A significant part of the work that I do with people to help them change their energy levels, is “unpicking”. Together, we unpick what's going on for them that is keeping their chronic fatigue in place.
Did you know that there are some common themes to chronic fatigue? Unpicking these themes helps you to understand what's going on, what’s driving your fatigue.
Why You?
The common themes tend to be around why you, YOU in particular, have developed chronic fatigue, when perhaps no one else in your family has done so.
These 5 themes have been identified through work done by an organisation called The Chrysalis Effect. Pretty much everybody who has a chronic fatigue condition such as ME, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome CFS, Fibromyalgia, or Post Viral Fatigue, exhibits these 5 themes to a greater or lesser degree.
The 5 Common Themes to Unpick Chronic Fatigue
The first one is an A Type personality. A Types are very conscientious, hardworking, with a strong streak of perfectionism, and a need to make sure everyone else is ok. These are all positive traits, until they aren’t. When people feel like their own needs are not being met because of the demands of everyone, and everything, else, then exhaustion quickly follows.
The second theme is that people who develop chronic fatigue are usually highly sensitive people, who experience the world around them deeply. They’ve often been told to “toughen up” or “stop being so soft” because of their sensitivity. This sensitivity to foods, emotions, chemicals, people, places, is overwhelming and takes a lot of energy simply just to navigate through daily life.
The third one is that events, incidents, accidents, occurrences, that happened earlier on in life contribute to the way that we behave now. It’s often not the big, scary stuff like abuse, although such experiences would certainly contribute. It’s more likely to be the lower level everyday stuff such as repeated comments from siblings, teachers, or parents, moments of humiliation or frightening confusion, that leave an exposed raw edge that you can still feel years later. The emotional pain that is stuck in time takes up little packets of energy that could be used elsewhere, if released.
The fourth theme is feeling like ‘a fish out of water’, that sense of not fitting in with the people around you: within the family, at school or college, feeling on the edge of social groups, or in the workplace. The effort it costs to try to fit in, to be accepted is enormous, and draining!
And fifth and final theme is that most people with chronic fatigue condition tend to be people who ‘live in their head'. They often describe having a busy head, with lots of things going on in it. This can be things like ruminating over what has happened, what should have been said, what could have been done, how the situation could have been changed differently. Thoughts require energy to exist so if your busy head leaves you feeling like you’ve run a marathon, you probably have done!
Unpicking what's going on for you in each of these 5 themes enables you to understand what's happening and what's driving your chronic fatigue.
And when you have this awareness, you can begin to change your energy levels.
This is so powerful, and it really works.
Want To Find Out More?
If you’ve found yourself mentally ticking off the 5 common themes, then perhaps you’d like to discover how you can change your energy levels, one small step at a time.
Why not book a short 15 minute Discovery call with me to find out how I can help you to unpick the pockets of energy that drain you so that you can then do the stuff you love.
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