Yoga poses for headaches. The best yoga exercises for headaches: feel relief and return to your normal rhythm of life! Principles of Healing Breathing

Probably everyone has experienced a severe headache called a migraine at least once in their life. Some “lucky” people are less fortunate - migraines haunt them constantly.

According to statistics, women are more susceptible to this unpleasant disease, but men are often tormented by severe headaches. Migraines appear in the first 30 years of life and are often hereditary, so it is worth asking your relatives in detail whether they are prone to headaches.

One good thing is that by the age of 50-60, migraines, as a rule, disappear.

Migraine symptoms

Migraines have many symptoms and can manifest differently in different people. The most common symptoms are:

  • Weakness;
  • "Jumps" in pressure;
  • Dizziness;
  • Sweating;
  • Chills;
  • Freezing of extremities;
  • Lack of oxygen;
  • Throbbing headache;
  • Feelings of anxiety and restlessness.

A migraine can last for a couple of hours or several days. In this case, the pain often does not spread to the entire head, but is localized in a specific place (in the area of ​​the temples, forehead, back of the head). Often the pain is so strong that it reverberates throughout the body.

Causes of migraine

Migraines can be triggered by various factors, ranging from loud noises to serious illnesses. The most common causes of prolonged headaches are:

  • Lack of sleep and rest;
  • Poor nutrition;
  • Hormonal changes (for example, due to the monthly cycle in women);
  • Climate change;
  • Sudden warming or cooling;
  • Stress and mental shock;
  • Strong odors;
  • Pressure drop (for example, when climbing to a high altitude).

More serious causes of migraines are:

  • Changes inside blood vessels (diseases of the cardiovascular system);
  • Nervous system disorder;
  • Deterioration of blood supply to the brain;
  • Hormonal imbalances;
  • Uneven dilation of cerebral vessels.

If you have a persistent, debilitating headache, you should immediately consult a doctor.

Methods for treating migraine

Headaches are treated in different ways. Some people trust doctors’ recommendations and pharmaceutical medicines more, while others prefer traditional medicine.

The main treatments for migraine are:

  1. Drug treatment;
  2. Treatment with alternative medicine (herbal decoctions, lotions, baths);
  3. Homeopathy;
  4. Relaxation;
  5. Treatment with music;
  6. Yoga for migraines.

The latter method is not very common, but nevertheless has a lot of advantages. This is what we will talk about.

Yoga for headaches

The reason yoga is effective for headaches is this: it not only relieves pain (as pills do), but also eliminates the causes of migraines - nervous tension and accumulated stress. This is why regular exercise helps with migraines better than any pharmaceutical drug.

You can learn basic yoga asanas that help fight pain either independently or in special courses. Fortunately, there are now many sections where they teach not only how to get your figure in order with the help of yoga, but also how to deal with pain in different parts of the body.

Yoga for migraines involves the use of several basic poses.

"Inverted Candle"

To complete the exercise you will need:

  • Blanket;
  • Belt;
  • Thick book or brick;
  • Pillow.

Spread a blanket against the wall, place a pillow on it (it is advisable to use a cushion-shaped pillow). Place a brick (book) between the wall and the pillow. Make a wide loop from the belt (fasten it to the outermost hole).

Sink down onto the pillow. You should be facing the wall. After this, turn to face her and at the same time raise your legs to the wall, and place your head and torso on the blanket. Once your body is in a horizontal position (with your legs remaining vertical against the wall), put the belt on your legs and spread your feet apart. The hips and pelvis should be pressed against the wall.

Relax and freeze in this position for five minutes.

Not an easy exercise, isn't it? It requires a certain physical training, and you may not be able to reproduce it the first time. However, after some training, it will help both overcome migraines and develop internal flexibility.

Downward facing dog pose

Let's look at a simpler exercise that almost anyone can do. This pose is good because it not only relieves headaches, but also helps fight fatigue and strengthens the back.

Squat down, spread your knees in different directions. Place your palms on the floor in front of you.

Exhaling, slowly slide your palms forward. Your arms should be extended on the floor in front of your body.

Inhaling air, lift your pelvis up, bend your toes. The feet remain hip-width apart. Legs and knees are straight and elongated.

Try, without lifting your hands from the floor, to pull your shoulders towards your waist and stretch your spine, lowering your thigh muscles down. The face and neck remain relaxed.

While doing the exercise, remember how dogs stretch: the pelvis should go up, stretching the back.

Hare pose

Sit on the floor. Bring your hips and knees together, and lower your pelvis between your feet. As you inhale, raise your arms straight above your head. The palms “look” at each other. Shoulders touch ears. Hold your breath and arch your back.

As you exhale, without changing the position of your hands, slowly lean forward, but do not lift your pelvis from the floor. In other words, you should lie on the floor with your arms extended in front of you.

The face is in front of the knees. The stomach is pressed to the thighs. Hold your breath and stay in this position for a few seconds. Next, exhale and return to the starting position.

By improving blood circulation in the head area, this pose helps get rid of migraines and also serves to prevent its occurrence.

Yoga breathing exercises

This is another type of exercise that will help relieve a headache attack. The advantage of such gymnastics is that no additional equipment is needed to perform it. Only the facial muscles will be involved, so such exercises for migraines will be useful to you when you are away from home and cannot perform regular asanas.

Cleansing and healing channels

Sit comfortably and relax. The back remains straight. Use your thumb to pinch right nostril so that air cannot flow through it. Take a slow, deep breath in through your left nostril, then exhale. The inhalation should be in four counts, and the exhalation in eight counts, that is, the exhalation is twice as long as the inhalation. You need to perform the exercise for about two minutes with one nostril, and then another couple of minutes with the other.

When performing this exercise, you need to relax your entire face. If your forehead is tense, you can close your eyes to relax it.

Advice! This exercise is perfect for pregnant women, as slow deep breathing will help not only relieve an attack of pain, but also calm down, relax, and also prepare for future childbirth.

"Cold Breath"

Sit with your legs crossed cross-legged. Roll your tongue into a tube and stick it out slightly from your mouth. Take a slow, deep breath through your mouth, that is, through your tongue-tube. Do not rush to exhale immediately, but “swallow” the air, let it into yourself. You need to exhale through your nose. Mouth closed. Try to do the exercise without tension.

This exercise will not only help reduce headaches, but also cool the body in the heat.

Simple deep breathing is also useful for migraines. Don't focus on the pain, because painful sensations cause us to breathe quickly and intermittently.

It’s better to lie down on the sofa, place your palms on your stomach, close your eyes and try to relax. Take a deep breath. In this case, the palms on the stomach should rise, that is, the air fills not only the lungs, but also the entire diaphragm. Exhale slowly.

Meditation for migraines

Meditation is the basis of yoga. It is complete relaxation (both physical and emotional) that gives amazing results in the fight against diseases and ailments.

With the help of regular meditation, you will not only get rid of oppressive throbbing pain, but also gain additional strength, energy, thirst for life and new achievements, and also open your mind to new ideas and ideas.

Where to start meditation? Sit in a comfortable position. You can sit cross-legged or in the lotus position. Raise your hands up (a little forward), palms “looking” at each other. Close your eyes.

Under your closed eyelids, mentally look at your hairline. Stay in this position for at least 10 minutes. Concentrate on the thought that nothing worries or bothers you, believe that the pain will subside.

This exercise will improve blood flow in the head, neck and back, as a result of which the pain will really go away.

Migraine prevention

Common migraine preventatives include:

  1. Regular walks;
  2. Proper nutrition;
  3. Complete rest;
  4. Drinking herbal teas;
  5. Correct daily routine;
  6. Getting rid of anxiety, worry, stress.

Yoga suggests adding three important components to migraine prevention to this list:

  1. Deep relaxation - a person relaxes so much that he almost ceases to feel himself in this world, as if he is “between worlds”;
  2. Removing toxins and harmful substances from digestion;
  3. Nasal rinsing.

Following these rules will help you forget about headaches forever and feel like a full-fledged and healthy person.

Today, the world's leading experts classify migraine as an incurable disease and are constantly searching for ways and tools to provide maximum relief during attacks. For these purposes, both traditional medicinal methods and trends in alternative medicine, for example, yoga, are used.

Does yoga help with migraines?

Yoga is a set of practices, techniques and exercises used in the cultures of Buddhism and Hinduism to achieve spiritual, physical and psychological harmony. Special sets of exercises help relieve fatigue, get out of depression, learn to respond adequately to stressful situations, and also restore physical health through muscular, respiratory or conscious action. In the case of stress and improper functioning of metabolic processes, they are a common cause of development pain syndrome in an adult.

The effect of yoga on the course of migraine during attack and remission is observed by leading practitioners in the field of neurology, conducting appropriate testing and research. For example, the effectiveness of yoga was noted after research in medical center Wake Forest, located in South Carolina.

The experiment involved 90 people suffering from frequent migraine attacks. The patients were divided into two groups. Those in the first group were prescribed traditional drug therapy. Patients from the second group were prescribed yoga lessons with a set of exercises aimed at suppressing stress and restoring the emotional background. The main lesson was conducted once a week, while patients were given 45 minutes a day for independent meditation, 5 times a week.

After 8 weeks, the first results were assessed. Thus, people who regularly attended yoga classes and meditated showed improvements in mood and brain activity, a reduction in the duration and intensity of attacks, while the interval between them increased significantly.

Yoga can improve the condition of a person suffering from migraines, increase their physical and mental activity, and also increase their resistance to stress.

However, at the stage of research and experimentation, it is recommended to conduct practical exercises under the supervision of the attending doctor, and to achieve greater effectiveness, supplement them with complex drug treatment.

It is necessary to approach yoga classes with the proper attitude, since it is this factor that determines the effectiveness of such practices in the treatment of migraines. On preparatory stage You should completely relax, step away from everyday problems and worries.

The main yoga poses that allow you to get rid of migraine pain directly concern those parts of the body that in one way or another provoke the development of pain. These include the neck, spinal region, area shoulder girdle and forearms.

Is something bothering you? Illness or life situation?

Neck warm-up

  1. Sit on a chair or in the lotus position, with your arms relaxed along your body.
  2. With your right hand from above, reach your left ear and slowly tilt your head in right side. In this case, you need to carefully carry out pressing movements with your hand, and resist yourself with your head.
  3. After a minute, you should change position and perform a similar tilt of the head to the left.

When performing this exercise, it is important to apply a comfortable force to avoid straining the neck muscles.

Dog Pose (Dolphin)

  1. Kneel down with your knees hip-width apart. Place your hands on the floor, placing your wrists shoulder-width apart.
  2. Next, lean your elbows on the floor, arch your back, while lifting your thighs up.
  3. Make sure your feet are parallel and your heels touch the floor.
  4. Lower your head between your shoulders, relaxing your neck muscles and looking toward your feet.
  5. Fix the pose and take 2-3 deep breaths.

Exercise helps to get rid of overstrain of the muscles of the forearms and headaches as a result.

Camel Pose

  1. Kneel, bend back, rest your palms on your feet.
  2. The back should be arched as much as possible, the buttocks tense, and the hips should be perpendicular to the floor.

The pose helps relieve tension in the spine, open the vertebral arteries and prevent the occurrence of cervical migraine attacks.

Breathing exercises

Breathing exercises through vital energy have a positive effect on overall well-being, promote better blood supply to the brain, normalize the nervous system, relieve fatigue and prevent migraine attacks as a result.

Cleansing energy channels

  1. Sit in a comfortable position, straighten your back and relax.
  2. Clamp thumb nostril on the right, inhale slowly through the left nostril for 4 counts, then exhale twice as slowly, for the 8th count.
  3. Carry out similar manipulations with the right nostril, after closing the left one.
  4. The time to perform each manipulation is 2 minutes.

To achieve results, you need to close your eyes and completely relax your facial muscles.

Cold breath

  1. Take a “Turkish” pose with your legs crossed.
  2. Inhale through your slightly open mouth, while you need to roll your tongue into a tube, pass air through it, draw it into yourself and hold it for a while.
  3. Exhale through your nose, keeping your mouth closed.

Exercise helps relieve stress and mental fatigue.

The technique of meditation gives the most effective results in the fight against migraine pain, as it involves complete physical and psycho-emotional relaxation. After regular meditation, painful pulsations in the head disappear, your mood improves, and strength and desires for new achievements appear.

To improve blood flow through the vessels and arteries of the spine, neck and head, you must regularly perform the following exercise:

  • Take the “Turkish” or “lotus” pose.
  • Raise your arms up with a slight tilt forward, with your palms internal part must be directed towards each other.
  • Close your eyes and mentally imagine the hairline located above the frontal part of your head.
  • Concentrate on pleasant impressions and relaxation, while distancing yourself from unpleasant impressions and experiences.
  • You need to stay in this position for 10 minutes or more.

Emergency measures

If the peak of a migraine attack has been reached, the following technique can be used as an emergency measure to relieve pain:

  • Turn off the lights, avoid exposure to loud noises and calm down.
  • Concentrate your thoughts on painful sensations in order to try to redirect them to other parts of the body, for which, while lying on the bed, sharply raise your legs to a vertical position. Also, to contrast and change the sensations, you can apply a cold, soft or heavy object to the soles of your feet.

The described measures will allow you to divert attention from headaches and switch it to sensations in the legs, thereby reducing pain.

Migraine prevention

In addition to basic preventive measures aimed at reducing the number and intensity of migraine attacks, yoga teachers recommend practicing three additional pain prevention methods. These include:

  • rinsing the nasal cavity with an aqueous solution;
  • cleansing the digestive system of waste and toxins;
  • relaxation through meditation until a feeling of complete prostration in the real world.

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Regular yoga practice when susceptible to migraine attacks helps to significantly reduce the intensity of unpleasant sensations during pain attacks, increase the inter-attack period and significantly improve the psycho-emotional background.

Yoga for headaches can be a real salvation. It is a source of inspiration for many people who practice it, so it will successfully replace the pills that you use to save yourself from feeling unwell.

Teachers of this spiritual and physical practice suggest not keeping the pain inside, but releasing it out. You can imagine a lump of painful sensations in the form of a melting piece of ice. Will be effective special exercises for headaches.

Causes of headaches

Yoga for headache relief can only be used under certain circumstances. First, it is important to find out the cause of poor health or migraine, and then begin asanas.

Causes of pain in different parts of the head:

  1. Inflammatory processes in brain structures. This may be a signal of meningitis or encephalitis. If you walked down the street without a hat, you got cold, you caught a tick, a severe headache will tell you about it.
  2. Poisoning. Painful sensations are caused by metabolic disorders in the body (intoxication).
  3. Increased sensitivity to weather conditions. Some people feel the change more than others atmospheric pressure, which is expressed in tension or dilation of blood vessels. This can also give you a headache.
  4. Injuries. Even if you accidentally hit your head on the corner of the furniture while cleaning, you may not at first notice how you have received a serious bruise or even a concussion. But the pain will remind you of this.
  5. Wandering pains with neuralgia. This is associated only with nerve endings and does not indicate any abnormalities in the organs.
  6. Pinching in cervical spine. Migraine is a side symptom.
  7. Stress, overwork, depressive states, anxiety causes a person to tense up, which interferes with the free flow of blood to the brain and causes discomfort.
  8. An uncomfortable position throughout the day leads to overstrain and pinched muscles, and this, in turn, causes chronic headaches.

If in case of inflammatory processes, intoxication, or injuries, mandatory medical assistance is needed, then in other cases, exercises for headaches may well improve your well-being.

Breathing yoga for headaches

Pranayama or system breathing exercises, helps to relax, relieve tension, calm nervous system, improve blood circulation in the upper body. After this, migraines caused by stress and incorrect body position recede.

By performing Nadi Shodhana, you will cleanse the energy channels of the body:

  1. Sit down, straighten your back, relax.
  2. Close your right nostril with your thumb and take a slow but deep breath through the left. Exhale through it even more slowly.
  3. The duration of the exercise for 1 nostril is 2-4 minutes.
  4. Then close the second nostril. Follow the same steps.

Sheetali helps lower body temperature through cooling breathing:

  1. Sit in lotus position.
  2. With your tongue slightly sticking out of your mouth, roll it into a tube.
  3. You need to inhale slowly and deeply through this “tube”, imagining that you are swallowing air.
  4. Exhale through the nose with the mouth closed.
  5. Repeat 3 times without haste or overexertion.

If done correctly breathing exercises from a headache, you will immediately experience relief.

By repeating these 2 pranayamas every 2 hours throughout the day, you will get rid of pain.

Poses to help get rid of headaches

Yoga asanas are designed to train parts of the body where pinching can cause unpleasant symptoms. Forget about work matters, family problems and focus on developing your neck, forearm, shoulders and spine.

You can stretch your neck while sitting on a chair in your office:

  1. Place your hand on your head, touching your opposite ear with your fingers.
  2. Slowly tilt your head towards the helping hand.
  3. Stay in this position for 60 seconds.
  4. Change hand.

You should feel muscle tension in this exercise.

Relaxation of the back can be achieved by performing the following asana:

  1. Sit on the floor with your knees bent.
  2. Place your feet parallel to each other.
  3. Lean back, supporting yourself on your hands behind your feet.
  4. Arch your chest as much as possible without lifting your hips from your heels.
  5. Tilt your head back.
  6. Stay in the pose for at least 30 seconds.

The “Dog” or “Dolphin” pose will relieve stress from the upper back:

  1. Get down on your knees, place your hands on the floor, placing them shoulder-width apart.
  2. Lower your elbows to the floor and then lift your hips.
  3. The feet are parallel (try not to lift the heels).
  4. Place your head between your hands, looking at your feet.
  5. Take a few slow breaths in and out.
  6. Gently lower yourself to your knees.

An exercise with a rather funny pose will help you relax your back. It can be called “Happy Child”:

  1. Lie on your back. You need to completely relax.
  2. Raise your legs and bend your knees.
  3. Grab your feet with your hands, moving them from the inside of your thighs.
  4. Lower your knees with your arms, spreading them slightly to the side.
  5. Freeze for a few minutes in this position, or try slowly swaying from side to side.

By working your core muscles and eliminating headaches, you will improve your body tone and gain overall well-being.

Contraindications to yoga

It is better not to practice asanas as a painkiller for those who have cardiovascular diseases, oncological tumors. They are also contraindicated for colds and in the postoperative period. First, consult a doctor to rule out serious illnesses, only then start doing gymnastics.

You need to be very careful if you are pregnant, for which yoga is provided special complexes exercises with an instructor. During menstrual periods, it is also better for women to avoid activities that involve the back and hips.

Respect your feelings, do what you can.

Exists different types ailments, as well as a wide variety of causes that cause them. They are divided depending on the type of unpleasant symptoms causing them, their location and duration. It is important to determine the type of headache:

  • migraine;
  • cough;
  • pressure change;
  • stress, etc.

The scale of the problem is enormous. Research indicates that 90% of the population complain of the disease at least once a year. Just as there are many types of headaches, there are many causes that cause them. These include:

  • disruptions in the functioning of the endocrine system;
  • poor sleep;
  • lack of exercise;
  • neurotransmitter imbalance;
  • poor posture;
  • stress;
  • food containing different kinds additives and many others.

To solve a problem, you need to have deep knowledge about its occurrence. It is necessary to understand the mechanism of action, or all the factors influencing the occurrence and occurrence of symptoms of discomfort.

Asana Viparita Karani will help you quickly get rid of pain

According to the B.K.S. method Iyengar, yoga and Lotus pose can help in the fight against illness.

“The main thing is to take correct posture, have appropriate support, straighten the spine, relax the neck, back, arms and abdominal muscles,” says the teacher.

You can sit in this position for a long time, changing the crossing of your legs.

The most common cause of headaches is stress and migraines. Stress interferes with the functioning of the cardiovascular system and heart, causes shortness of breath, which can lead to hypoxia of the body, fatigue, irritability and problems with concentration, and is harmful to the blood vessels of the brain.

When determining the cause:

  • The first stage will be investigation (svadhyaya), in which information about the nature of the problem is collected.
  • The next step is practice. Using asanas, pranayama, meditation, it is determined what is useful for you, neutral or unacceptable.
  • You should not approach this process automatically. What leads to a positive reaction at the beginning of the process may become neutral over time. A job that initially evoked negative emotions becomes highly desirable and will produce positive results. Therefore, it is necessary to practice and experiment throughout the entire time until you discover the antidote.

Over time, the disease will begin to recede, although occasional relapses may occur.

A headache can be a blessing and force you to change your habits and lifestyle.

Check what will help you

There is no ready-made sequence of exercises for headaches of all types. For achievement positive results, it is advisable to carry out the work in three stages:

  • prevention when there are no problems;
  • work preceding the reduction of pain symptoms and discomfort;
  • exercises at the moment of its onset.

First, it’s worth finding out if moving your head slowly back and forth helps you at the moment your symptoms appear. It is enough to bend in the position of Pavan Muktasana (emitting winds) on two chairs, with your head bowed on your hands (palms of your hands, clasp opposite elbows). Perform a head tilt in the Shavasana position (dead man's pose). While lying on the bed, move your head slightly behind the mattress so that your entire neck receives support.

Both positions are performed while maintaining minimal head movement.

Even a slight decrease in symptoms will be a valuable hint on what to do next: bending forward or backward. In any of the positions performed, the symptoms should not intensify.

Over time, the discomfort should go away, but you shouldn't expect too much at the very beginning (about 5-10% will go away). You have to be patient and repeat asanas, pranayama and meditation.

In severe cases, the pain lasts from 30 to 40 years. Sometimes it takes 2-3 weeks permanent classes to get rid of it. This pain is accompanied by vomiting, dizziness and growing panic.

When you have a headache, it is important to understand what is causing it and be patient.

There are many examples in practice where during one session it was possible to reduce discomfort to a minimum. However, you will need patience and maximum trust in the teacher.

Preventive practice

Once the basic principles of self-care are known, it is important to recognize and respond to symptoms. For many people, the Viparita Karani position (bent candle pose) is the magic wand that will relieve them of pain. It is only important to recognize the first signs of pain in time:

  • drowsiness;
  • panic;
  • labored breathing;
  • weakness;
  • relaxation or mood change.

Performing the position may even cause pain. The pose is allowed to be modified. Some people find it comfortable to lie down with their legs straight up on the wall without any assistance, while others require support for the sacrum and lower back. It's the work that needs to be done to discover and find what helps.

Worth thinking about

The causes of pain can arise not only in physical level, but also on the mental. What precedes a headache and its onset, what events? This will be the key information for making a decision.

Some life situations cause drowsiness, after which malaise appears. If bending your head back too much helps you, perform Savasana with your head tilted back beyond the edge of the mattress or pillow. Perform the exercise so that slight arousal and sobering appear.

The position can also be performed using a bolster, where a rolled blanket serves as neck support.

If front bends help, do Supta Baddha Konasana (butterfly pose) or Supta Virasana (lying warrior pose) with a roller. Place it in front, and place enough blankets under your head so that it is in a neutral position, or with your chin slightly tilted towards your sternum. In addition to relieving pain, the position will improve breathing.

If symptoms occur as a result of stress, you should concentrate on relaxing the contracted diaphragm while bending. Adho Mukha Virasana, with a support roller, will help restore calm and composure.

Yogic exercises relieve some symptoms, add blood flow to the head and, with each deep breath, you will feel better.

Neck pain and headaches are often caused by excessive muscle tension in the neck and shoulder area. This leads to defeat nerve endings, misalignment of the spinal discs and a feeling of tension, as well as discomfort in the neck and head. Yoga for headaches can relieve symptoms with a routine stretching routine, lengthening all major muscle groups in the neck and shoulders.

Neck muscles

The major muscle groups of the neck include the erector dorsi, scalp, levator, upper trapezius, and sternocleidomastoid muscles. To learn how to properly stretch each muscle group individually, you can purchase an instructional video or study under the guidance of an experienced leader.

Yoga for the treatment of migraines and headaches

Migraine is a neurological disorder that causes recurring headaches of moderate to severe intensity. Usually affects only one half of the head and can last from 2 hours to two or more days. A migraine attack may cause a person to become extremely sensitive to light or noise. Other common symptoms include:

  • vomiting;
  • nausea;
  • worsening pain due to physical activity.

Life-saving mudra helps with headaches

According to a study by British doctors, almost 0.2 million migraines occur every day in the UK. Migraine headaches affect 8 million people.

According to the American Headache Society, nearly 90 percent of Americans suffer from headache pain. Forty-five million Americans experience chronic headaches, and 23 million suffer from severe migraines.

Migraine attacks cause unbearable pain and can interfere with your personal and professional life.

There is no need to hide the problem that has arisen. By explaining the situation to your family, friends and colleagues, you will receive moral and emotional support from them. This will help them have a complete understanding of your situation.

Practicing simple yoga poses will help you reduce the impact of migraine attacks and eventually stop them for good. Roll out your yoga mat, relax for some time and banish headaches from your life forever.

Poses to help relieve migraines

Whether there is a natural way combat migraines without harming the body in the process? Fortunately, yes - it's yoga.

Yoga for migraines is an ancient technique that promotes a rich, fulfilling and holistic life through a combination of poses and breathing techniques. She is able to fight headaches. By practicing these simple yoga poses for a few minutes every day, your next migraine attack can be tackled head on:

  • Hastapadasana (Pose for arms and legs).
  • Setu Bandhasana (Bridge Pose).
  • Balasana or Shishuasana (Child's Pose).
  • Marjariasana (Cat Pose).
  • Paschimottanasana (Seated Bend to Legs).
  • Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose).
  • Padmasana (Lotus Pose).
  • Savasana (corpse pose).

Process and action

  1. Hastapadasana activates the nervous system, increases blood circulation and soothes pain.
  2. Setu Bandhasana calms the brain and reduces anxiety.
  3. Child's pose calms the nervous system and effectively reduces headaches.
  4. Marjariasana improves blood circulation and also relaxes the mind.
  5. By bending toward your feet from a sitting position, your brain calms down and stress is relieved. Paschimottanasana pose relieves headaches.
  6. Adho Mukha Svanasana increases blood circulation to the brain and relieves headaches.
  7. The hallmark of yoga - Padmasana calms the mind and relieves headaches.
  8. Corpse Pose regenerates the body, bringing it into a state of deep meditative rest.
  9. To finish the treatment with asanas, you need to perform Shavasana for several minutes.

Yoga from the head - Balasana

The practice of yoga helps develop the body and mind and brings many health benefits, but it is not a substitute for medicine. For yoga to be beneficial, it is important to learn and practice yoga asanas under the guidance of a trained teacher.

In case of any medical diagnosis, practice various yoga poses after consultation with a doctor and Sri Sri Yoga teacher.

Treatment should not be stopped, even if you think everything is fine, until your doctor says so. Yoga is a tool to help you resist headaches, but it should not be an alternative to medication.

Welcome to my blog! Today we’ll look at the following question: does yoga help with headaches? Yes, it definitely helps and there are many examples of people doing this. Of course, yoga does not work instantly, like some kind of pill, but requires a long time and patience. But then side effects you won't notice from her, especially if you make her your companion.

But let's not forget that various factors can cause headaches. It could be diseased ligaments, or a pinched nerve, or even a hereditary factor, which means that for some it will help 100%, for others the symptoms will partially disappear or soften, and for others everything will remain at the same level.

And here you need to understand that the result depends not only on external actions, but also on your thoughts. First of all, you need to change your vision to the fact of pain. Take pain as a sign that you did (or are doing) something wrong, as an opportunity to correct your mistakes. Understand that every manifestation of the material world has a sacred meaning, which means that the true cause of your physical ailments lurks somewhere.

Asanas that improve headaches

It is quite obvious that depending on the cause of the pain, the set of “tools” used also changes, which means there is no universal asana for everyone. Practice, carefully observe the changes after classes, and gradually, through trials, you will find a suitable set of exercises for yourself.

I propose to find out which asanas are most capable of relaxing, calming the nervous system and neutralizing pain in the head.

Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward-facing dog pose).

  1. Leaning on four limbs (knees and palms), make sure that your arms and legs are approximately in line, that is, parallel to each other.
  2. Shift some of your weight into your arms and lift your torso up onto your hands and feet.
  3. The body began to resemble a triangle, the tailbone stretches upward, the back is straight, the neck is relaxed, the heels fit tightly to the floor.
  4. Stay in the asana for 30-60 seconds and return to the starting position in reverse order. Repeat 1 to 3 times.

Like any, this one promotes a rush of blood to the head, thereby renewing brain cells, saturating them with oxygen. It slows down the heartbeat, calms you down, and gives you strength. Hypertensive patients should perform it briefly and under someone's supervision. Read more about how the dog pose is performed on the blog pages.

Viparita Karani (bent candle pose).


  1. Performed from a lying position. Hands along the body, palms down.
  2. Leaning on your palms, carefully, without straining your lower back, lift your straight legs so that your feet are at eye level.
  3. Secure yourself in this position, supporting your legs with the strength of your arms and elbows.
  4. Please note that the head, neck and shoulders lie freely in a horizontal plane and there is no strong pressure on them with weight. More weight it comes down to the hands.

If this option is not available, you can do it against the wall for now. The asana perfectly relieves headaches caused by stress, softens age-related changes in the cervical vertebrae, treats eye and ear diseases, and normalizes blood pressure.

Balasana (child's pose).

  1. Sitting on your knees, lean your torso forward and carefully place your head with your forehead on a rug or something softer. The arms are along the body, the neck and shoulders are relaxed and hang down freely. The back turns out to be slightly rounded, while the spine is stretched to the maximum, starting from the tailbone and upward. Breathing is calm, deep.
  2. After breathing 5 cycles of breathing, turn your head to the side and breathe in this position. Then do the same on the other side of the head.
  3. You can stay in this position for a long time if pain does not appear anywhere. But the average stay is from 2 to 5 minutes.


It is wonderful because it completely relaxes the muscles of the whole body, soothes, renews, and, most importantly, cures headaches. By the way, it is no less useful for arthrosis of the knee joints.

Shashankasana (rabbit pose).

  1. While in Balasana, carefully lift and round your back so that the crown of your head rests on the floor. Ideally, the head should be directly next to the hips, but if the stretch does not allow it, let it be further away.
  2. Body weight is evenly distributed on the legs and head. When did you take stable position, move your hands back and grab your heels with your palms.
  3. Hold this position for 1-1.5 minutes, breathe evenly without delay.
  4. Then smoothly come out of the asana, leaning on your hands, and rest in child’s pose.


The rabbit pose helps get rid of headaches, tension in the neck, and is also indispensable for insomnia. I would like to add that physical exercise work better in combination with additional methods treatment and prevention.

For example, the food that he consumes plays a special role for a person with migraine attacks. It is very important that it is not spicy, greasy or bitter. The following also complement the treatment very well: folk remedies like herbal infusions, herbal baths, etc.

I was plagued by headaches before I started doing yoga, as it turned out later my cervical vertebrae were displaced. But thanks to the exercises, I managed to put them in place and the pain went away. I thank you for your attention to my blog. On the site you always have the opportunity to ask your question in the comments. Subscribe to the blog to receive notifications of replies directly to your email.