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 Life without migraines...
Imagine sailing through your menstrual period without the painful tightening of those neck and shoulder muscles. Everyone who's had a migraine understands just how very debilitating migraines are - the nausea, vomiting, the gripping, throbbing pain, and that "rotten melon" head that's just sore all over.
Migraines are hellish. I know. (The model in the photo obviously doesn't have a real migraine or she'd look very different).
I used to have menstrual migraines every month, just like clockwork. This was in the days before Imitrex and the other powerful drugs they have now. Back then, one just crawled into bed and wished for death.
The Complete Wellness Program
Will
my program work for you? It's hard to say. Migraines are complex
conditions and everyone is a reality unique to themselves. I draw upon
Ayurvedic and TCM principles which work with patterns, so we'd need to
determine your physical constitution, whether your migraines are due to
deficiency or excess, triggered from an internal or external source,
etc. We also look at Five Elements
correspondences to determine possible patterns of emotional disharmony
that could be influencing migraines.
Every person I've known with migraines (and I've
worked with many) has what's been referred to as a "type A" personality
(high Pitta, Ayurvedically speaking), either expressed obviously to
others through personality traits, or just expressed within themselves as an
inner critic which constantly pushes them towards perfection. Also,
people who are predominantly Vata can have a tendency towards "deficiency" migraines, stemming more from a
state of exhaustion and depletion (along with the inner critic). Does this sound like you?
How crucial is
this? I know from experience that when the emotional component is
addressed along with the other aspects of migraine, that migraines can
completely lift out of your life...not just retreat underground, so to
speak, but to have that shadow truly be gone. This can be done combining
Five Elements Acupressure with guided visualization.
Here's how
I see migraines: not everyone gets them, but those who prone to them
seem to be highly sensitive to change, and are just standing a whole
lot closer to that "cliff" of cascading events which trigger
migraines. For example, four out of five people could notice that the
weather was suddenly changing, the fifth would begin to feel the empty,
heavy pressure of a sinus/occipital headache. Almost all women get
periods, but not all women get menstrual migraines; perhaps your
hormonal pattern may be just hovering next to the migraine brink, and a
change in hormone levels, stress or a food trigger might set it off.
Because
of my personal experience with them, I do everything I can to help
people find relief. Everyone's situation and medical history is
different, so I can't guarantee the level of results at this level of
explanation. If you're interested in finding out if my approach can
help you, please email me for a free telephone consultation, and we'll
go from there.
My Personal Experience with Migraines
My migraines were due to a family pattern - I had full blown migraines just before the start of every period (just like my mother and grandmother) which would suddenly switch off when my flow began. This pattern started after being on the Pill for just a few months.
On the Pill, I began having frequent monstrous migraines, so bad that I couldn't see straight or even turn my head, and even after I stopped taking the Pill, the migraines had became linked to my cycles and I was off and running with my mother's and grandmother's menstrual migraine pattern -- they got menstrual migraines after being pregnant, and the Pill fools the body into thinking it's pregnant.
I was just beginning to get interested in holistic health at that time, and wasn't even a massage therapist at that point, but began my long and determined journey to figure out how to lessen the intensity and frequency of them, and maybe someday be free of those awful headaches.
I experimented with reducing salt before my period, and exercising more, avoiding different foods, and found that these all had a slight impact, but not significant. I would get through the migraine by applying heat to the back of my neck to relax the muscles and taking Tylenol, and this helped some.
As I learned more about holistic approaches to health, I found ways to balance my body and my mind and emotions to where the migraines stopped completely for two years. When I entered menopause, though, they returned, although not nearly as intense. However, I was getting them every 5 days, which was unacceptable to me.
I was referred by a friend to an Ayurvedic practitioner, which was my introduction to the wonders of Ayurveda, and that was the turning point in my relationship to migraines. With her help, I was able to balance my physical constitution, and almost immediately, this lessened the intensity of the headaches. It allowed me to loosen the migraine pattern's grip, and I have been free of migraines since then. Partly, this is due to finishing menopause and having quite low hormone levels; it's also because I know what to do if something provokes the pattern (such as a weather change, or food allergen) and I feel the beginnings of what I call a "shadow" migraine. I can then easily take appropriate steps to unplug it and prevent it from taking hold.
It took me years of exploration and experimentation to figure out how to release migraines. I invite you to benefit from my experience and to give this approach a try. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have in a free 20 minute mini-consultation to see if I do can help you.
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