Why Simply Avoiding Triggers Isn't Enough: Build Resilience with the Migraine Bucket Framework
Two simple strategies for stopping the migraine overflow and a true recovery story that shows how it works in real life.
Welcome back!
I hope your week is off to a good start so far. If not, maybe this will help you turn it around.
If you’ve ever felt like the smallest thing can tip you into a migraine, you’re not imagining it. Your migraine system isn’t “broken;” it’s just extra sensitive and the good news is that sensitivity can be changed with the right approach.
Today we’ll use one of my favorite tools, The Migraine Bucket Framework, to make sense of your triggers and show you how to build a more resilient migraine system.
The Migraine Bucket Framework
Imagine your trigeminal system—the star player in migraines—as a bucket. Every trigger you encounter is like pouring water into that bucket. Some triggers might be small, like a glass of water, filling only a fraction of the bucket.
But when multiple triggers add up, or you encounter a really large trigger like another bucket pouring into yours, the migraine bucket can overflow.
That overflow represents a migraine.
This way of thinking about this, clarifies how we effectively and proactively manage migraines. There are two main strategies:
Stop water from pouring into your bucket: This means identifying and managing your exposure to your specific triggers as much as possible. Common triggers can include stress, maybe certain foods, strong smells, lack of sleep, etc., but everyone’s triggers are unique.
Make your bucket bigger: By supporting your overall health with some key migraine-specific strategies, you can increase the bucket’s capacity and reduce the sensitivity of your trigeminal system. This means doing things like:
Strength training and cardiovascular endurance exercise
Prioritizing quality sleep
Eating a balanced, nutrient-rich diet and addressing any key nutrient deficiencies related to the migraine process
Dialing in you hydration
Managing stress effectively and building nervous system resilience
Managing pain in your neck, jaw, and shoulder
And much more…
Some meds can temporarily help by limiting the water getting into your bucket or making your bucket a little bigger, boosting your capacity for a while.
But the real magic in the migraine recovery process is the long-game of rebuilding a resilient system, so you can hopefully rely on these meds less or at least make them more effective at doing their job.
Assessing Your Own Migraine Bucket
If you’re someone who experiences frequent migraines or finds that even minor triggers feel like they can set one off, this suggests your trigeminal system is pretty "sensitized." That means that it’s overly reactive to things you're exposed to and your bucket is on the smaller side right now and its gotten more sensitive to these things over time.
In this case, it’s crucial to carefully track and manage your exposure to your triggers, while working steadily to “build your bucket.”
This process takes time, consistency, and an individualized approach, but progress really is possible for everyone.
In the beginning, you may need some medication support to help reduce the immediate burden of triggers, while you focus on making lifestyle changes. Over time, with the right strategies, you may find that you rely less on medications as your system becomes more resilient.
The goal is to live a full life, managing your exposure to key triggers some while maintaining a healthy, well-supported and big bucket that can handle life’s challenges without overflowing as much.
If your migraines aren't as frequent or very easily triggered, but you still find them limiting, there’s great potential for significant and fairly rapid improvement.
The process is similar, but you might have more flexibility in how you begin. Tracking triggers is still important to prevent too much water from filling your bucket, but you can shift more focus toward strategies that help grow your bucket’s capacity and likely have less difficulty navigating the early stages of the migraine recovery process.
With time and consistency, you may find that migraines become less of a constant presence in your life. The fear of them interrupting your day or preventing you from doing what you love can fade, giving way to a freer, fuller future. A where migraines no longer hold you back.
Kelly's Migraine Bucket Transformation
Initial challenges and back story:
Kelly is a busy 34-year-old real estate agent. She started out with 10–12 migraine days/month that had progressively worsened over the past 4 years, but they had been happening off and on since she was 8.
Her lifestyle had some patterns that stood out initially as likely contributing factors, such as late-night work, irregular meals that weren’t always aligned with her goals, often forgetting to drink water while working, weekend wine, and a stiff neck after long days on her laptop.
Flickering fluorescent lights at the office and long travel days were common tipping points that seemed to hit particularly hard.
She also didn’t have any regular exercise program other than occasional yoga.
Recovery Approach:
We carefully mapped her triggering patterns throughout a few weeks using the MigraineMetrix Systemᵀᴹ. Kelly and I initially focused on targeting one trigger and one bucket builder in our first week together then added another pair after that:
Trigger 1: Sleep focus: She set a hard stop at 10:30 pm and used a wind-down routine (lights down, phone off, 10 mins of 4‑7‑8 breathing).
Bucket builder 1: Two 30(ish)‑minute strength sessions/wk (full‑body, moderate effort at first) + short walks after her meals.
Trigger 2: Neck stiffness/pain: We implemented regular "exercise snack" breaks to get up and move around away from he work station. Plus, we implemented two neck focused routines. One was an individualized neck strength/mobility routine and the other was an emergency “feel good” routine. She used these every other day (or as needed) depending on how she felt day-to-day.
Bucket builder 2: Hydration/nutrition target: ~2–3 L/day of fluid intake and focus on making at least 2 of her 3 meals each day hit these 5 key characteristics:
Protein
Fiber
Calories
Color
Satiety
Results
Early Results:
After about 2 months, her attack days had dropped from 10–12 to ~4-5/month. Travel days still added water sometimes, but no longer guaranteed overflow. She tolerated a single glass of wine on social nights about half the time. Acute med use decreased, and she reported more “near misses” that often resolved with her “high risk plan” that we’ll talk about more in just a moment.
Later on:
She worked with me for about 6 months and together we focused on dialing in some further exercise optimization strategies, getting her into great shape without too much time investment required. We also focused further on stress management strategies, straight forward nutritional foundations, sleep hygiene, and neck pain.
She ended up getting her migraine attacks down to 1 every 2 months or so within that time and she dramatically reduced her medication use, with the help of her physician of course.
Actionable Steps for This Week
Assess Your Own Migraine Bucket: Is it small, medium, or large?
If your migraines get triggered with every little thing and you have 15+ migraine/headache days per month, you would fall into the small-ish bucket category.
If you have 2-15 migraine/headache days per month, your migraine bucket would likely fall in the medium sized bucket category.
If you have migraines rarely, every couple months or so, congratulations, you likely have a large, resilient migraine bucket!
Find Your Top 3 Taps (Triggers). For 7-14 days, jot quick notes focusing around your main trigger sources.
For example yours might focus on: sleep (hrs/quality), stress (0–10), meals, hydration, neck/jaw pain, scents, alcohol. Circle the three that show up most around your migraine days.
Pick One Bucket Builder. Choose one habit that builds your buckets capacity (14‑day commitment):
Examples
Exercise: 20–30 min resistance training 2x/wk, or
Sleep: Set your in-bed time and keep that for at least 5 nights/wk, or
Hydration: Assess how much you’re currently drinking, if its 5 cups per day, aim for a 20% increase at first and keep a water bottle full and with you throughout the day.
Create an overflow plan. On higher‑risk days (maybe poor sleep + extra stress), try to get ahead.
For example, this was Kelly’s high-risk plan: extra water + colorful fruits and veggies at most of her meals if possible, a 10 min walk at lunch, neck mobility routine at 10am and 3pm, one to two 10-minute breath-work/meditation sessions whenever she could throughout the day. Plus, her emergency med as needed too.
Migraine Coach Pro Tip: Progress = fewer overflows and faster “near‑miss” recoveries, not perfection. Give yourself some grace!
Really quick: Do you know someone who’s stuck simply trying to avoid their triggers? Click the share button and send this to them. You might be giving them the recovery framework they’ve needed for years.
Before we wrap up, I want to acknowledge where you are today. If your bucket feels small right now, it is not your fault and it doesn’t have to stay that way.
You are not starting from zero; you have a lot of experience to pull on to use in this framework. I’ll be here in your corner for the long game.
Admittedly, some of this can be hard to do alone. Exercise is a common example: it can feel risky if it has triggered you before. I help people by creating clear structure around how to safely start and progressively work on building capacity that honors where you are and creates meaningful adaptation over time. The goal is not perfection, it is to expand what you can do and tolerate and move toward your specific goals.
If you want support, I can help you map your triggers and design a capacity‑first plan that fits your life, whether that is kickstarting with the 14‑Day MoveWells Migraine Blueprint, 1:1 coaching, or my upcoming 8-week course and group coaching program. Either way, you do not have to do this alone.
Small, steady changes compound. Your bucket absolutely can grow and I want to leave you with this quote:
“The best way out is always through.” — Robert Frost
If you feel like sharing, I’m curious: If you’ve worked on making any changes already, what’s one change that’s made the biggest difference? And is there anything you’re still troubleshooting that I can help you think through?
Hit reply and let me know—I really do read every note.
Until next time,
Dr. Dylan Wells, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS
Founder of MoveWells LLC | Creator of Migraine Renaissance Weekly and Podcast
P.S. Stay tuned for next weeks publication that dives into what exactly a migraine is and why you get those funky symptoms along with it sometimes. I promise it will be easily understandable and help you understand why what we covered today can really help you make a meaningful impact on your migraines.