Headache is an undesirable symptom and yet very common. And it is one of the most medicated symptoms too. When you have a headache, you become dysfunctional. All activities stop until you find a way to get the headache out. Mostly, people simply want a headache cure without wanting to know what causes their headache. It is important to understand why you are getting the headache in the first place. Hyperacidity, indigestion, sleep disorders and mental stress are some of the known causes of headaches. Here are a few questions that are important and needs answering. What causes my headaches? Why do I have headaches? I have stress headaches. What can I do about them? What am I stressed about? Why am I getting migraine headache?
Did you know, in your body stress can be experienced somewhere and stress can be exhibited elsewhere? A headache symptom need not be always to do with your head! It may be an exhibition of some other symptom altogether.
5 places where you might experience a headache symptom
- The frontal part which comprises of your eyes, forehead and sometimes along with the temples
- Eyes and the eyebrows
- Right and left sides of the temples or the right and left sides of the head
- Top of the head and
- Back of the head
A flight of fight situation can trigger a migraine
When you are thinking about a situation wanting to navigate away from it and your belief system says its not possible, you consciously fight your own resistance, your projection. Such a situation will cause a lingering pain in your eyes, on both your eyebrows and a headache in the forehead and both temples. During such pains, it will be difficult for you to keep your eyes open. It is commonly labeled as migraine headache.
When you tolerate such resistance for long, it might manifest into something undesirable.
Migraine and vision loss are connected
Yesterday, I met a lady who was my co passenger. I was driving her to my meditation class. I was driving her because she couldn\’t see. Her vision was blur. It was so bad that she could hardly see the car seat. She couldn\’t see the car too. The reason for all this was that she was tolerating her feelings of rejection from her mother and unfulfilled expectations.
As I was driving her, I asked her about her bad vision. She narrated her story to me and told me how angry and agitated she was and how frustrated she would get. She went off to the US so that she can stay away from her mother. Her mother followed her to where she was and unable to tolerate those situations, she would get severe migraines. Her story filled the hour we were driving.
I dropped her off in her house after meditation and her brother came out to assist her into the house. She had mentioned that all children had been neglected. When I saw her brother, I saw that he too had problems with his vision. It was not a congenital disorder! When rejection peaked, her vision blurred out.
Reacting with anger can cause migraine
When you react to a situation angrily, you get frustrated. Your anger triggers bile secretions from the gall bladder and acid secretions in the stomach. A sharp shooting pain may manifest over your eye brows and will proceed to the top of the head. Bright lights, smoke from incense and sharp sounds will worsen your headache. This is also commonly labeled as migraine. Specific foods may also worsen your headache. People tend to believe that certain foods trigger a migraine. That\’s not true. It\’s the emotion that triggers a migraine. Food is the aggravating agent.
Suppressing emotions can also trigger a headache
When you feel a strong displeasure to something being said and you get angry but suppress your anger, the gall bladder then secretes more bile. Such a situation where you suppress your feelings can trigger a nerve pain from the jaw, to the back of the ear and can land up either behind the ear or rise up to the top or sides of the head.
Prolonged suppression can be cause very serious illnesses.
His suppressed emotions led to stomach cancer
I remember a person who had come from Hong Kong. He had a finance job. He wanted to come up the corporate ladder quickly and so he would suppress his emotions and this would lead to severe hyperacidity and migraines. When I did his overall health evaluation through pulse diagnosis, I warned him to mellow down because his stomach was getting impacted due to his attitude and behaviour. He did not listen. A few months later, he was diagnosed with an advanced stage of stomach cancer. He died the same year.
Chronic indigestion can cause headaches
When you have not digested your food well, you will experience a dull pain on the left eyebrow and headache typically on the left side of the head. Some people have pains on both temples.
And, when you have chronic indigestion, you will likely have a headache on the back of your head. It is also applicable to situational indigestion. This means, a situation does not go well with you and you are not able to digest the facts of the situation, you will still have a headache on the hind side.
Treating your headache
Headaches are treatable and always do not require medication. Medication usually suppresses your headache and usually does nothing more than that. The side effects of pain medication can have harmful effects on your liver and kidneys. Here are some workable suggestions to cure your headache without a side effect.
Mindfulness can cure your headache
The frontal part which comprises your eyes, forehead and sometimes along with the temples
Close your eyes and focus on the pain in your head. It will seem to intensify.
Now you have identified the pain and have painstakingly defined the area where it is lingering. Next, separate the pain and see it on a mental screen (white or black coloured screen) and see it there instead of your head. You will see the intensity reduce and your headache cured in sometime.
Betel leaf can cure your headache
Take two wet betel leaves. Separate the leaf tips and fix them on your temples. Next, put one wet leaf under the chin and the other on top of your head. Within no time, you will feel relief and your headache will be cured.
You may also be required to eat your food when you are hungry and not stop abusing your body.
Do not eat when you have a headache and feel nauseous.
Due to emotional disturbances due to anger, the capillaries in the head might get compressed reducing oxygen supply to your brain. Simple deep breathing can reduce and cure your headache.
Getting yourself some sleep can be an excellent remedy and an effective headache cure.
Ayurveda has cure for headaches
Flushing out excess bile and acids from the body can ease a headache. A laxative that flushes out bile and acids will be most helpful as a headache relief. Marma Chikitsa is a very powerful technique to relieve your headache in no time.
Eat your food when you are hungry. Respect your body.
Treating headaches caused by indigestion
Headache caused due to indigestion of foods and also of thoughts are curable. Too much of thinking produces unnecessary stress. The best remedy to get rid of stress headache or headache caused from indigestion is to stop eating and drink adequate warm water (the quantity of water that makes you pass urine 6-7 times in a day).
You may also need to monitor your sleep patterns. People who sleep excessively and are sluggish also get such headaches.
Jaljeera water usually helps
There’s another kind of headache which shifts from one side to the other. This kind of headache is caused due to gas in the stomach which forms from not eating. Drinking Jaljeera water will help cure such headaches. Breathing (read below) also will help cure such headaches.
Breathing helps cure headaches
Focus on your headache. Identify its presence. Next, as you breathe in, imagine you’re breathing in a fishing net. Encapsulate the pain and bring it out with the fishing net. Within 2 minutes, your headache should go. **This therapy has been derived from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Jyotsnatika, 5th Chapter of the book published by Kaivailyadham, Lonavala, Maharashtra.
I have found the above treatments working well to cure headaches.
There are other kinds of headaches which are caused due to tumours and lesions in the brain which is a rare occurrence. One must not confuse or use the above information as conclusive treatments.
— Mahesh Krishnamurthy
Sir, I have see people with all kinds of head ache and this article is something each of them should read. Being in IT, the word stress, anger, supression and head ache are getting real common. One must read this and inculcate… Rather than just complaining .
I’m on the lookout for opportunities to share on a Dias. Hope to find some such opportunities in IT companies.