Tips on how to to alleviate migraine headaches

xUgh. Headaches. 🙁

Sometimes they are blinding. Literally.

If you get really bad headaches, or your headaches fall in the migraine category, this blog is for you. Read this before the next one strikes!
I have pulled three people out of migraines, and each time I did it the exact same way. Now, we broke the headache, but in all three cases the person suffering went to bed anyway to sleep off the exhaustion of managing the pain. All three were surprised to have the headache disappear, as they all had guessed this was going to be a doozy.

Like 24 hours out- of- commission doozy.

I realize there are different types of migraine sources. Maybe I just got lucky and none of the ladies I encountered happened to have anything amiss minus some big time muscle compensatory mechanisms. Even if your migraine is hormonal, give these tips a whirl!

Things you need to fight your battle with

Here are the things you’ll need to effectively battle that headache with:

• an ottoman or couch or chair or low bed, trunk, or window seat
• a floor
• something that weighs 2-ish pounds to put on your stomach to help you remember to breathe
• an eye pillow or hand towel to cover eyes
• yoga block or firm pillow or a roll of paper towels
• belt, yoga strap, scarf, shoelace, mini stretchy band

You’ve got your fancy (ha!) tools!

What’s happening?

Let’s talk about what is going on. You get a headache. Then you start to see stars or have blind spots or just have general light sensitivity.

Here’s why: the optic nerve in the eye is the biggest user of oxygen in the body. Something has kinked the supply of oxygen to the eyeballs, and I suspect good ole trap 1/2 (the muscle that connects into the bottom of your cabeza) is up to no good. Maybe on one side, maybe on both? It varies. Either way, it must be neutralized!

Remember the anatomy? Here that little turkey is again:

We are going to go the most conservative route to get your body to relax again. You are going to lie on the floor in one of my most favorite positions:

Static Back, or as my favorite LMT Kim Dewey of of heartsongforhealth.com massage calls it: 90/90/90

Step one

Place the eye pillow over the eyes, so we can quit taxing that optic nerve. Notice the position of the hands. Here with the eye pillow on is my sweet client Dianne. She has her palms facing down. Look what that does to her shoulder position. See how they round forward, even lying on the floor? In the photo above, and in subsequent photos, we made sure her palms were facing up to soak in all the energy the universe has to offer as well as help open up those shoulders out of “protect mode”– all curled forward.

Step two

Place something firm –in this case a yoga block– in between knees. Squeeze for a minute and 1/2 or my favorite 90 seconds. Feel the insides of the thighs, and only the insides of the thighs, working equally on both sides.

Step three

Place band (or scarf, shoelace, etc) around and above knees so that you have something to press out against. Hopefully you have been working on finding your glutes from other blogs you’ve read, 🙂 and when you press out against the strap you feel the outsides of the hips and glutes equally.

If this is a new thing for you, try for 90 seconds and then rest. You will be given the opportunity to try, try, try again! Once you get the band on, don’t slip it all the way off. Just drop it down a little, as we are going to alternate between these frequently.

Step four

BREATHE. Place a little weight or something slightly heavy on your stomach, and as you inhale, the weight rises. As you exhale, the weight drops. Work on that good core breathing, and inhaling and exhaling through the nose into what yoga calls the “front belly”, the “side belly”, and the “back belly”. Of the three exercises, this is easily the most important to get you out of light sensitivity mode.

I noticed with all three migraine sufferers that none of them were breathing much. It was very shallow. That just makes matters worse. Work on this. It is a deal maker and/or breaker!

Step five

REPEAT THIS SEQUENCE SEVEN TIMES, or more as necessary. If you fall asleep, all the better! I used to take naps in this position all the time. 🙂

Once upon a time, when I worked in San Diego, we had a person brought in on a stretcher in a wickedly horrible back spasm. This is what we did with her. Simply stabilized the insides of the hips, then the outsides of the hips, and then had her breathe. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat……..

She walked out. 🙂

Brilliant!

Let me know in the comments below how this simple sequence works for you….