Who wants to think they will always be in pain?
Not satisfied with sitting around, headache patients set out to find solutions. They seek help from neurologists, psychologists, and a variety of other specialists, who usually prescribe several medications to manage the pain and other symptoms — and even the primary medications’ side effects. After much trial and error, they might seem to be doing better, but then the medications cease working, and so they begin their search for help again. Patients change therapies and doctors, add new specialists, and try complementary approaches, yet still they suffer.
Suzette, vice president of worldwide marketing for a high-tech company, had suffered from excruciating migraines since she was five years old. Through thirty years of dealing with pain, she had been “misdiagnosed, mismanaged, and misunderstood by traditional doctors, chiropractors, and alternative therapists.” Hers was not the occasional headache that goes away with a couple of aspirin: she experienced the overwhelming combination of pain, nausea, and sensitivity to smells and light that is typical for migraine sufferers. Her search for relief was also typical:
I had learned everything I could that science and medicine have uncovered about the diagnosis, treatment, and medications for migraine. My treatment over the years included almost every type of preventive medication and pain reliever, from beta-blockers, epilepsy drugs, narcotic painkillers, and muscle relaxants to herbal remedies, supplements, and anti-nausea medication. I tried eliminating trigger foods, stressful situations, and schedule changes. In the last ten years, I was able to find one drug that worked well in stopping a headache if it was injected at the first sign of pain. Unfortunately, I knew my time was limited in using the drug because of its rebound qualities, and I wondered about possible effects on my heart as I grew older.
Suzette’s story — of pain, frustration, and a remedy that complicates the original problem — is echoed by millions, and for many, a downward spiral of despair takes hold.
The Healing Challenge
Fortunately, that’s right where The Headache Healer’s Handbook comes in. This book walks you through the Mundo Program of mind-body therapies and practices to help you identify, reduce, and eliminate the causes of your headaches — and improve your overall health. It isn’t magic; it’s cause and effect: you make changes and get a new result.
By uncovering the clues in your daily life and understanding how they relate to your headaches, individually and in combination, you can crack the case like a detective. You will be successful if you are aware, thorough, and take each step slowly — and if you are willing to take new actions and shift old habits. After all, even a pill won’t work if you don’t swallow it. If you accept the challenge, your headaches will diminish and disappear.
Everything counts. Everything you do and are adds up to your pain. Change occurs when you claim self-empowerment, use “beginner’s mind,” incorporate stress reduction and hands-on therapies, and examine the deeper realms of your life. As the program unfolds, you will be able to summon your inner headache warrior, detective, and coach.
Somatic Self-Care
This self-care path takes a somatic approach, which means it works with your inner awareness of body, mind, emotions, and spirit. The term somatics, coined by Dr. Thomas Hanna, derives from the Greek word soma, or “living body.” A somatic approach defines the body as an expression of one’s entire being. More than simply a collection of mechanical parts, the body holds our life experience, including our history, and shapes our thinking, language, moods, and actions.
But how can somatic awareness heal headaches if modern medicine can’t? Somatic self-care addresses a different realm than that of standard medical treatment and even some alternative therapies. In a somatic approach, the treatment is the process. It empowers you to take healing into your own hands. A pill doesn’t address why and how you collect stress in your shoulders, clench your jaw, or stop breathing. Neither does it teach you how those factors contribute to your headaches, how to change them, or when and why you first embodied them.
Beyond tips and techniques, somatic self-care builds awareness of your automatic, unproductive reactions or patterns when they arise. It includes your inner experience and opens possibilities for shifting yourself in the moment. In this way, you can affect those seemingly unbreakable patterns that have added to your stress and challenged your health.
Life without Headaches: A Coach’s Promise
How can you change your outlook from one of despair, fear, and powerlessness to one of faith, hope, and empowerment? With the help of a coach, of course!
A great coach, healer, teacher, or mentor in any domain is someone who believes in and sees the best in you. A coach tells you that you can and will do better and supports you in reaching your goals. A coach helps you look at things in new ways, kicks your butt if you lose your way, encourages you to get back on the horse when you fall off, and tells you to keep going when you want to give up. A coach keeps you focused on what is important and teaches you how to weigh your options and make choices based on your goals. A coach holds your big vision for you when you can’t, don’t, or won’t and reminds you when you forget or forget how.
The Mundo Program is designed to be your personal headache coach. By taking on the practices and integrating the material in these pages, you will know more about yourself and your headaches, gain better health, and feel empowered to take charge of your life in many areas. In the process you will learn to rely on your own vision to see the big picture as well as the small one and to trust yourself to evaluate your options, make choices, and correct course if you falter. In the end, you will have become your own coach and healer.
For Kids and Teens Too
This book is for anyone who wants to both relieve and prevent headaches naturally, which includes kids and teens.
Some children and adolescents I’ve worked with started suffering from headaches as young as five and six years old — and some can’t recall a time without them. Because their pain began at such tender ages, it’s as if their bodies were readouts of the stress around them. Some felt tension or upheaval at home from divorce, illness, or familial birth or death; some were coping with bullying, trauma, or relocating to a new home, school, or city. Some were influenced by negative messages about diet, weight, appearance, and belonging. Some kids felt pressure to be perfect, excel, and win, while others felt frustrated and isolated because they were always sick with migraine. They carried the burden of their emotions (and often the result of “plain ole” bad habits) in their headaches.
Luckily, kids respond well to information about food, diet, and exercise, and are even open to learning new ways to calm down, like meditation or changes in their breathing and posture. Just as with adults, the key for kids is finding the right combination for each person, creating motivation, and teaching them and their parents. Instead of taking medications, they learn to make the connections between their stressors and their headaches, along with practical things they can do to avoid pain.
For Family and Friends: How to Help
Family and friends of people with migraine can feel helpless because they want to do something but don’t know what to do or how to do it. If you are reading this book to support someone you care about, bravo!
Migraineurs are super sensitive to all stimuli, including touch, so it can be hard to know what is helpful or why your usually effective massage is not being welcomed. Not feeling well, migraine sufferers often withdraw from their usual family, work, and social activities, which can strain relationships and commitments — and then they feel bad or guilty about that
