Alignment

For a couple of decades now Mary and I have been home-schooling ourselves in a course called Alignment, using as its framework the chakra system and the body/mind/spirit paradigm. It's been enormously helpful to us in getting through the rougher passages of a normal life, and in learning how to enjoy the smoother ones. One day I'll elaborate on it here -- could be that other people might find it useful, or maybe just interesting.

Now I've come across another kind of alignment, in a different discipline, that I'm thinking might be the way out of my having so many headaches. Enlightenment -> Alignment has been great for working through philosophical and psychological issues, but hasn't done much for my migraines; so far I've just waited for my hormonal system to shift, and tried very hard not to panic myself from a mere sinus attack into a full-on Screaming Yellow Headache. Mixed success, so far, and thank GOD there are last-resort drugs for it. (I hate to take them: they're expensive, and they're powerful and a little scary with the side-effects, but when a SYH threatens one truly will do anything to avert it.) In my Reiki study and practice, I have found that a surprising number of ailments -- organic as well as biomechanical -- can be alleviated, even reversed, with postural adjustment (no, I DON'T mean chiropractic, necessarily, nor do I mean that chiropractic doesn't have its place in the scheme of things). Yoga, at least the non-macho kind, is useful, but it's hard for me to get into and stay inside the Hindu mindset -- I'm an American, and impatient, and easily bored. And even an impatient American can tire of the typical workout regimen, you know -- the hut-hut-hut, feel-the-burn, make-little-yipping-noises kind.

I woke up this morning with yet another sinus headache, and the same stomach-dropping dread that it would morph into a migraine that always accompanies them. I got mad and told myself that enough was enough; there's GOT to be a way out of this. Less than an hour later a friend called to chat and mentioned a system of easy exercises that can eliminate just about any kind of pain. I Googled it, looked at the headache pain page, and VOILA -- there were two of MY kind of exercises, both requiring lying on my back with my feet up. The first was just to lie there and relax 5 to 20 minutes (oh, this is so ME); the second was, while still lying there, to clasp my hands above my chest, lock my elbows, and lower my arms back over my head. Twenty-five times. Big whoop.

I know that the major contributing factor to my migraines (and maybe to everybody's) is the fear of them. The first thing we do when panic hits is to stop breathing and then to hunch the shoulders; the worst reaction to a headache is to stop breathing and then to hunch the shoulders -- cutting off oxygen and blood flow, i.e., energy, to the affected area. This practically guarantees an SYH; it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, a loop. If we were natural born Hindus we would reach for the yoga pill; if we were balls-out athletic types, we'd start jumping around and straining ligaments (thereby distracting ourselves from the migraine). Being neither, I reached for whatever form of sumatriptan I could beg, borrow or order from Thailand, and took my chances with the side-effects. Ah, fear makes hypocrites of us all, yes?

From my experience with Reiki, I can "see" each muscle that contributes to seizing a headache and wrassling one to the ground. I can see with this exercise that each muscle individually and all of the relevant ones, in concert, get unkinked, unwound -- ALIGNED -- so that the headache is left with only its original impetus (today it was blocked sinuses) which passes on in the normal course of things, since it lacks the muscle-grabs that usually follow it around.

Today, I tried the exercise, and the migraine didn't bloom. Not a double-blind study, but hell, I know enough of you with tweaky backs and creaky knees and hitchy hips that I'm inclined to pass this along. Here's the link to the exercise system. And here's to the possibility of an alternative to drugs and surgery for chronic pain. Let me know if you have any success with it.

And Happy New Year, my dear friends.