Managing activities

Managing activities

Pacing  

People who live with persistent pain often find themselves in a cycle of overdoing activities on ‘good days ‘and then become less active on their ‘bad days’.

Over a period of time people experience that they have less ‘good days’ and it takes them longer to recover and the bad days become more frequent. An example of this is the Boom and Bust Cycle.  

What is pacing?  

“Pacing involves breaking down activities into smaller steps, resting between steps and doing small amounts regularly rather than a large amount of activity in one go”.

Applying pacing to your daily activities can change the repeated Boom and Bust Cycle. 

How can pacing help me?  

Pacing is a process of learning to take a break before you experience an increase in pain. By doing this you can start to take control of your activities and energy levels in order to manage your pain. It can be applied to all your activities at work, home and leisure. It is important to understand that pacing is not about stopping all the activities that you enjoy but being able to spread the activities throughout the day or week.

Pacing can help reduce the amount of flare-ups you experience. This then can reduce frustration and as a result can have a positive effect on your mood. 

Planning and prioritising your day are a starting point for pacing. You can approach this by making a list of all the activities you need to do, either on a daily or weekly basis. You then need to decide which activities are essential that need to be done on a certain day or time and those which can be more flexible or could be delegated to family or friends.