Creating Your Natural Migraine Relief Sanctuary

It’s natural to get lost in the throws of fear when you experience a migraine attack. So much uncertainty accompanies a migraine. You don’t know how long they will last. You can’t be certain of the specific symptoms each migraine may bring. You don’t know how intense the pain will become.

As human beings, we just don’t like not knowing. In fact, we resist the hell out of it. Yet, it’s that same resistance that keeps fear alive, increases stress levels, and creates physiological imbalances in the body that migraines feed off.

Migraines can make you feel defenseless, hopeless, and simply out of control. I know. I’ve been there.

In my own journey with migraines, I’ve learned that the difference between managing a migraine well and letting a migraine take over my life has a lot to do with facing each migraine attack without letting fear intensify my suffering.

Fear and Migraines

Fear will always negatively influence your experience with a migraine. And I mean always. On a pain scale of 1-10, fear has the power to shoot a pain rating of 5 all the way up to 10 if you let it. The truth is, in taking greater control of your fear you can take greater control of your migraine attack.

There are strategies you can implement on the onset of a migraine attack that can help you turn the tide of your experience, influence your body’s ability to heal, and help you to be and feel more in control of your experience.

As with any stressful experience, the more prepared and useful we feel the better able we are in avoiding having our fear get the better of us. Below you will find some useful and proactive measures you can take during any migraine attack that will support your body’s ability to heal, help you to maintain some peace of mind, and keep fear from intensifying and strengthening your migraine attack.

Creating Your Natural Migraine Relief Sanctuary

The bedroom is usually the best place for you to create your healing sanctuary and promote natural migraine relief. Creating your ideal sanctuary will include making sure that this space is:

Quiet

Many people who have migraines experience sound sensitivity. Many forms of sound can be jarring to your nervous system during an attack. Creating a quiet space for yourself will help you to instill a greater sense of calm and peace within. Think of noise as an additional stimulant your mind and body can do without right now.

Dark

Light sensitivity is another discomfort that comes with migraines. Turning off all the lights in your bedroom will also support you in creating a calming and peaceful environment free from additional irritants.

Warm

Many people also feel very cold when they have a migraine attack. Poor circulation during an attack is the cause of this sensation of cold. Particularly the hands and feet can get very cold. When we feel cold, we tend to tighten our muscles, and this muscle constriction works against our desire to achieve migraine pain relief.

You want your muscles to be free from tension. Muscle tension will only exacerbate your migraine. You want your muscles to relax and let go of any tension in the body.

So your mission in achieving natural migraine relief involves bringing warmth to your body’s extremities without bringing tension into the body.

Warming your body’s extremities will help to improve your circulation and shift the direction of your blood flow. Right now, the last place you want all your blood to be flowing is to the head.

So if you experience sensations of cold, put on some wool socks, wrap your hands in a cozy pair of gloves or mittens, and bundle yourself up under the covers in your bed. As your arms and legs begin to warm you will find it easier to relax and let go of any muscle tension.

What to Wear?

Make sure that any clothing you are wearing is comfortable and non-restrictive. No shoes, belts, bras, panty hose, or ties are welcome in your sanctuary. Loose, soft, warm and comfortable clothing is what you what you want to be wearing. Restrictive items of clothing can keep your body from relaxing and keep your breathing from being full and relaxed. Constrictive breathing and shallow breathing are not model forms of breathing for creating natural migraine relief.

Set aside a cozy selection of clothing for any time you have a migraine. Create a space in one of your drawers for a cozy and soft pair of loose fitting pants or pajama bottoms, a soft and warm shirt, socks, and gloves. Make them easily accessible so that putting on your sanctuary clothing is practically effortless.

Remember, when you get a migraine the “small things” can feel like big tasks. Set yourself up for success so that taking care of yourself and achieving natural migraine relief feels undoable.

Ice packs

Have an ice pack already prepared for you and waiting in the freezer. Once you are in bed, let the ice pack cradle your neck and your muscles at the back of your head. Keep the rest of your body warm. The ice will help shift the direction of your blood flow away from the head and help to ease the throbbing pain of your migraine. An ice pack applied in this way can be very powerful in generating natural migraine relief.

Once you are nestled into your natural migraine relief sanctuary, congratulate yourself for being prepared and successfully setting the stage for your healing. You can take control! You can make a difference in your experience. Remind yourself of this and begin the process of easing your fears.

Water

Keeping a large glass or bottle of water by your bed side is important. Migraines create emotional, mental and physical stress. Stress creates dehydration, and dehydration creates more stress in the body. It’s a vicious cycle that will worsen your experience with your migraine if you don’t stay hydrated.

Stay conscious of how important it is for you to be drinking water right now.

Just look what you’ve achieved already in Your Natural Migraine Relief Sanctuary!

• You’ve removed two unnecessary irritants by creating a space for yourself that is quiet and dark. 

• You’ve taken necessary steps to warm your body’s extremities and improve your circulation, which will help you release muscular tension and unwanted stress in the body.

• You’ve applied ice to the back of your neck which will also help your blood flow in shifting direction away from your head and softening the pain.

• You’ve got your water bottle at your side and you are keeping yourself well hydrated and avoiding the vicious cycle of stress and dehydration that can worsen your migraine pain

Now that you’ve come this far, you can continue to support your body in moving through this migraine.

Remember, achieving natural migraine relief is about focusing on the things that are within your control. Right now, you can begin controlling your breathing, and in doing so, you can influence your nervous system in coming back into balance and also support all of the muscles in your body in relaxing.

You’ve already created a quiet and calming environment around you, now it’s time to create that same environment within you.

Breathe Deeply, Slowly and Fully

Lying down as comfortably as possible in your bed, begin doing some breathing exercises that promote natural migraine relief such as Diaphragmatic Breathing. Diaphragmatic Breathing will help to balance your nervous system, which is exactly what your body needs right now.

Let your mind gently focus on your breathing practice for about 20-30 minutes. You will find this practice to be soothing and relaxing to your entire body. It will help your mind to calm and keep your thoughts from racing away from you or getting lost in fear. Just as you don’t want your body to be overly stimulated right now you also don’t want your mind to be overly stimulated right now.

If you find your mind racing away from you as you breathe, bring your attention back to your breath. Follow each inhalation and exhalation with your mind. This will help to slow and calm your mind down.

You can also give yourself a positive frame of focus if you feel like you need a thought to hold onto. Practice silently repeating to yourself any of the following healing mantras that appeal to you:

“I can relax and breathe.”
“My body knows exactly how to heal.”
“My body is healing itself right now.”

Remember, the thoughts you hold have the power to create stress in the body or release stress from the body. They have the power to intensify migraine pain or promote natural migraine relief. Create thoughts that release stress and support your body in doing what it needs to do in order to heal right now.

As you practice your breathing, notice your muscles relaxing, notice your hands, arms, legs and feet warming. Acknowledge yourself for creating these changes. Acknowledge yourself for being able to create changes in your body that positively influence your ability to move past this migraine.

(This exercise has the power to decrease your pain, relax your muscles, properly oxygenate your body, and soothe and calm you tremendously and it may likely bring you into a deep and relaxing sleep.)

Maintaining an Internal Environment that Promotes Natural Migraine Relief

As you continue to focus on relaxing your body and calming your mind you might practice silently reciting gratitudes to yourself. Reciting all the things you are grateful for in this moment can help your mind and body to deepen into a state of calm and balance.

Recite your gratitudes silently in your mind and let yourself get into the “feeling place” of each gratitude. All thoughts create feelings, and your body responds to your feelings. Your gratitudes can have a powerful effect on your body right now.

Examples of Gratitudes:

I am grateful for the soft touch of these flannel sheets over my body
I am grateful for having a quiet room to go to when I need it.
I am grateful for my reliable car that got me home safely and quickly
I am grateful for the cold ice pack on my neck that is dulling the pain
I am grateful for having quiet neighbors
I am grateful that my hands are beginning to warm and feel more comfortable now
I am grateful for the people in my life who love me in spite of my migraines
I am grateful that my children are playing quietly in their room right now
I am grateful for my daughter bringing me some more water
I am grateful that my muscles have relaxed
I am grateful for having a safe place to go when I get a migraine
I am grateful for the way my body feels when it relaxes
I am grateful for all the ways my body supports me

(This exercise will further stimulate natural migraine relief and will promote a deepened sense of calm and relaxation that will help you influence the balance of your nervous system. Many have reported that it has also been the trick in lulling them into a deep and restful sleep.)

Take greater control of your migraines by creating your natural migraine relief sanctuary today. And remember that it’s important to create a healing sanctuary within yourself as well. Don’t let fear intensify and prolong your migraine episode. There are plenty of ways for you to support your body in healing.

Get started today with using natural migraine relief breathing techniques that will help you release your fears and get the most out of your experience in the healing sanctuary you create for yourself.

For more ideas on adding to your natural migraine relief sanctuary please check out Home Remedies for Migraines