{"id":834,"date":"2018-02-17T23:59:32","date_gmt":"2018-02-18T07:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/recoveryfromcfs.org\/?page_id=834"},"modified":"2021-04-05T14:09:19","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T21:09:19","slug":"ch08","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/recoveryfromcfs.org\/ch08\/","title":{"rendered":"ch08"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_custom_heading text=”8. Life Inside the Envelope” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left|color:%233999ad” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1514103561711{padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 30px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1517547497357{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”Table of Contents” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center|color:%233399ae” google_fonts=”font_family:Coda%20Caption%3A800|font_style:800%20bold%20regular%3A800%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1521950944829{margin-top: -40px !important;}”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner css=”.vc_custom_1517547735980{background-color: #3399ae !important;}”]
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<\/span>Part I: Getting Started<\/div>
\n1: Keys to Recovery<\/strong><\/a>
\n2: Now What Do I Do?<\/strong><\/a>
\n3: My Situation<\/strong><\/a>
\n4: Multiple Strategies<\/strong><\/a>
\n5:\u00a0Is Recovery Realistic?<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/div><\/div>\n
<\/span>Part II: Pacing<\/div>
\n6: Pacing vs Crashing<\/strong><\/a>
\n7: My Energy Envelope<\/strong><\/a>
\n8: Life in the Envelope<\/strong><\/a>
\n9: My Secret Weapon<\/strong><\/a>
\n10: CFS Scientist<\/strong><\/a>
\n11: Exercise<\/strong><\/a>
\n12: Minimizing Relapses<\/strong><\/a>
\n13: Expand the Envelope<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
<\/span>Part III: Other Challenges<\/div>
\n14: Managing Stress<\/strong><\/a>
\n15: Emotions<\/strong><\/a>
\n16: Beyond Loss<\/strong><\/a>
\n17: Finding Help<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/div><\/div>\n
<\/span>Part IV: Concluding Thoughts<\/div>
\n18: Recovery?<\/strong><\/a>
\n19: What Worked<\/strong><\/a>
\n20: What About You?<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>[\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner]

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PDF version<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>[\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]\"\"The second part of pacing is learning to live within the limits imposed by CFS. This is a gradual process that requires patience and discipline, and brings rewards only a little bit at a time.<\/p>\n

Since I believed that pacing offered my best chance for long-term improvement, I developed and used many strategies to help me live consistently within my limits. (We teach about two dozen strategies in the self-help program.)<\/p>\n

Planned Rests<\/strong><\/p>\n

If there was one secret to my improvement, it was taking two brief planned rests daily. (They were so central to my recovery that I\u2019ve devoted the whole next chapter to them.) Scheduled rests, taken no matter how I felt, reduced my symptoms, brought stability, and actually reduced the amount of time I spent resting by helping me avoid overdoing and the rest that inevitably followed.<\/p>\n

Planned rest is probably the most popular pacing strategy used by people in the self-help program. I estimate that 80% to 90% of people who try it find it helpful. Here are some examples. One person reported: \u201cThe results have been incredible. My symptoms and pain have decreased and I feel more \u2018in control\u2019. My sleep has been more refreshing and even my mood has improved.\u201d Another wrote, \u201cI have more stamina and the graph of my days doesn\u2019t dip and rise so steeply.\u201d And a third commented, \u201cfor the first time in the four and a half years I have been ill, I feel that it is possible to manage my symptoms and have some predictability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Record Keeping<\/strong><\/p>\n

Record keeping, which took just a few minutes a day, helped me live within my limits by showing me what those limits were. Records were a graphic and irrefutable way to prove to myself that doing too much intensified my symptoms and led to increased rest. Also, I used my health log to motivate myself. My records showed me I was improving and my improvement encouraged me to aim for more symptom-free days. Another way I checked on myself was to discuss how I was doing with somebody else, often using my logs for reference. Such discussions helped me to be accountable to someone else.<\/p>\n

This strategy was so central to my recovery that a whole chapter (10) is devoted to it.<\/p>\n

Stop and Choose<\/strong><\/p>\n

One way that we get pulled outside our limits is by giving in to the temptation of doing something that seems appealing at the moment. A way to avoid such lapses is to stop before you act and realize you have a choice.<\/p>\n

I made frequent use of this strategy, which I called \u201cstop and choose.\u201d When I was tempted to do too much, I visualized myself lying in bed in pain for hours, with heavy brain fog. I tried to make the image as vivid as I could, feeling the pain in my body and experiencing the guilt about harming myself and feeling the hopelessness that often accompanied my relapses.<\/p>\n

The goal was to create an experience that brought to life the consequences of overdoing, thus counteracting the immediate pleasure I anticipated from doing something that would take me beyond my limit.<\/p>\n

Rules, Routines and Reminders<\/strong><\/p>\n

I decided that I could reduce the energy expended in pacing if I could \u2018automate\u2019 my behavior. I found three ways to do that: rules, routines and reminders. All three were ways to help me to create new habits, so I automatically did the right thing.<\/p>\n

Rules<\/strong> describe what I would do in particular situations and often had an If\/Then structure. One rule was to get off the computer and stop watching TV at 9 pm, to allow for a wind down period before going to bed:<\/p>\n