Home Practice Advice

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hi,
I am a 48 yr old female, 5’9, 155 lb, moderately fit and have attended yoga classes on and off most of my adult life. In the past year I started having severe and very frequent migraines. (I am under doctor’s care and have had all the tests one would expect to have.) Rather than take the medication for chronic migraine, I elected to try an integrative medical approach. I was advised to learn meditation which I now do every morning, and I have weekly acupuncture treatments. This has greatly reduced the incidence of migraine to once or twice a month. I attended yoga once a week or so in the past year, but in the past two months I have decided to get more committed to yoga and have either attended a class or have practiced with the DVDs/ podcasts available through yoga journal or yoga download. I do these twice a day and sometimes 3 times per day at 20 minutes each. When I am in class we have arm strength poses or inversions, but most of the DVDs do not include these types of poses.
Two questions I hope you can help with:

  1. What are the basic elements of a well rounded home practice and practice frequency/ duration? Just looking for some guidelines.
  2. Are there some asanas or other aspects of practice that you’d recommend to help calm the sympathetic nervous system/ reduce migraines?
    Thanks so much!
#2

Hello Jana,

The reply to question one (1) will vary based on the style. An Ashtanga teacher would offer one reply, a Purna Yoga teacher will offer another. It is the second one that I’ll be sharing.

A well-rounded home practice begins with an opening which allows the student to move away from the external reference points and bring their awareness within. Then, physically, the practice should be preparing the body from head to toe for the asana practice to come.

Depending on the time of day of the practice AND the body/mind of the student, the morning series, hip series, and/or classical surya Namaskar come next. This is followed by standing poses, inversion, twists, and backbends.

Finally a savasana of at least 5-8 minutes and a closing, which obviously would include Oms. In this way the practice is separate from the outer and contained within the opening and closing.

Question 2 is answered in this way “absolutely!”.
Gentle supine pranayama, still point, savasana, and supported poses would direct the CNS to its parasympathetic state. Migraines themselves can emanate from two basic causes; musculo-skeletal tension and energetic issues. So what would be done and what would be avoided would have to take these two into consideration for the person in question (you).

#3

Janafaust,

In addition to what Gordon offered, I would suggest you not do inversions if you are prone to migraines. When the head is below the heart, that sudden rush of blood can, and often times does, trigger a migraine. But, this is something you can play around with. There are milder inversions like Viparita Karani and Balasana that may be mild enough not to trigger a migraine. In class, have you done inversions without getting a migraine afterwards? Much though depends on why you get migraines. (i.e. sensitivity to certain foods, weather changes, hormones, stress etc.)

#4

1… Suryanamaskar A and B then whatever else you want or Gordon has offered. Consistency is key! Always surya A+B to start in my opinion, 6 days a week :slight_smile:

  1. Supta baddha konasana with a strap and maybe props. It’s awesomeee yummy
#5

I have significantly reduced my migraines and attribute it to two things: Yoga & going gluten free. I can’t be without a regular almost daily yoga practice which I do at home with DVD, but honestly since going GF it has made a huge difference in frequency. As far as yoga I think everyone is different and you have to find what is right for you, I find a slow to moderate flow vinyasa yoga to be helpful to me and that includes inversions. In fact, I have a yoga dvd that has a lot of standing forward bending that I turn to when I feel it starting and it usually helps quite a bit. But heed Lotusgirl’s advice too, it’s not for everyone. I find heart opening poses and twist to be beneficial, like updog, downdog on knees (pressing chest towards ground), thread the needle (threading an arm under while in downdog on knees) and regular seated twists that open the chest/shoulders.

#6

I appreciate all your feedback and will put it to good use!

Gordon - what is still point? I wasn’t able to figure that out. Love the Purna yoga description – not available here in my neck of the woods, but maybe there are online resources?

Love the sun salutations for a morning start and supta - have to remember to do it… I seem to do a lot of twists, forward bends, backbends and heart opening poses - need to work on take my standing poses deeper and on transitions into balances – Warrior 3 & half moon are both a hot mess.

Lotusgirl, I have not had migraines triggered by inversions, fortunately.
My threshold is lower due to energy issues/ hormone variability at my age. So I am having to invest more time (more than zero) to take care of myself and am seeing so many benefits beyond what I had originally looked for. More productive at work, more patient with people and more compassionate.

Yoga and meditation are really transformative.

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to respond! You’ve inspired me!

#7

Still point is a method for manipulating the pulse of cerebrospinal fluid.