Lifeunwitnessed- Healing Journey

 Today is day 28 of my trigger-free diet, and during that time, I have had four migraines.  The first was on day 1, so doesn't really count, but, it seems that maybe I'm still eating something that is a trigger. Before I started the diet, I had gotten in to some bad eating habits which probably didn't help the migraine situation at all.  For example, I had Cacao (chocolate) powder in my shake every morning.  There were Smarties in my freezer that I would snack on after dinner.  I ate a lot of parmesan cheese and goat feta.  I drank at least two cups of decaf tea in a day.  There were hamburger buns and chicken fingers full of gluten.  I wasn't exercising very much (that's not eating but it has an effect).  So, even though I knew all of these things were potentially causing migraines, I didn't want to give them up.  I wanted to be normal, to eat whatever I wanted to.  It felt like so much work to eat 'healthily'. COVID has actually b...

 Before I started out on this food exploration, I already knew a few things that would cause me a migraine without a doubt.  They are as follows: -Sun:  If I end up out in the sun for too long, it is inevitable that I will end up with a migraine.  No amount of water seems to work. -Stress:  Following a period of stress, I will most likely get a headache at the end of it.  I'm not sure if that's from the stress itself, or because I tend to eat a lot of comfort foods when I'm stressed and most of them are triggers. -Menstruation:  When I first got migraines, it was always one week before my period.  Now, it seems to be on the day I start my period.  Either way, not fun. -Alcohol:  I've never been a drinker, and maybe it's because alcohol gives me migraines.  It's also probably because I have control issues, but that's another story. -Caffeine:  Never been a coffee drinker, but I used to drink tea and Coke.  A little bit of c...

 Looks like I spoke too soon yesterday- I had a migraine last night.  I immediately started to look for the cause.  Did I eat anything different or unusual yesterday?  What was going on during my day?   I did have a peach tea that made me feel a little off, maybe it was that.  I also had some crackers and a gluten-free ginger snap, maybe it was those.  Or maybe I just got a headache. This leads me to another dimension of my migraine journey, and that's whether on some subconscious level, I am causing my headaches as part of my upper limit beliefs.  In the book The Big Leap , Gay Hendricks writes about how upper limiting beliefs can lead us to self sabotage our happiness.  For whatever reason, some of us feel like we don't deserve or aren't worthy of happiness.  Because of things that happened in our past, we feel that we are only allowed so much success.  We have beliefs that there is an upper limit to our own happiness and tha...

 In his book Medical Medium , Anthony Williams addresses migraines in its own chapter.  He begins by suggesting that there are multiple causes of migraines which makes it very hard to determine the cause or causes because they overlap and many doctors aren't actually aware of all the causes.  Now, I must tell you at this point that Anthony Williams is not a medical doctor, nor is he a researcher.  He is a medical medium and most of his information comes from Spirit but he's also been doing this for many years and has a significant amount of anecdotal information. He first suggests that you look at physical causes in the brain and nervous system such as concussion, stroke, brain tumour...if you do not have any physical causes then 'you are in the mystery realm'.  Many doctors leave you here and suggest medication to deal with the migraine pain.  However, Williams introduces a series of other potential causes of migraines.  They are as follows:  Eps...

As I've already written, I've been struggling with migraines for the last 25 years.  During that time, I've looked to various healers, doctors and research to try to determine their cause.  I have a friend who also gets migraines.  She has it worse than me.  She gets around 10 a month.  Her neurologist has basically said to her- you get migraines, don't waste your time trying to figure it out.  I can understand that logic, but there's something in me that refuses to just live with the headaches. I know that one migraine a month is related to hormones.  My doctor's response to that was to put me on birth control pills and never take a break from them so that I just didn't menstruate.  It worked some of the time, but not all the time and being on the pill made me fill ick most of the time, so I stopped.  I believe that the act of menstruating brings wonderful clearing to our bodies and isn't something we should play with. I've seen an osteopath...

 I've really been missing tea.  I used to drink 2-3 cups of decaf tea a day.  I'm now pulling out my favourite pottery mug and filling it with hot water, just to continue the ritual of having something nice and warm to drink.  I also have a guilty pleasure- Chai tea lattes.  Full of milk, sugar and caffeine, they are a definite no go for the Migraine trigger-free diet. So, why don't I just drink herbal teas?  Well, most herbal teas started as medicines.  If you look into the history of mint tea or camomile, they have medicinal properties (mint is good for digestion and camomile is for relaxation).  To me, drinking herbal teas feels like taking medicine in a way.  My body really reacts to them, usually with a feeling of discomfort. So, I haven't found an herbal tea to replace my decaf tea, although I do like lemon balm, but it is too soothing to drink during the day. You may ask why not just continue to drink decaffeinated black tea.  Wel...

I had a migraine last night and it was a doozy. I've been feeling pretty good that last few days.  My head felt clearer.  I didn't feel as foggy or sluggish.  It's been a bit of struggle to find interesting things to eat but, have been doing ok there too.  But I could feel the headache coming on last night as we were finishing dinner.  Just a faint ache at that point, but by 9 o'clock, I was sensitive to smells and noises and was starting to feel nauseous.  By 11:25, it was full blown.  Took my meds but it still wasn't gone until I took an Advil about an hour later.  This morning, I had the usual dopiness from the medications, but thank goodness, the headache is gone. So, where did this headache come from?  There are a couple of different things that might have been the culprit.  First, we ordered in burritos Wednesday night.  I thought I was being good- I got a burrito bowl so as to avoid the wheat; no cheese, guacamole or beans b...

 I used to think that the full moon was when all the powerful things happened- and they do, but it turns out the new moon is just as powerful. Today is the perfect day to make some new moon wishes and to manifest some wonderful things for 2021!  The new moon is the perfect time to think about what you want and to visualize how having those things would make you feel.  The visualization is really important because you have to believe that you can have everything that you want.  Seeing yourself with these things makes them more concrete in your mind. The problem I seem to have is with regard to feeling worthy of everything I want.  I already have so much and feel like I'm asking for too much.  'Be humble and take only what you need' is the thought that runs through my mind.  However, we are all worthy of love, joy and happiness.  We are all worthy of having what we want as long as what we want isn't hurtful to others.  So, in your new moon wish...

 I came super close today to falling off the wagon.  Had an emotional and stressful day, full of anger and frustration and all I wanted was some serious comfort food- burger and fries, pizza, doughnuts...but, I didn't.  It's only been a week on the migraine trigger-free diet, but I can feel the difference.  My head feels lighter somehow; my body healthier.  So, even though I really wanted some poutine, I didn't give in and that feels good!

 Today, I have a migraine and am grateful for the medication that dulls the pain.  It's also the first day of my menstruation, so this is my period migraine.  I've been having this migraine since I was 19 so, I'm not surprised that even though I'm not eating trigger foods, I'd still get an hormonal migraine. My migraines start as a dull pain above my left eye.  It starts dull- like someone pressing a finger in to my forehead.  As the migraine progresses, that finger turns in to a screw driver and then a drill that bores into my brain.  Along with the forehead pain, there's nausea, sensitivity to light, sensitivity to sound and the pain eventually works its way over the top of my head to the back of my neck and down my shoulder blade.  If I don't medicate in time, I end up laying dead still in the dark, wanting to vomit (and sometimes I do) crying and wanting to die.  I've never actually thought about killing myself, but there's a sense that it wou...

 Today, I am full of fear.  I don't know whether I've only just started to experience fear, or if, in the past, I just never registered that's what I was feeling.  You see, I learned not to feel at a very young age.  Life was better when I didn't have feelings.  People around me were happier.  It was easier.  It's only been in the last few years that I have begun to truly feel and to be able to label those emotions. I was abused and emotionally abandoned as a child.  I coped by forgetting, shutting down and getting on with life.  I was quite successful at it too.  I was not a victim and took everything that life threw at me and with a spring in my step, made my way in the world.  However, as I entered my 30s and realized that I was choosing the wrong partners again and again, I decided it was time to get some help and went to see my first therapist at the age of 36.  I had been single since I was 21 and the few times that I dat...

 If you look at the list of migraine triggers, it's quite an extensive list.  The reason for this is because doctors don't actually know what causes migraines.  They have theories, but no definitive answer.  Most of the information about migraines is anecdotal from doctors who work with migraine sufferers.  Over time, they have found some commonalities amongst suffers and have brought that information together.   As for food triggers, it is far too difficult to do large scale food studies where a person's food intake is so closely monitored.  Difficult and expensive, so it hasn't been done.  There have been small-scale studies, and some of the triggers are so common and strong that they are generally accepted- wine, cheese, chocolate are the big three.  However, as was explained in Heal Your Headache , there are many other micro-triggers.  These are triggers that won't necessarily give you a headache by themselves, but if you combin...

 Today was a better day.  Only mild neck pain, and no migraine.  So far the biggest cravings have been for tea and Smarties- over the holidays I got into the bad habit of having something sweet after dinner.   There were tons of cookies and chocolates around and I was probably on a sugar rush for the better part of two weeks.  It's hard now to go cold turkey.  I did have some apple sauce after dinner, but it's just not the same.   

 Yesterday was the first day of my 30 day Migraine trigger-free diet, and I spent it with a very sharp pain in my neck and shoulder blade.  There was no physical reason why my neck should hurt- I hadn't slept funny, I hadn't exercised- yet, there it was.  A very sharp uncomfortable pain. I meditated on it, sending love and healing.  I did Reiki to try to release the pain.  I asked my guides where the pain came from and why.  The answer was fear.  You see, I am doing something to increase the joy and happiness in my life, and as a result of trauma, my body is afraid.  Past life trauma has left me with a lot of pain in my body.  Current life trauma has left me with some very limiting beliefs.  Together, it results in a lot of pain and fear when I try to do something good for myself.   Last year, I read the book The Big Leap , which is about limiting beliefs and the fact that as a result of our programming or things that happened ...

 In my search for a cure for my migraines, I have looked far and wide.  My family doctor had no greater insight than to give me a medication that would treat the migraine once I had one but had no advice on how to prevent them in the first place.  I read books ( Heal Your Headache and Migraine Relief Plan)  both of which focused on trigger foods.  These helped a bit, as I discovered that as I was trying to eat healthier, I was in fact loading myself up on trigger foods- nuts, avocado, banana, citrus to name a few.  Removing these trigger foods helped a bit but I found it hard to be consistent, and I wasn't 100 per cent convinced that this is what was causing my migraines. ( I know, I've just committed to doing 30 days of a trigger free diet, and have just said that I don't really believe food is what's causing my migraines.  Being of a scientific nature, I can't completely rule out food without a thorough exploration) Around 5 years ago, I took a work...

 The plan is to completely eliminate any migraine food triggers.  Most people are away that things like alcohol, caffeine and cheese can trigger migraines, and those are the obvious ones, but there are far more insidious triggers.   List of dietary triggers from the book Heal Your Headache  by David Buchholz I've decided to remove all of these triggers from my diet, including a few others, for the next 30 days at which time I hope to have gone at lease a couple of weeks without a migraine.  If I am able to stick to the plan for 30 days and am still getting migraines, well, then I will assume that it is not food triggers that is causing the problem. I have worked with the above list before, but it seems that most of the foods have crept back into my diet.  I was feeling ok about the whole thing, until I looked at the list again and saw that decaffeinated tea was also on it.  I really like tea.  I drink 2 or 3 mugs a day.  I believe that t...

 Tomorrow, I begin on the next leg of my healing journey.  I've been actively trying to heal for around 10 years now- seeing therapists, osteopaths, healers, Shamans, naturopaths, doctors... it feels like I've seen them all.  In most areas, I've made some serious progress.  My relationships are much healthier.  I've healed some past life traumas, current life traumas and removed a few entities who had attached themselves to me (that's an entirely other story, which I will write about another day).  But with all this healing, there is still one affliction that alludes me- migraine headaches. I started getting migraines when I was 19 years old.  At that time, they were once a month, a week before I started my period.  They were predictable pretty much to the hour.  Then there were two a month, then three and now I am up to 4 a month.  I didn't realize how many what was until someone said, 'so you get a migraine every week?'  The incre...