Yoga for Headaches: The Big Picture

by Nina

The other day Barrie told me that in order to prepare for teaching a class on yoga for dealing with headaches, she reviewed the articles we have on the blog on that topic and found them “so super helpful.”

Those articles were originally published several years ago, so today I thought I’d provide an overview of the posts we have on headaches in a way that organizes the topics so you can find exactly what you need (and avoid what you don’t need). Over the years, we have covered the three most common types of headaches: tension, migraine, and hormonal. So this overview is going to list the posts that are relevant for each of the three types of headaches.

If you are someone who suffers from regular headaches, I really hope you find some helpful techniques in these posts. And if you have some other techniques that you find effective, please let us know. See Yoga Can Help with Headaches to learn about Bridget’s personal experiences with headaches and what she learned about how yoga can help.

Note that not all headaches fit into these three categories, and some headaches are actually the result of illness or injury! So if you’re suffering from chronic headaches and haven’t seen a doctor yet, please get a diagnosis before trying our recommendations.

Tension Headaches

Tension Headaches and Yoga  by Baxter provides background information about tension headaches and what you can do when you have one.

Preventing Migraines and Other Headaches, Part 1 by Nina provides information about using stress management to prevent stress-related headaches.

Preventing Migraines and Other Headaches, Part 2 by Nina provides information about using asanas to release physical tension from your neck, shoulders, back and head as a way of preventing headaches caused by muscle tension.

How Yoga Helps with Pain, Friday Q&A: Techniques for Pain Management, and Yoga for Pain Management provide general information about yoga pain management techniques that you can apply to tension headaches.

Migraine Headaches

Yoga and Migraines by Baxter provides background information about migraines and what you can do when you have one.

Brad’s Perspective on Migraine Headaches by Brad provides scientific background about migraines (from someone who lectures on this topic) and provides advice about how yoga might help when you have one.

Preventing Migraines and Other Headaches, Part 1 by Nina provides information about using stress management to prevent stress-related headaches.

Preventing Migraines and Other Headaches, Part 2 by Nina provides information about using asanas to release physical tension from your neck, shoulders, back and head as a way of preventing headaches caused by muscle tension.

How Yoga Helps with Pain, Friday Q&A: Techniques for Pain Management, and Yoga for Pain Management provide general information about yoga pain management techniques that you can apply to migraines.

Hormonal Headaches

Yoga for Menopause: Headaches by Nina provides background information about headaches triggered by the hormonal changes of perimenopause and menopause, with some suggestions for helping to prevent them.

Preventing Migraines and Other Headaches, Part 1 by Nina provides information about using stress management to prevent stress-related headaches that may also apply to hormonal headaches.

Preventing Migraines and Other Headaches, Part 2 by Nina provides information about using asanas to release physical tension from your neck, shoulders, back and head as a way of preventing headaches caused by muscle tension that may also apply to hormonal headaches.

How Yoga Helps with Pain, Friday Q&A: Techniques for Pain Management, and Yoga for Pain Management provide general information about yoga pain management techniques that you can apply to hormonal headaches.

 

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