Migraines

A lot of people I know get really bad headaches or migraines. I have had migraines since I was a little kid and have developed some successful strategies to cope with them that I would like to share.

Obviously, the best way to deal with a headache is to prevent it from happening. To do so, just keep your stress down. Every person has different stressors and different tolerances, but some basic stressors to watch out for are: physical discomfort, emotional highs and lows, frustration/anger, high muscle tension, and allergies. A good rule of thumb is that you should try to stay calm, no matter what the circumstance. You are the boulder in the middle of the river, water flowing over you but never moving you.

Once you have a headache, similar strategies can be employed. I personally prefer meditation. Find a dark, quiet place and sit in the diamond yoga position (description) on the floor. This keeps your body in balance while keeping your head out of contact with anything solid, which can exacerbate the headache. Proceed to perform a modified dead pose wherein you start at your head, tightening then relaxing each muscle. If necessary, gently place a finger on the muscle - this helps your mind understand which muscle to tense. Once you have relaxed all the muscles in your head, move down your body to your mid-back. You should keep your neck barely taut enough to balance your head on top (letting your head flop forward can cause an increase in cranial blood pressure). Once you are like this, start the cycle once more. You will keep checking and rechecking your muscles for two reasons: 1) to keep muscular tension to a minimum, and 2) to give yourself something to concentrate on that is not pain. When the pain dies down some, I have found good results in stretching my neck and back in cycles: tilt head forward, backward, left, right, twist the head and neck counter-clockwise and clockwise, roll the head in a circle counter-clockwise and clockwise, roll the shoulders forward while arching the back forward, pull the shoulders back while arching the back backward, then repeat.

All this may seem like a lot, but I have found these steps to work without fail in all cases. Usually, I can take about 30 minutes to turn what was a blistering migraine into a mild headache, without medication. If those aren't results, I'm not sure what is.