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Feature Article:
Active Rest helps - Chronic Fatigue
Part 2
 If you are tired all the time you may have already
heard the term "active rest". Studies show that prolonged periods
in bed for Chronic Fatigue sufferers are not beneficial. My
experience and research as a Homeopath has led me to make certain
recommendations to patients that seem to give good results. This
article will focus on what active steps you can take, if you have
been diagnosed with Chronic fatigue. If you want to know how
important your Adrenals are in this illness read Part 1 here. Part 3 will focus on
Nutrition.
But I'm
too tired to exercise!
As a previous sufferer of Chronic
fatigue myself, I know really well how impossible it feels when
people advise you to exercise. It's hard enough to walk to the post
box let alone do something more physical. First of all you need to
change your mindset. Your body at the moment is very very fatigued.
This is because there are some major functional disturbances going
on and some of your endocrine glands such as your adrenals are
struggling big time. However, studies show that graded
exercise programs really do help sufferers and within 4 weeks. If
it's really going to help you, then it's definitely going to be
worth it right?
The Secret of
Routine
One of the major tricks to helping yourself is to have a very
structured routine. This means you eat the right foods (more of
that in Part 3) at the same time everyday, you exercise and you
actively rest at certain times. This way your body gets used to
backing you up when you need it when you are exerting yourself and
then regenerating itself when you are taking an active rest.
What is Active
Rest?
Active rest is the term I use to refer to planned and
regenerative rest periods. It is very different in its effect to
sitting down because you cannot go on physically holding yourself
up. It's a different way of approaching fatigue and it is based on
the premise that you know you are going to get more tired ,so you
STOP and rest before you reach the point when you physically cannot
cope any longer. When chronic fatigue is very severe the patient
feels tired ALL the time, but even with this severity there are
still ups and down during the day in the levels of tiredness. Take
advantage of these ups and downs and plan your rest periods to
pre-empt the worst periods. Active rest is both a planned and
scheduled rest or sleep, but also it can be a rest involving
meditation. For very severe sufferers who are so incapacitated that
they cannot work or go to school, I recommend the following:
- Wake between 7-8am
- Breakfast within 30 minutes of waking
- Mid morning protein based snack followed by 30 -45 minutes
active rest.
- Lunch at midday
- Horizontal sleep or meditation for 1 hour after lunch
- Mid afternoon protein based snack
- Dinner between 6-7pm
- Bedtime 10-10.30pm but in bed reading/resting 30 mins
before
When you have activities that prohibit this routine try and
schedule your time before the activity to include an extra
rest.
The Benefits of
Meditation
I have written before about the amazing health benefits of
meditation on my blog. This is THE MOST IMPORTANT addition you can
make to your life if you want to recover well from Chronic Fatigue.
I suggest you buy a guided meditation CD or go to classes or better
still check out these websites that have lots of free meditations
that you can download onto your Ipod or MP3 player. Here is one of
my favourites: So what Exercise can you
do?
Pilates, Yoga and walking are great forms of beneficial
exercise for Chronic fatigue sufferers because they can involve the
mind and the body and you can start small. It is helpful to work
out a 15 ,20 and 30 minute yoga workout with a teacher so you can
start slowly and over 4 weeks build up to a group lesson with
everyone else. The five Tibetan Rites are an excellent
idea for sufferers.Your gentle exercise needs to be done DAILY by
week 4, no exceptions except you can take one day off. In week one
of the program try and exercise every other day, week two 4-5 times
a week and week three almost daily if you can. This will bring you
to week 4 where you are doing a small, gentle amount of exercise 6
out of 7 days.
Remember!
Your exercise doesn't have to be fast, furious and aerobic.
Choose something that gives you peace and focus on that. Everytime
you move your body you will be encouraging your bodily systems to
come back into line to take you towards health and healing.
Next this Chronic Fatigue series part 3 I will write about the
nutritional contribution you can make to getting yourself well from
Chronic Fatigue.
Happy
Homeopathic Prescribing!
If you want regular homeopathic inspiration from The
Homeopathic Coach, visit her new blog
and join as a member to be the first in line for new tips
and offers as they are released!
© Sam Adkins 2010
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This article was brought to you by Sam Adkins The Homeopathic
Coach who teaches families about healthy living and natural
remedies using homeopathic medicine. An internationally renowned
expert, her helpful articles are regularly syndicated online. She
publishes the ezine Homeopathy@Home to provide free Homeopathic
tips, tools and resources to educate and inspire you to use
Homeopathy at home. www.thehomeopathiccoach.com
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Friday 30th July
Series on Grief. It's in the edit stage but I will
share it with you as soon as it's ready.
