What’s your Playbook?

I recently had a Post Exertional Malaise (PEM) crash after a stressful, adrenaline filled event at work. Then everyone got sick with a virus and this is tipping me over the edge. I have tried to rest a little bit, and then I visited my Naturapath. She asked me what strategies had I adapted from the resource I had provided her. You see, I sent her this great document the month before, but I had forgotten about it. It was devised by Stanford University, called the PEM Crash Avoidance Toolkit (the link is in the Resources page).

I am going to give it a go, it requires a month’s worth of Activity and Symptom Tracking, so that’s going to be fun. I’m pretty stubborn and think I know what they are, but with this condition, you need to be humble and give the benefit of the doubt. I’m excited to see what happens?

From this, I hope devise a Playbook. A ‘Playbook’ comes from an American term referring to strategies used in a football game. Well M.E. is my game, so I need to develop a formal one (damn, another notebook needed from Liberty in the UK!). I have up to now been using the concept of Rhythms & Rituals Brooke McAlary talks about in her podcast Slow Home. For me a Rhythm is my normal activity – taking my supplements at prescribed time, and a Ritual is something a little bit more special that feeds the soul – like having dinner at the dinner table with the family or having a family adventure.

The central part to my Rhythms is my weekly calendar (you can get them from Kikki K). Every Sunday I fill it out using our yearly and digital calendars. I have also developed a weekly template for each of my children [they are 8 & 10] so they can start to learn what they need to do, with the intention that they prepare for the next day’s activities each night. Each day I also write out a list of where I need to be, what I need to bring and what other tasks are required. A valuable tool, as my memory is poor. I simply forget about things as illustrated above!

But what I don’t have is an action plan AKA my Playbook for when my symptoms start to worsening, or on the flip side, for when I feel healthy (time to work on my core & etc). I imagine at this stage, it will include the following:

• Notify my naturopath
• Change my supplement regime
• Amend activities – cancel events that can be cancelled
• Amend my diet

So stay tuned and look out for the Playbook Series.

Love & Blessings

Em