For the person with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, there just aren't enough hours in the day.
Not, sadly, because we are so darned busy. Rather, it is because we need so much down time between exertions. Even if that exertion is just walking down the hall, making lunch, throwing in a load of wash -- or fill in the blank with one of your own challenges.
For a long time I could only fit one "extra" activity into my day. It might be a phone call to my mom, a trip to the library or buying groceries. Add that to the usual, which for many years was only making meals and doing laundry.
Of course there were many days when the very idea of doing something "extra" was up there with the man in the moon. Those days, I'd be lucky to accomplish my basics. And then there were the days when I couldn't do anything at all. Those days, my husband Alan would immediately take up my slack. Making the decisions, shopping, dishes, whatever was needed, he did it. And I would be in bed. Again.
But, back to activity and the need for white space. I discovered that if I broke up my day into little pieces, I had a chance of getting somewhere. I might put away laundry for five minutes, then sit or lie down for 20 minutes. Rest periods were essential. I was like an old cell phone whose battery works OK for awhile but doesn't hold a charge for long. Solution -- get a new battery. (I wish.) Or charge it more often.
I still do this recharging bit. I don't have to do it as frequently as I used to. But I also know that even though I can do more than I used to, with greater ease, if I overdo it and keep going too long the same old vibrating fog is there waiting to embrace and engulf me. Solution -- don't be stubborn. Have a sit. Take a nap. Read a book. Let the world go by for awhile, and be able to rejoin it later.
I spent 15 years losing the battle against CFS. Two years ago, I found treatment that worked for me, and now I am making a comeback.
http://www.ncubator.ca
http://ncubator.ca/blogger