Prevention or Cure? Headaches and the modern Yogi(ni)

"Almost all experts agree that prevention of osteoporosis is more effective than treatment" - Loren Fishman, MD, and Ellen Saltonstall , Yoga For Osteoporosis


"According to yogic texts, regular practice of Pranayama prevents and cures diseases" - B.K. S. Iyengar, Light on Pranayama


"heyam duhkhamanagatam: Future suffering should be avoided" -Patanjali, Sutra 11.16, The Essence of Yoga by Bernard Bouanchaud



STOP - take a breath, exhale completely
LOOK - inside, be aware
LISTEN - for guidance, the voice of instinct or just common sense
     
Today for some reason three words are playing in my head like an old LP (not CD, those LPs when they got stuck on one track kept playing and playing and playing).  Those words are STOP LOOK LISTEN.  I think my first exposure to STOP LOOK LISTEN was in childhood.  Perhaps someone was teaching me about crossing the street and how to prevent getting run over.  Excellent tip! Today's drivers just roll through.

I was reflecting on why STOP LOOK LISTEN is so important, asking myself what makes them so relevant and the one reason I return to is PREVENTION.  The oldest saying in the books, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" is another way of suggesting that healthy food choices can prevent disease.  I can recall quite well, years ago taking a course on self-defence.  The one thing the instructor repeated was that so many attacks could actually be prevented.  Do not walk on the street alone at night if you do not have to.  Avoid talking on your cell phone while walking alone on a street because you will be distracted.  Firemen also talk about prevention.  Leaving a candle burning is an invitation to fire.  Daily life has different situations where if you are mindful and take precautions you will find yourself out of harm's way.  Hopefully.

In the health field, which is what Yoga Teachers are considered to work on,  we often see people when they are in recuperation - from injury, disease, burnout.  We are looked to as "fixers".  I am against the word 'fix'. I can facilitate, using the tools and techniques I know, but if I have anything to say about it, I would rather talk about PREVENTION here rather than 'fixing' or 'curing' once something has already happened.  It really does not do too much to overwork and overstress your back, go through 6 months of back pain and then look for a one hour patch up.   You, the practitioner, need to join me on the health field.  You need to become pro-active and participate in a very self-aware way.  It is really each one of us that has it in our power to create the conditions necessary to prevent injury, disease, burnout.  Some circumstances, like inherited patterns of illness, trauma, and whatever your life blueprint unfolds, are not to be belittled.  This is merely a way to address taking responsibility for what you can, when you can, if you can. A call to inspired action, if you will.

Yoga, when practised as a system: on the mat and off the mat, can help you identify patterns and habits, make changes where you need to through improved awareness, and re program your nervous system to learn to relax, cope and handle what is on your plate of life.  Yoga offers an alternative to drug therapy which may reduce symptoms but not take away the root cause.  I am going to offer you one example, because it is such a frequent complaint and I have worked with many a sufferer.  Headaches.

It is safe to say that the neck is the superhighway between the head and the heart. This path can be affected by stress/emotions which can impede proper breathing (tension headaches).  Relaxation is soothing to this kind of headache, as are certain breathing exercises which reinforce peace over panic.  Headaches caused by muscle contraction are pretty frequent as well and often are a result of poor posture (whether sitting or standing) which affects the entire spine and often people just describe it as upper back or shoulder pain because these areas get knotted up.  Yoga offers many remedies.  I would say the best one is actually that people learn to self-correct, so that in any given situation, you can adopt a better aligned posture and/or use a specific yoga flow to neutralise and diffuse stress, strengthen weak areas by waking them up, as well as quiet the overworked ones.  Balance!  In terms of migraines, as these are caused by vascular changes in the circulation to the brain, these we will put to the side for now.  If you suspect you suffer from them, steer yourself to a health care professional.

Sometimes headaches are triggered, for example, if I eat anything with MSG, I get a headache.  When I read without glasses, I get a headache.  To prevent this from happening, I try to keep my eyeglass prescription current, and I read ingredient lists where possible.  Prevention is part common-sense, I think, but here are 7 tips:
1-if you are repeating the "what a pain in the neck this is" mantra, write down what the "this" is - information can steer you to make changes where indicated or learn to breathe and accept.
2-if you slump in your chair, learn to sit well (I always do this with people!)
3-if you hold a telephone with one ear, get a headset or use hands free
4-if you drop your head forward or tilt the chin too far up, either position strains the neck...bring yourself into neutral by gazing at the horizon, as if someone were lifting you from behind the ears and line those ears up over the shoulders
5-if you favour one shoulder when you carry a purse/computer bag/suitcase, switch it up, get a backpack, lighten the load, do a few releasing shoulder shrugs
6-if you are a stomach sleeper, know that this is the best way to tighten up and seize up...
7-if you drive a lot, try not to round yourself forward over the steering wheel.

There is a difference between comfort and complacency.  I believe an examined life gives one opportunity to make new choices, ones that support whatever your best and healthiest life can be.  Marianne Williamson says, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."  I like this message.  It makes me ask the question, is there anything I can do better? Is there any area I can make improvements?  Are there any moments I can let go deeper?
I know I can STOP LOOK LISTEN anytime...

Let me know how it goes,
Om Shanty Shanty Shanty,
Rana