Deep Relaxation at Home
1. Take a long bath or shower with at least 10-20 deep breathes. Use a drop of Peppermint or Eucalyptus oil on the clean, warm washcloth spread over your entire face, with the oil in the center near your nose. Only use this washcloth on your face, not the rest of your body.
At the end of your shower or bath, for the last 1-2 minutes, make the water lukewarm to cool. Take 10-20 breathes of cool steam before you get out.
2. Play a CD of very relaxing, slow music.
3. Drink a cup of warm, chamomile or ginger tea.
4. Make sure the room you are in is dark and quiet.
How to do Massage for Migraines at the Pressure Points
1. Start with the upper inside corner of the bone under the eyebrow. Add light pressure for 3-5 seconds. Move thumbs along the eyebrow bone to add 4-5 seconds of pressure on 4-5 different points along the bone.
2. Next, move index fingers on both sides along the bridge of the nose and stop at the side of the nostril. This is also an area where you will feel the edge of the sinuses. Add light pressure here and all along the sinuses for 4-5 seconds in 4-5 different places.
3. Move back to the corner of the eye at the eyebrow bone. Add 4-5 more seconds of pressure. Move directly above the eyebrow, then in a straight line, using only index fingers, add this same pressure to points along the forehead and down the top and back of the head. Allow about a 1/2 inch space between the areas where you stop and add the pressure to pressure points. Continue until you come to the hollow point at the base of the skull.
4. Next, put your index finger and middle finger together to add pressure between the eyebrows. With your other hand, using your index finger and middle finger together, apply pressure to the hollow point at the base of the skull on the back of your head. Hold for 30 seconds.
5. Go back to the corner of the eyebrow bone and add pressure, using only the index finger. Slowly and with steady pressure, move the two index fingers along the path down the bridge of the nose, along the sinuses and the mandibular joint, holding with steady pressure at the joint for 4-5 seconds. Repeat this 2-3 times.
- If you have small, smooth stones, let them sit in cold water while you massage these pressure points on your face.
- After the migraine massage, rest on flat surface with two stones at the hollow part of the back of the skull and two stones on the middle of the forehead at the corner of the eyebrow. Rest until stones become warm and repeat when they are cold again.
- Use peppermint, eucalyptus and/or lavender oil to relax the nervous system between migraine attacks.
- Drink lots of water and avoid sugar whenever possible.