Pacing for Chronic Illness: Why It’s More Than Just “Doing Less”
Pacing isn’t about doing less—it’s about doing life differently. If you're navigating CFS/ME, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, Long COVID, or POTS, you've likely been told to "pace yourself"—but that advice often leaves more questions than answers. Pacing isn’t a cure. It’s a toolkit designed to prevent flare-ups and PEM, keeping you gently engaged in life rather than sidelined by symptoms. This post breaks pacing down into clear, practical components—from understanding your triggers and capacity, to using a traffic-light system, balancing proactive rest, planning your day sustainably, setting activity-rest ratios, budgeting your energy like spoon theory, and ensuring high-quality recovery.
Understanding Stress and Its Impact
What if your chronic fatigue, pain, or post-viral exhaustion isn’t a mystery illness, but the body’s way of protecting you after too much stress for too long? Drawing from Robert Sapolsky’s research and the Huberman Lab podcast, this article explains the science of stress, allostatic load, and how it links to invisible illnesses like CFS and fibromyalgia—and what you can do about it.