Have you ever had a fall on your back?
How stressed are you at the office or at home?
How was your birth? Was it a struggle, were there any interventions?
How was your childhood? Do you think there are any unresolved traumas from back then?
Well, these are a few questions which you may ask yourself, in case you are clueless about how you ended up getting migraines or severe headaches. Acute, throbbing and generally one-sided headaches accompanied by light and sound sensitivity, nausea and vomiting is termed as migraine. The triggers of migraine could be many, but once identified we can reduce the intensity as well as its frequency.
In my BCST practise I get a lot of people struggling with migraine and severe headaches and I completely empathize with them, as I have also gone through countless migraine attacks for quite a long duration of time, without an understanding of why I was going through that process, until I started delving deep into my own body, and memories which gave me a fair idea of the root cause of the problem. While exploring I also understood the fact that the root causes and the triggers of the migraine may not be necessarily the same. For e.g., when I was in my early twenties, being in a sales job I used to ride around 50 kms every day. I would stretch and think my body adjusted and cooperated pretty well; I did not really give it much thought. However, slowly it manifested into lower back aches, stiffness in the spine and eventually headaches that flared up very frequently. I took medications which gave me only temporary relief, as it did not treat the root cause.
It’s when I got into BCST work, I started noticing my body's reaction to different emotions, food, work, situations and also people around me. I decided to try alternative healing modalities. I took many BCST sessions from my teachers and colleagues, wherein during the sessions sometimes, to my surprise I found myself crying, which was nothing but a form of venting out my emotional baggage. There were times, I experienced my body physically aligning while on other occasions I could feel shivers and vibrations in different parts of my body which was nothing but an immense nervous discharge. There was an instance wherein I came out of the session with a severe migraine attack and my therapist, who was my tutor then, told me “Sometimes pain is good” which made so much sense to me. It was back then, when I used to get frequent attacks, Today, I feel so much free, light and happy to say that both the frequency and intensity of my migraine has come down drastically. Besides taking BCST sessions I enrolled myself into yoga classes, learnt Sudarshan kriya – Art of living, got back to dance, did Chiqong, learnt swimming and I realized every time I swam my sinuses opened up which felt great! I took Marma sessions, Massages, Access Bar, Homeo medication, Aromatherapy, and most importantly started practising meditation daily to relax my body and mind. It took time and patience but the overall result has been great. Not only was my headache taken care of, I felt like achieving a new and improved level of overall physical and mental health.
So here, I am jotting down a few of my trigger points and what I do about it ...
- When I am dehydrated, my throat feels dry and my head starts getting heavy. The moment I realise it, I hydrate myself by drinking lots of water.
- When in the Sun, I feel a needling effect on my eyebrows leading to headache. Immediately I wear my sunglasses and cover my head with a stole.
- In case of too much stress or fatigue, a warm water bath with Epsom salt and a few drops of my favorite aroma oil in it helps.
- Excessive screen time. I try to take short breaks and wear my glasses.
- When I am constipated or in case of indigestion I drink lots of water , go for walks and increase my intake of fibrous food.
- During PMS, I just take ample rest.
- I realised, eggplant sometimes causes headaches, so I have completely cut down on eggplant from my diet.
- During cough and cold, I take steam and apply few drops of eucalyptus or peppermint oil on a cloth for frequent inhaling or mix it with coconut oil and apply on my head for some relief.
- Sometime I just do some breathing techniques to reduce the intensity of headaches.
- If nothing works, I pop in prescribed medicine by my doctor and take good rest
So, the idea is to identify your triggers and be creative around finding ways to avoid them and at the same time taking care of our body. Our body is very intelligent and it communicates to us in various ways. If there is any discomfort or pain then instead of worrying about it, let’s start thinking why is it happening in the first place and what should we do to make it better!
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