The Value of Pacing

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, "I'll try again tomorrow".   

 - Mary Anne Rademacher

“Day is over, night has come. Today is gone, what’s done is done. Embrace your dreams, through the night. Tomorrow comes with a whole new light.” 

- George Orwell

Cognitive challenges, like M.S. Fog, require strategies to deal with the daily difficulties caused by this condition.

 Realize the value of pacing—carefully sensing and managing your energy levels to avoid crashes.

The desperation to return to normal can be dangerous, especially when combined with cultural norms around pressing on through challenges and post-exertional malaise—severe crashes in which all symptoms worsen after even minor physical or mental exertion.  People try to push themselves back to work and instead “push themselves into a crash”.     

Because mental exertion is physical exertion, carefully ration mental exercise like reading or  brain-training games.

 If you feel low from lack of sleep, stress or being overactive, force yourself to rest—cognitively as well as physically.