I have had daily headaches for over 30 years and yes, it has been a challenge managing them. It started when I was in my 30’s studying for my comprehensive exams in order to receive a Masters Degree in Health Education. The daily pain was unrelieved using Aspirin so I finally went in for the battery of tests that the healthcare system is so fond of using and left with a pain-relieving medication in hand.
Well that didn’t work after a few weeks and they were back in full force once again. And what did the physician say to me at this point? It looks like your headaches are due to stress and you need to do something about that. But what? I had no information on how to proceed.
Ironically I was working as a Health Service Director on a campus and decided to check in with the Psychologist to see if he could give me guidance on how to manage my stress and reduce these headaches. Luckily he had the answer and hooked me up to a biofeedback machine with electrodes on my scalp which gave me a visual picture on a monitor of rapid muscle contractions from the tension I was holding on to. After talking me thru some deep breathing sequences I saw the muscle activity slow down which showed me that I was relaxing those muscles on my own and starting to get some relief from the headache.
WOW – finally a tool I could use to start managing those headaches without drugs. So that is how my journey began into the world of stress management techniques to stave off the pain. And caused me to have to actually do a relaxation technique every morning when I woke up to get my day started pain free. But this is not the end of the story.
Another breakthrough came when I was taking nurses on retreat to Sanoviv Holistic Healing Center in Rosarito Mexico www.sanoviv.com for nutrition training. While there I heard about “Body Code” which was a new treatment they were trying out because it was natural and the healing results were almost miraculous. So I thought I would give it a try.
The practitioner started by asking me I wanted to work on today? And of course I said HEADACHES! And thru the course of one hour of conversation I had uncovered a specific incident in my early life (age 5) where I felt ashamed at something I had done which had disappointed my parents and it was a trigger that contributed to my headaches being chronic for all these years. And now I know how to re-imagine that event which has greatly reduced my headaches. Such a simple process and such great results!
Check out this resource to learn more about how you can manage chronic headaches.
Connect with me if you would like a sample coaching session on how to help you better manage stress.