A Migraine Free New Year
I love New Year’s Resolutions. I love fresh starts. I love setting goals. What I don’t love is the pressure or expectation that you must do everything perfectly from this day forward, or you’ve ruined your shot at making this your best year yet.
Setting a resolution for a “migraine-free” New Year sounds great in theory because who doesn’t want an entire year free of migraines? But it’s also setting us up for complete failure because that’s not something that we can directly control.
What goals can we set with migraine?
We certainly can’t control the unpredictable and unexplained migraines, no more than we can control the migraines triggered by the weather. So, what if we flipped the approach this year to focus on doing more of the habits that simply support better health for us? What if our goal this year was to stay connected to a community of people who can support us through this chronic illness? (Hi! That’s us here, please stick around and become a regular around here. We’re also on Facebook, so come chat with us there too!) Or if you’ve been frustrated with your care, what if you focused this year on building a care team that you feel supported by? This is something that we often wish for but don’t always take the time to intentionally do the work to make it happen. Personally, I didn’t feel like getting good care should be “work,” but it is, and it’s worth the time and energy it takes to make it happen.
Where can we start?
Let’s use this example. If your goal is to live with fewer migraines this year, and your resolution is to build a supportive and collaborative care team, then your first step could be deciding who you want to be on your team. So, you start to ask around, what practitioners are fellow migraineurs getting relief from?
If you asked me, I would tell you that a good neurologist is essential; bodyworkers have been extremely helpful to me – I love acupuncture, cranial sacral therapy, and an occasional massage – and a good nutritionist and/or trainer. Your knee-jerk reaction may be, “It sounds nice, but that’s not in my budget.” Okay, let’s start there.
What if our budget gets in the way?
Let’s put the budget aside for a second and select the provider that is your highest priority. If it’s the neurologist, start asking around for recommendations and checking insurance coverage and availability for new patient appointments. If you want a bodyworker to address muscular tension that triggers migraines for you and you’re on a limited budget, you can search YouTube for some cheap at-home massage techniques. I’ll tell you two that have been extremely helpful for me are foam rollers and, even more so, a tennis ball. You may even have a tennis ball in your home right now. There are also so many free yoga classes on YouTube that you can do at home.
My point with all of this is that this creates a plan of action that is within your control and doesn’t feel like one day you’re going to mess up and ruin your goal for the entire year. Chunk it down to accomplishing one step each month and watch how much momentum you can build over time with this approach.
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