Boy oh boy how a few pressure points saved me on my flight over to Bali.

If you keep up with me on social media or get my weekly emails you’ll already know that I was suffering from a pretty gnarly head cold for two days before flying out of Chicago.

The week leading up to our departure I had been getting 3-4 hours of sleep each night, which is next to nothing for a girl who needs a solid 8 hours to flourish.

I knew I was in for a world of hurt if I didn’t start finding some remedies.

Personally, I’m not a fan of medication. Yes, it has its time and place, but I knew I was still OK without it.

The morning we were supposed to drive to Chicago I woke up at 3 a.m. feeling pretty rotten. I decided to quit tossing and turning in bed, and to get up and do something about how I was feeling.

The first step was boiling some water. I put some of it in a mug with a teabag, and the rest in a big pot on the stove, where sweet heavenly steam began to rise rise.

Very carefully I would lean my head over, inhaling the sweet sweet steam which helped soothe the pressure, and a bit of the congestion as well. At the same time I started sipping on my tea, and gargling some salt water.

I also did a smidgen of yoga, focusing mostly on the legs up the wall pose, which doesn’t sound like it would help congestion, but it sure does.

But the biggest discovery was pressure points. No, I’m not saying I discovered them, but I found a few to try out online. I think I Googled "pressure points for congestion and headaches”.

The first is right below your eyebrows, where they stop in the middle of you face. Push up on your brow bones to help relieve some of that sinus pressure.

The next spot is to either side of your nose, you can feel right under your cheek bones, push there. This helped with my congestion.

Another one that helped relieve some of the pressure in my head was on the back of my neck, at the base of my head, about where my hairline starts. At either side of your spine if you feel around you can find two, roundish lumps, about two inches apart.

Throughout my flights I would use these three pressure points to help relieve some of the pain and discomfort, and at certain points it would help clear the congestion.

But on our final descent into Denpasar, the pressure built up to an almost unbearable amount. I was able to get my right ear to pop, but the left side remained very pressured for a few hours to come.

Thankfully after a day of being in Ubud, surrounded by warmth and nutrition food, I was back to feeling better than ever.