Thinking about Increasing Activity - For Children and Young People
- Step 1 - Plan it together: As a team, you and your healthcare professional can think about how you feel and what you enjoy doing.
- Step 2 - Pacing your activities: Pacing means breaking up your activities into smaller, manageable chunks. This helps you to do the things you enjoy without making your symptoms worse. This way, you can do the fun stuff, while also helping your body rest and recover.
- Step 3 - Avoiding the Boom/Bust cycle: Do you remember the Boom/Bust cycle? Check out our page on Fatigue. Pacing and rest will help you avoid this so that you can do something you enjoy each day… even if it’s a small chunk!
- Step 4 - Increasing activity in small steps: Increasing the activities you do in small steps is important. When it is time to start doing more, it is important to do it slowly and carefully. You and your healthcare professional will increase your activities in small steps, to try and avoid your body feeling extra tired or sore.
- Step 5 - Have a flexible plan: The plan you and your healthcare professional make together is your plan, so it can be changed whenever you need it to be. It might change depending on how you are feeling on each day, or it might change over a period of a few weeks or months. It is your plan, and should include things that make you happy and are interesting to you!
- Step 6 - It’s ok to have ‘blips’: Often, recovery doesn’t happen in a straight line. You might have days when you feel more unwell, or your symptoms feel worse; we might call this a ‘blip’. Blips are totally normal and part of getting better. If you are having a blip, we can change your plan for a while, and try again with building up activity when you feel ready. Remember, getting better is rarely smooth sailing. It is important to be kind to yourself and know that it is OK to have ups and downs. If you’re finding that you feel sad, worried, or angry when you’re in a blip, this is a very normal reaction. You might find it helpful to have a look at our page on Coping with Difficult Thoughts and Feelings.