Episode 15 – How to Manage Crashes, Flares and Set Backs

Shownotes However frustrating they may be, crashes, flares and setbacks are part of the fatigue recovery process. In this episode Anna explains what is happening in the body during a crash or flare and how you can support your body the move through them as quickly as possible. Useful links: Website: https://annamarsh.co.uk/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna_marsh_nutrition/ Fatigue Recovery Quiz: https://app.annamarsh.co.uk/quiz How to Manage Crashes, Flares and Set Backs Welcome back to the chronic fatigue and burnout recovery podcast. I am your host Anna Marsh, and today we’re going to talk about a very popular topic: how to manage crashes and flares. So if you are somebody who is recovering from chronic fatigue syndrome, long COVID, if you’ve got pods, fibromyalgia, burnout or some other complex, chronic condition, which affects your energy and perhaps leads to energy crashes from time to time, I’m sure you will know the absolute frustration or hopelessness, anger, and everything else in between comes hand in hand with a setback, a crash or a flare.  I’d like to pre-frame this episode by saying that crashes, flares, and setbacks are an inevitable part of the process. We would love for progress to be linear, but you and I both know that that is seldom the case, maybe never really ever the case in any aspect of life. Whatever goal you’re looking to achieve, whether that is healing and recovering your health, or maybe achieving something in your business or achieving something on a personal level, there are always going to be ups and downs, and those ups and downs are part of the journey.  They are necessary but don’t always feel good steps, which help us learn what we need to learn so that we can eventually realise our goal, whatever that goal is. Although crashes, players and setbacks are frustrating, the attitude I’d love for you to come away from this episode with is that they are your greatest teachers, they will bring to you the best lessons and these lessons will shape you and help you to become the person you need to be to achieve your goals. One of my favourite sayings is, “Achieve something you’ve never achieved before.  You must become someone you’ve never been.” This implies that there is an identity shift, and I would also probably say that not only is there an identity shift, but there is a shift on the systemic level of your nervous system. Your entire nervous system must shift so you can be the person you need to be to realise your goal.  Through the lessons we learn from our crashes off layers and setbacks, we can start to become aware of our blind spots and learn our edges, which is too much for the body at this stage. And if we embrace these lessons or the learning opportunities offered, we can take the actions required to reshape our thinking, the nervous system, and how we approach and practice self-care and healing. If you’re in a crash right now, and you’re listening to this, and you’re feeling all of the emotions, I k...