Pouty, that's a good question! I guess for me, leaning into the crash means listen to your body, which is being affected badly enough to crash, and don't try to "push" through it. In other words, if all you can do is lie down and rest, or all you can do is sit in a chair and stare at the wall, than that is what you should do. No heroics - don't overdo things, don't ignore your bodies fatigue or pain symptoms. That's what it means to me.

I agree. The crash will come on no matter what you do. The key is to listen to your body, so as not to make it worse than it need be. If your body quits on you, then that's what you must go with. Stop all actvity (or almost all) and just rest until you come out the other side again. And you will, so just wait. Don't make the crash deeper and longer with activity because you will pay dearly for it.

If I feel myself sinking, I go lie in the recliner for a while and try to unwind my tangled nerves. There's a lot to be said for naps, even if we do feel like we're coming out of a coma when we wake up. I don't recommend taking naps after sunset, they make it very hard to sleep that night.

But pushing through...no way. I only do that if the well pump went out and I have to fix it ASAP. Then it takes me days to recover.

I've been sick a really long time. One thing I've learned is that you have to develop a rhythm to your life...boom and bust is a rough way to live. We have to accept our boundaries and try to live within them, so we don't keep having huge crashes that send us to the ER.

It can be difficult to know when to push and when to coast. Keeping a journal will help, because there's a delayed reaction to stress that can be very confusing.

great advice already given by the others...........i always think of it as leaning in to a crash.........cause I used to be a skater. For a very very long time. And I hated to fall. Not thinking that anybody loves falling, but my Dad used to tell me that I needed to let my body relax, to lean in to the fall.................tension, holding your breath, fear of falling doesn't help................and I apply that now to crashing/flares.

I try to slow down, stop and then get quiet and still. Ease my way out of the tension I feel, practice breathing and gently tenderly figure out my next move.

Can I stop and take a nap if I need to? I used to work/push and crash so hard that I lost functionality for long periods of time. There is no exact science, sometimes the body needs to crash and we can't control the timing at all.............but we can treat ourselves as well as possible. I was really hard on myself for a long long time.

I had a lot of inner thinking that was negative. I would self bully, beat myself up..............it's not bad enough that you feel lousy, no ...huh uh,my inner voice would say loser, get up, get going ..........what are you useless? seriously i was MEAN to poor sick exhausted me. I didn't understand the meaning of rest. I really didn't..........I would push to do things my way.......my old way now.......I would push and berate myself all along the way..........and pay a terrible price for this stupid harsh self management technique. I didn't know what to do...........I was so scared all the time.............felt like I was walking on eggshells all the time.

And then one day I surrendered that whole premise. I changed my thinking and worked on leaning in..........being gentle and kind with myself, reclaimed my self respect and learned that we need to promise to treat ourselves really well, rest if VERY IMPORTANT and without leaning in...............I ended up in a very bad place......not to mention a very bad head space. My way landed me in a deep dark depression and it was hard to climb out and find the light again.

We need to be our own best friend.......advocate for ourselves and what we think, how we treat ourselves is very important. We need to treat ourselves with tact, with care, with respect.........we can't change the illness, but we can lean in to this life........treat ourselves well and protect the spirit. When we do that it really helps.........

I used to have some very lofty pushy expectations of my very sick self and it got me into a big bad mess.........it led to additional life threatening health problems.............and i had to stop, and reboot life one small step at a time. soft hugs, sorry i got carried away a bit..........soft hugs!

Hi Pouty! The KEY...as has been mentioned above is to "listen to your body". I can't say that enough. It's the lesson we 've all learned from having this illness.

It's as simple as waking up one day and feeling weak and dizzy. BUT, you wanted to get groceries! What to do? If your body is weak and dizzy....it's telling you to SIT. STAY. DON'T WORK. So then, you make a conscious decision NOT to go grocery shopping that day because you aren't feeling well. It's really just that simple.

When we talk about "don't push through it"....that means don't FORCE yourself to go grocery shopping anyway! Your body is not in the mood, doesn't have the energy and is telling you NO!!!

Enough of us have gone ahead and kept up with previously made plans on a "body says NO" day, and that's when you end up in bed for weeks.

A little bit each day. Stop, rest. A little more if you can. If you can't, then go lay down. On weeks where you are seemingly feeling pretty good, STILL take a day and do nothing. Let your body recharge itself, and it will last longer!!!

It's a difficult illness. This is pacing we're talking about here, and we all break the rule, and we all suffer for it. We should all take our own advice, but life is life, and we're missing out on so much already, we just say "What the heck" and go do stuff that our bodies can't handle. THEN we pay. Two weeks in bed isn't a fair swap for getting groceries.....but nothing about CFS is fair. Nothing, so we have to follow the rules and be kind to ourselves and listen to our bodies. Our energy cells are broken. They need a whole lot of time to recharge before we can dart out the door!!! Or even walk to the mailbox......