We often pay no attention to a headache: we take an aspirin and carry on, or we put it down to the weather, atmospheric pressure, lack of sleep and so on. Yet the psychosomatic causes of a headache are very interesting. In this article we shall look at the causes of pain in the temples (left, right) and in the forehead. The occipital area will be covered in another article, as it belongs to migraine.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that a person usually has several illnesses (in an acute or a chronic form) as well as several complaints, so it is not quite right to concentrate on one of them and assume that it explains everything. It is better to look at all the illnesses and minor complaints together and to search among them for the “red line”, that is, for the main, deep cause.
The psychosomatics of a headache
A headache can have various causes. Stress, tension, when I force myself to act in a certain way or to do something.
A headache often appears when I am trying to achieve something and put in too much effort, or when I am worried about events still to come. At such moments I feel strong indecision, fear and anxiety. It can also be a reaction to situations or events happening around me.
If the pain is on the left side of the head, this says that my emotional state is connected with the female part of my surroundings: my mother, my sister, my wife, a woman friend. On the right side, with the male part.
Perhaps I hate myself, but that is hard to admit, so I avoid these thoughts in the form of criticism of the world around me, to which I belong as well — that is, in this way I criticise myself too, only not directly. My loyalty is in question. I am shut inside my own head as if in a box, I do not like what I see, I judge myself very harshly.
Headaches can also be caused by the denial of my thoughts and feelings, which I consider inappropriate or out of keeping with my values. Either I lack the courage to voice them, or I simply do not listen to them, because I react to everything too rationally. “This is bad and that is good!”
Perhaps I want to understand too much, to do everything too quickly, to get it all right here and now; I want answers to all my questions at once and I “rack” my brains over them until I get an answer.
I am fed up with all of this, but perhaps the time is not right; or perhaps I need to train my patience and take things with humour, to trust my intuition and believe that everything comes in its own time?
A headache is provoked by negative emotions that are looking for a way out and press on the brain — the need to “let off steam”: dissatisfaction, for example, a mass of questions, excessive ambition, perfectionism. What is more, I am afraid of facing real reality and avoid it, distracting myself with a headache.
I doubt my social identity. My need for control and perfection makes me determine and calculate in advance what is going to happen at every moment of my life. Ideally I want to do everything with my head alone and to forget about feelings, the heart and intuition. I avoid the spontaneity my heart longs for, I am afraid of losing control of the situation and I spend a great deal of energy fighting chance and unpredictable situations. Instead of my heart, I obey only my “overheated” head. I avoid any change and anything new, I am hard-headed, because I am afraid of losing my sense of security.
A headache in the forehead speaks of problems in the sphere of my activity or my work.
A headache in the temples speaks of problems in the family, in relationships.
In every case a headache says that I need to learn to be more patient and more flexible in the situations life brings.
Affirmation
I accept my distancing from reality, I treat it as a teacher.
So that my thoughts become clearer and clearer, and I am learning to give the intellect and the emotions their right place in order to reach balance. I shall live in greater harmony with myself, and my head will be freer and lighter.
