that appeared in my google searches, and made selections of what to try based on the shortest duration of the video rather than…
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Life in the ecotone
I say this a lot, but I’ll say it again: I spend as much time (or more) in blog-land reading compared to writing. There is SO MUCH to learn about life, and I especially enjoy the material that falls outside typical migraine-me subjects. BUT I ALSO like it when I…
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Glimmers versus triggers
You’ll hear a lot on this website about chronic pain triggers: “dehydration triggered my migraine last week, and stress triggered my pain-brain yesterday”, and so on and on. Sometimes the potential triggers can be super-quirky, but potentially still very real, and might include your pillow, drafts, or even nightmares. This…
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The 7 types of rest
The other day I woke up after 8 hours of sleep and said to my husband; “I’m STILL tired!” And I don’t mean I spent 8 hours in bed tossing and turning and staring at the ceiling – it was 8 hours of deep sleep. I’m almost always so exhausted…
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Welcome to my revelation
Every now and then something “clicks” in my mind; thoughts align (or collide) and I think “ah ha”. It doesn’t happen very often when it comes to migraine material (I had my first migraine when I was 11 years old), but with all the reading I’ve been doing, I still…
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When mindfulness feels risky
It has become increasingly clear to me that there is no ONE SIZE FITS all approach to overcoming migraines. Migraine pain seems to come from an intensely personal, deep down, place within each of us, and as such, the causes, symptoms and treatment options will be equally individual. There are…
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How do you respond to pain-ignorance?
Living with chronic pain is painful… der… but I don’t mean just the pain-pain, I mean all the other stuff that goes with it. One of those “things” is the way that other people respond to your situation; the way they do (or don’t) accommodate our special needs, and the…
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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…
The Mindful Migraine 