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Welcome to Self Soul Space! This blog is designed to bring you healthy lifestyle tips. A true healthy lifestyle, embodies a healthy mind, body, spirit, and environment. Thanks for stopping by to check out my way of living.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Relieve the Headache

Many of you might not know, but I suffer from migraine headaches.  They started when I was a kid, and I still get them, often.  That being said, I try very hard to keep a smile on my face while my head is throbbing.  I try to use medicine as my last resort.  I prefer natural, home remedies before over the counter or prescription meds.  Now, let me say this... I am not a doctor, nurse, or medical professional.  I am only sharing my ways of relieving my headaches, they might work for you and they might not.  If you have any ways to relieve your headaches, please share below.

Okay, back to headaches... Here are some of my natural tips to relieving headaches. Tension, sinus, migraine, whatever...


  • Water: I drink water to make sure I'm hydrated. If I catch a migraine early enough, I'll run cold water over my pressure points in my wrists.
  • Aromatherapy oils: peppermint, lemon grass, or lavender oil on temples and back of the neck help to relieve tension and relaxes the body.  Other scents have been known to cause more of a headache for me.
  • Dim the lights: bright lights can aggravate a headache 
  • Rest: I try to sneak away for at least 15-20 min.  I turn off everything, close the blinds, and close my eyes.
  • Meditation: quiet time focusing on the breathe, does amazing things for the body's restoration
  • Tea or coffee: Depending on the headache tea relaxes me, and the caffeine from coffee or tea, helps when I'm on the go with a headache because it helps the blood flow more freely.
  • Walk or run: this works especially if its a stress-induced headache, releases my stress and my focus is off of the headache pain, and on to the run.
  • Yoga: some yoga poses like seated neck stretches, cat pose, quarter dog (like downward facing dog, but on your forearms instead of hands), child's pose, happy baby, legs up on the wall (straight or straddle), seated spinal twists, corpse pose (meditation pose) can really help calm and restore the body & head.
  • Warm bath or Shower: warm water has an amazing way of relaxing, add a little lavender to help relax even more
  • Ice Packs or cool compress: I place them on forehead or on the back of my neck.
  • Hair: I make sure my hair is out & loose, tight styles and ponytails don't help either.
  • Food: this can be a "catch 22", certain foods are trigger foods for my headaches, so this is a two parter- I watch what I eat to avoid headaches. But the second part of this, is sometimes headaches are caused by hunger, so grab a healthy snack if it's not near a mealtime, and don't skip meals!
  • Alcohol: I stay away from all alcohol while I have a headache, it only makes my headaches worse!

Honestly, there are times when my natural remedies do not work, or I'm on the go (on the show floor), and I don't have time for my home remedies... So what do I reach for?  Alieve works well for me, and Excedrin Migraine for those extreme migraines.  I also have a prescription migraine medicine, but my body does some crazy things with that, so it only comes out if a migraine lasts over 36 hrs and none of the other remedies or over the counter meds work.  But all in moderation, because these medicines can have different and negative effects on the body (stomach, liver, etc.).  I hope the next time time you get a headache you try a more natural approach to relieve it, and keep smiling.  If you find you are getting headaches often, track your activity and foods, then contact your doctor, you might discover a trigger.  Stay well and headache-free!

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