Mindfulness and Migraines

[betty.etal]

I am really starting to understand how important mindfulness is. To be able to simply stay with what is arising without judgment and with compassion is huge.

Yesterday I had a huge trauma trigger which led to the flashing lights warning of an oncoming migraine. Normally the pain is really bad following this for 2 to 3 days. I decided to try to just stay with present sensation and went and lay down on my bed and did a body scan, and the flashing lights abated. The pain came on, but nowhere near as severe as usual.

Throughout the day I did sitting and walking meditation, keeping my awareness on both the sensation of my breathing and the sensation of the pain in my head. I used a phrase that my new meditation teacher introduced me to, which he learnt from Thich Nhat Hahn. You note the sensation or emotion on the inbreath, then on the out breath simply say "I'm here for you" to the sensation or emotion. I find with my compassion strengthening through my daily metta practice, it is flowing into the phrase too, and it's very powerful. It's a totally different experience to in the past, where I can now see I was being with in order to try to make the pain go away.

If anyone suffers from migraines, I seriously recommend meditating through them as much as you can. I'm curious to see whether the next time I'm triggered I'm able to simply just be with my breath and the flashing lights stage too!

Betty

[Gareth]

Hi Betty,

I sometimes have trigeminal neuralgia 'attacks.' I too have found that the best way to handle them is to actually meditate through them.

This is a very powerful practice.

[betty.etal]

That's brilliant Gareth. It is so empowering isn't it, to be able to bring awareness to something that in the past was 100% horrible, and increase our ability to be with it in a more accepting way.

Betty

[FeeHutch]

I get severe migraines since the SAH and have found staying with the pain rather than trying to fight it very helpful too.

[Metaphysical Me]

First bad migraine in over two months today... Mindfulness is helping, but only a *bit*

[betty.etal]

Janey - I never had any success in the past. The key seems to be when you can shift to a stance of being there for the pain, rather than being with it to try to make it go away. I never realised I was doing the later til it shifted and felt so different. That tip of Thich Nhat Hanh's worked so well for me - breathing in noting the sensation, breathing out saying "I'm here for you". So like "tension, I'm here for you." Hope you find something that helps.

Betty

[larorra]

I am so pleased for those of you who are finding mindfulness a help dealing with migranes and hope that one day I will get to that stage too. I find that mindfulness is helping me cope better when I am ill or arthritis pains but when I have a blinding headache, (not even a migraine) I find it hard to do a meditation, it happened on the weekend (must have been a 24 hour bug) which started with a headache and I was sick every time I moved and I just could not meditate and decided to be kind to myself, as in the past I would scold myself for not being able to do a meditation, but that is not being mindful either. I just accepted that I could not do it that day, and rested until I felt better.

[Metaphysical Me]

Janey - I never had any success in the past. The key seems to be when you can shift to a stance of being there for the pain, rather than being with it to try to make it go away.

Betty

Oh, Betty, you're right! That's what I should have been doing! Poop...

I was so in the mode of "make it go away, make it go away, make it go away" that I didn't even come close to reaching *that* level of mindfulness.

Oh dear.

I *do* know what you and Thich Nhat Hanh mean - I have managed to do that "it's okay for the pain to be here" thing before - I think maybe when I'd put my back out? I can't remember now. I know it's a *totally* different mode to the "make it go away" mode.

I'm such a terrible patient tho, when it comes to pain, illness, sickness, discomfort! I ALWAYS want it to go away! I'm never patient and allow it to be... I'm always so desperate for it to stop, so that I can feel healthy and pain-free!

Oof... I think I'll have to check out my "pain and mindfulness" book again... I don't seem to have learned those lessons very well, yet!! (See Amazon link below, if anyone's interested in the book)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/B005GGMFII/ref=sib_dp_kd#reader-link

Many, many thanks for the reminder, Betty!!

I'm having "migraine hangover" today, so still feeling off sorts. Good opportunity to *try* and to do the "I'm here for you" approach - tho everything in me shrinks from it and is horrified at the thought!

But if you / y'all can do it - I guess then somehow I can too, huh?

Much love
XXX
Janey

[Metaphysical Me]

P.S. I remember now, that the last time that I did manage that true mindfulness approach to pain and illness - I pretended that I was one of the first "doctors" around the times of the ancient Greeks, etc...

I pretended that we didn't have the medical knowledge that we do in our Western society today, and pretended that I was a medical student or young doctor who was absolutely fascinated by health/ illness / the body and all it's functions and malfunctions...

I decided that if I wanted to find a cure or treatment for the ailment, then I would first have to observe it minutely, noting each and every symptom, no matter how small or how intense or how unpleasant. I'd have to be very precise and not allow my personal experience of it to get me muddled up in my scientific observation of it.

I don't recall what illness or complaint I had (I know I had a bad flu in autumn, so maybe that was it?) but that approach really did help - and it was even *interesting* to observe what was going on in my body - and when observing it neutrally, it wasn't nearly as bad or awful as when experiencing it in my usual "patient" mode, where I feel helpless and want medicines/ doctors to "make it all go away" as quickly as possible and feel lost and upset when that doesn't happen...

[Metaphysical Me]

P.P.S. Pretending to be a medical student in ancient Greece is cheating tho, isn't it - it's not TRUE mindfulness in the sense of "I am at peace with my pain" or "My soul accepts that pain and illness are part of life"...

I guess that if doing a bit of cheating on your mindfulness is the best you can manage at that point in time, that's okay... But I do know that it would be a bigger and better step, if I could actually, truly be at peace with illness and pain...