Posted: 6/20/2014 | Wellness	Comments
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There are many natural ways to address tension headaches, including stretching your neck, getting a message, acupuncture, deep breathing, rinsing out your sinuses, and going to the chiropractor.

Dehydration can cause a headache, so always try drinking water and see if that helps. Gluten intolerance, an allergy to sulfites in wine, or any kind of food or environmental allergy can also cause tension headaches. Some people have found that getting more sleep or getting more fresh air and sunshine can take care of a tension headache. For others, an adjustment in the prescription of their glasses makes the difference. And the use of certain essential oils gives many people great relief.

If you’ve tried a number of physical solutions and are still dealing with tension headaches, then it’s time to look at any emotional tension you may have. This means going into the content of your tension by addressing your inner life of thoughts and feelings.

Whether or not we experience stress and tension in response to a particular event or circumstance depends on our personal history, and our life experience. It’s often not the event itself that causes stress, it’s our reaction to the event—our thoughts and feelings about what’s happening.  The most effective and long-lasting solution to reducing stress and tension headaches is to work on healing the underlying thoughts and feelings from our past that are resulting in in tension headaches.

My book, Your Ultimate Life Plan: How to Deeply Transform Your Everyday Experience and Create Changes That Last has dozens of exercises and hundreds of self-awareness questions that can help you look within and address the cause of stress in your life.

Here’s just one exercise from Your Ultimate Life Plan that can help you get in touch with what’s going on inside you when you have a tension headache, or at any time.

Exercise: Presence Yourself (p. 47)

There is no right way to do this. Feel free to add or subtract parts of it as you see fit; try it different ways and see what’s best for you. You may need different aspects of this at different times. You can begin with what’s outside of you if you’d like, noticing what you experience through your five senses.

•    What are you seeing around you? What are you hearing, right now? What can you feel with the touch of your hand? What can you taste as you’re doing this? What do you smell, right now?
•    Now bring yourself into Presence in all four dimensions.
•    Now notice what is arising for you physically. What sensations are you experiencing?
•    Now notice what is arising for you emotionally. What feelings are you experiencing?
•    Now notice what is arising for you mentally. What thoughts are you experiencing?
•    Now notice what is arising for you spiritually. What spiritual connection are you experiencing?

What helps you when you have a tension headache? Your comments make a difference for us all.

For further information on accessing the wisdom, happiness, fulfillment, and peace you desire, click here to learn about Dr. Howard's Multiple Award Winning Book "Your Ultimate Life Plan: How to Deeply Transform Your Everyday Experience and Create Changes That Last.

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