Five Ways to Expand Your Energy Envelope

By Bruce Campbell

Living within strict limits can be frustrating. A person in one of our groups said she felt like a bird flapping frantically against the bars of a cage. The frustration of living within limits can lead to repeated cycles of push and crash. We believe that pacing offers an alternative, a way to reduce symptoms and expand limits gradually. But we also believe that there are things you can do that will produce more immediate results. This article describes five ways you can expand your activity level without increasing symptoms.

Resting

How we rest can affect the energy available to us. Taking a short rest break to re-charge batteries can expand the number of productive hours in the day. Also, we may be able to avoid a long period of “downtime” by taking a brief rest as soon as an intensification of symptoms begins.

A dramatic example of the value of taking frequent short rests was provided by one of our students. At the beginning of the course, she was resting six hours during the day, taking two naps of three hours each. She decided to break up her day into one- and two-hour blocks, taking a 10 to 15 minute rest during each block. Using this strategy, she reduced her total rest time by an hour and a half a day after two months. Four months later she was resting three hours a day, half as much as before the course. By taking frequent short rests, she added three hours of productive time to her day. Her flexible approach enabled her to expand her activity envelope.

While I was recovering from CFIDS, I applied the concept of planned rests to expand my envelope for travel. I found that if I stopped for a ten to fifteen rest for every two hours of driving, I arrived fresher at my destination and had a lower symptom level throughout my trip.

Relaxing

How we react to events can affect the amount of energy available to us. If we can respond in a relaxed manner to stressful situations, we can preserve energy that might otherwise be dissipated in tension and anxiety.

A student in one of our classes gave a good example. At a birthday party one year, she took on the role of the good hostess, moving about and worrying whether everyone was having a good time. She found herself tired and cranky after an hour. At a similar party a year later, she decided to imagine herself as a queen who was observing the situation from a throne. Freed from the self-imposed expectation that she should make sure everyone enjoyed themselves, she found herself with good energy for more than two hours. By relaxing, she reduced her worry and extended her envelope.

Her experience illustrates the idea that mental and emotional activity use energy, not just physical activity. If you feel frustrated about little energy you have, your frustration will use up some of your energy. So if you can reduce your frustration, you will save some energy for other uses. Stress and any experience that triggers the release of adrenalin are big energy users. Whatever you can do to lessen stress will also preserve your supply of energy for productive uses.

Using Routine 

Novelty is another source of stress. It takes more energy to respond to a new situation than it does to something familiar. Given our limited energy, saving it for recovery is desirable. One way to do that is through making your life predictable. Some patients have done that through routine: living their lives according to a schedule. They plan their activity and rest, giving themselves a sense of control. Using that strategy, they have been able to reduce the surprises and emotional shocks in their lives, and thereby reduce their stress. By knowing what to expect, they have reduced pressures on themselves. Any steps in the direction of giving predictability to life is likely to lower stress. 

Minding Time of Day

How much you can get done may depend on when you do it. Most patients have better and worse times of day. A student in our program gave a good example of how minding time of day could have dramatic effects. This person was bothered by the effects of brain fog on her ability to read and retain information. She was concerned because she was able to read for only a half hour a day, and had trouble remembering what she read. She worried that she would not be able to keep her professional credential, which required that she complete successfully a continuing education course each year.

She decided to experiment with the time at which she studied. Since she had been reading in the morning, she tried studying in the afternoon. She found that if she studied after lunch she could read for two 45 minute sessions with a short break in the middle, and retain the information afterward. By switching her study from morning to afternoon, she more than doubled her envelope for reading.

Using Devices

You may be able to get more done, avoid symptoms or both by using devices to help you. A good example came from a student who tried using a motorized cart in the grocery store. She had resisted doing so for several years because she thought she would be embarrassed and because using a cart would be an acknowledgment that she was severely limited. But she was motivated to use the cart by her experience of having to lie down for several hours after her weekly grocery shopping. When she tried the cart, she found that she didn’t have to rest for the remainder of the afternoon. Using the cart gave her several more hours of productive time on shopping days.

The same principle applies around the house. For those who have limited tolerance for standing, using a stool in the shower or in the kitchen when preparing meals can avoid symptoms.

Summary

If you take a flexible approach to living with long-term illness, making efforts to see your situation in new ways and trying new techniques, you can often find strategies that will increase your productivity while helping you control symptoms.

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