Depending on what your trigger is, you may find different things relieving. My trigger is light, heat, what is known as "pitta" in ayurveda.
Feverfew is an herb that can be taken (always check with your doctor and pharmacist!) preventatively, or regularly when you feel one coming on, or have one more full-blown.
Fasting once my headache gets strong helps to avoid severe nausea, but with a weak headache or while fighting one off, eating something comforting helps. Sometimes low blood sugar contributes to tension and pain.
Relax the facial muscles, massage the face and scalp, especially the points around the forhead, temples, eye sockets... Use peppermint essential oil on the temples and hairline.
Shirodhara is an ayurvedic treatment in which warmed oil is slowly dripped from the hairline over the scalp, while you relax on a massage table. It is very excellent for regular migraine sufferers.
I love using a cool, wet cloth over my eyes and forehead, it helps immensely. A long bath, a soak in the hot tub or hot shower can help relax tense muscles that contribute to a migraine intensifying and going full-blown.
If you can, go to sleep! Stay cool (but not shivering cold) and relax your body and especially the face/scalp. Use a wet cloth and keep flipping it to the cool side when you stir. I used to put my forehead up to the wall to keep it cool when I was younger.
If you have to work or stay alert, relax your facial muscles as much as possible. Cool down, or quiet down, if sound is your trigger. Keep your mind present as much as possible, you will feel much more pain as soon as you even subtely stress.
Migraines can be treated with regular meditation, yoga, and staying well hydrated, in addition to observing and respecting your triggers. I have been able to make a full-blown migraine go away with some feverfew, a cold-cloth, consciously relaxing, and resting a little bit. Even while teaching yoga classes, or playing with my toddler, I have been able to keep migraines down to a dull roar with increasing success using these techniques. I have never taken migraine medications and don't plan to. And yes, I experience real migraines. Regular meditation/yoga practice is key because it hones the powers of observation and conscious relaxation that are crucial to recognizing the triggers and actions that make it feel better and worse.
One blessing of migraine pain is it can help you become more acutely conscious of the way you tense your facial and scalp muscles. There is a Guru in everything! namaste!
Friday, September 9, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
September Events at Enlighten
Blessings to all! It has been heavy times in our community, but may we all know when to take help and when to give. May we be as generous as possible and assist in any way we can to restore peace and safety to our neighbors. May we remember that selfless service is rewarding in a deeply profound way that no material reward or fame could touch.
Our true success in life is measured by the way we live in relation to others. If our choices, words, thoughts and actions enrich the happiness and freedom from suffering of the world around us, then we are truly successful. Being rich spiritually is to love unconditionally all and to uplift others in any way possible. This will give us more lasting joy then owning any amount of posessions.
This September, we have many events to choose from, so we hope you find something that uplifts and inspires you! Namaste!
SEPT 11~ Satsang 3-6pm: a long, deep, devoted practice to bring us to our Source, followed by a vegan potluck and conversation with other positive-minded people. Suggested donation is $15, but if you have been adversely effected by the floods, please come for free. All donations will be used to buy baby and personal care items for those in need.
SEPT 21~ Global Mala Equinox for World Peace 5:15 to 7:45pm: come for the first or second halves or the whole practice.. 5:15-6:40 We will dig deep with a vigorous practice, devoting the fire of our effort to removing the obstacles to inner and outer peace... 6:40-7:45 We will use gentle movement and restorative postures to bring us to a deep state of inner communion, finding the peace within. $20 Suggested donation goes to SEEDS OF PEACE. ~World peace truly starts with commiting to inner peace as individuals, making peace a worldview and way of life.
SEPT 24 AND 25~ Classical Dance of South India- "An Evening of Bharata Natyam for New Audiences"- two shows, Sat 24th 6-7:30pm and Sun 25th 2-3:30pm... Join us for a performance of richly ornate, precise and narrative dance sponsored by Dakshina Palli, a non-profit dance school and company dedicated to preserving and sharing the tradition of this unique dance style. Tickets are $20 at the door ($12 for seniors and students with ID), and support Dakshina Palli and Enlighten.
SEPT 30~ Global Wave of Yoga 7-8:30pm: celebrating the culmination of "yoga month" the global wave of yoga is a synchronized practice. By practicing at our local times, we will wrap the earth in a practice of unity, love, peace and compassion. We dedicate our practice to the healing, well-being and complete joy of mother earth and all beings. Any donation accepted. Hosted by Christen.
All events hosted at Enlighten~
clock tower complex
37 Prospect Street
Amsterdam NY 12010
contact Laura by call or text: 518.866.3621
more info on: www.enlightenAmsterdam.com
Also, please save the date:
OCT 24th~ 3-4pm Gene Baur, founder of Farm Sanctuary will give a talk and host Q&A. Gene has been on the frontlines, advocating for farm animals, and rescuing them, from factory farms for over 25 years, seeing firsthand the cruelty and destructive results of human greed and ignorance.
Please tell your friends!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Learning about love~
Love is said to be the feeling-tone of the universe. It is also called bliss or bliss consciousness. It is our goal, as yogis, to expand our sense of Self to include all beings, all of existence. Union, the meaning of yoga, is this, a visceral recognition of the quantum oneness of all that is.
Our culture doesn't equip us for this. We learn that love is something that is conditional, tempermental and exclusive. We are allowed to love our family members, our pets and our "one true love", and to an extent our friends. There is no allowance to be in love with others, or to care too deeply about our neighbors, strangers, or animals that are considered "useful" for food or other "uses".
This leaves the one Self shattered into bits and pieces. Why can't we love and respect the life of others. Why can't we be extremely generous with neighbors, strangers, or other species without being considered wrong or inappropriate? Why can't we fall in love with everyone we meet, without wanting anything from them? The one Self that is the entire universe, the one Cosmic Consciousness, also called God by many people, is in ALL equally. Omniscient, omnipresent, invisible and everywhere simultaneously, equally in trees, people and animals of all shapes and kinds, rocks, the earth herself.
Our society encourages a disconnected pity more then sympathy. What about empathy? If we take a moment to imagine ourselves in the same situation as the people, animals, or planet, I mean really think for a minute, we can feel a little of what they may feel. How would we change our reactions? Would we stop supporting the exploitation of children for cheap labor in coffee and coccoa fields by supporting fair trade chocolate? Would we purchase only fair trade teas to end the exploitation of women in the tea lands? Would we think again about paying for someone else to slit an animals throat (or worse) for us to eat it? Or change our minds about how acceptable we think wool is when we know that the world's major suppliers rip large areas of flesh off of the sheep without anesthetic?
Part of the course of enlightenment is is shining the light of consciousness to all the dark places within us, making peace with what we find. We also have to shine that light on all of the dark corners of our lives externally, learning the truth behind what we purchase, therefore vote for. We need to know where it came from and where it will go. In this truthfulness and open search for justice, we find an integrity developing. And from there, unconditional love arises, because we can see what others may see and relate to what they feel. We can empathize, see ourselves in them, and them in ourselves.
Some say that unconditional love arises in response to a recognition of the divine in another. We love that holy essence, the universal being. We can be in love with anyone and everyone, for me that means feeling strong, unconditional love for them. But ultimately we recognize that the love is not coming from them or because of them, but in reaction to finding our Self there, the love comes from within us, the other is a mirror of the Divine source and essential substrate of the entire universe: one ecstatic, fluid ocean of pure conscious love-bliss, of which we are all a drop.
Our culture doesn't equip us for this. We learn that love is something that is conditional, tempermental and exclusive. We are allowed to love our family members, our pets and our "one true love", and to an extent our friends. There is no allowance to be in love with others, or to care too deeply about our neighbors, strangers, or animals that are considered "useful" for food or other "uses".
This leaves the one Self shattered into bits and pieces. Why can't we love and respect the life of others. Why can't we be extremely generous with neighbors, strangers, or other species without being considered wrong or inappropriate? Why can't we fall in love with everyone we meet, without wanting anything from them? The one Self that is the entire universe, the one Cosmic Consciousness, also called God by many people, is in ALL equally. Omniscient, omnipresent, invisible and everywhere simultaneously, equally in trees, people and animals of all shapes and kinds, rocks, the earth herself.
Our society encourages a disconnected pity more then sympathy. What about empathy? If we take a moment to imagine ourselves in the same situation as the people, animals, or planet, I mean really think for a minute, we can feel a little of what they may feel. How would we change our reactions? Would we stop supporting the exploitation of children for cheap labor in coffee and coccoa fields by supporting fair trade chocolate? Would we purchase only fair trade teas to end the exploitation of women in the tea lands? Would we think again about paying for someone else to slit an animals throat (or worse) for us to eat it? Or change our minds about how acceptable we think wool is when we know that the world's major suppliers rip large areas of flesh off of the sheep without anesthetic?
Part of the course of enlightenment is is shining the light of consciousness to all the dark places within us, making peace with what we find. We also have to shine that light on all of the dark corners of our lives externally, learning the truth behind what we purchase, therefore vote for. We need to know where it came from and where it will go. In this truthfulness and open search for justice, we find an integrity developing. And from there, unconditional love arises, because we can see what others may see and relate to what they feel. We can empathize, see ourselves in them, and them in ourselves.
Some say that unconditional love arises in response to a recognition of the divine in another. We love that holy essence, the universal being. We can be in love with anyone and everyone, for me that means feeling strong, unconditional love for them. But ultimately we recognize that the love is not coming from them or because of them, but in reaction to finding our Self there, the love comes from within us, the other is a mirror of the Divine source and essential substrate of the entire universe: one ecstatic, fluid ocean of pure conscious love-bliss, of which we are all a drop.
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