Vitamin N and migraines
I’ve been enjoying the sunshine and really, really trying to get myself to go outside for rest and replenishment during busy days. It’s so easy to get sucked into computer work, that the rest of life passes by. It’s as if nature is watching me through the window, wondering when I’ll get out and get in sync and come out to play, instead of living in the artificial indoor world. I really want to make a commitment to stop more often and just allow myself to BE instead of always DOING. My daughter is 14 only once. Life has unexpectedly given me permission to slow down these days with shelter in place and yet…..
I’ve been getting headaches/neckaches daily again. (Hmmm, I wonder why? Stress? No, not me! LOL). Last week, someone I spoke with happened to share her remedy for migraines and anxiety attacks. She goes outside and lies with her belly on the earth.
So on this day, when the visual migraine auras began, I knew what to try. I grabbed my sunhat and a towel and stepped outside without. I lay on my belly on the lawn, and closed my eyes, rested my forehead on my folded hands. I naturally started to breath slower, and focused my attention to my senses, the smell of the grass, the warmth of the sun on my back, the slight breeze blowing through my hair, feeling the pressure where my body in making contact with the earth- under the tops of my feet, hips, chest, inner elbows. Before I knew it, the migraine had disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Wow!
This worked so well, I tried it again this afternoon for a tension headache in the back of my head/neck. I know these headaches come on because of an inner conflict between “doing” and “being”. By practice, doing usually wins. But I’ve been cultivating an awareness that there is a deeper part of me that just wants to BE.
Time in nature allows me to get a dose of what Richard Louv calls Vitamin N for nature. The headache is reminding me to stop what I’m doing and step outside. Nature stimulates my physiology shifting from the stressful fight or flight response to the rest and replenish mode. And, another benefit from a break in nature, I actually work more efficiently afterward!
Have you taken a nature break today? Why not now?