Identifying Your Pre-Migraine Emotions

The warning signs of migraine often come days before a migraine headache attacks. Many migraine sufferers experience pre-migraine symptoms including negative emotions that can be hard to ignore. Migraineurs often report feeling overly-emotional. More specifically, pre-migraine emotions can include feeling anxious, exhausted, confused, hyperactive, frustrated, overwhelmed, etc.

Although these are all common emotions for everyone, the level of intensity that accompanies these emotions can exacerbate your illness and leave you more vulnerable to migraine attacks. Becoming more aware of your emotions throughout the day and acknowledging the level of intensity they carry is key to maintaining an internal environment that doesn’t fuel your migraines.

Effective migraine management always includes good emotional awareness and stress relief skills. When it comes to migraine disease, your emotions can make or break you. The more aware you become of your emotions and the level of intensity they carry the better able you will be to transform these pre-migraine emotions before they lead you beyond the point of no return.  When negative emotions are ruling your day and coloring your perspective it’s time to take a step back, breathe and acknowledge the physiological impact these emotions are having on your body.  Next, you can address the cause of these emotions head on with an intention to create emotional peace and well-being. 

Tune into your emotions before they take you places you don’t want to go!

Creating a daily log of your emotions can better help you determine when you are entering into the pre-migraine stage.   Recognizing the stressful emotions that appear as pre-migraine symptoms is just as important as identifying your migraine triggers when you’re working towards migraine prevention.

Think of your emotions as friendly guides that are always letting you know whether you are heading towards the migraine free zone or heading towards a full blown migraine attack. Negative emotions, the level of intensity in which you experience them, and the length of time you hold onto them can create an overload of stress that exacerbates migraine disease.  Just developing an awareness of your pre-migraine emotions can prompt you to heed their warning and engage in self care practices that promote a sense of calm, balance, and well-being. 

The Daily Emotions Log:

Tracking your emotions throughout the day will help you become more aware of the emotional warning signs that precede your migraines. As you begin to identify your warning signs, you can take new action and direction. You can identify your pre-migraine emotions and the level of intensity that accompanies them. You can create new habits that help you maintain a greater sense of well-being and balance. You can create new habits that support you in choosing positive and balanced emotions.

Below is a copy of the Daily Emotions Log that you can download immediately. It’s designed to support you in becoming more aware of your emotions and the level of intensity to which you experience each emotion. Be patient with yourself as you find the most appropriate emotion to describe how you are feeling. Whatever the emotion is, positive or negative, write it down.

Next, rate the level of intensity that accompanies the emotion. If you decide that you are feeling “impatient” take note of the level of intensity this emotion carries. Are you mildly impatient? Are you feeling moderately impatient? Is there a great sense of urgency or intensity to this feeling of impatience? Basically you are rating your emotion in terms of how extreme or intense it feels. Your rating will be based on a scale of 1-10.

A rating of (1) will signify that there is very slight sense of urgency or intensity attached to the emotion. A rating of (5) will signify that the emotion carries a moderate amount of intensity. A rating of (10) will signify that the emotion you are experiencing carries an extreme sense of intensity.

Although it’s invaluable to practice shifting your negative emotions regardless of the level of intensity and urgency that they carry, any negative emotions that you rate at five or higher will reveal a significant need to relieve these emotions as soon as possible.

Track your emotions daily over the next few weeks. Take measures in relieving intense and negative emotions as they arise. Your goal is to become more aware of your pre-migraine emotions, practice weakening their intensity, limit the amount of time you spend wrapped up in them, and reach for more balanced and healthy emotions.  

Download Here: Natural Migraine Relief Daily Emotions Log

Left click on the link above and you will be taken to the download page. Once there, you can left click your mouse again to view the document and save a copy to your computer or you can “right click” and choose “save target as” to download the document to your computer.