Finding your rhythm

Diaphragmatic breathing Day 3/4

It’s important to practice your breathing every day. This is a key skill to taking control of your symptoms.

Disobeying Unhelpful Thoughts

In your Disobeying your Unhelpful Thoughts Journal, provided in your onboarding materials, write down an unhelpful thought you’d like to disobey today. Write out what values you’ll be honoring when you disobey it. At the end of the day, mark if you completed it. If it’s hard to think about what values you’ll be honoring, that’s okay. Just focus on disobeying the thought and notice what that’s like for you after you’ve done it. If it’s hard to choose a thought, that’s okay too. Just commit to doing this once a day and you can log it in your journal after you’ve disobeyed it.

Creating your pacing plan

Last time, we talked about how it’s natural to avoid things that seem unpleasant or struggle against limitations we wish we didn’t have. Your values are one thing that can help you keep moving in the right direction even when the going gets tough. There’s another thing that can help: a pacing plan. This time, we’ll help you develop a personalized approach to pacing. We’ll take you through the process step by step. The goal is to find the right rhythm for you, so you’re neither underdoing it nor overdoing it. We want you to be able to do the things that matter to you without having extra pain and fatigue.

Pacing Plan

Pacing yourself means doing activities for a specific period of time, then resting regardless of how you feel. It will help you avoid pain and symptom flares, and it will reduce how long they last when they do happen. It’s about respecting your body’s limits.   Let’s make your pacing plan!   Here’s an example pacing plan: Today, I will wash the dishes, for 10 minutes, and then rest for 20 minutes. I will do this 3 times.