Her first instinct was to try a holistic approach, so she turned to meditation. The result? Wiesenberg found that it helped ease the migraines that were triggered by stress. Like Wiesenberg, many migraineurs say stress can bring on an attack. Luckily, researchers have found that one of the best (and most inexpensive) ways to overcome stress is with meditation. According to a study published in March 2014 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, mindful meditation can help ease stressors such as pain, depression, and anxiety. Another study, published in January 2011 in the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, found that people who meditated for 8 weeks boosted the amount of gray matter in the brain. This area is linked to learning, memory, and emotional processing. “Mindfulness, meditation, relaxation, and quieting yourself are all huge benefits when you have a migraine,” says Merle Diamond, MD, a headache specialist with the Diamond Headache Clinic, in Chicago. “For the right patient, these processes are very helpful in preventing migraines and alleviating some of the pain caused by them.” But with several techniques to choose from, it’s difficult to know where to start. Here are some of the best meditation practices — each of which can be incorporated into your daily routine as regularly as possible, says Dr. Diamond — for beating a migraine attack.
Biofeedback Meditation
It’s not your typical meditation, but biofeedback can be one of the most useful tools in overcoming migraine episodes, says Diamond. Biofeedback meditation provides real-time feedback on a person’s bodily responses, including muscle activity, blood pressure, heart rate, and brain waves. That feedback, in turn, helps people control and potentially change those responses. “By attending to other areas of the body, many of which feel normal or have other normal aches and pain, we balance out the attention the brain is dedicating to the pain,” says Urszula Klich, PhD, a board-certified biofeedback specialist in Atlanta, Georgia. To get started with biofeedback meditation, talk to your neurologist or headache specialist, or visit The Association for the Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, Inc. for a list of practitioners who can provide biofeedback services.
Deep Breathing
Deep breathing is one meditative technique that can help quiet the brain on a daily basis. A study published in June 2017 in the journal Frontiers in Psychology found that diaphragmatic breathing (aka deep breathing) can significantly reduce cortisol (the stress hormone) levels in participants and thereby offset migraine attacks. “Three deep breaths resets the nervous system, giving it the signal that it is OK and time to relax,” says Kelly Keefe, a mediation specialist with Heartspace Academy in New York City. Keefe also recommends setting reminders to take at least three deep belly breaths throughout the day. “It truly will help relax the body and mind,” she says.
Mindful Movement
Exercise has been known to reduce stress. But mindfulness while moving can be even more beneficial to one’s well-being. According to a study published in July 2018 in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise, people who practiced mindful movement (simply being mindful while exercising) reported feeling better and less stressed overall compared with those who practiced mindfulness without moving. “Mindful movement can be as formal or informal as you like,” says Klich. “I do this between clients to clear my head and energy. I slow down as much as possible and pay attention to the lifting, shifting, and stepping of my feet. I notice my breathing and heart rate and tune into just allowing each breath to come in and release slowly.”
Mindfulness
Even regular mindfulness has been shown to help reduce stress, according to a study published in June 2014 in the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. “Mindfulness is a great way to slow down, relax, and pause for a moment,” explains Diamond. “Being present and being aware of thoughts and feelings helps relax the body.” To get started, Keefe suggests keeping a thought journal. “Our thoughts create a lot of our physical experiences,” she says. “By tracking our thoughts, a pattern of thoughts or stressors that activate migraines may present themselves.”
