Do you suffer from headaches? Meditation techniques to relieve stress headaches have been proven to be more effective than over the counter painkillers in providing relief from tension headaches. This article will provide you with the proof from research quoted by Harvard Medical School, Web MD.com and a great story from National Public Radio.
Did you know that in any given year, almost 90% of men and 95% of women have at least one headache? In most cases, the pain probably doesn’t signal a serious health problem
Did you know that in any given year, almost 90% of men and 95% of women have at least one headache? In most cases, the pain probably doesn’t signal a serious health problem. And with no serious medical problems, using one of the many meditation techniques to relieve stress headaches is totally safe, with no side effects to worry about.
Headaches: Relieving and Preventing
Migraine and Stress Headaches
Headaches inflict their misery in a variety of ways, from a dull, steady ache to a blinding, throbbing pain. Nearly everyone has them at least occasionally, but an unfortunate few experience near-constant head pain. Yet no matter how mild or severe your headaches are, many effective strategies relieve and even prevent headaches. This report offers in-depth information on the most common kinds of headaches and the treatment strategies that work best for each, including a number of self-help and alternative techniques, such as acupuncture, which has garnered more credibility in recent years as a way to avert recurring headaches.
Another aspect of prevention is learning to recognize and change things that may trigger your headaches — for example, reducing emotional stress, changing your diet, or getting more sleep. Advances in the medical management of headache mean that relief is no longer just possible, but probable. Although some form of head pain will occasionally visit most people, no one should have to live and suffer with headaches.
Read the original here
National Public Radio Says
“Meditation A Hit For Pain Management”
Back in 1979, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts named Jon Kabat-Zinn had an idea. He was trained in the Vipassana tradition of Buddhist meditation, and he had a hunch that if he pared-down the technique, it could help patients at the university’s medical center.
“The idea was to actually… train these medical patients in Buddhist meditative practices, but without the Buddhism,” says Kabat-Zinn.
The idea of mind-body health wasn’t well explored at the time, so Kabat-Zinn approached physicians and pain specialists at the university. He asked them to refer their patients to his new clinic, which happened to be set up in a windowless, underground office in a medical building.
“I wasn’t objecting,” says Kabat-Zinn. “Even with no air and no light and my wife saying, ‘How can you work in these conditions?'” it didn’t deter patients from seeking out the mindfulness training, either.” see original here
Here Is One Of Many Meditation Techniques
To Relieve Stress Headaches
The Body Scan
During one recent class, Bill Mies and seven other students practiced a technique called the body scan. Lying on mats and pillows wearing socks and comfy clothes, instructor Trish Magyari walked them through a sort of mental tour of the body.
“We’ll travel down through the body bringing our awareness into our left foot,” says Magyari. When people learn to stay with the scan, it becomes a useful trick or tool to shift your focus — whenever you need to.
“The point of it is to train our mind where we want it to go,” Magyari says, instead of letting the mind wander into worry or be held hostage by the panic of pain.
Bill Mies finds the body scan extremely helpful at times, but acknowledges that during his most recent class, he was struggling.
“I found my mind drifting,” he says. He found himself thinking, “I should be doing something more productive instead of paying attention to the sensations in my left leg.”
Quieting these thoughts is a challenge for people just starting out, says Magyari. But the question is: If you can stick with it, does mindfulness training really help?
“I think the concept of who does it work for… depends on what exactly we’re measuring,” Magyari says.
Take for example, a small research study with 63 rheumatoid arthritis patients. After two months of mindfulness training, the patients’ physical symptoms did not disappear, but they reported feeling much better. Scores of psychological distress dropped 30 percent. see original story here
If you have ever used any meditation techniques for the relief of your stress or tension headaches, we would love to hear from you. We are currently evaluating several different commercial programs, to see which one has the best proven results.
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