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Pacing — I finally get it

kt_2024
I've been hearing about pacing for years and always kind of rolled my eyes because it sounded like "just do less" which ok thanks very helpful. But I finally read a book about it (Energy Envelope by someone... I cant remember the author) and now I actually understand what pacing means and its not just "do less." It's about staying within your energy envelope. Figuring out your baseline — what you can do consistently without crashing — and staying there even on good days. ESPECIALLY on good days. Becuase good days are where I always mess up. I feel decent so I do ALL the things and then im in bed for a week. Since I started actually pacing (about 6 weeks now) my crashes have been less severe and less frequent. I'm not cured or anything but the rollercoaster has flattened out a bit. My baseline is slowly... slowly... creeping up. If pacing never clicked for you either, maybe look into the energy envelope concept. It made it make sense for me finally.

4 Replies

dee_cfs

YES. Pacing was the single biggest thing that improved my quality of life and it took me an embarrassingly long time to actually understand it. The energy envelope concept is perfect. The hardest part is doing LESS on good days. Your brain is screaming "GO! DO EVERYTHING! CLEAN THE HOUSE! GROCERY SHOP! LIVE YOUR LIFE!" and you have to deliberately... not. It feels wrong. But the payoff is fewer crashes. I'm glad it's clicking for you. It really does make a difference over time.

horizontal_life

"good days are where I always mess up" — i feel so SEEN right now. like yep that is exactly my pattern. feel ok -> do all the things -> crash for a week -> recover -> feel ok -> repeat forever im going to look up this energy envelope thing becuase clearly what im doing isn't working

napqueen_b

I've been trying to pace for about a year and honestly the emotional part is harder than the practical part. Like I KNOW I should stop. But my house is messy and there are things to do and I feel GOOD right now and I just want to be NORMAL for one day and... crash. Every time. I know the answer and I still can't make myself do it consistently. Working on it though.

tony_cfs

The book you're thinking of might be by Bruce Campbell — "Managing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia." He's the one who popularized the energy envelope concept. I'd also recommend looking into "heart rate pacing" for CFS specifically. Using a heart rate monitor to stay below your anaerobic threshold. It sounds extreme but it was the most concrete pacing tool I found.

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