Neuroplasticity and Rewiring the Brain for Migraine Relief

Written and verified by Holly Hazen

Neuroplasticity and rewiring the brain offers incredible potential for managing chronic pain conditions like migraine.

Far from being "hard-wired," your brain is remarkably malleable, adapting throughout your life in response to habits, thoughts, and environment. This process, known as neuroplasticity, allows us to rewire the brain for positive change - making it a powerful tool for managing migraine.

In this article, I’ll share practical strategies, professional therapies, advanced techniques, and my 30-Day Brain Health Challenge for brain rewiring. Along the way, we’ll explore how neuroplasticity not only reduces pain but also boosts cognitive function and emotional resilience.

What Is Neuroplasticity and Brain Rewiring?

Defining Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganize its structure and function in response to habits, environment, or trauma. Simply put, it’s how your brain grows and adapts over time.

Why Brain Rewiring Matters

Brain rewiring refers to actively promoting neuroplasticity through conscious choices, healthy habits, and therapeutic interventions. This process helps reprogram pain responses, address underlying triggers, and cultivate new, positive neural pathways.

The Science Behind Neuroplasticity

Two Types of Neuroplasticity

1. Structural Neuroplasticity: Changes in the physical connections between neurons (synapses).
   
   
2. Functional Neuroplasticity: Permanent changes resulting from learning or healing.
   
   

These mechanisms allow your brain to adapt, recover, and thrive, even in the face of chronic conditions like migraine.

Why Neuroplasticity Matters for Migraine Relief

Migraine isn’t just a headache - it’s a complex neurological condition involving overactive pain pathways and nervous system dysregulation.

Common patterns can get entrenched over time by maladaptive stress responses leaving us stuck in fight or flight sympathetic activation. By leveraging neuroplasticity, we can "rewire" the brain, potentially reducing the frequency and intensity of migraine episodes.

Targeting Migraine Pathways

• Cortical Spreading Depression (CSD): Neuroplasticity techniques like mindfulness retraining and cognitive reframing help regulate CSD, a neural phenomenon linked to migraine.

• Breaking Pain Memory Loops: Chronic pain reinforces neural connections that maintains migraine. Interventions like progressive desensitization interrupt these loops, fostering healthier responses. _{[1, 3]}

Practical Techniques for Neuroplasticity and Brain Rewiring

1. The 30-Day Brain Health Challenge

My 30-Day Brain Health Challenge integrates two powerful frameworks: DNRS and H.E.A.L.

DNRS Brain Retraining: Reprogramming Responses

Annie Hopper’s Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) targets maladaptive patterns in the brain. By interrupting these patterns, you create space for healthier emotional and physical responses.

How It Works:

• Recognize and interrupt old habits (e.g., stress responses).

• Replace them with intentional, calming practices.

• Over time, new pathways form, leading to calmer, happier responses.
  
  

This method requires patience but offers profound transformation. 

Every time you interrupt an old pattern you can reprogram your brain. So, for example, instead of getting anxious, angry, or beating yourself up for having [insert any symptom, thought, or behavior that supports those], you are reprogramming your brain to react differently.

The brain is a pattern recognition organ, so you want to interrupt the old unhelpful patterns that no longer serve you.

Over time, your mind will just slowly learn to process your emotions more efficiently, react differently and you will slowly become a calmer person, a happier person! If I can do it, so can you.

The H.E.A.L. Practice: Taking in the Good

H.E.A.L. stands for:

• Have positive experiences.

• Enrich those experiences.

• Absorb the benefits into your body.

• Link them to replace negativity (optional).
  
  

This practice, designed by psychologist Dr. Rick Hanson, encourages deep absorption of positive experiences. Here’s how it works:

Step 1 (H): Have a Beneficial Experience. 

Reflect on positive memories or imagine an uplifting moment. Use any small snippet - a kind word, a moment of gratitude, or even a dream - for this foundational step

Step 2 (E): Enrich the Experience

Amplify the positivity by focusing on it for 10–20 seconds. Feel the joy in your body and let it grow.

Step 3 (A): Absorb the Experience

Visualize the positivity soaking into your cells. Imagine it nourishing and revitalizing your brain and every cell.

Step 4 (L): Linking the positive and negative material (optional).

If negative thoughts arise, visualize the positive experience overshadowing the negative, making it small and distant. This optional step builds resilience.

2. Incorporating Lifestyle-Driven Neuroplasticity

• Socializing - builds emotional resilience and reduces stress.

• Traveling - promotes cognitive flexibility through new experiences.

• Intermittent fasting - improves cognitive function and reduces neurodegeneration risk.
  
  

What negatively affects neuroplasticity?

While neuroplasticity enables positive change, it can also reinforce negative patterns. Key triggers to address include:

• Stress - chronic stress encourages negative neural loops (sleep deprivation).
  
  
• Emotional triggers - depression, anger, and loneliness undermine neural health (aging).
  
  
• Environmental cues - familiar places or routines can reinforce bad habits (addictions, sedentary lifestyle).
  
  

Mindfulness, emotional awareness, and structured interventions like these next activities are crucial for avoiding these pitfalls.

3. Engaging in Neuroplastic Activities

Neuroplasticity thrives when you challenge your brain. Here are key daily practices to support brain health and manage migraine:

• Mindfulness Meditation: Calm the nervous system to reduce triggers.

• Mindful Eating: A diet rich in omega-3s and magnesium enhances synaptic plasticity.

• Aerobic Exercise: Boosts brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), supporting neural repair. _[4]

• Creative Activities: Art, music, and journaling foster new neural pathways. I have a whole new website devoted to this >> Click here.

• Somatic Healing: Techniques like somatic experiencing and polyvagal exercises restore nervous system balance.
  

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Reduces negative thought patterns and pain response.

• Learning New Skills: Activities like languages or musical instruments promote grey matter growth. 

• Sleep Optimization: Quality rest supports memory consolidation and brain rewiring.
  
  

Get my fun neuroplasticity and rewiring the brain challenge. You can download a sample week right now. 

Advanced Therapies to Support Neuroplasticity

1. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

TMS modulates overactive pain networks, offering relief for migraine sufferers. _{[2, 4]}

2. Neurofeedback

This therapy trains the brain to regulate pain signals in real time, promoting long-term resilience. _{[3, 2]}

3. Magnesium Supplementation

Magnesium is essential for a balanced nervous system. Add magnesium-rich foods like spinach, almonds, and dark chocolate to your diet, or consider high-quality supplements. _{[5, 1]}

>> This is my number one choice in magnesium supplement.

Breaking Negative Cycles and Building Better Habits

The Habit Loop

The brain forms habits in three steps:

1. Cue: A trigger for the behavior.
   
   
2. Routine: The habitual response.
   
   
3. Reward: Reinforcement of the loop.
   
   

Tips to Help Break the Loop

1. Define why your goal matters.
   
   
2. Identify and address roadblocks.
   
   
3. Create actionable steps to build positive habits.
   
   
4. Practice mindfulness to redirect actions.
   
   
5. Change cues. For example, leave a journal on your bedside table as a cue for mindful reflection or write a motivational note on your fridge to encourage healthy eating.
   
   
6. Pause and reflect on your efforts to reinforce new neural pathways.
   
   
7. Reward yourself for positive changes to reinforce new pathways.
   
   

Practical Applications and Daily Integration

Daily Practices for Neuroplasticity

• Start the day with a morning meditation or gratitude journaling.

• Engage in problem-solving games or non-dominant hand exercises.

• Take reflective pauses to consolidate progress.
  
  

Strategic Use of Technology

• Apps like Calm or Muse for guided neuroplasticity exercises.

• Wearables to monitor and optimize mindfulness sessions.
  
  

Trauma and Chronic Pain: A Closer Look

The Role of Trauma and the Nervous System

Trauma profoundly impacts the brain’s ability to regulate itself. According to Dr. Aimie Apigian, trauma is not just a mental experience but a physiological state of overwhelm that disrupts nervous system balance. This dysregulation depletes magnesium - a vital nutrient for managing stress - and can exacerbate migraine symptoms. _[2]

A Take Home Message

Rewire Your Brain, Relieve Your Pain

The journey to better brain health starts with understanding and leveraging neuroplasticity. By addressing trauma, adopting mindful habits, and exploring advanced therapies, you can rewire your brain and transform your life.

Get my instant print 30-Day Brain Health Challenge to take the first step in mastering neuroplasticity and rewiring the brain for migraine relief.

Available as instant print PDF, on Amazon Kindle or paperback.

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<sub>Neuroplasticity and Rewiring the Brain Sources:
1. Ackerman, Courtney (2018) What Is Neuroplasticity? Body & Brain [26]. Available online at: https://positivepsychology.com/neuroplasticity/
2. Apigian, Aimie (2024) Nervous System, Stored Trauma & Migraine, Migraine World Summit
3. Resendez, Kelly (No date) The Art of Rewiring Your Brain, Big Voices. Available online at: https://bigvoicesrise.com/the-art-of-rewiring-your-brain/
4. Cleveland Clinic (2024) How Neuroplasticity Works. Available online at: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/neuroplasticity
5. Health Rising (2019) Rewiring the Brain to Get Out of Pain. Available online at: https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2019/08/03/rewiring-the-brain-to-get-out-of-pain-the-moskowitz-approach/
6. Verywell Mind (2024) How Experience Changes the Brain. Available online at:
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-brain-plasticity-2794886</sub>

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