Migraine Awareness: The Art of Healing

[00:00:06] Hi, this is the Be Well with Dr. Michelle Greenwell podcast. Our heartwarming conversation is designed to lift you on your wellness journey. Grab your cup of tea and enjoy the podcast.

[00:00:27] Welcome everyone to another episode of Be Well with Dr. Michelle Greenwell and our Migraine Awareness Month series. This month we're exploring practical ways to support people living with migraines, looking beyond symptom management, and asking how we can create more balance for migraines.

[00:00:44] resilience and vitality in everyday life. Research tells us that migraines are complex neurological events influenced by genetics, hormones, stress, inflammation, nervous system regulation, trauma, environmental factors, and lifestyle habits. What research also tells us is that every migraine journey is unique. Many people spend years searching for answers, trying one solution after another. And when you're living with migraines,

[00:01:14] even self-care can feel overwhelming. During a difficult day, the idea of adding one more exercise, one more appointment, one more strategy can simply feel like too much. What if healing could also come through gentle practices that require little effort? What if art, color, nature, frequency, and intuitive tools could continue supporting your wellbeing, even while you rest?

[00:01:42] Today, we're going to explore this beautiful possibility. I'm joined by two of my favorite people to talk to. I've got Tanya Levy and Marian Egan. Welcome to both of you. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle.

[00:01:58] Thank you, Michelle.

[00:02:58] Thank you, Michelle. Thank you, Michelle.

[00:03:27] Thank you, Michelle. Thank you, Michelle.

[00:03:48] Thank you, Michelle. Thank you, Michelle, for your welcome.

[00:04:19] perfect and what's on your mug what does it say it says grow which grow is the irish word for happy oh beautiful and so get out for happy if i'm correct i think it is yeah perfect thank you and tanya what have you got in your mug i have coffee with some cranberry honey

[00:04:43] beautiful and what's on your mug i have polka dots i love that beautiful but the other evening i had took some orange balm and some ginger mint from my garden and i put almost boiling water in them and drank that so that was lovely too uh love it i just want to bring forward that what you choose to sit with um as you listen to the podcast is going to provide you with different ways to

[00:05:12] engage and bring calmness to the body so it's the smell um as you bring in if it's the coffee smell bring in the coffee smell and it's going to take that limbic system so the back brain and it's going to connect it to the motor system which allows you to move forward which is a lovely way to think about how we take our breaks and i'm going i'm lifting up my mug which is full of bees today that say

[00:05:40] delicately floral and aromatic and have a whole bunch of herbs on them and i want to introduce a tea that i was able to launch this last week called 1897 generosity and this is from the cape brenton tea company and is a special one for the generosity of opadiah smith who was a tea company

[00:06:03] owner but who through the money that he made selling tea was able to share that across many hospitals and universities in cape brenton and in nova scotia so the affirmation on this one is open your heart to hope and optimism for your resilience and pure generosity inspires others and at the heart of this blend i want to bring up two ingredients that people might not have thought about one they'll be

[00:06:31] familiar with but maybe not the other one is oolong tea and the other is elderberry so the spiritual essence of oolong oolong is processed um midway between what green tea and black tea have and it's fermented for a little bit and then dried whereas green tree green tea um is processed slightly different

[00:06:58] that and black tea is dried so it often has like the burnt idea to it so oolong is really quite soft reminds us that healing is not always about forcing change but about finding a gentle flow between effort and rest action and restoration when we're talking about migraines this can be really important it's balanced nature encourages mental clarity while supporting calm helping us navigate life's

[00:07:25] transitions with greater ease and if you have that feeling of a migraine coming on that opportunity to soften rather than to tense into it but to soften into it and then allowing the body to move so it can flow into what the body needs to handle the pain that may be coming on i'm going to look at the the spiritual essence of elderberry so people are often familiar with elderberry it's um an herb and berry that

[00:07:54] has been used for centuries has long been associated with protection resilience and community wisdom and it symbolizes the strength that comes from deep roots and reminds us that healing is often nurtured through the heart of the heart and that connection and that connection could be with nature could be with ourselves could be those who walk beside us could be the pet that joins us especially when we're not

[00:08:19] feeling so well so the tea ritual rather than rushing through a cup of tea or coffee allow it to become a moment of restoration notice its color breathe in the aroma hold the warmth in your hands which what i'm doing today set an intention and we did that already at the start when we create small rituals this will support the

[00:08:44] nervous system we can invite the body into a state of balance and flow and this is where the migraine where it might be triggered may become less intense or have the opportunity to be less frequent so thank you ladies for coming for this conversation and bringing all your wisdom to the forefront thank you michelle oh my

[00:09:11] all right first question marian you have your heart art magic paintings they're created with intention and frequency can you share how intuitive art can become a wellness tool for someone that lives with migraines absolutely well the first thing i'd like to say is you know if you think of the acronym for art

[00:09:36] art art for me that's my ability to release intention and trauma that's what art does for me you know and what i love about it is the fact that there's no rules no regulation it's just me playing with color like a three or a four year old and that's how i start off every painting you know and it's amazing when you get

[00:10:00] the feel of it in your hands because i paint with my hands and go with that flow you know um and i when i see after i spread the paint around and then i see something within it then i'll take a brush and bring it out and you know sometimes some of my paintings have literally brought me to my knees where it showed me

[00:10:24] where i was locked and blocked within myself and that's the wonderful way of working with paints that way because if you think about you know that tension in your body like t is for tension and if you think about the word pain what do you get when you put a t at the end of pain paint

[00:10:52] yes because it just releases the tension that may be building up in your body it's a great way of just letting go letting it flow and just being in tune with what's happening on the inside you know because for me it's like if you think about migraine i'm going to re uh rewrite migraine if you think of the

[00:11:13] word my my and then g or a i n my grain it's like it's the seed your body is planting for me it's the body's way of saying stop and you look at what i'm trying to give you some information stop take some time step back as you say relax and go with the flow you know so it's like planting that

[00:11:39] seed of well what do i need to see what do i need to know what what is my body or or mind not happy with because a lot of the time we we're pushing ourselves through like it could be a nine to five or whatever it might be for your or your seven day week or five day week and we don't actually take time to stop and just for self-care self-empowerment and just relaxation and as you say

[00:12:06] this having this and taking time to savor not just make it and drink it but to savor it what it means to take the time to do say smell it feel it hold it and allow it to be part of your relaxation so all of these things have a a major effect with me so i'm sorry for putting a new handle on the migraine but

[00:12:31] that's that's what that's what it is for me and when when when i take the time i look as a physical emotional mental spiritual nutritional emotion or environmental you know then it's it's investigating why is my body talking to me like this you know because you know i've had migraines my very first one when i was a

[00:12:54] child i didn't know what it was but over time i've learned how to as you say relax release and don't end up relax do something that's creative that allows that flow to go i hope that helps i'm just i'm just i'm in awe because you're in ireland and i know part of the the piece for

[00:13:24] the irish and for the scottish is to play with those words and in north america we don't quite do that the same way and definitely i would never have thought of looking at migraine as migraine and a seed that is just so empowering so i appreciate that and the other part was pain plus

[00:13:47] the t is paint yes you know um and as you were describing that you're painting with both hands i'm familiar with that because i've been painting with you for for a while um and that that power of being able to put both hands into the paint not just one because some people do one but actually put both hands into the paint and let them express themselves so anybody listening thinking oh my goodness um i

[00:14:16] would recommend going to marian's youtube channel and watch her paint because then you'll see how her hands work in the paint and that might be something that you feel called to um to be able to put your hands into that color yeah and then just one other as you say about play on words when i when i started them as the founder of heart art magic you know i mean the reason i have magic there again it's an

[00:14:43] acronym and that magic stands for my ability to go into my center because this is where the magic happens our body has got the answers but we need to stop step back listen make stock and allow whatever wants to come forward go forward and then make it from there beautiful so i hope as you're

[00:15:08] listening everyone that you if you have the opportunity to write those keywords down and just see how easily just by marion saying them she's transformed just just by changing those words um beautiful i wanted to

[00:15:24] think about because i know people be thinking with their self-care it's just one more thing they're going to have to do so when we're talking about using color and frequency to support the body how is it not something we have to do next can you explain how it's just part of your day well for me it's yeah it's part of my day but if i don't have time to paint well then i have created

[00:15:53] uh my paintings and i've created them into my cards so i have mine you know it's already done so it's a dumb deal you know and then um then the message on the back and then the frequency number like that is so magical um i went into a shop this morning and i could see the the owner of the shop i knew she was in pain by the way she moved but by the time i left the shop 10 minutes later she was pain free i guess i gave her

[00:16:23] two of my my cards and my messages and my frequencies you know um and it's it's wonderful to do that so that's quick and handy um and you know even with the cards that you have michelle it's the same thing you have it to hand you don't have to go do anything you know but if people don't want to paint then they can just use color pencils you know or even just doodle it's you don't need much to just because when you start doing that you're allowing

[00:16:52] the creation the creativity part of your uh inside to be able to express what you're feeling it's all about expression and when you express what you're feeling now your feelings are not held inside they're now outside on a piece of paper or on a canvas and now you've just released what's been you know bugging you maybe so that's the way i see it

[00:17:21] mm-hmm and i'm going to come back to what you said about the card and the actual card itself um so i'll bring that back in a in a few minutes so people can learn what what that means but how simple that is to have that extra piece so i i wanted to do one more little bit before i bring tan into the conversation and that's about visual sensitivity during a migraine episode

[00:17:48] so can art become a gentle companion during recovery um something that can support rather than demand more attention how for you having had migraines how might the art support that what i have discovered that what i found was as i start painting

[00:18:11] um as i said there's no rules or regulations that's doing with my hands um i'm intrigued by what's happening underneath my hands and what's coming forward with the colors i'm using and then i realize about maybe 20 minutes or even 15 minutes later i'm not focusing on what this is feeling i'm actually my focus is on what's in front of me

[00:18:38] so the color supports the feeling of the paint between my fingers supports me and then what it's actually showing me if i need to bring something out it could be a mountain it could be a waterfall it could be a bird or anything like that uh or it may not be anything at all it might just be just pure color it may not have anything in it just pure color um and that's how i noticed that my attention has been

[00:19:06] taken away from here and now it's coming from the heart center and out onto the canvas or the paper that's what i find and so it helps so you've got that so that sense of feeling that comes from the migraine is actually transformed as the fingers get into the paint and the feelings of the paint the canvas underneath your fingertips and um yeah i guess the movement patterns that you're doing as

[00:19:35] well yeah and you know yourself when you're moving both hands and you're integrating the brain pattern as well you know so it's all helping but you don't even realize how much you're helping yourself by doing that you know beautiful okay tanya let's bring you into the conversation and uh you are also an amazing artist you you see things in nature that you bring through with your camera you bring it through

[00:20:05] with the way you make pictures do you want to talk a little bit about the art that you do well i got a camera from a phone from my husband about i don't know 16 years ago and i took a picture through the bathroom window with the flash on by accident and it made like this uh flower of light and i thought

[00:20:29] that's cool let's do that again so about you know 380 000 photos later it's become a slight obsession so i take pictures of trees and sky and flowers and lights and then i mirror the photos or i layer them

[00:20:53] and i always see messages in them and i listen to what the photos want to tell me i find a lot of hearts in nature too and a lot of hearts in the sky i got out of my car one day and there was a perfectly shaped ice heart right by my car and then the next day there was another perfectly shaped ice heart in a different place and then there was a snow heart so i just i'm always very amused by how nature and the

[00:21:18] universe plays with me i think that because i do therapy work full-time during the day the connection with nature and art is a way to move the story through my body and being so that it doesn't so the stories don't linger with me and also way to move the energy in a positive way because sometimes the

[00:21:39] stories about trauma can be heavy that's a way to lighten it beautiful wow and you have a nickname people gave you yes i was i was on a uh i'm on a web uh facebook group called small stones where we share small pieces of writing as a way to be mindful and i posted so many pictures of heart clouds that

[00:22:07] they nicknamed me heart lady so heart lady inspiration is the name of my of your company my company yeah i love it and then people share hearts with me from all over the world and tag me and say i've saw this heart and thought of you so i think it's fascinating that people see hearts and think of me you know exactly help them to stop and pause and hopefully ground and center

[00:22:32] in that moment and notice the hurt so yeah that's beautiful so you and i created the affirmations for the body and biofield deck you've got the cover there so it's it's a black cover but it has a very special image on the front do you want to talk about that image for those people that can't see it and so i created this image in flow paper and i'm and i don't think flow paper exists anymore

[00:23:02] and flow paper is a was a um an art program where you could create twirls with your fingers okay and so i created this image with my finger and i thought it looked like an african woman holding a child and it's a ribbon of color for those people that can't see it so it's

[00:23:27] kind of swirls of color um and it there's a lot of um shadow in the photo too because i think sometimes we do find comfort in the dark and i know that a lot of people with migraines find comfort in the calm and the quiet in the dark and you know we talk about light being comforting but sometimes the quiet of the dark can be comforting too like nighttime just at dusk or a moonlight and so i think all of that is in that photo

[00:24:00] and this deck that we created grew out of our shared understanding that the body knows um where support is needed but we can't always hear the cue so we created it so that the body would be able to tell us by the cards that we are chosen can you explain how someone might use the deck to discover their primary focus where healing might need to be i think for me a lot of

[00:24:29] times like this is a smaller version of the deck um i often just shuffle and then i pick a number um usually with um asking myself what number it needs today and trusting my intuition or for those that are familiar with muscle testing muscle testing the number so today it's five so let's see what card

[00:24:58] number five is so this is the picture and this is from the meeting divine with there's four decks and affirmations for the body and biofield and this is from meeting the divine the power of gold and red are enhancing brilliance as each spinal chakra resonance opens with your breath an orchestra of freedom and belonging is experienced as the energies all dance together radiant kundalini

[00:25:26] and so there's many ways you could use that you could look at the color and think you know is there something in this image that speaks to me like to me it feels like a very powerful image so i might think maybe i need to be more powerful in my life or maybe there's some um something that's wanting my attention and i'm missing it or maybe i'm not tuning into my power maybe the color red means something right now maybe i need to be more rooted and grounded or maybe the color green means something

[00:25:56] maybe i need new growth or to connect with my heart or maybe there's a feeling that comes up when i look at the card that's important like the feeling of strength maybe i just need to return to that sense of strength in my life or maybe there's something in the words that speak to me like to me breath comes right out and freedom so maybe i need to make space to breathe because a lot of times i find when i have migraine symptoms it's because i've pushed myself beyond what i should have and not taken enough

[00:26:25] breaks and not take a time to breathe and so as soon as i read that i'm like okay the garden will get planted when it's planted and you don't have to plant all 60 packages of seeds you have tomorrow right even though of course i think i can and should and weed all 20 garden beds right but i think the point is is that um the messages are there if we can find a space to receive them

[00:26:53] often i will pick a card each day at work to focus that day or that week and i think also when i work with my students i encourage them to take photos because sometimes it's easier to express ourselves through images than it is through words i find images are i'm looking at marianne here but

[00:27:16] my images sometimes are easier for us to relate to especially if we have any struggles with words like hard to read or hard to write it whereas images are easier did i answer all your it is beautiful yeah and um in this deck we looked at structure pieces in the body but like you said you were talking about the

[00:27:43] spine then there's the joints there's uh the way the fascia comes off the spine and then we have the energy on the outside of the body which we often forget about so a migraine pulls us in really constricts us into the inside of the body but if we can pull ourselves out and and find that energy on the outside how it might be able to transform what's going on on the inside and i believe the deck began

[00:28:08] because i um created a photo and when i mirrored it was like a picture of trees it looked like a spine it looked like a person sitting in their spine and i believe i messaged you and i said michelle i think i just created a photo of the spine maybe we could do something with that mm-hmm so yeah here's the deck and there's the deck and i and i could feel like i could it like it felt like a spine and it felt like a person sitting and kind of like

[00:28:39] breathing into their spine because i i often think of illness as contraction like when i fell on christmas day and my shoulder pushed in it took me about three months to actually get it to on clench and open and that was a little bit every day right and i think that illness is a teacher

[00:29:02] and um the spine is many times anytime we can move our spine is a way to open to what our body's trying to tell us because you know we're sitting a lot and being still a lot in our our spine likes movement it likes to wiggle and jiggle mm-hmm sorry i don't know if that's a scientific term as long as it works that's all that matters right

[00:29:34] but i think you understand what i mean by pushing past like ignoring our body signs and pushing past where we should and then all of a sudden this hurts and this hurts and this hurts and then we're like oh i didn't check in i didn't pause i didn't take a break and i think um a lot of people have tension in the mind or the brain because that's the part that's often working so hard

[00:29:59] mm-hmm exactly and that constriction piece that happens that lack of breath that results yeah sometimes when i say you know are you suffering enough right now or would you rather wait until you feel worse before you do anything oh it's it's prevention is better than cure any day you know so

[00:30:23] putting systems in place so that you don't get into that struggle and that you know that's uh that's the key really isn't it and i've seen me sit at my desk going i can go pee after this email no i'm just going to send this email and then i'm going to go pee and then i'm like and then the other part of my brain is like will you just go to the bathroom just get away from the screen and go to the bathroom you will not die nothing will crash the world will not end just listen to your body and go

[00:30:52] to the bathroom and so then i'm like running to the bathroom because i've almost waited too long and in my brain i'm going why do i do this to myself like why do i do this to myself what is that important that i can't listen to my body well enough to go to the bathroom and i mean i think it sounds so simple but as counselors we talk about the fact that we don't even sometimes take time to go to the

[00:31:18] bathroom which is absolutely ridiculous how regulated am i if i'm sitting in my office and i've seen it said to a student who's bought by my office going i can talk to you but i'm sorry i have to go to the bathroom first and then give me that yes chenny it's fine yeah and while they're laughing at me but until i tell them to take care of themselves and to listen to their body and here

[00:31:40] i am going i can help you as soon as i run into the bathroom yeah yeah um and nobody minds when you take those few moments because actually they end up stopping and taking a few moments because now they have this space and sometimes we forget the space is also important so yeah yeah i think this is a

[00:32:04] great segue so we've talked a little bit about um the cards that are in the body and biofield deck so an opportunity to play with art taking photographs of nature bringing those pictures in um tanya i think if you and i just bring in some of the science around awe you and i talked about the other day yes and i think this is a great thing because if someone goes and takes the time like you do

[00:32:32] to snap that picture and capture that piece that goes oh this is so beautiful that is a sometimes i relax because my son used to say to me mom you can just enjoy the moment and not take the picture you know that right because sometimes because it's back to why am i doing the practice am i doing the practice so that i can create a pretty photo for a hundred other people thousand other people whatever

[00:33:00] or am i am i enjoying the moment in nature because i want to breathe and be present to nature and i think that sometimes we need to give ourselves permission to just be awestruck in nature and not do anything with it last week i said to my son i spent three hours in the garden doing stuff and it was great and he said mom mom three hours in the garden doing nothing is great too

[00:33:26] and i'm like right like and think about that right because i was so excited to tell him i'd spent three hours in the garden doing stuff and he's and he's like okay but now just a minute what doing you know being in the garden doing nothing being in nature doing nothing is still something right yeah

[00:33:51] yeah yeah and taking in those moments and realizing the flower is yellow yes and you can capture the fragrance or you see the heart cloud that's going to go by or as as we have here the fish scales the the last couple of days um you know the storms coming in and we get these beautiful cloud formations it's um and they call them fish scales well that's what we had the last little bit yeah

[00:34:20] oh yeah you mean the clouds look like fish scales that's great i mean and walking by the corner and smelling the ginger mint and going hmm i wonder if i can make a cup of tea with that that's good for digestion in the stomach i can really use that this week i've probably been a bit off in my consuming of food this week oh well what about that orange balm i planted last year i wonder if it's taken oh look it's like six inches tall i can take some of that and then going in and actually

[00:34:47] making the cup of tea instead of leaving it on the counter until it dries out and i forget about it i'm saying these things because i know that people listening go oh yeah i was really going to do xyz and i didn't do it i brought it in the house that was in my pocket or i brought it in i was going to do this with it and then i get busy and i forgot all about it i never made the cup of tea and we're allowed we're allowed to spend three hours doing nothing but drink tea

[00:35:17] exactly let's move over marion to uh what you talked about with your deck of cards and working with your artwork do you want to share an experience for people so they could get a feel for how this works yeah well what the first thing i say to people is um if i take that lady this morning in the shop you know i just asked her how did she feel and she was telling me how how bad she was you know

[00:35:43] um so again getting back to giving yourself permission that's the very first thing is to give yourself permission to allow whatever uh the discomfort in your body to go and that's what i say to people just and say it out loud because your the vibration of your voice is is as important as you thinking the thought so i get people to say i give myself permission and i

[00:36:12] and i allow this discomfort or pain or stress or anxiety or migraine to go and then once you've done that then like that i get them to choose a card now i've handheld cards or i've digital cards and the digital cards are numbered so i might ask them to choose a number between one and 47 they choose a number that's them as if they were shuffling the card themselves

[00:36:40] so when they take the card they read the message and they look at the image and then they install the frequency number and what happens with the pain your body needs to run a circuit in order for the pain to continually or the stress or anxiety or migraine to continually flow there's this pain circuit running and the frequency interrupts pain and kind of backs it up and moves it in the opposite direction

[00:37:09] so therefore the circuit is broken and can no longer run and that's when the pain or anxiety or stress just stops and it's amazing to see it happen you know and like with that lady this morning she said i can't believe this you know i said what can you not believe she said the pain is not what it was it's less than

[00:37:31] half of what it was so we did another frequency number another card and her pain was was gone you know and she said this is incredible and i said well look your body has an innate intelligence to heal itself but sometimes we're so busy and we're so caught up with what we're doing that we don't stop but because you guys you know and myself we have developed a i call it a toolkit it's a self-healing toolkit

[00:38:03] and it's an ideal opportunity for people to have the toolkit so that they can use it and help themselves because my mission is to empower people to heal themselves and that's what i teach so i know that lady was very happy she was so happy that she she booked a session for uh for next week with me in person when she's off work you know so that was nice that was

[00:38:28] good um but that's how it works you know but it's giving ourselves permission allowing it to happen and the body knows what to do when we take the time to instruct it i always say your brain is your conductor and your body is the orchestra and that's why it's important to give yourself permission and say it out loud if that helps can you pull a card for us now so if anybody is

[00:38:58] sitting with that migraine pain or they have something else that they would love to see soften yeah i can do that i'll call that now i'm just shuffling the card now and but this is the one that's come out that's called magic crystals oh that's beautiful i actually have um this is i actually have this like this is why i painted this

[00:39:27] um i have this uh it's like a chakra wand yeah the wand yeah chakra wand and just for those people who are listening in and can't actually see the art can you just describe a little of the visuals that are there for it yeah so it has um all the colors of the chakras um from the red the orange the yellow the green the blue

[00:39:53] uh and the magenta and the violet and then there's a crystal ball on the top of the wand and there's a crystal um like a diamond shaped crystal at the the end of the wand okay and then i have another crystal in there as well that i have in my practice but this says magic crystals and the message is stop wishing

[00:40:20] your life to be different the magic lies within you it always did and it always will sometimes we need to reconnect with it as life issues and trauma and disconnect the magic within you you just need to reactivate it by making the following statements on a daily basis and the statements are i like myself i love myself i deserve to be happy i accept myself as i am and then the frequency number people would like

[00:40:50] to write this down is five four three two one three two one so to install the frequency i get the person to as i say give themselves permission and then tap the number on the breastbone by tapping in and saying five four three two one three two one five four three two one three two one and do that about seven or ten times

[00:41:17] and by the time they tap that in the circuit uh has stopped running and the person feels better and that's as simple as it is so the card a card today i was just going to say if someone wanted to get one of your decks they could go to your website and do you have three decks now um

[00:41:43] no i have more than three oh i have um i have four four handheld decks and uh and i have digital decks as well so yeah the choice is there so if anybody wants a deck they can go to the website and have a look and see what they would like the one i've just shared with you is called from the deck called i

[00:42:05] dream the dream is that your newest one no that's the second one the newest one i did um i did it in collaboration with michelle and myself um i called it free to be me and this is the paintings that i would have done uh while michelle is doing her tai chi classes and i paint alongside so a lot of

[00:42:32] paintings are in that back for each big me awesome so that's the movement and music and symphony of radiance classes that we did and tanya had artwork also involved in that but marian was intuitively painting our experience of movement and music um for those people if you want to check that out and that's on

[00:42:56] the greenwellcenter.com um in the shop all right so now we've inserted we've got the artwork we have a frequency number we have um the body in the biofield deck which also has numbers on it not specifically the frequencies like marian as with hers um tanya listed off an area of the body but some of the cards

[00:43:26] have they'll say the notes have they'll say the note of f the note of a and they'll be corresponding to different parts of the spine so in the research on frequency um the different parts of the spine resonate with different notes and when we can have that space in the spine like we got from the card that tanya chose the space that comes into the spine allows for that bone to be able to vibrate at that note

[00:43:53] and so we have the opportunity to bring a frequency in that way so a little bit different than than marian did so what i'd like to bring forward is often um one of the challenges with migraines is that people often feel like they have to work hard to get better and what we're trying to share with you is these are simple easy things that they can just be a part of your day things that you do

[00:44:23] they can be an activity that you know to go to when you need to but as a proactive approach rather than waiting till the pain's coming it's really nice to have it in your day all the time so then it's just there and that can help support the system so the healing process can include tools that work quietly in the background so we're talking about looking at a painting holding a card reading the

[00:44:47] affirmation sitting with the cup of tea taking a mindful breath spending a few moments outside or in connection with someone else so all of these simple practices do matter and they will make a difference for you you're never sure where they're going to make the difference but that's the curiosity waiting to see how does the body respond when you start to add these simple little activities in

[00:45:14] so what i'd like to do now is move to one more uh deck that um tanya and i created with paulanoic droog and this is called it's in the cards um tanya do you want to share a little bit about your favorite way to work with this deck what i find most useful about it's in the cards is the neurovascular point and especially i find um if someone comes to my office and they have a headache

[00:45:42] it's helpful to hold the point for water at the back of the head at the base of the spine and just fold your hand there and it kind of helps with anxiety and then emotional stress release you just put your hand on the forward forehead and then you just hold those pants uh points together it's very relaxing and calming and i find this is a great way to um deal with the headache quite right away

[00:46:11] and there's other neurovascular points in the deck for different um emotions and feelings but i find this is the most helpful one for migraine is combining the neurovascular point for water with esr and the head hold and so for those people that are watching tanya has taken the whole palm of her hand and placed it lightly against her forehead and the whole palm of her other hand and placed it lightly

[00:46:39] at the base of the skull so if you couldn't see what she was doing that's the position she's holding and she's holding them very lightly you don't have a lot of pressure yeah and lovely that um you can hold a couple points on the head if you're not feeling up to it someone else can hold those points for you and that can also be extremely helpful beautiful and tanya mentioned that there are other points that

[00:47:08] you can hold on the head and you can hold the points in a certain order and on my youtube channel at michelle greenwell there's a playlist called it's in the cards and you can go to the neurovascular holding points video and you'll see it there i'm just going to hold up the cards hopefully i can get them right in the light you're good michelle and so these there's little which way am i going little

[00:47:37] pictures you need to tell you there you go yeah tell you with little dots what area to hold and in the video it'll tell you which order to hold them in if you want to nurture yourself or if you want to change a pattern or a behavior so maybe you have a regular habit of this would be mine i'll admit this part of not drinking enough water in the day you get lost and busy and all of a sudden it's two

[00:48:05] in the afternoon you're laughing because no one else does that but along comes that headache because you're dehydrated yeah then you can sip on the water we all sip water at the same time but you can also hold those neurovascular holding points in the pattern for changing behaviors to help

[00:48:27] you move beyond creating that crisis and that pattern happens to me periodically and then i go i know better how is it but it's like going to the bathroom how is it i kept putting it off putting it off putting it off to put myself into this crisis here and michelle the foot sensors are in the cards too right yes the foot sensors are so in addition to their vascular points your video also talks about how you can use

[00:48:55] the foot sensors and the only reason i bring that up is that sometimes i'm in a meeting online and i know that i'm not doing great and you can do the foot sensors under your desk and nobody knows you're doing them except you and it's a way to rebalance your energy and your system quietly without anyone knowing and each of those points that you mentioned like the water point has a foot sensor that goes with it and

[00:49:22] it's in explaining your videos and so for those of you that are on line a lot or i'm doing a lot it's a great way to rebalance your system quietly thank you for that because i for me um using those foot sensors um i love to stand in the color and so yes i can do it underneath which i also also do on many

[00:49:47] calls or meetings i'll have my feet moving underneath especially if i feel like i need to start moving because we've been sitting for too long then i'll start to do that but i also like to step on the color while i'm doing the activity so what do i mean by that that if i hold up this card so i've got the fire element so you'll see it's the color red and the activity is to rise and lower on the foot and that'll

[00:50:15] help with the centering reflex so if i step on the color red while i'm doing this then i can add color into it and if i want to go find that neurovascular holding point which is for fire that's the one that uh you were talking about this one is on the back of the head but it's up at the top at the back of the head i always think of it as behind the eyes perfect thank you for that

[00:50:42] this combination and done in a nurturing cycle is my absolute favorite way to use the cards and they can be layered that way so that um you have different ways you can filter in the color the sound the feel the texture and the activity yeah and just to reassure people that are listening if you don't have red to stand on you can just visualize where you would find red in nature which is really

[00:51:08] easy this time of year because there's roses and peonies and all kinds of flowers that are red so it's an easier way to sometimes bring the color in or i try to look around my room too there's usually all the colors represented in the room so that's also a great thing yeah perfect so this card deck

[00:51:31] called it's in the cards is full of single activities so as we've described uh marion cut her deck of cards to find us the one tanya shuffled the deck and then she said she's going to find the fifth card and the it's in the cards can work the same way because you can pull one single card and just do that one activity that one activity can be enough to just move the system into a different place

[00:51:58] without the distress it's in and start to bring some balance and flow and um you can layer them putting different movements together or you can keep it simple as one all right these practices become anchors and these anchors can help when times when a migraine is coming around and we're not in the state of being able to make a decision about anything we'd like to do or even participate in

[00:52:28] something but as we have the habit of using these tools they just become go-to things that you don't have to think about and that makes the decision making much easier because you just know how to use it and you kind of fall into it is there anything either one of you wants to add about those three decks that we've talked about well i think it's just about doing something that will help even as you say

[00:52:56] Michelle just drink more water you know like something that simple that you may not even think about because you just feel so awful but start with that and try and catch it before it becomes a major problem and do something once small something for yourself to uh bring some relief and as you say don't tense up relax

[00:53:23] and and sometimes it's hard to focus on the breath i've had student students come to my office that couldn't breathe because they were so stressed and so a lot of times i just direct them to feel their feet on the floor and try to connect their feet to the ground underneath them and sometimes if you can just ground for a minute or even 10 seconds then they'll go oh that feels a little bit better i said

[00:53:46] okay now let's try to breathe so just to be kind and gentle and compassionate to yourself that sometimes we have to ease into these tools that we've just something happens and it just we our stress response is immediate and that's how our bodies work their stress responses are there to protect us and then responding to them can take you know a couple tries of different tools to kind of find our way

[00:54:16] through and that's just the process beautiful i've one more piece i would like to bring into this and if the cards are paper we don't necessarily want to put a glass on top of it or our mug of tea on top because we might spill the water on the card however you can just put a little piece of plastic over top

[00:54:44] if you want or some of our decks are plastic so i'm just going to bring the harmony coasters into view because the harmony coasters were made to put um glasses on top of and they're plastic but this is another way that you might want to work again it's not adding any extra effort in but if you have a card or a piece of artwork or something that you really resonate with maybe a picture of nature

[00:55:14] that you want to infuse into your water then you can place that image on the table put your glass on top and the work of dr emoto on how we can put intention into water it can change the frequency of the water and this is a great way you don't have to do anything you can just infuse that water with something that's really nurturing and supportive and maybe it's your own artwork maybe it's our artwork but it's a

[00:55:42] great way for you to um think differently too about what you are sipping on when you're sipping that water in something that's been energized or something that maybe feels more dead it's not going to add anything to you this is a great way to lift you up and not to go too far around the bend but since we're predominantly made of water you could also just take the card and put it in your pocket

[00:56:10] and walk around with it all day because i've certainly loaned cards to people from my deck our deck and they've put them in their knapsack or put them in their pocket and carried them with them for a week to support them so it's okay to use the art um what's the word in a movement way in an active

[00:56:36] dynamic way i guess perfect thank you for that tanya so i want to bring us to uh just exploring something that i've talked about on several occasions and this is part of season five episode one i opened with the bioenergetic wellness formula and i want to bring that to the forefront because each of us has talked about it in our own way as we've been sharing the tools one of the principles of the formula is that

[00:57:06] small shifts can create meaningful change this is by setting a goal or creating an intention i want to have a day that's full of ease and flow or i look forward to a day that's calm or creative and setting up the day how you would like it to be or being able to accomplish a task then finding

[00:57:30] awareness noticing if tension shows up in the body noticing where there might already be tension there noticing what your posture is like how your feet feel on the floor and then doing some kind of activating supportive practice today we focused on art we focused on color frequency so that can be an activating supportive practice that can bring harmony to the system connecting in community so we've talked

[00:57:59] about that and that could be by connecting with nature connecting with your pets could be the people that you live with maybe finding your best friend to have a conversation or just going out and meeting a stranger and saying hi i see you nice to meet you or as we do in cape breton we wave at people as we pass them on the road whether we know them or not we'll wave anyway and that always makes me smile so it's a

[00:58:23] wonderful way to connect with community and then there's trusting your intuition from using these tools that you know which card in the deck is jumping out at you you know which phrase might be important to you or you may have a favorite frequency number that you know really works well for you and being able to

[00:58:49] pull that and trusting that intuition with all of this we can create an environment where healing can happen and each of us has this kind of habit that we work with and it's a daily practice that becomes powerful for long-term habits which create wellness for us and as you're working through yeah i'm not sure you know you don't want to be known as the migraine sufferer and you don't want to be recovering from migraines you would

[00:59:18] love to be migraine free or not even using that word anymore because it's not important or you've transformed it as marian has said into my brain it is my seed and that seed is filling me up and it's sharing something important with me so that formula if you want to know more you can find it on the youtube channel but you can also find it season five episode one i talked more in depth but it's always included in

[00:59:46] every episode um and it's it's how i live every day and i know it's how marian and tanya also live so we would like you to create a personal migraine toolkit yeah as you're listening today if you could begin with one gentle self-care practice we've got different ones that we've recommended across the series of interviews that have been done for migraine awareness month there have been lots of tools

[01:00:14] shared what would um what would you like to add to your toolbox as the listener to this podcast but i'm going to ask what marian would you recommend that somebody add to their toolbox that you think is like the first kind of go-to that you'd like to do well i think the first thing um i've often said the

[01:00:37] action that you take is the difference you can make so some form of action as we said drink water or you know whatever floats your boat what you like to do it's what's right for me is not right for somebody else we all have our own uniqueness so what what pleasure do you get that's what i would recommend that you do some do something that gives you pleasure and as you say it might be just having

[01:01:07] one of these and taking time to relax with it but the action that you take is the difference you can make beautiful thank you tanya how about for you i would say connecting with your breath whether you take time to breathe at your desk you get up and walk around and breathe there you go outside

[01:01:34] in nature and breathe just taking a moment breathing centering grounding and do you still have that um image the first one that you pulled of the kundalini yeah so i'm just thought if we bring that back to the forefront if that's supportive for anybody to take that deep

[01:01:57] breath bring the space into the spine connect with the color connect with the image just wanted to bring that forward thank you and i want to say that i still have i found marianne's image too because i wanted to put it out of my desk for the week so bring hers back too nice one and it mines on my desk i'm just not at my desk at the moment yeah that's beautiful thank you that's one of my favorite cards

[01:02:23] actually um when i'm playing and i think what i would add to the toolbox what i know about the formula and people that i've talked with many people have no idea how they want to set a goal they go well that's what i'm looking for what is my purpose or what should i be doing and it can just be a simple simple thing i just today i just want to be joyful that's it and so it's not like you're searching for

[01:02:53] some great piece that needs to happen it's just transform your day a little bit all right i just want to have i just want to relax into my day and then following that formula uh for me provides a great way to put it into action i've set my day up and then off i go and uh i was thinking today that someone i follow named mara glatzel talks about adding five percent to your day so then i thought

[01:03:20] okay so how many minutes is five percent so i was thinking so eight hours a day is 160 minutes so 10 of 160 minutes is 16 minutes and five percent is eight minutes so if you think of an eight hour productivity part of your day that's eight minutes and then possibly eight minutes for if you're awake another eight hours but i'm thinking so even if it was ten minutes a day that would be

[01:03:47] 70 minutes a week it's barely an hour and then that's only 52 hours a year which is pretty much just over two full days and so i think that even if we think about giving ourselves five percent a day of our time for a practice we're still only talking about 52 hours a year

[01:04:16] which is not because we all because people always say to me well i don't have time to do anything for myself i'm like i'm talking about 10 minutes a day you're worth it yeah we're all worth it exactly so let's think about some of the messages that we hope you as the

[01:04:40] listener can take away today is that healing does not have to feel overwhelming that the body can show us that the tools that they can feel right um that we can make choices and that these practices we can naturally enjoy becoming um the ones we return to because they just become familiar we do know that

[01:05:05] colors can comfort us i'm sure that your house and where where you like to spend your time is surrounded by things that that you enjoy art can inspire us our affirmations provide us with a way to be encouraged tea rituals help us to pause the cards can offer guidance quiet moments in nature can restore us and

[01:05:32] bring us to that sense of awe which science can measure and show how the body completely relaxes and these simple practices help keep the body in balance and flow when that happens emotions are regulated the way we think the lens is clear and open we have these opportunities and openness that you might not otherwise experience we can reduce the buildup of stress that may contribute to the migraine

[01:05:59] episodes together we can create personal wellness plans that fit real life plans that move us away from simply surviving the migraine and put us towards fully living i would love for some last words from each of you um and your experience and with your gifts mary what what else could you provide for people well um

[01:06:25] i just read a quote by napoleon hill and he says if you do not conquer self you will be conquered by self

[01:06:35] mm so do something for yourself be be yourself or just just be or just be yeah thank you tanya anything else for you i used to have at the end of my email if you want hope be hope

[01:06:58] mm so if you want healing be healing yeah the one phrase that i've i kind of returned to i remind myself when i get in the car and i get in a little bit later than i thought i was going to is that time doesn't race we do yes and it always makes me stop and go i will get there when i get there and that's all that i can do and that's great

[01:07:25] beautiful um beautiful marion would you like to share how people can find you the contacts and where your resources are okay so um well my website is in marionegan.ie um and as you say people can go on uh youtube channel and look at smirian egan transformation hub uh if they just want to watch some videos and have some recordings there of healings that i've done

[01:07:53] with people so um that's all there but my website is marionegan.ie if people want to connect with me there yeah and marion's always posting her painting so you can see how she puts an image together um and i always find it so fascinating so take advantage of looking that up too so you can you can see and maybe i'll inspire you put some paint onto some canvas and play

[01:08:21] exactly thank you and tanya how about for you how can people find you well my website is heartladyinspiration.com i post uh pretty much daily on instagram as either levy tanya or heartladyinspiration that's where most of my garden photos healing photos um and some of my poetry

[01:08:45] i try to post a haiku a day on those on instagram beautiful thank you and inspiration there's no s on the end i have made that mistake when i've gone to plug something in so i'll just say that for everybody heartladyinspiration.com yeah perfect beautiful and the resources that i shared today is on my youtube

[01:09:10] channel at michelle greenwell there is the playlist for it's in the cards and you can find other recordings that we've done on the affirmations for the body and biofield that we've shared the harmony coasters we've done that as unwinding trauma building resiliency there's a recording there for that in the bioenergetic wellness formula season five episode one if you're on your favorite podcast

[01:09:38] streaming uh platform and uh otherwise the greenwellcenter.com and we mentioned the programs that we've done where marion's done intuitive art tanya's done art journaling storytelling um all that comes under uh in the shop events symphony of radiance and music and movement so if that's what appeals to you but know that the

[01:10:04] resources can be there for you for free so please take advantage of them and the last thing i'll say is on can be well.org we have a book called bioenergetic essentials and you'll find it right on the front page of the website and you can click on the self-care tips and tools that'll be the button and it's bioenergetic essentials and that's a free ebook that you can download tanya and i uh co-wrote that with um

[01:10:31] natasha palomsky and with um polynoid droog so we would love for you to have that resource as well so as you look forward with the way your migraine journey has led you but where you would like it to go consider how daily practices and opportunities can give you hope resilience and gentle healing in your life

[01:10:58] and as you move through this migraine awareness month keep in mind that there are lots of resources there for you you are not alone and we are here to you can reach out to us at any time thank you mary and tanya for being here for this conversation thank you michelle thank you johnny and until next

[01:11:19] time we all wish you be well take care thank you for listening to be well with dr michelle greenwell there are a couple of resources i want to just point out when you go to the website greenwellcenter.com you'll have a pop-up window that pop-up gives you the top eight easy stress releasers that you can use

[01:11:44] every day that's something you can put beside your computer the bathroom mirror beside the bedside table a great resource also my youtube channel it is full of playlists with all kinds of different ways that you can activate energy and bring vitality into your day you can find that when you go to youtube at michelle

[01:12:07] greenwell and last if you're a link tree person link tree l-i-n-k-t-r dot ee slash greenwell center that has all my resources in one spot those are for intricate little things that you can't get everywhere and it's a wonderful way for me to be able to share all the different aspects of the

[01:12:31] kind of work i do so thank you for listening be sure to drink that tea and if you want to have the tea blend that was shared in the podcast today then be sure to check out kbretton tea dot ca have a wonderful day