December 2011 Headache and Migraine Blog Carnival
The Headache & Migraine Disease Blog Carnival has been created to provide both headache patients and people who blog about headaches with opportunities to share ideas on topics of particular interest and importance to us.
The topic for the blog carnival this month is "Reducing Holiday-Related Migraine Triggers: Share your best advice, tips & tricks for minimizing triggers while still fully enjoying the holiday season."
Migraine triggers. Ugh. We all have them, even though some of us don’t want to admit it, we have them. They may hide under the surface of our daily life, under our skin, or in our homes. But be assured, they are there. Now the holidays are in full swing, do you know where are your triggers hiding?
Most of us are knowledgable about what our triggers are and try to avoid them. These can include dehydration, certain foods and alterations in our sleeping patterns, among others. But how about those triggers we can’t avoid? What on earth are we supposed to do with these? We can’t make the barometric pressure stay even. What about hormonal fluctuations? It would be nice for some of us not to ride the hormone rollercoaster every month. What is your plan to avoid your triggers during the holidays?
I’ll tell you mine - I’m going to try meditation. I don’t mean full-blown meditation -- doing it in lotus position and candles kind of meditation. Yet. I’m going to take a few seconds a couple times a day to become self aware of my body and listen to it. Something I rarely do. For just a few seconds at a time I will focus on me. Perhaps when I stop at a red light, and my mind starts to wander and worry, instead of letting my mind go with those thoughts, I’m going to stop them. Then concentrate on one small part of my body for as long as the light is red, which should be only a few short seconds.
I did it today. I was idling at a red light this morning, my mind immediately started to wander and worry. I put an end to the worries and thought about what my head felt like. It felt heavy. Not my entire head, just a narrow band below my hairline that extended all the way around my head. It had a throbbing, pressure like feel to it. By the time I figured that out, the light was turning green. Feeling the pain and really noticing what, where and how my head hurt was interesting. Practicing this sort of mediation everyday for just a few seconds a day can help me become aware of my body, something I desperately need to do.
I’ve taken care of people for 25 years, but now I think it’s time to take care of me. I seem to be programmed to help and care for others. This doesn’t benefit me in any way. The worst part is, I hardly know how to practice self-care. This holiday season I’m starting to meditate in hopes it will make me more self aware. Hopefully, this will allow me to become more mindful of my self-care and become better at it. It may even help reduce some Migraine triggers.
Happy Holidays
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© Nancy Harris Bonk, 2011.
Last updated December 9, 2011.
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