Many people suffer from migraines. In most cases, these people take drugs to help manage the pain, and lose time from work and other activities. What other methods are available? Well, there are actually several holistic methods that can help reduce migraines which range from energy medicine to massage to meditation.
Reiki is one method that can help when a migraine hits. The Reiki energy can go in and remove the migraine in a very short period of time.
Last year, a client brought her 14-year old daughter, Olivia, to me to try some things to try to relieve her migraines. She was having them almost every day. This was causing her to miss a lot of school, and keep her from doing her homework. I had laid out a plan that included massage (more about this later), and was ready to start that program on her first appointment. When she arrived, she had a migraine that she defined as an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the worst). I was looking at massage to realign her (many methods say that when the body is properly aligned, problems go away) to help keep the migraines away, but felt I could not do that while she was having one.
We brought her into the treatment room, and I did Reiki. Within 30 minutes, her migraine was gone. Completely. The positive energy of the Reiki had overcome the negative energy of the migraine, and it disappeared. The neat thing was that the headache did not return at all that night. Olivia’s typical experience with a migraine was to go home, take medications, and lay down. Usually, the migraine would be with her all night. This one had gone away in 30 minutes.
Now, it isn’t always possible when a migraine strikes to locate a Reiki practitioner and get an immediate appointment, especially if it is the middle of the night. But it is possible for someone in the household including the person suffering from the migraines to take a class in Reiki so that they can help themselves. (Classes can be as little as the cost of two sessions, and that would teach enough to help with these problems.) Continued Reiki treatments could possibly reduce the number of migraines one gets or attack and remove the problem that is causing them.
Although a migraine can be caused by any number of things, the key is that the pain is energy which is why it reacts so well to energy medicine such as Reiki.
Another method to look at along the same vein is meditation. Meditation is a way of controlling things that happen within your own self whether that be physically, or within your energy field. Part of the treatment that Olivia went through was various types of meditation. She learned ways to calm, and retreat to her ‘quiet space’ when migraines would hit. She learned ways to set certain ‘programs’ within her that could take effect to reduce the pain, calm her, and ease her through the ordeal. Again, this is energy working on energy. This is a relief, not a cure per say. If done properly, it could eliminate the migraines, but it does not necessarily address the cause. Meditation could be used to defuse the cause and eliminate the migraines as you are making changes within yourself so that the problem does not exist. (Reiki might be addressing the cause as it goes where it is needed most, but I find people turn to that after the migraine has hit. If a person became a Reiki practitioner, and worked on themselves every day, it could cut down, maybe even eliminate, the occurrences.)
On a more obvious physical level, massage can help eliminate migraines, specifically a style called Myofascial Release (MFR). MFR is a method of looking at connective tissue in the body and returning it to its normal spongy state when it has gotten hard and constricting. Effectively, the goal of MFR sessions is to return a body back to normal alignment. (Most people have alignment issues. If someone were to stand for you, you could probably see that their shoulders would be ‘off’. One would be higher than the other. This is just one of the indicators pointing to alignment issues.)
Many things can cause a body to lose alignment. It can be from sitting with poor posture, or accidents that have happened, or even surgeries. Any operation that was done leaves scar tissue, and the connective tissue in the body tends to get hard and constrictive around that scar tissue. The connective tissue acts as a spider web, broadcasting this information throughout the body. The alignment issues could be in another area from where the original problem.
Several years ago, an MFR therapist came into our massage school to show us what it could do. She chose a student that suffered from Fibromyalgia. The therapist started where the student’s pain usually began when she had an attack. Eventually, through several moves, she was lead to a scar from an appendectomy, and believed that to be the cause of the student’s Fibromyalgia. The constricted tissue around the scar was having a broad effect.
All too many healing methods say that if the body is properly aligned, and the energies are moving properly, then the body stays well. It is only when something upsets this balance that diseases and illnesses crop up.
With Olivia, I did a lot of realignment on her as she did have a lot of issues. The interesting part is that MFR teaches us that headaches can be cleared up by properly aligning the pelvis. I know that sounds bizarre, but every part of our bodies are connected to every other part. Something somewhere that seems totally unrelated to a problem can affect the situation greatly. Consider that a pelvis that is out of alignment could be changing how the spine sits and how the nerves within the spine react. When you realize that all these nerves originate in the head, and feedback from the body goes through them back to the brain, it is not as bizarre as it sounds.
Right now, Olivia is managing on her own. She rarely gets migraines anymore, and when she does, they are not nearly as severe as they previously were. She is coping using meditation and energy work in combination with the medications that were prescribed.
The key is that there are a number of things that done in combination with expected ‘normal medical’ procedures can help reduce, or alleviate migraines. If you suffer from migraines, or know someone that does, you might want to look into some of them.
Brian is a Nationally Certified, Florida Licensed Massage Therapist, Reiki Master, and member of the Florida State Massage Therapy Association. He is a graduate of the Coastal School of Massage Therapy in Jacksonville, Florida. Brian first learned massage techniques several years ago in a trade of learning with a licensed massage therapist in Maryland. Working on friends and family, his skills grew.
After moving to Florida he learned Reiki and has been a Reiki Master since 1997. He attended a local massage school one night a week with permission of the school’s owner. His focus was to extend his knowledge and increase his skills. He again practiced on family, friends and neighbors, and more friends. This was all done at no charge, as he just wanted to help people. It gave him a wonderful feeling to know that he had helped someone.
Deciding that massage was something he wanted to do full time, Brian enrolled at the Coastal School of Massage Therapy in September of 2001. During the 700-hour course (Florida state requirement is 500 hours), he learned anatomy and physiology, massage therapy, and various types of massage. He had classes on Reflexology, Shiatsu, Polarity, Hydrotherapy, and Myofascial techniques. During school clinicals, he worked on 60 people in the school’s massage center. His techniques evolved to where he was combining things he had learned previously with things he had been taught in school. Brian graduated from school in May 2002, and passed the National Boards Exam for Massage Therapy in October 2002.
During the last few years, Brian has done many things from healing, teaching, and learning new things, like seeing problems in people, trusting the guidance that he gets when he is doing massage and energy work, and generally feeling out new energies. He has also been increasing his skills as a massage therapist, learning new styles and modalities of massage, and using many energy techniques to help him 'see' what needs the most work, and what movements would be most beneficial.
Brian currently draws on the knowledge of things he has learned and the experience that he has obtained, to become more in tune with what each body needs. His main goal is to help people feel and live better. He believes that whenever possible, we should strive to be positive, and live within the light.