“The first duty of love is to listen.” Paul Tillich (1886-1965); Theologian, Philosopher
Most of my adult life I have been plagued with migraine headaches. Over the years, they had become increasing worse to the point that they made me physically ill and any light or sound was excruciatingly painful. Through my yoga practice, I was learning to listen to my body and I began to wonder what I was doing to cause these migraines. When I would feel one coming on, I would think about what I ate or did in the previous few days that could have been a trigger.
I then started doing a lot of research about what triggers migraines and how I could stop them from even starting. From my list of triggers, I discovered that one of the common triggers was monosodium glutamate (MSG). I then began to religiously read food labels and cut out all MSG and wouldn’t you know…fewer migraines. Unfortunately, I was still having them occasionally so I knew I had to repeat the process to yet again, find another of my triggers. After doing more research, I discovered that the artificial sweetner, aspartame (found in diet drinks) was also known to be a trigger of migraines. I immediately stopped drinking diet sodas and wa-lah…I have not had a migraine in over a year!
That is, until yesterday….I started having a little nagging headache a few days ago and yesterday it escalated into a full blown migraine. The nausea was awful and all I wanted to do was bury my head under a pillow. Again, I began to think “what I was eating or doing differently?” Then I remembered that on the first of the month, I purchased a multi-vitamin that included gingko biloba extract (for memory), also something for eye health, bone health, etc…I then researched the ingredients and wa-lah, gingko is known to cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, etc…I immediately stopped taking it and today was much improved.
So yet again, I am reminded to listen to my body. When something is not right, our bodies will tell us, all we have to do is listen.
Namaste,
Sheri
Great words of wisdom Sheri. I always enjoyed listening to you (as did the mariners while waiting for thier mandated achorage to be lifted
!, It’s nice to know you are now listening to yourself while making great strides in doing so. Thank you TONS for your support in reading what’s on my mind with my weekly entries. Well done young lady. Keep up the great work! Paul
Sheri – I just ran across this website you may find useful in battling migraines. http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/cf/slideshows/27-foods-that-can-trigger-migraines/beans/?ap=825 … something tells me you’re probably already aware of it. Hope all is well.
Paul