Dr. Emmett Miller guides you through imagining a past headache trigger, then mentally rehearsing a calmer response to it. By visualizing yourself asserting needs, relaxing, and accepting what you can't change, you train your subconscious to skip the tension that causes pain.
Imagine the kind of situation that in the past might have triggered a headache. Bring this scene in clearly. But as you look forward into the future, write yourself a different script. How will you respond differently and relieve yourself of the pressures that used to result in a headache? Choose a scene that may actually occur in the future. Step into it and write your own script for it. Perhaps there are certain things that you need to say. Perhaps you need to assert yourself more. Perhaps you need to be able to be more relaxed and more trusting, to put less pressure on yourself. Perhaps there are certain situations that you need to be able to accept, to be easy on yourself. Perhaps you need to re-examine the ways your energy and time have been spent and set different priorities for yourself. Live through this scene in your mind's eye now and imagine yourself handling it in a way that results in your feeling relaxed and calm, thereby avoiding the tension that might have led to a headache. Use the stop or pause button if you need to.
Good.
And each time you envision yourself responding in these new, more adaptive ways, you are teaching your deeper mind to avoid avoid the tension and stress that used to produce discomfort, and you are becoming more and more the person you really want to be, the person you already are down deep inside. Now, as you take a deep breath in and let it out, you look upward and notice that the sky is starting to glow orange and red. The shadows are growing longer and darker. And it's time for you to leave this pleasant, special place for a little while. Yet you know that you can return any time that you wish, just by closing your eyes and relaxing.
This has been a sample of Dr. Emmett Miller's guided imagery program, Headache Relief. You can find it at shopdrmiller.com.
