If you frequently get headaches, you should know about my natural self-treatment program. The program combines dietary strategies (identifying and avoiding “trigger foods”) daily exercise and relaxation, plus visual imagery (creative visualization).
Imagery can be used anywhere, anytime. It’s good both for warding off headaches and for keeping them from getting worse. My program is very effective. When I tested it with 19 headache sufferers, they reported 33% fewer headaches.
Their use of painkillers fell by 40%. That’s important because while drugs do relieve pain, they can cause nausea and other side effects. In some cases, the side effects are worse than the headaches.
Caution: If you’ve just begun to get headaches, or if your pain is severe, consult a doctor. About 2% of headaches have an underlying cause that needs treatment sinusitis, inflammation of a blood vessel or even a life-threatening problem like aneurysm or brain tumor.
But for tension-type and migraine headaches, imagery works very well.
What to do: Close your eyes and relax. Picture a red light attached to the part of your head that hurts. The light represents your pain.
Imagine slowly dimming and then extinguishing the light. This should take three to five minutes. As the light disappears, so should your headache.
If you’re at home, use visualization along with a cold pack. A bag of frozen peas is good.
