All you need to know for improved energy management
Energy management is my Achilles heel. The unstoppable force of my will vs. the immovable object of my limits feels like a vortex I’ll never escape. I habitually overexert, run down my fuel, then my body has no reserves left to divert to anything else.
Some of the exhaustion is out of my control — fatigue from chronic illness & treatments for it — and some of it is due to my lack of self-control around movement, dumping most of my reserves into one activity (aka exercise addiction).
This healing dance becomes a reinforcing cycle because once you’re ill, you’re functioning with only a tiny fraction of the energy healthy people have at their disposal. And it’s challenging to ration that energy effectively because it’s so scant. The less energy you have to allocate, the easier it is to push yourself too hard and cause harm. Each slip leads to lost hope and usually faulty coping mechanisms, like overexercising or completely giving up and abandoning treatments for a spell.
Trying to live as large of a life as possible within these limits becomes an art form, and recovering becomes a process done in inches.
This is a frequent topic of discussion in my health support groups, a common issue amongst the chronically ill: how to manage the very minimal energy we have.
