Different Ways to Help You Slow Down - Teas, rituals, equipment etc

If you have a chronic illness you'll be familiar with a certain technique for coping with daily life that's full of chronic pain and chronic fatigue. Pacing. Now this word will either infuriate some people with chronic illness as they've had the idea of pacing thrown down their throat for every issue they have, like it's a cure.. or some people will love the pacing technique, but perhaps can't quite get the balance right. I'm definitely the latter, I have gotten better at pacing when it comes to certain activities but some times it's just hard to do! I wanted to share some of my pacing techniques which have been working well.

For activities like cleaning the house (dusting, tidying etc) or activities that aren't just five minute jobs, taking breaks is crucial. BUT if you're anything like me, you find yourself just wanting to smash the task out and not taking a break or slowing down so it gets done quicker so the task is over. This never works out though. It leaves me in a lot more pain, suffering with a lot fatigue and the payback will last for days. The only household task I can do anymore is the dusting, which I have to do quite frequently due to my allergies, so this is what I do:

• Break the task down as much as possible: I couldn't dust the entire house in one day unless I want to make myself bed bound, so I dust downstairs (living room & kitchen) one week, and then another week dust upstairs (bedrooms & hallway).

• Take regular breaks with rewards: Reward systems for me are the best way to make sure I try my best to pace; I'll do a task for a certain amount of time and then sit down with a cup of tea. 'The Cup Of Tea Reward System' is great for me because having a hot drink forces me to sit down for a certain amount of time; the drink needs to cool down to a good drinking temperature and the time it takes to drink the tea is a good amount of time to make sure I have actually sat or laid down for a decent amount of time. I'm extremely inpatient so pacing and properly resting can feel incredibly frustrating. I'm not meant to have a lot of caffeine so using decaf teas is the best way forward as you can have as many tea breaks as possible without having a heart attack! Pukka teas have helped me immensely as they have a ton of flavours so I can have a tea whatever I'm craving and the herbs in them I'm sure will also do you some good!

• Plan out your weeks: I am a list person. I love making lists, and this has actually helped me incredibly to try and pace out my days when life is throwing you a lot to deal with. I will write two lists on Notes on my iPhone called: 'This Week' and 'Next Week' and I will list all the things that might be happening or need doing. This helps me because I have constant brain fog and I cannot visualise what's coming up, so seeing two weeks worth of things on 'paper' (or screen) really helps me remember important events or things I've got to get done. If there is a lot happening in the near future that I must remember and I need to figure out my pacing plans, I'll also write a list called 'The Week After' so I can see everything in front of me:

• Plan out your days: After making my week lists, I move onto writing a list for the days of the week. I will plan out a few days at a time and split the lists into: 'Morning', 'Afternoon' & 'Evening'. This is a really good idea as writing a long list of all the things that might need doing on a busy day can look very daunting, but splitting the list up makes everything look and feel much more manageable. It's very helpful to have days planned out as I can see it all in front of me and figure out things like 'I have a doctors appointment on Wednesday so I should rest Tuesday and Thursday but I could get another task done Monday or Friday depending on how I feel'. I work so much better when everything is laid out in front of me in small chunks so I can process everything; this might have something to do with being slightly dyslexic, but I think it's also the heavy amount of brain fog!

• Build personal routines and organise your priorities: Routines are a savour for making sure you're doing things that aren't too much for you. It's hard to give advice on personal routines because everyone with chronic illnesses have different abilities. A good example to give is that I have designed my skin care routine so even when I'm having a seriously bad day I could still most likely do my skin care routine morning and night regardless of whatever else I haven't been able to manage that day. And that's because I make it a priority. This may sound weird and maybe gross to some people, but if I am struggling so much before bed and I can't have a shower and do my skin care routine, I would pick my skin care routine over the shower. I'm sure anyone with a chronic illness reading this have all been there; we don't always get to do all the basic need tasks that a human being needs to do during the day so you have to pick between doing certain things. And unfortunately that's our reality, but perfecting and adapting routines and trying to simplify tasks as much as possible can help make sure we can do some bits we want and/or need.

• Be kind: Ah, the most cliche and most heard of advice when it comes to pacing and slowing down: "be kind to yourself!' or "you're doing your best!". While these sentences always mean well, sometimes when I feel so frustrated because even after planning my weeks and planning my day out, I didn't get a single task done because of my health. However, I can't express enough at actually how much of a difference learning to be kind to myself has made to me. Some times you can try to plan every minute of every day out but then something unexpected turns up last minute and throws everything off. Managing a chronic illness is a full time job and by realising that it puts into perspective that even healthy people with full time jobs don't get everything done on their to do list! If today was a write off, you get to resting and tomorrow will come and you can try again. I rarely get everything done on my daily list so I just rejiggle parts of my lists about, move it to the next day's list or put it on the 'Next Week' list. I really try to remember that my lists are just rough guidelines to the day, they're not set in stone.

• Recovery: So some times even after executing all my pacing techniques, having my herbal tea breaks, planning my week out, breaking down the tasks as much as possible, I still managed to overdo it somehow. It happens, bodies change all the time and now I am in a lot more pain and the payback is real. My favourite recovery tools are as follows: 

1. Heat pads, microwave heat packs and hot water bottle: Get those on your achy muscles and stiff joints and have a lay down,
2. Tea, tea and more tea: Self explanatory,
3. Lots of water: Again, self explanatory,
4. A good smelling candle: Unless you're feeling too overstimulated then maybe not,
5. Some mindless entertainment: Youtube, Netflix, an audiobook, some relaxing music.

So those are my tips, they're definitely nothing that you probably hadn't heard before, but they've been really working for me! The main thing I've learnt about pacing that it is always a work in progress because bodies change, abilities change, not every week will be the same so it's all a learning curve.

I hope everyone has a very happy new year! Let's enter 2018 with a bang (and some pacing so we can keep up!) XO