Pacing is an essential skill for recovering from chronic pain. It is poorly taught, practiced, and understood. So. I am hoping this blog post will give you a place to start understanding how to make your life easier! Pacing is a way of breaking up tasks and activities into smaller, more manageable chunks so that your energy is not completely depleted and you stop pushing past your own tissue tolerance/ abilities until you are able to acquire more. In this blog post, we’ll look at 7 tips to help you pace activities when living with chronic pain.
What is Pacing?
It’s a constant battle to find ways to manage the symptoms and maintain a life you love. One strategy that can make a significant difference is pacing activities. But what exactly is pacing?
Pacing is a technique that involves breaking up tasks and activities into smaller, more manageable chunks. Instead of pushing through and doing everything at once, pacing allows you to conserve your energy and prevent complete depletion. It’s all about finding a balance between activity and rest, and it can be a game-changer for those living with chronic pain.
Think of pacing as a marathon, not a sprint. It’s about recognizing your limits and finding a sustainable pace that allows you to achieve what you need to without causing a flare-up or exacerbating your pain. Pacing is not about doing less; it’s about doing things differently.
When you practice pacing, you’re giving yourself the opportunity to live your life more fully and actively. It’s not about giving up on activities; it’s about finding a way to engage with them that works for you and your body.
Pacing can give you a sense of empowerment and enable you to regain some of the independence that chronic pain may have taken away. In the next section, we’ll dive deeper into how to identify your baseline level of activity and use it as a foundation for effective pacing techniques.
Step 1: Identifying your Baseline Level of Activity/ Ability
Identifying your baseline level of activity is crucial in order to effectively pace yourself. Your baseline level is essentially the amount of activity you can comfortably handle without exacerbating your symptoms or causing a flare-up.
Start by engaging in activities that you enjoy and that are typically part of your routine. It could be as simple as taking a walk, doing household chores, or running errands. Take breaks and rest when needed, but also try to push yourself just a little bit to gauge your tolerance. We have to figure out where the fence is in order to stop crashing through it.
Another helpful tool for identifying your baseline level of activity is to keep a daily activity diary for a week or so. Write down the activities you engage in, the duration, and any symptoms or changes you experience. This can help you identify Boom Bust patterns and other choices that may be contributing to your pain/ fatigue.
Remember that finding your baseline level of activity may take time and experimentation. It’s important to be patient and gentle with yourself as you navigate this process. The goal is to find the “sweet spot” where pain/fatigue doesn’t increase. We aren’t looking for pain-free, though that would be really nice, it’s not realistic and leads to way too much downtime instead of living and enjoying life!
Once you have identified your baseline level of activity, you can use it as a foundation for effective pacing. By gradually increasing your activity levels within your limits, you can engage in activities without causing excessive strain on your body. Pacing is all about finding the balance between our physical, emotional, and mental loads within our current capabilities. We use this to grow – not as a cage to stay where we are!
Step 2: Prioritizing Tasks
My goal for you is to always bring more into your life. Be more you. Enjoy life, despite the pain. I want you to move the focus off the pain, and back onto you – the person and living your life! I know it seems counterintuitive, but it is how we beat chronic pain.
To start prioritizing tasks, make a list of everything that needs to be done. Take a moment to think about what tasks are most important or have the most value to you and what tasks can be put off or delegated to someone else. This will help you focus your energy on the tasks that truly matter and bring joy.
Step 3: Breaking Things Up
Once you have identified the most important tasks, break them down into smaller steps. For example, if your goal is to clean the entire house, break it down by room or by specific tasks within each room. By dividing tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks, you’ll be able to tackle them without overloading yourself.
Believe it or not, this can be done for huge projects too, like holiday decorating, planting your garden, and taking a vacation! We break things up so we can still enjoy them! Yes, it’s different than we are used to, but man is it great to be able to do the things we love.
Step 4: Learn to Listen
Remember to listen to your body throughout the process. If you start feeling fatigued or notice an increase in pain, take a break and rest. It’s important to pace yourself and not push through the pain. We want to “retrain” the brain that activity is safe. It’s really hard to do that if all we ever do is ignore our bodies and push on. Pacing is part of calming the nervous system, don’t underestimate it’s value.
I find body scans to be of great help in learning to listen. I’ve had to force myself to learn how to check in with myself on how I feel physically, emotionally, and mentally. Honestly, it has been a hard skill for me to learn. Here is a link to a PDF I made full of some of the first skills I learned. They helped me tremendously in my pain journey.
Learning to listen to your body and avoid boom-bust cycles is a skill that takes time and practice. It’s not always easy, especially when you’re eager to regain some semblance of normalcy in your life. But by being patient, gentle with yourself, and willing to make adjustments, you can find a balance that allows you to live your life more fully and actively
Step 5: Asking for Help
Don’t be afraid to ask for help or delegate tasks to others. Living with chronic pain is challenging, and it’s okay to lean on others for support. Reach out to friends, family, or professionals who can assist you with tasks that are beyond your current capabilities. If you are like me, asking for help is hard. Really hard. So I wrote a whole blog post on it with a workbook to help you. Read on about asking for help here.
Step 6: Celebrating Victories
Another helpful strategy is to celebrate small victories. Completing smaller steps within a task can provide a sense of accomplishment and motivation to continue. Acknowledge your progress and give yourself credit for the tasks you have completed, no matter how small they may seem. This is yet another way we retrain that brain/ help calm the nervous system. It’s not a step you should skip, it’s essential.
Step 7: Guidelines for How to Make It Work
When it comes to pacing activities with chronic pain, there are some guidelines you can follow to make the process easier and more effective. These guidelines will help you find a balance between activity and rest, allowing you to manage your pain while still staying engaged in the things you love.
Start slow and gradually increase:
Pacing is all about finding a sustainable pace that works for you. Begin by engaging in activities for a short amount of time or completing a limited number of tasks. As you feel comfortable, gradually increase the duration or the number of tasks. This will help you gauge your tolerance and prevent pushing yourself too hard.
Take breaks and rest when needed:
It’s important to listen to your body and take breaks when you need them. If you start feeling fatigued or experience an increase in pain, pause and rest. This will help prevent overexertion and reduce the risk of a flare-up. Breaks can be short and frequent, or longer and more structured, depending on your needs. Remember, rest comes in many forms, read more here.
Use timers and reminders:
Setting timers and using reminders can be helpful for pacing. It allows you to stick to a schedule and avoid overdoing it. Set specific time limits for activities and take breaks accordingly. Reminders can be especially useful for remembering to rest or change activities when needed.
Prioritize tasks and break them into smaller chunks:
Not all tasks are created equal. Prioritize the activities that are most important or bring you the most joy, and focus on those first. Break larger tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks. This will make them less overwhelming and more achievable. Completing smaller steps can also provide a sense of accomplishment and motivation to continue.
Use adaptive techniques and tools:
Explore different adaptive techniques and tools that can make tasks easier. This can include using assistive devices, modifying your environment, or changing the way you approach certain tasks. These adaptations can help conserve your energy and make activities more manageable.
Listen to your body and adjust accordingly:
Pacing is all about finding what works best for you. Pay attention to how your body responds to different activities and adjust your pacing strategy accordingly. If a particular task consistently causes a flare-up or increases your pain, find alternative ways to accomplish it or modify it to suit your needs. It’s important to be flexible and make adjustments as needed.
Have your flare plan ready:
Pacing is a skill, like any other. Sometimes we burst through our fences and end up in a flare, for a million different reasons. Don’t panic. It’s ok! I encourage all my clients to create a flare plan so they are ready when they happen, and they will happen. I feel so strongly about the need for a flare plan, I created a super low-cost self-paced course for you to create your own, grab it here.
Get creative, think it through and if you need help, ask me! I would love to help you master the art of pacing!
