Reiki-Infused Headache Relief Practice

This practice combines self massage, breath work, self compassion and reiki to promote relief from stress and headache. These practices help to activate the vagus nerve to calm the nervous system. This was recorded while in the throws of a headache. I hope you find it useful.

Transcript

Hello and welcome. My name is Alicia and I'm here to offer you a practice to ease headaches and promote stress relief. I currently have a headache so know that I am in it with you. Often I find that having a headache or feelings of stress is an indication to slow down and go within. I hope that this practice allows you to do that. Remember that everything I'm offering is optional and please do what serves you best. I'm currently in a darker room because I find that I am more sensitive to light when I have a headache. So if there is anything you need to be more comfortable in your practice, Go ahead and take a few moments to do that now. The first invitation is a simple forehead massage. So I'm taking my pointer finger and my middle finger of each hand and I'm gently applying pressure to my temples and slowly circling backwards towards my ears. Just small circles there. Slowing down the breath. Relaxing the jaw as I'm massaging. And you can stay right there if that feels good. I'm going to move on. So I'm just going to take all four fingers on both hands and I'm going to come to the center of my forehead. So my pinkies are between my eyebrows and my pointer fingers are close to my hairline. And I'm just going to gently apply pressure as I pull my fingers outwards towards the temples. And we're going to do that a few times. So just coming to the center of the forehead and you can linger anywhere that you'd like. You can take the pinkies through your eyebrows as you go. You can allow the fingers to go into the hairline. You can take the fingers past the temples, Down the jaw, Down the neck if that feels good. If you find anywhere that feels tense or juicy, I tend to hold tension in my neck and in my trapezius muscles. So I'm just kneading there a little bit. Our next invitation is to just gently take the fingers into the hair and making small circles using the amount of pressure that feels good. You know, This is just a practice in softening. And if you haven't already, Feel free to close down the eyes here as you continue to massage either in the hair, The forehead, The neck, Slowing down the breath as you go. The next invitation is to massage the ears. So this is a little hard to explain over an audio track, But there is a tiny triangular shaped part of the ear called your tragus. So we're going to massage that. There's a few ways to do that. I like to take my pointer and my middle finger on either side of the tragus and just gently apply pressure on the front and the back of the tragus. And then with the pointer finger in the shell of the ear, The concha, I generally take the middle finger, Apply pressure on the tragus, And then that pointer finger, And then circle in the concha, Just applying pressure to both areas. This is a really strong activation point for the vagus nerve, So it should be very calming to the nervous system. And you can play around with this, Shifting your focus to just the tragus or just the concha, That seashell shaped part of the ear. If it feels good to massage the earlobes, You can do that. It's nice to take the pointer finger on the front of the earlobe and the thumb on the back and gently tug down. And then you can move that up the side to the ears, Gently pulling out. You might hear some cracks, Some pops as you go. Getting all the way up to the top of the ear, Gently pulling out, And then working your way back down. Maybe revisiting the tragus and the concha one more time. And again, Just slowing down the breath here. The next invitation that I'm going to offer is an alternate nostril breathing, Nadi shodhana. That is as it is called in Sanskrit or yogic philosophies. So the invitation here is to fold the pointer and middle finger down of the right hand. And we're going to be using the right thumb on the right nostril and then the ring finger and pinky on the left nostril. So before we begin the breath, If you're not familiar with this, I will try to take it slowly so that it makes sense. Take a nice soft inhale through the nose. Allow the belly to fill. Breathing a little deeper into the chest. And then exhaling all the air out of the nose. Beautiful. We'll take the right thumb and blocking the right nostril. So just applying gentle pressure on the right nostril. Inhale through the left nostril. Nice and easy. Pausing at the top. We'll block left nostril with the ring finger and pinky. Releasing right nostril and exhale right nostril. Inhaling right nostril. Pausing at the top. Blocking right. Releasing left. Exhaling left nostril. Inhaling left nostril. Pausing at the top. Ring finger and pinky covering left nostril. Releasing right thumb from the right nostril. Exhale right nostril. Inhaling right. Holding center. Releasing left. Continue on your own for a few rounds. And when you feel complete, Dropping the right hand down perhaps into your lap. And just noticing the impact that these practices have had on you. My last invitation to you is to send healing to your thoughts and kindness to your scalp and eyes. So we're just going to focus on that intention. And if you'd like, I'm laying down for this part. You can take the heels of your hands over your eyes, Creating your own dark cocoon. Just allowing the fingers and the palms, The hands to rest across the forehead. And just holding that intention of compassion here. Softness and compassion for yourself. You are so worthy and deserving of this compassion. And with your consent, I'm going to send Reiki. I'm going to infuse Reiki into this recording so that whoever is listening, Whenever you're listening, You may receive this healing frequency, This healing energy. So I'm going to send that now. May it allow your thoughts to soften, Your love to deepen. May it allow you to be present with yourself. If your hands are still covering your eyes, You can remove them if that feels aligned for you. I'm planning to lie down with an eye mask covering my eyes after this. I truly invite you to give yourself some time and a break from your screen if you can. Thank you so much for practicing with me. I appreciate your presence. Take care and be well.