1% Thursday – One great distraction

I admit it – I’m posting 1% Thursday on Friday – but I’m still dating it Thursday so it will be easy to find. 🙂

This week – use your MP3 player [Edit: your smartphone! Remember, this post was originally written in 2010…].

Researchers tell us that distractions will lessen our perception of pain.  Sounds good, but I’ve had those days where seriously I can do nothing except lie in bed – in pain.  This morning, for instance.

However, there are different types of migraine attacks, and different stages.  Sometimes I can use the computer toward the end of an attack (right now, for example).  Or watch TV.  Or half watch – with one eye – or just listen!

Many of you know exactly what I’m talking about.

I’ve also appreciated my Kindle – we’ve talked about that before.

But perhaps my best friend has been my MP3 player.  When there’s nothing else I can do – sometimes I can still listen.  I might fall asleep while I listen (thank God), or it may just be a distraction.

I have a wide variety of items on my iriver clix (my MP3 player).  Stories, more educational stuff, music, comedy, podcasts – who knows what you’ll be in the mood for.  But it’s all there, and when I can do nothing else, and can still do something – that’s it.

Sometimes I even learn something!  Imagine!

So having an MP3 player loaded up, and comfortable earphones handy, may make that 1% (or more) difference in your pain, and get you through an attack.

I hate lying in bed doing nothing (except being in pain!) – can’t stand it.  So if I can squeeze another five minutes of at least doing something before the attack gets too bad – great!

What is 1% Thursday?

Every Thursday at Headache and Migraine News (weather permitting) we’ll talk about one measurable, practical thing we can do to make our lives just 1% better.  Usually it will be something very easy, sometimes it will be a challenge.  Let us know if you try it, or share an idea of your own – and maybe a year from now we’ll see that things have really changed for the better!