Breathe out while releasing the arms and moving them down to the sides of your body. For example, breathe in while you bring your arms up, touching the palms above your head. In yoga, your breath is connected to every move you make. Over time, I learned that returning to the fundamentals of yoga could help me daily. Taking Yoga Off the Mat and Into Your Life I could no longer ignore the signals that screamed for me to eat more regularly, drink more water, or stretch out my body. Eventually, I felt more in tune with what my body was trying to tell me-I had just never stopped to listen before. With each session, I learned something new about the practice and about my body. No one was looking at me, no one was judging me … except myself.Įach class was a crapshoot, never knowing if stretching out my body would be healing or hurtful. But that wasn’t where I was yet, and I had to learn to give myself some slack. I had put so much pressure on myself to be able to gracefully transition between poses or hold my gaze steady while balancing on one foot. She told me she would give me modifications, but the most important thing was just to stay in the room for the entirety of the class, which I did!

I told the yogi about my health issues and limitations I wasn’t sure I could endure an hour-long class. Frustration does not even begin to explain the defeat I felt.Īfter a year of weekly training sessions, I felt brave enough to step onto my mat in a classroom. When I returned to the gym, I felt like I was starting all over again. Then I would have a setback, losing weeks of work to being confined to bed. Some days, I felt I was making progress … baby steps towards endurance. I enlisted the help of a trainer, who had no knowledge of my condition, but who researched workouts and modifications that would help me succeed and not incite a migraine. It was something my athletic boyfriend had been urging me to do as well. When my doctor suggested I go on short-term disability, I decided to make exercise a priority. Yet all I could focus on was working and sleeping. I needed to open up my body and my heart center. My muscles were always in a constant state of fatigue, which only contributed to my pain. Looking back, it made perfect sense to get out of bed and get on my mat. Actually walking down the street seemed impossible. When my migraine disease became chronic, any form of yoga seemed impossible. It helped me during a difficult time in my life. I practiced Bikram yoga, or hot yoga, for years. It’s taken years of diligent practice to find what “taking your practice with you” means to me. It gives me the greatest relief, energizes my soul, and challenges me the most.Īt the end of my favorite yoga class on Sunday nights, my yogi says, “Take the support from this group into the rest of your evening and take this practice with you throughout your week.” Yoga doesn’t just live on the mat in a class it can guide you through your day. Yoga is the one self-healing measure I have found the most comfort in.

Throughout my journey, I’ve tried massage therapy, dry needling, natural supplements, biofeedback, chiropractic, meditation, and more. I’m very open with my headache specialist about what I want to try, and she’s always been supportive. I strive to manage my migraine disease through a mix of medication and complementary and alternative medicines. On the flip side, over 80 percent of patients report they use some form of CAM, and only half tell their doctor about it because they are afraid of being judged.

He reports that less than 20 percent of headache specialists surveyed incorporate any type of CAM into treatment plans. Cowan believes most physicians lean on evidence-based medications that have been proven in FDA-approved clinical trials, while dismissing alternative methods that are harder to study under standard scientific procedures. Some examples of CAM are yoga, meditation, acupuncture, massage therapy, homeopathy, biofeedback, and natural supplements.ĭr. Robert Cowan’s paper “CAM in the Real World: You May Practice Evidence-Based Medicine, But Your Patients Don’t,” he explores the notion that patients with migraine disease often incorporate complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) into their treatment regime, although it is a topic often left out of the discussion between physician and patient.

Yoga with adriene yoga for migraines