Each person’s reaction to a cardiac event is unique. Some people report an initial sense of relief at receiving help and increased appreciation of life. At the same time, it is quite normal to experience early feelings of fear, frustration or irritability.
Most people will go through a number of different reactions and gradually feel more positive over time.
While adjusting, people often do too much or too little resulting in them feeling wiped out, sore, fedup and lacking in motivation. This can often be avoided by pacing activities. However pacing activities does not come naturally to everyone and some people can find having to make these adjustments in their life somewhat frustrating and can also lead to them feeling fedup and demotivated. The trick is getting the balance right.
Pacing activities is about gradually pacing yourself up to your optimal level of functioning after a cardiac event or new diagnosis. This pacing activities handout illustrates some of the unhelpful habits and thoughts which can get in the way. It also gives tips for overcoming the urge to do too much or too little.
Sometimes long term thinking habits can be unhelpful and get in the way of good pacing. This is especially the case when we are very driven by ‘shoulds’, ‘ musts’ and ‘have tos’ or when we have a habit of comparing ourselves negatively to others or two what we used to be like before the cardiac change or event. this is noted in the pacing handout, but you might want to have a look at other potentially unhelpful thinking habits in this handout.Unhelpful Thinking Habits
For some people, pacing can be hard because they always put other peoples needs before their own. If this is the case for you then you might be interested in this information on self compassion. Self Compassion
