As you start to feel better, it is easy to fill your time with all the things to do, and sometimes face a little backslide in your recovery path. It's a good reminder to keep doing the little things that worked to get you there in the first place. (written 06/23/2024)

As many people experiencing Long COVID and other complex conditions know, symptoms can fluctuate. Some days are better than others. Sometimes you know when you have done an activity that may result in tougher days afterward, other times, it can be hard to tell which days will be good or bad.  

The fact is, the recovery trajectory is not always a straight line. There are twists and turns. This is the same for any improvement path - mental or physical. When you are learning a new topic or skill, you may have a steep learning curve at the start, then knowledge acquisition levels off, and then may spike up again. When you are training for physical activity, you may have an up and down pattern, but the important thing is that your foundation and baseline is improving over time - and ideally that you are able to bounce back and recover more quickly too. 

As we work with people, they often report a backslide after a series of gains. This can be frustrating, especially when it comes after a steady stream of improvement. Just remember, this pattern is natural. As you feel better, you can take on more and more activity and other pressures in your life. This, after all, is the goal. Life gets busier as you take on more, and honestly, it feels great to be able to be busy again. The challenge and opportunity is to continue to find your right pacing point. This will (hopefully) change and develop over time as your ability grows. However, even people who aren’t managing conditions like Long COVID (i.e. professional athletes) have to pull back, prioritize, and pace to be at their best.  

I just had a week where I had to remember this too. It is wonderful to feel “normal” again most of the time and have found a system that helps me feel well. As the school year winds down and summer starts to gear up, the rhythm of the week that I had gotten used to has shifted. There seems to be more going on; things have felt busy at work and home, and the normal patterns of my day have altered as a result. It is all exciting stuff, but has led to lots of juggling. Rather than taking time to make sure I was doing the simple actions that help me stay feeling healthy, those routines got disrupted. One client we connected with this week was going through something similar, and it offered a great reminder that in the midst of feeling better, it is still important to keep doing the simple things that helped you there in the first place - and to do them regularly.  

I will leave the newsletter here this week because there is a lot going on and I’m signing off to go follow my own advice :-) 

Warmly,  
Katie

PS. As you use the tools that help you feel better, life gets busier again. That’s when it is important that tools are simple, don’t take much time, and are part of your routine — because continuously using them will keep you on the right trajectory.