Cart

Talking Wellness with Peter: Natural Ways to Treat Migraines

In this episode, Dr. Peter Borten takes on the problem of migraines with an arsenal of natural remedies for treating and preventing these debilitating headaches. Please share this with anyone you know who has problems with severe headaches, and if you have natural treatments that have helped your migraines in the past, please share in the comments below! We’d love to hear them!

One thought on “Talking Wellness with Peter: Natural Ways to Treat Migraines”

06 / 29/ 18 | MelissaSoendergaard

Thank you so much for this lesson!!

I’ve recently started experiencing dreadful migraines as a result of surgery and this is incredibly timely and helpful.

😁

Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Learn our simple, yet powerful, process for uncovering, learning from, and releasing the feelings that have been running your life.

Sometimes I think about moving to a place where it’s always warm, like southern California or Hawaii, but it seems that every time I mention it, there’s someone around who insists that it would be boring without having four distinct seasons. And as I imagine myself being bored while swimming in the ocean in December, and being bored while picking oranges off my trees in January, and being just so incredibly bored as I go on a hike in flip flops and shorts in February, I shudder and get back to shoveling my driveway.

I’m still undecided about a future in a warm place, but I am very glad to have gotten the experience of four very distinct seasons. Growing up in New England each season was so unique. If I were magically transported to a random time of year in Massachusetts, I would have no trouble determining in an instant which season it was. That might be trickier in, say, the Pacific Northwest, and even harder in San Diego.

Part of why I appreciate my exposure to the seasons is that the world displays so clearly the prevailing dynamics of the Earth and Sun. Daoist sages developed a language around these expressions, and applied this language to everything – including human lives, politics, and relationships. Knowing some of this language encourages us to tune in to what’s happening around us and to apply our observations of Nature to our inner and interpersonal processes.

Winter is the season of dormancy. Plants die or go to sleep. Most of their energy is down in their roots or stored in seeds. So, it’s a time of emphasis on potential energy. For humans, it’s a good season for taking inventory. In wintery places, we’re often confined indoors and there are no food sources available except what we’ve put in our cupboards. The season is ruled by Water, and often there’s a lot of it, in the form of rain or snow, falling from the sky and blanketing the ground. The healthy emotion associated with Winter and Water is awe, and when out of balance, it becomes fear. Our core fear is the fear of death, and in many ways Winter is kind of like death – cold, quiet, and dark.

Spring comes next, and it’s a season of new growth, awakening, and planning. In the Pagan traditions, Spring is marked by fertility festivals, with symbols such as bunnies and eggs. In Christianity, Spring brings Easter, the holiday of rebirth. And in Judaism, there is Passover, which is full of references to fresh Spring greens, eggs, and new hope after a time of despair. The season is ruled by Wood, which is represented by plant growth – especially eager buds exploding on trees and pushing through the crust of the earth, and vines growing rapidly as if on a mission.

The healthy emotion associated with Spring and Wood is vigor – like the vigor plants employ to break out of Winter’s dormancy in Spring. In imbalance, this becomes anger, which is a feeling that is likely to come up when our plan encounters an obstacle or when we’re thrown off our trajectory. Plants encounter obstacles all the time, and they usually display some of the virtuous characteristics of healthy Wood – flexibility, and the ability to stay on their purpose instead of getting indignant.

Summer is the greatest expansion of the growth that started in Spring. In the plant world, it’s a time of flowering, and therefore, communion and sexuality. Flowers are not just sexual organs but a plant’s time to express its beauty, radiance, and glory. Summer is ruled by Fire, which has a similarly expansive and radiant nature to a flowering plant. Fire is also the element that presides over sexuality and connection. It’s a transformative, exciting force. It illuminates darkness and obscurity. The healthy emotion associated with Summer and Fire is joy. When out of balance, we feel hysteria, anxiety, or jitteriness.

Late Summer is a season unique to Chinese philosophy. It’s the latter portion of summer, when nights tend to get colder and flowering gives way to fruiting. It’s the season of ripening and the harvest of crops. Late Summer is ruled by Earth, the element that presides over nourishment. In the human body, the primary digestive organs also correspond to Earth. The healthy emotion associated with Late Summer and Earth is contemplation. It also relates to our capacity to focus and analyze. When out of balance, it becomes worry.

Finally, Fall is the season of decline. It’s the season when activity diminishes and outward growth stops; we begin to focus inward and reflect. Fall as associated with Metal or Air, both of which are good reminders of a lesson in real value. Metals, like gold and silver and the other “shiny stuff” in life, is often valued above all else, yet it is almost worthless when it comes to sustaining life. In contrast, Air is invisible and insubstantial. It’s so easy to miss and take for granted, yet we’d die in minutes without it. Hence, a main challenge of this element, whether we call it Metal or Air, is to remember that it’s the intangible things that are of greatest worth in life. The healthy emotion associated with Fall and Metal is reflection – the capacity to reflect on what has passed and gain value from it. When out of balance, it becomes grief.

There are many ways to apply these characteristics of the seasons and their associated elements in order to better understand ourselves and the world, and to more gracefully move through periods of difficulty. I created these diagrams to more clearly depict these phases as part of an ongoing cycle. The first diagram shows how each season leads to the next, and some of the key dynamics of each.

In this next diagram, we see how the characteristics of the seasons could be seen as phases in a life or project. In the Winter/Water phase, for instance, a new project is just an idea or a seed. We might call this the resting phase or the conception phase. Conception perhaps occurs near the frontier between Winter and Spring. In Spring/Wood, the project is launched (the seed germinates). The structure is defined, a plan is created. Growth begins. In the Summer/Fire phase, growth is at its maximum, and the project “blossoms.” In the Late Summer/Earth phase, the project comes to fruition. It yields a desired return on all the energy that was invested in it. We “harvest” the fruits of our labors. In the Fall/Metal phase, we “release” the project, either because it is over or because it moves to a new phase in which we are no longer attached to it. Here we are able to reflect on the value gained from going through the cycle. As we move into the Winter/Water phase again, there is the need for stillness and rest before the cycle begins again.

Every human life follows this cycle, and within every life, there are many smaller cycles, and cycles within cycles. Consider contemplating the cycle of the seasons and applying it to a few of your own endeavors – past and present. What season is trickiest for you? Is there a season you tend to skip over completely? For instance, do you plant seeds, tend to them for a while, but then neglect them and plant new seeds? Do you nourish your projects and invest your energy in them, but don’t let yourself actually celebrate the “harvest”? Do you go from one cycle to the next without ever letting yourself have a fallow period, when you let yourself do nothing and feel okay about it?

I encourage you to invite Nature into your life and see how much more colorful, alive, and right things feel.

Be well,

Dr. Peter Borten All rights reserved © 2015 Peter Borten [post_title] => The Language of the Seasons [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => the-language-of-the-seasons [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-05-26 02:09:04 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-05-26 02:09:04 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.thedragontree.com/?p=4809 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) [2] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 4797 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2015-03-24 09:06:36 [post_date_gmt] => 2015-03-24 16:06:36 [post_content] =>

Of all the ancient books that are still widely read, one of the most unique is the Yi Jing (often referred to by its old spelling, I Ching), The Book of Changes. It is unique for the fact that it has been preserved for about 3000 years, yet it’s not a religious text. It’s more of a study on Nature and how the qualities and dynamics of the natural world exist also in the human world. But the most unique part is that people use it to predict the future.

My Qigong teacher, Master Hui-Xian Chen, told me and my classmates that it is silly to use the Yi Jing this way. She insisted that it should just be a learning tool, and that people who look to this book for answers about the future can stop trusting themselves. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using the book in this manner as long as one maintains the right perspective.

Let’s go back to the basics first. There are a few fundamental concepts ancient Daoists came up with to explain how the world works. First and foremost is Dao, which I explained (sort of) last week. Dao could be thought of as the Oneness that unites everything. Next is the concept of Yin and Yang – the Twoness that gives rise to all of the many things of the world. In a nutshell, Yin and Yang are adjectives used to describe the opposite ends of a spectrum. The closer something is to the Yin end of the spectrum, the more tangible, solid, stable, internal, cold, unmoving, contractive, low, and dark it tends to be. The closer to a thing is to the Yang end of the spectrum, the more intangible, ethereal, airy, high, changeable, external, expansive, warm, and light it tends to be.

Everything falls somewhere along this spectrum, and everything has both Yin and Yang qualities. The sky is relatively Yang, because it’s intangible and high and changeable. At night it becomes more cold and dark, and therefore more Yin. However, even at night, the sky is Yang when compared to the earth, which is solid, low, more stable, and therefore much more Yin. The sunny side of a hill is more Yang than the dark side. The surface of the ocean (active, warmer, brighter, more superficial) is more Yang than the bottom (cold, dark, less active). The Yin-Yang symbol (called a taiji tu) illustrates the way Yin and Yang and interconnected and mutually supportive.

The Yi Jing is such an ancient book that it began with the simplest of symbols: a solid horizontal line to indicate Yang and a broken line to indicate Yin. If we were to make stacks of three such lines with all the different possible combinations of Yin and Yang, we’d get eight outcomes (Yang-Yang-Yang, Yang-Yin-Yang, Yin-Yang-Yin, etc.). These represent eight fundamental qualities of Nature, and the three-line combinations used to depict them are called trigrams.

First we have Sky (also translated as Heaven), made up of three Yang lines, because it’s the most Yang. Next we have Earth, made up of three Yin lines, because it’s the most Yin. And in between, we have Fire, Water, Wind, Lake, Thunder, and Mountain, each made of different measures and orders of Yin and Yang.

When two trigrams are combined, one stacked on top of another – Wind over Water, Earth over Fire, Fire over Earth, Water over Wind, etc. – a more complex dynamic results from the interaction of these forces. These six-line combinations are known as hexagrams, and there are 64 possible hexagrams. These symbols have names such as Peace, Conflict, Stagnation, Danger, Attraction, Limitations, and Insight, and the Yi Jing has much to say on these states, as they occur both in Nature and in human arenas, such as relationships, politics, and business. The book discusses what it means when each of these qualities is prevailing currently in one’s life.

As I said, my teacher, Master Chen, emphasized studying the Yi Jing to know these primal forces – how they wax and wane and shape our lives. In this way, we can understand how best to conduct ourselves in order to take advantage of opportunities that are available or to pass unscathed through a period of difficulty.

But the text was originally used for divination, and this is still its most popular use, so I’d like to say a bit about what I think of this. When using the Yi Jing this way, a person typically meditates on a question (I like to write it down) and uses some method to choose a random hexagram, which the questioner reads and interprets as an answer to the question.

While this probably sounds pretty woo-woo to most people, I have used the Yi Jing this way for insights many times, and nearly always the response I get is helpful, if not eerily accurate. My idea of how this might work begins with the belief that we are all connected a vast facet of the mind known as the “superconscious,” an awareness and intelligence that extends far beyond the thoughts and memories that are unique to the individual whose body we occupy.

When we ask a question of the Yi Jing, we are essentially making an agreement with the superconscious mind that goes something like this: “I am going to ask for insight on something. You’ll have this palette of 64 qualities through which to express a response that my conscious mind can understand.”

In actual practice, a Yi Jing reading doesn’t usually yield just a single hexagram as a response. The method for arriving at an answer produces not just Yin lines and Yang lines, but also Yin lines on the verge of becoming Yang lines, and Yang lines on the verge of becoming Yin lines. Thus, we usually end up with a hexagram that contains one or more “changing lines,” which leads to a second hexagram.

The Yi Jing includes commentary not only on the significance of each hexagram, but also what it means for any of the six lines to be changing. So when we ask a question and get a response, we consider the commentary on the first hexagram (which is usually taken to refer to our recent past or our current circumstances), the commentary on any changing lines (the most dynamic and changeable part of the reading, representing the transition), and finally the second hexagram (which is usually taken to mean where we’re headed, or the circumstances we’re coming into). Even without counting the commentary on changing lines, for a typical Yi Jing reading that produces two hexagrams there are 4032 outcomes possible.

If you’re interested, I encourage you to get a copy of the Yi Jing and give it a try. Of the many translations available, my favorite for beginners is called The I Ching Workbook, by R. L. Wing. If you get this book, there’s one error (in my opinion), which is how the author describes using coins to produce a reading.

I believe it should go like this: First, write down your question. You’ll get better at phrasing your questions over time, but a good approach is to use wording such as “How should I conduct myself with regard to [situation] in order to achieve the greatest [balance, happiness, harmony, etc.]?” or “What is the nature of [some situation]?” (Wing offers some advice on question writing in the introductory material.)

Second, get three of the same kind of coin, and then hold the question in mind while shaking the coins in your hands. Drop the coins. Two tails and one head means a Yin (broken) line. Two heads and one tail means a Yang (solid) line. Three tails means a Yin line that is going to change into a Yang line. Three heads means a Yang line that is going to change into a Yin line.

Third, draw the line. The first coin toss gives you the bottom line. You’ll shake the coins five more times, each of which will be drawn parallel to and above the first line, so that you end up with the sixth line at the top. Draw a Yang line as a solid horizontal line. Draw a Yin line as a dashed line (a line with a gap in the middle). For changing lines, draw them in their original form first, and make a dot or star next to them to remind yourself the line is going to change. Shake the coins and draw five more lines.

Fourth, if you had any moving lines, redraw the whole hexagram next to the first one, but this time, draw the changing lines as the form they’re changing into. For instance, for a changing Yin line (three tails), in the first hexagram you’d draw it as a Yin line, but in the second hexagram you’d draw it as a Yang line.

Finally, look up what the one or two hexagrams you drew mean. If you have just one hexagram, read the text for that hexagram, and then read about the significance of receiving this hexagram in “unchanging” or “static” form. If you have two hexagrams, read the text for the first hexagram, then read the text for any changing lines (remember, line one is at the bottom, and line six is at the top). If there are multiple changing lines, check to see if any of the moving lines are considered “leading lines” – lines of particular significance. If so, these are usually considered to carry more weight compared to other changing lines. Finally, read the text for the second hexagram (but not the text for the particular lines).

If the whole idea of asking for advice this way seems just too weird, see if you can get behind the idea that you’re just asking your higher awareness to express itself through this method. If that’s still too out there, consider simply reading the text in order to better understand these fundamental states of being, or meditate on what might be the right thing for you to hear at this moment. If you have an interesting experience, I would love to hear about it.

Be well,

Dr. Peter Borten

[post_title] => Nature’s Crystal Ball [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => natures-crystal-ball [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-05-26 02:09:05 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-05-26 02:09:05 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.thedragontree.com/?p=4797 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) ) [post_count] => 3 [current_post] => -1 [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 7124 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2018-09-12 16:25:26 [post_date_gmt] => 2018-09-12 16:25:26 [post_content] => If you’ve ever done something reactionary, without thinking it through, there was a certain element that spurred you to act even though you might not have been aware of it. If you have an addiction, or simply find yourself repeating a behavior even while knowing it isn’t good for you, this element is there as well. It’s also there when you procrastinate. And when you avoid certain people. And when you dodge uncomfortable conversations. And it inevitably plays a central role in every case of anxiety or depression. The element I’m speaking of is feelings. And although it might sound obvious to say, “Feelings play a central role in unhappiness,” I believe that most unhappy people rarely have an intentional meeting with those feelings. Whether recognized or not, their presence moves us to act – and to avoid acting. They dramatically alter our experience of life and our perspective of the ourselves and the world. Rather than labeling them as good or bad, I think it’s more meaningful to look at how much freedom do you have in your relationship with a given feeling? I often ask people about their feelings, especially when the feelings seem to be in control. Specifically, I inquire about the physical experience they’re having. Frequently they report that they can’t perceive anything. Despite the fact that there’s a feeling that’s strong enough to prompt them to, say, gobble up a bag of candy faster than they can stop themselves, the felt sense of that feeling can be hard to pin down. I guarantee it’s there though, and exploring it is likely to help unravel this behavior pattern. We’re not apt to address our unpleasant feelings directly because, well, they’re unpleasant. Maybe we believe that willingly experiencing them would be more unpleasant than distracting ourselves from them or blocking them out. Furthermore, we learn early that other people disapprove of our anger and fear, and usually there’s no wise guidance for managing these feelings. So we develop the skill of stuffing them or becoming numb. When we look at trends in violence, it’s clear that boys, in particular, are expected to learn this skill and that it often fails miserably. Actually it fails for everyone, eventually. Not acknowledging our feelings doesn’t neutralize them. It makes them toxic. I know that an exploration of your negative emotions, many of them associated with traumatic events, doesn’t sound like a good time. It’s work. Perhaps even painful work. But it’s supremely worthwhile work. It’s like digging out a deep splinter. You know it’s not good to let it fester in there, and maybe it’s gotten so tender and swollen that you can’t get it all at once. However, there’s a certain strength that comes from knowing you’re finally doing what needs to be done. And it doesn’t have to be a grim process; you’re not going to be less effective by bringing humor, gentleness, and self-love to this work. You will probably discover at times that your feelings are more complicated than you thought. Dr. Les Greenberg, the main developer of Emotion-Focused Therapy, explains that we have primary emotions and secondary emotions. Our primary emotions arise in the instant that an unpleasant thought or experience occurs, and they usually make us feel vulnerable or exposed. Thus, they’re often quickly and powerfully veiled by a secondary emotion (like anger, indignation, resentment, etc.) that feels less vulnerable. Greenberg describes primary emotions as “less rapid and less action-oriented” than secondary emotions. He says if we only address our secondary or surface emotions, the primary emotion remains and is likely to trigger new secondary emotions in future conflicts. With a spirit of curiosity and trust, you can go deep and get acquainted with these neglected parts of your shadow-self, bringing them into the light. While reading the beginning of this article, perhaps you thought, “But these are all cases of being moved by negative feelings. What about positive feelings? Aren’t they one of the best parts of life? Can they run us, too?” Yes, they are one of the best parts of life. And no, they can’t run us in the same way. I have to choose my words carefully on this topic, because it’s easy to start thinking of certain emotions as good and others as bad, some as desirable and others as undesirable, and the truth is more nuanced than that. Again, what’s most important is how we relate to our emotions. In most basic terms, negative emotions are a message that some form of conflict, resistance, or discord is occurring, and positive emotions indicate an experience of alignment, accord, or harmony. I know that sounds like good and bad, but how about we look at it this way: the Low Oil light on your dashboard indicates the potential for imminent friction and damage to your engine. Does that make the Low Oil light a bad thing? Would you prefer to put a piece of tape over it so you don’t have to see it? Auto makers would argue that this light, the equivalent of a negative emotion, is a very good thing as long as we respond to it appropriately. It’s kind of like the Hot/Cold game, where someone tells you you’re getting closer to some treat by saying “warmer” (i.e., a positive emotion) or further away from it by saying “colder” (i.e., a negative emotion). Hot and Cold stand to be equally useful. But imagine how the game would go if, upon hearing the other player say, “colder,” you just shut down. Or you said, “I can’t do anything right!” Or, “Why do you always have to attack everything I do?!” When we behave this way in the presence of negative emotions, the whole game ends. But when we remain open, the prize is our freedom – even if it takes years to find that treat. Be well, Dr. Peter Borten P.S. I don’t mean to confuse the issue, but I feel it’s worthwhile to share a few words of non-dual perspective on the subject (garnered from several spiritual traditions). Within this dualistic world, it makes perfect sense to treat negative and positive emotions as two sides of the same coin. Or as two sides of the same mountain – the light side and the shadow side. Neither is more valid or real than the other. But as we begin to have experiences of expanded consciousness – an awareness that transcends our everyday consciousness – positive and negative feelings may take on new meaning. If we define positive feelings as those that offer greater freedom, deeper peace, union with truth and love, these are (as I see it) an indication of alignment with our Highest Self (or God, or our Authentic Self, or Dao, or Buddha, or whatever other term you like). The non-dual perspective is that there is no opposite to this state. That is, this (love/truth) is reality, and the negative feelings and suffering that so define the human experience emerge from our immersion in an illusion, a state of forgetfulness in which love is conditional, anything of value is bound to be lost, and we must out-compete each other for happiness. Therefore, as we expand beyond our ego-dominated awareness, negative emotions may be seen as indicators that we’ve become re-immersed in the illusion, or that our ego is attempting to regain control over our consciousness. And positive feelings (as defined above) show us that we’re in the flow, that we’re expanding, or that we’re choosing love. While the perspective of Classical Chinese Medicine isn’t non-dual per se, it takes a similar view of classifying negative and positive emotions as fundamentally different things. The five basic “sentiments” – joy, contemplation, wonder, reflection, and vigor – are qualities we’re experience continually when we’re healthy. In contrast, the five primary negative emotions – anger, fear, joylessness (or mania), worry, and grief – are considered to be signs of imbalance. (However, if we’re able to accept and experience them readily, allowing them to move through us without resistance, this is not considered unhealthy. It’s only when they occur in an extreme or prolonged way that they become toxic.) Finally, while we can be guided almost equally well by Hot and Cold (i.e., indicators that we’re becoming more aligned and less aligned with our truth), ultimately, we can’t be shown the whole way home through expressions of the Cold end of the spectrum (i.e., “you’re going the wrong way!”). Expect to encounter discomfort and difficulty – they don’t mean you’re on the wrong path – but if you make your choices from love rather than fear, you should also expect that increased freedom, peace, love, and joy will light the way for you.

Learn our simple, yet powerful, process for uncovering, learning from, and releasing the feelings that have been running your life.

[post_title] => Once More with Feeling [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => run-by-feelings [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-05-29 21:22:23 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-05-29 21:22:23 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://thedragontree.com/?p=7124 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 5 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) [comment_count] => 0 [current_comment] => -1 [found_posts] => 51 [max_num_pages] => 2 [max_num_comment_pages] => 0 [is_single] => [is_preview] => [is_page] => [is_archive] => 1 [is_date] => [is_year] => [is_month] => [is_day] => [is_time] => [is_author] => [is_category] => 1 [is_tag] => [is_tax] => [is_search] => [is_feed] => [is_comment_feed] => [is_trackback] => [is_home] => [is_privacy_policy] => [is_404] => [is_embed] => [is_paged] => [is_admin] => [is_attachment] => [is_singular] => [is_robots] => [is_favicon] => [is_posts_page] => [is_post_type_archive] => [query_vars_hash:WP_Query:private] => 897bc96387a59c9f99e90cbd42744ed0 [query_vars_changed:WP_Query:private] => [thumbnails_cached] => [stopwords:WP_Query:private] => [compat_fields:WP_Query:private] => Array ( [0] => query_vars_hash [1] => query_vars_changed ) [compat_methods:WP_Query:private] => Array ( [0] => init_query_flags [1] => parse_tax_query ) )

You may also be interested in:

Once More with Feeling

The Language of the Seasons

The Dragontree

Talking Wellness with Peter: Natural Ways to Treat Migraines

One thought on “Talking Wellness with Peter: Natural Ways to Treat Migraines”

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

The Dragontree and its Founders have been Featured in