Because of the long term nature of this condition most of the things we can do to help ourselves we have to do over and over again. The more successful we are at incorporating these things into our daily routines and making them habits, the better our quality of life is likely to be. However … Read more
Good illness management takes a certain amount of self-discipline. Even getting out of bed in the morning requires discipline for me, when just about every day I wake up feeling awful. In the knowledge that I will feel better once I get through my morning routine, I resist the urge to stay in bed and … Read more
Patience is a very important quality to cultivate when you have a ME/CFS. We regularly face challenges that would test anybody’s patience and the consequence of letting them get to us only serve to worsen our health. Any time we get wound up or impatient we’re adding to the problems with our sympathetic nervous system … Read more
Optimising our health when we have this condition takes an awful lot of care and attention. We need to learn to assess our daily energy levels, keep within those daily limits, pace ourselves, eat healthily often avoiding certain foods, pay attention to our sleeping habits, include safe and effortless movement/exercise in our daily routine and … Read more
I find this time of year particularly difficult. The transition from summer to autumn always seems to have a negative impact on my symptoms. It is something I have learned to accept. As with any extra pressure on my functioning, I always try to cut back on my activity and save more of my energy … Read more
I recently read a letter in the ME Associations magazine from somebody who always feels worse after resting. I too often feel at my worse after my afternoon rest and when I wake up first thing in the morning. It also reminded me of another blogger who has mentioned to me how much of an … Read more
The first time I had ME I recovered without paying any particular attention to changing my diet, apart from aiming to eat healthily. However, looking back, the majority of my recovery took place whilst I was travelling around South America where I rarely ate processed foods, bread or pasta. This time around, I have struggled … Read more
Every morning when I wake up I feel sluggish and poisoned. Sometimes it can be like a terrible hangover, even though I don’t touch alcohol at the moment. After I’ve done my T’ai chi and drank a couple of mugs of hot water I usually feel much better. It makes sense to me that the … Read more
For me a key principle in managing this illness is that we actively need to invest some of our precious energy in health promoting activities. It’s not enough to just live what little life we can and then rest when we’ve had enough. Rest alone will not get us better or even prevent us from … Read more
Although I sometimes resent the lack of spontaneity in my life, I have to respect the role that habit and routine plays in helping me manage my illness. Habits and routines minimise the use of energy. Actions flow automatically or become an automatic response to an external trigger. It might take a bit of energy … Read more
