Natural Treatments for Headache Pain
from The Rea Centre Collection: A Work in Progress edited by Chet Day
There seem to be an awful lot of inquiries recently on the subject of headaches.
We have to say that if a person is concerned that the headaches are abnormal and uncharacteristic that they need to visit their own doctor for a check up.
Having said that, very few headaches actually fall into this category of seriousness as evidenced, for instance by the sales of Over The Counter headache medication, and the fact that in the USA alone, 45 million people report having regular headaches requiring analgesics.
We are uneasy about the automatic response of reaching for a packet of tablets because not only are many very powerful drugs in their own right, but…
- Some OTC medications have side effects more serious than the headache;
- Regular use of these products can actually create headaches;
- Headaches are a symptom of something going on.
And if you take a closer look, there can be better ways of dealing with headaches than taking a pill. It's very common for people to say that they have "migraines," but this isn't quite as common as many assume, and it's far more frequently confused with other types of headache.
Headaches can be defined into some specific group types that are quite characteristic.
Chronic tension headaches can come from an overload of stress or from being fatigued, but more often they come from physical problems, from psychological and emotional issues, or from depression.
Cluster headaches come in groups of 1-4 a day in a set cluster period that may be a matter of days but can extend to months.
Hormonal headaches have a similarity to migraines in that they affect only one side of the head and frequently are accompanied by nausea, vomiting, or sensitivity to lights and noise.
Sinus headaches can be experienced after a cold or condition that causes a sinus infection.
And the rarest are the organic headaches stemming from a skull or brain abnormality -- benign or malignant tumors, aneurisms, meningitis, brain abscess, infection, or encephalitis.
We do know that Neuro Linguistic Programming (NPL) techniques such as Koi Carp can help people zero in on causes with remarkable accuracy, so possibly can the Village once a person is familiar and comfortable with its usage.
Koi Carp can be used to relieve some headaches quite speedily because it uses time distortion, so real clock time of ten minutes can give you an hour or so at a level of relaxation that will ease away a tension headache much more effectively than aspirin or paracetamol. Instead of popping these meds, just "take five" and have a nap in the sun by the lake or in the garden.
Changing the submodalities can be useful for this sort of headache too. Helsinki covered this approach in earlier highlight posts.
Diaphragmatic breathing is another good way of relieving headaches. So too is the imaging of colors and temperatures -- which can be done in the garden part of Koi Carp or even without this background structure.
Here's how to do it: Imagine yourself in a bubble of light -- purple, violet, or blue are good ones to experiment with, and then simply imagine that the light can seep through the skin into the cells of the whole body, lifting away the pain, and changing temperature to suit the occasion, either an experience of warmth or cold.
Next. You simply imagine your right hand placed in a bucket of iced water. Really cold iced water, so of course it will feel as though it has lost all sensation and gone numb -- without the painful bit of an actual pail of ice.
When the hand is completely anaesthetized, simply rub it over the affected headache area and feel the numbing effect transferring from hand to pain, and the numbed hand restored to normal. This normally works well with one application, but there is nothing to stop you repeating it.
This "cold hand" one of the simplest of pain control techniques and is good for minor cramps, bumps and bruises as well.
There's a variant called the "inner pharmacy" that works brilliantly for some willing to play what seems to be a nonsense game. To do this one, imagine going into an old fashioned pharmacy of the mind where your subconscious stores all its remedies.
Visualize a gorgeous, old-fashioned, dark place that smells wonderful and has those old mahogany drawers and counter tops and shelves of brown, blue and green bottles containing different draughts or pills.
You just look over the shelves and pick the bottle that starts twinkling like a Xmas tree light. Either swallow one -- only one -- of the tablets inside or pour a into the medicine glass thoughtfully left on the counter for you. You can even visualize a water bottle there for those who need liquid to swallow a pill! Who says placebo effect doesn't work?
Your subconscious can't tell the difference, so the imaged medication will frequently work much faster than a pharmaceutical with no side effects.
How about another ancient pain control technique? Relaxation techniques are often useful, especially if you can get hold of one of those little biofeedback meters that tells you when you're "stressed" or "relaxed" so you get to feel the difference.
Additionally, you may need to eat something, or get some sleep, or check your posture and the chairs you are sitting on for extended periods.
It may sound like a ghastly idea, but a few swift minutes of vigorous exercise can set up enough biochemical changes to erase a simple headache.
So there are stacks of ideas that can be tried as an alternative to taking a tablet.
Me, I rarely get headaches, but sometimes if a day has been overloaded, by the time I get home, there is one developing, and I'll head for the carp lake for a nap in the sun. Ten minutes later I'm as right as rain.
Or I'll do some deep breathing exercises.
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