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September 11, 2007

Migraines And Essential Oils

There I was at work, bulldozing my way through another migraine headache. It wasn't a bad one, and I find the best way to handle a migraine is to remain upright (if possible) and ignore it as best I can. After all, I have things to do and I won't let the suckers take me down.

On this particular day, I had my new peer, a massage therapist whose specialty is working with essential oils. In a way I dreaded their arrival because they like for me to use the aromatherapy on them and fragrance is one of my triggers. I voiced my concerns with them when they arrived. Of course, their solution to a migraine is to use essential oils. So I thought I would keep and open mind and give it a try.

They chose peppermint for my headache. I didn't object because I find peppermint refreshing and it is not usually one of my trigger scents. We put a drop of oil on my head right over the center of the pain and then two drops in my hands and ran that through my hair. By the end of the massage, I no longer had migraine pain, just a "headache hangover." They suggested another couple of drops run through my hair on my fingers.

They also suggested another essential blend that I cannot recall except that it was aqua colored coming out of the bottle. This was used to cleanse my aura. Though I do a type of energy therapy using craniosacral therapy, I'm not a big proponent of energy therapies in my area because people are so conservative that I have not figured out a way of explaining it to them. So I can only explain it in ways that have worked for me--running my hands through my aura from head to foot just felt good. I felt an area behind me that is hard for me to reach (around my shoulder blades) that I can only describe as congested. I carry a lot of tension in this area when I am having a migraine episode, so this made sense to me. Generally, I don't tend to feel these energetic sensations when I'm around people who doubt their existence.

I managed the rest of the day without a recurrence of my migraine. When I got home, my husband said I smelled like a stick of gum.

Posted by linda at September 11, 2007 2:54 PM