Those who have a headache, let alone «split» extremely rarely, usually do not even suspect that a headache can be of different types, and the most mysterious of them is a migraine. Experienced migraineur Lewis Carroll vividly described her manifestations in the book Alice in Wonderland. Remember, the objects there changed dramatically in size? This is one of the manifestations of migraine. How to alleviate this condition?
True migraine is always preceded by a special condition — «aura». A wave of not fully understood activity sweeps through the brain, accompanied by sensations that are difficult to describe (however, a person who regularly encounters migraine easily recognizes them).
The wave can affect the visual center, and then vision is disturbed: it becomes as if two-dimensional, it is difficult for a person to determine the distance to the object. Distant objects appear small, close objects appear large.
If the wave affects the center of the brain responsible for tactile sensations, fingers may become numb, limbs may seem to “disappear” or, conversely, become heavy. There may be a characteristic ringing in the ears and other warning signs of an impending headache.
And then the attack begins. The pain covers half of the head and may not let go from several hours to several days. Any sounds and bright lights aggravate the situation, and medicines often do not help.
trigger mechanism
Medicine officially recognizes migraine as a condition not fully understood, and there is still no universal treatment. The task of doctors is not so much to stop attacks (for this it is necessary to pick up a “cocktail” of painkillers and periodically renew it), but to “turn off” the trigger mechanism.
And triggers seizures, like many other diseases, stress. The more stressful a person is, the more often migraine overtakes him. As the level of stress decreases, the intensity of attacks also decreases, and with proper treatment and observance of anti-stress «hygiene», a chronic «migraine sufferer» can remember about it no more than once a year.
How to achieve this? There are quite a few ways to relieve physical and psycho-emotional stress: from massage and floating to antidepressants. In addition, a specialist familiar with the biography of the famous Indian businessman, and later Vipassana mentor S. N. Goenka, can recommend mastering meditation as one of the most effective and environmentally friendly ways to deal with migraines.
History of Goenka
Today Sri Sathya Narayan Goenka is known all over the world as a teacher of the Vipassana meditation system, but in his youth he did not think about the spiritual path. Goenka was born into a wealthy family, received a good education and ran the family business. The only thing that greatly interfered with his life was regular acute migraine attacks, which could last for several days, and repeat a week later.
To cope with migraines, Goenka began to drink potent drugs, and very soon addiction to painkillers was added to the headaches. Then, in order to break out of this vicious circle, he took up meditation.
The world has found a master, thanks to whom meditation is no longer considered something purely religious and secret
Goenka soon discovered that meditation could effectively deal with both addiction and headaches: after some time of regular meditation, they completely ceased to bother him.
So the world found a master, thanks to which, by the way, meditation has ceased to be considered something purely religious and secret. Meditation today is a secular practice that can be practiced by anyone, regardless of religious views and beliefs.
How to master meditation?
If you want to master meditation, remember that your goal is to stop the continuous internal monologue. This is not easy to do: even if we set ourselves “not to think”, we, as a rule, manage to hold out in this state for no more than 1-2 seconds. After that, the thought arises: “Oh, I don’t think about anything! Or no longer? .. «
As with any exercise, there is a clear and understandable step-by-step “instruction” for mastering meditation: do one, do two, do three. Therefore, when choosing where and with whom to meditate (and at first it is important that you have a teacher — not necessarily an individual, you can also in a group), pay attention to how he describes these steps, do you understand everything.
Against the background of regular classes, the headache should gradually recede, or at least the attacks should occur less frequently.
Meditation classes for beginners should be built as clearly and understandably as possible:
- what and how we do
- what we focus on
- how we track feedback (correctly / incorrectly perform the exercise).
Against the background of regular classes, the headache should gradually recede, or at least the attacks should occur less frequently. This will be one of the important indicators of the success of the practice.