Learning to Pace Yourself to Help with a Chronic Illness
Learning to pace yourself is hard, it is frustrating and to be honest pacing yourself is rubbish. I don’t mean it doesn’t work, it does. I mean the whole fact you have to is annoying.
Pacing yourself is in many ways about changing your mindset, which is difficult for everyone. However, I completely admit I found it stupidly hard.
After all, for many years I had been told, get up and out Sarah. It’s just your mental health and it will do you good and help you feel better. I found I was suddenly being told to do the complete opposite.
Of course, many mental health issues do make you lethargic and fatigued. So when it comes to pacing for a chronic illness such as ME or Fibro, your first step is trying to work out which is which.
For me, these two different types of fatigue have many similarities. However, they also have differences as well.
For instance, the heavy feeling comes only with the fatigue related to my ME or Fibro. While the want to just hide under the covers and pretend the whole world doesn’t exist, comes with the lethargic nature of my mental health.
Of course, for everyone, it will be different but I suggest looking for those little tell-tale signs that might just point to it being one or the other.
Set yourself Tasks
Setting yourself tasks for each day of the week will help you keep on top of many things that need doing, for instance:
Monday – Washing
Tuesday – Dusting
Wednesday – Bathroom
Also don’t be afraid to ask for help.
I cannot iron anymore as I know that it would be too dangerous for me. While I also have someone in to give the bungalow a good clean. This means that even if I’ve had a bad time the cleaning never gets too out of hand.
Pacing can be done in many ways. For me, I set myself jobs and do them little by little through the day taking breaks in between. While some may find it better to get things over and done with then rest. The main thing is though, do not do more than you should.
There will be days when you get up and feel good and you want to get everything done while you feel amazing. However, it will tire you out and it will likely put you into a relapse. So keep to your schedule and you should find that overall you have a more steady flow of energy.
Pacing is not fun, but it can help. So if you are being told to try it, then give it a whirl.
Do you have to pace yourself, how do you cope with it?
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Although not a chronic illness, I’ve been going through a lot lately, both mentally and physically – so can relate to so much of this. Having little tasks set for the next few days is really helping me x
I think people forget how tired mental illness can make you feel. My mum has fibro too so sometimes we’re both just the pair of us completely exhausted at the same time. We need more spoons!
Such a great tips and I think this would be perfect for anyone, sometimes its so hard to pace myself,
Setting goals and working on them is extremely important. Great post.
I love this post- especially the part about setting different tasks to different days. I have bad anxiety and I actually do that to help me to feel successful each day xxx
These are such great tips for how to manage things in life that you simply can’t ignore. Having a clear plan so you don’t get overwhelmed can help you tackle things one thing at a time.
I have to pace myself with my bad back – I’m learning to deal with the pain and I know my limits now.
Interesting articke, thank you 🙂
Yes I do, as having multiple debilitating chronic conditions means I burn out fast. And some days I can’t get out of bed. I can’t do washing up anymore. My fiance does a lot.
It is horrid isn’t it 🙁 I often think why me (though I try not to) x
Such an informative post Sarah. A few of my mum’s friends have chronic pain 🙁
I have a chronic shoulder issue which makes things like ironing hard and painful. I pace myself though, doing the important stuff first and worrying about the rest later. I think it is all too easy to get caught up in trying to do everything in one go, resulting in pain and upset.
I am going to try and pace myself more! xxx
Good luck with trying to pace yourself more, it is hard to get it right x
I keep on reminding my mother to pace herself. I don’t know why she does what she does! She attends aerobics class, does her own grocery shopping, cleans the house, does the laundry, etc. I mean, it is good she is active but she has a chronic illness and her heart is not that good anymore. She thinks she’s still in her 20s!
Oh wow! Go her, hopefully it isn’t being too detrinmental to her being so busy.
I do try to pace myself, but it seems it is not possible! I have a full schedule during weekdays and my weekends are cramped with housework and laundry which I should have done during the weekdays. I wake up and its Monday again. Never get any rest. I am just thankful that my body can still cope.
It is really hard isn’t it, there is so much that always needs doing!
Great tips, and applicable to everyone but I imagine so important when you have a chronic illness.
It’s literally one day at a time and that’s how you should deal with it. You can’t pressure yourself to keep up at a fast pace and it’s always better to take things slow.
Most definitely it is hard to get yourself into a place where you can do it, but it is worth it.
I know when my days are slower .. everything is better. My thinking especially is far clearer and my mind doesn’t go a million miles an hour
It is hard, my mind gets really confused so easily as well.
Setting daily tasks is such a great idea when it comes to pacing yourself. I’m so bad about overextending myself.
It is so easy to do especially on good day when you think you can take on the world.
These are really good tips for someone with a chronic illness. I have one and sometimes it’s just a day at a time.
It is so hard isn’t it – wishing you well <3
These are great tips for someone with a chronic illness. It must be hard when you want to do so much, but your body won’t let you.
I think thats the one bit I will never get over, not being able to do so much.
It’s hard as I love to be constantly busy and 2 weeks ago I had my gall bladder out. It’s really knocked me for six not being able to get on with things. I would hate to be like this permanently!
It is such a change, I think that’s what gets me most when people say oh it’s not real, it’s like do you think I want to be like this lol.
This is a great post to help and guide those with a chronic illness, great that you raise awareness like this and highlight the challenges people face 🙂 x
Aww thank you so much – so glad it does help raise awareness.
Setting daily tasks is a great idea, pacing yourself can be such a challenge when you just want to get things done.
It is really hard, especially when you used to be able to do so much and then you can’t.
Having a Chronic Illness can be depressing for someone. Having a good state of mind could help someone to cope up with this kind of situation. Having a good support systems form family and friends can help a person with this situation.
That is so true, it is so easy to fall into a state of sadness when you are suffering 🙁
Great advice, it’s important not to push yourself too much
It is really hard to learn how to slow down and pace yourself even when you feel tired or pain – I am a mom of a toddler and a baby, so I can relate!
It does help to break things up and do a little at a time is much more manageable and less stressful. I should try to b more organised too.
Pacing yourself is important whether you have a diagnosed illness or not. Sometimes it’s hard to do because there are so many things to do in a short time.
Sticking to your schedule is really challenging. I’ve tried this before and something got me side-tracked. It really needs disciple.
It is so hard isn’t it and there is always something to knock you off it as well.
I don’t have a chronic illness, but one of my best friends here was recently diagnosed. I’d love to pick her brain, and also see how I helped.
Aww sending you both hugs <3 it's a hard thing to find out.
Pacing yourself is so important when you have a chronic illness. If you burn yourself out you can be spent for days.
I don’t have chronic illness but this is a great post to help people with chronic illness. Pacing yourself is important!
Pacing myself is something that is really hard for me to do. I have fibromyalgia and on them good days I tend to overdo it all the time. During the past few years I have been getting better with pacing myself. The older I get the more I dread what comes after overdoing it . Thanks for sharing the information.
I don’t have a chronic illness, but I do need to pace myself so I don’t go nuts. This has happened before and it frightens my family, so I try not to overwork myself anymore. Try being the key word.
A few of my friends have chronic illnesses and I completely see where you’re coming from in this post. They have to pace themselves and do what’s best for them, even if they’re having one of the best days they’ve had in a while. It’s good to let people know that no one’s alone in facing chronic illnesses.
It can be very frustrating to me when I have to pace myself but I know I have to do that in order to feel good all day.
It is such a pain to have to do isn’t it, especially when you are on a good day.
I’ve been learning to pace myself which is not an easy thing to do. Before my injuries, I kept a spotless house. Now I get myself in a state when everything isn’t just so but I can’t do it all every day anymore. I’m going to use your tips along with what’s working for me and see if I can’t learn to be happy with my new pace.
Having someone in to help with cleaning has done me a lot of good, I feel a lot better knowing that if I can’t do it it’s OK someone else will and oddly that helps too as it is one less thing I have to stress over.
I tend to pace myself with exercise. It helps me stick to a schedule but also build up my stamina x
I don’t have a chronic illness, but I do have a back injury and I’m learning to pace myself while it heals. It’s hard sometimes, but I know I’ll heal faster when I don’t overdo things.
Good luck with your back, I hope it doesn’t take too long to completely heal.
My life is go, go, go and it’s hard for me to slow down and pace myself sometimes. If I needed to, I would, though….it’s a great technique.
It is hard but I think that setting small goals and achieving them makes you feel more in control.
It really does, baby steps but at least it is going forward and not back.
I try this daily
Unfortunately something else always seems to crop up!!!
‘re evaluating at the moment and making some tough decisions
Thanks for this
positivity⚘⚘⚘
I hope you can manage to do it, sending you positive thoughts.
The problem is I’ve been told that keeping to a schedule can cause it’s own problems with regards to developing OCD? It’s difficult to know what advice to follow really…but at the end of the day I guess we are all different and what works for one isn’t necessarily going to for someone else. Mental Health is such a complicated but very real issue.
I can see how that might happen, it is hard to know what to do for the best, I think as with many things you have to work out yourself what works for you.