From Headaches To Heartaches

I'm sure very few people can begin a blog post by saying their migraine inspired them. Well, mine did today.

When I tell you that today was the worst migraine I've ever had in my entire life I am completely not exaggerating. The pain was paralyzingly and the nausea was severe. I haven't eaten anything but an Advil Migraine and a Kind bar today because I simply couldn't do it. I actually ended up on the floor in my office, hiding under my desk, just for the chance to lay down and close my eyes. 

So, it was pretty damn bad. 

What I realized though was how exhausted I was from all of this. I didn't exactly get 8 hours of sleep last night but 6ish is the norm for me and that's right around where I was. But after hours of trying to fight the pain and anguish in my body I became so exhausted at work that I actually fell asleep while laying on the floor. 

I'm now home in bed to knock the rest of this headache out and, of course, that's when inspiration strikes. 

That physical pain used so much of my energy that I actually felt exhausted. I felt the way I've felt after sleepless nights or cramming all night for finals in grad school. If physical pain can make me feel that way, just think about what the emotional pain we feel is doing to us. I  fought so hard all day to power through that migraine. I refused to go home and I refused to give in and admit defeat. As a result, I went home and passed out for a nap. I woke up and went to dinner with my parents and then went to bed early. My alarm went off at 5:15am and I woke up. I then decided I could turn it off but still wake up in time (derp). So, of course, I woke up at 6:19am, flew out of bed, and got ready for work. The point is, even though I thought I had given my body the rest it needed, all that pain that I was fighting against and trying to push away had expended more energy than I realized. 

But that was just a really bad migraine. The fact is, we do this all the time with emotional pain more so than physical pain. If our shoulder hurts because we strained a muscle, most of us won't decide that's the right day to go lift extra heavy at the gym. If we break an ankle, that's not the night to go out dancing. We know when to allow rest for physical pain. But what about our emotional pain? We sometimes let pain that we feel from a relationship or failure or sad situation get pushed away because dealing with it would be far too much work or hassle or emotion. But just like how exhausted I was from fighting my migraine, we get incredibly exhausted from fighting the emotional pain, too.

I'm sure we've all been in relationships that we just knew weren't right. But what do we do? We sit there and rationalize and we tell ourselves that everything is okay. We don't deal with it when a significant other says something to make us feel like crap. We don't confront a friend or loved one when their jokes go too far. We push things aside and let them ruminate until we either feel defeated and give up or feel like we're about to explode. 

And we exhaust ourselves. We use up our finite amounts of energy given to is in this life just because it's easier than confronting something head on. I'm a huge supporter of picking your battles so I'm certainly not suggesting you go yell at your significant other every time they do something like forget to wash a spoon or don't notice your haircut. Really, some things just aren't worth a stupid fight. What I'm saying is that you need to figure out what your life migraine is and then decide to grab whatever Advil or Excedrin you need in order to ease that suffering. 

We're given these lives to live them and find happiness. We're given suffering because we need the sour to appreciate the sweet. But we also need to be aware and conscious of when we're allowing the suffering to become a chronic pain that tires us out while we sit idly by sans any type of remedy.

So, what's your migraine and what's the cure?