This was really helpful. I've had to tell myself that I am responding to symptoms as best I can rather than having the perfect response. That was a breakthrough for me.
Thanks, Lucy, for another really helpful video! I wonder what your view is on consistency of day-to-day activity. I just watched your video about pacing and mindbody as well, and I get the impression from both these videos that it's less about how consistent we are with a structured day-to-day activity and more about how safe we feel at any given point with doing an activity. I personally don't have activities that I do daily or increase consistently in the pacing sense. I have days where I am active outside of the house for a few hours, and then days where I'm at home doing less. I try as much as I can to be active only when I feel safe and grounded to a larger extent. And I focus on dealing with sensations when they appear and with fears. I have noticed a general increase of activity over time, but feel insecure about not being day-to-day consistent.. I'd appreciate to hear your view on this 😊
For some people, like me, increasing activity is easy - too easy. I’ve noticed as I recover and gain energy that I naturally increase my activity because I feel good. The thing I have to keep in mind is to increase this activity slowly, because this has Made me crash in the past by doing too much too soon. In my opinion the fact that you are doing activity every day is good and consistent in itself. I found that the body wants and needs to move and if you’re showing up for that then recovery slowly occurs.
@@miezeken Thanks for your reply! My concern is exactly that - doing too much too soon.. How are you going about it this time around, when you say that you have to keep in mind to increase activity slowly?
If you’re out of a crash, my suggestion is to follow any activity with rest. So you’re always regularly resting. You can play with time limits for activity - say 15m to start, and then give yourself a 45m rest. This is nice and cautious. But the numbers really depend on you. The other hot tip is do to everything 30% slower when doing activities. Nice and slow, no rushing, slow patient steps. It’s really relaxing when you get used to it.
I think being flexible can be a really nice way of introducing activity rather than rigidly sticking to a plan no matter what. It sounds like you are taking into consideration how safe you feel - which is so important. I think the way you are going about it is good, you don't have to be active every day. The main thing is that you are gradually increasing - and doing that at a pace that is right for you is what will be most sustainable. Sometimes we can have conflicting parts - ones that want to increase activity more quickly and others more slowly.
@@mindbodyintegrate Yes, Lucy, you summed up exactly the issue in the last sentence - having conflicting parts. I have parts that are super motivated to increase activity, enjoy it and look forward to it with joy, and other parts that feel I need to take things more slowly, more measured, or have other fears.. From your experience, is doing IFS work with those parts (especially the ones "pressing on the breaks") the most helpful way to handle this?
