What is mindfulness? In a nutshell, it’s about being aware of what you’re thinking, feeling and doing in the present moment. But how does this relate to migraines? Here are some ideas to think about..
1) Accepting your migraines :
Acceptance doesn’t mean that you have to resign yourself to living with migraines forever! It means that you can learn techniques that help improve your migraines, rather than fighting them all the time. With mindfulness you can start accepting your migraines as an inevitable part of life (even though they shouldn’t be), which in turn will help you relax more.and take migraines less seriously.
2) Chronic migraines? Try mindfulness! :
Mindfulness is especially recommended for people who have chronic migraines, or migraines that are particularly severe and/or frequent. Acceptance of migraines as an inevitable part of life can be really powerful in helping you to relax and reduce those migraines, so they don’t feel so unbearable anymore.
3) Mindful vs mindless eating:
A common trigger for migraines is linked to your diet – studies show that around 75% of migraine sufferers eat much more cheese than the average person (and some other foods too), while many others are triggered by chocolate . And interestingly, on a related note, migraines were found to be improved in around 15% of individuals who ate a diet that restricted common migraine triggers. The point is, migraines can often be linked to your diet – and if you’re eating too much of the wrong foods, or perhaps drinking too much coffee or caffeine, then mindfulness could really help with migraines.
4) Pain-relief:
Studies have shown that among people with migraines, there’s often an association between migraines and anxiety / depression . And the link between migraines and pain sensitivity has also been noted. It seems logical to conclude that mindfulness may help with migraines by helping reduce pain sensitivity , which would improve migraines indirectly. Mindfulness teaches awareness (being aware of the painful sensations that migraines cause), and it also teaches you to not take migraines too seriously, which helps with pain.
5) Stress:
What is stress? It’s our reaction to challenges – it’s important for survival, but can also become harmful if we are stressed too often. Studies show that migraines are linked to high levels of stress . Mindfulness can help reduce migraines by improving your general state of mind , and reducing your overall levels of stress. This in turn will improve your migraines indirectly, as well as helping any migraines you’re currently experiencing .
Remember migraines are an inevitable part of life for some people. With this in mind, migraines can be accepted as a reality that you have to learn to live with. This mindfulness approach is more helpful than fighting migraines all the time – after all, acceptance doesn’t mean giving up trying to reduce migraines; it just means learning to see migraine attacks as a normal and inevitable part of your life (even though they shouldn’t be), rather than something horrible that must be avoided at all costs (if you hold migraines as being so awful, you’ll only stress about them).
