Staying Active with Pain: Activity Pacing

How pain impacts physical activity

Cancer pain can make it difficult to be as active as you want to be. With pain people naturally spend more time resting. Sometimes people save most of their physical activity only for “good days.” Afterwards they pay the price with a pain flare that leaves them needing to rest and recover for days and feeling sad and helpless. As a person rests for a long time, their muscles become weak, it becomes harder to be active, and pain worsens.

This experience is very discouraging, and it is very common. Psychologists call this the pain cycle. The good news is that there are tools you can learn to take control and break the pain cycle.

Activity pacing:

A tool that has been proven to break the pain cycle and help get you back to activities that are important in your life.

In a nutshell, this tool focuses on doing realistic physical activities for short periods of time, taking scheduled rest breaks, and slowly increasing your activity level up over weeks to months. Taking pain medicines before the activity can be very helpful. Over time this technique can help you build up your strength, endurance, and help you do more of the activities that matter to you. Many people also notice their pain feeling better, and feeling happier doing the things that they love.

The Pain Cycle

Breaking the Pain Cycle

All or Nothing Thinking

Am I too extreme in my thinking? Are there other ways of looking at it?
Should Statements

Is this a rule that applies to everyone else? If not, maybe this is a preference rather than a rule.
Extreme Negative Thinking

Am I 100% sure of these awful consequences? Am I jumping to conclusions too quickly? Do I know for certain that this will happen? What other possible outcomes are there? What is the most realistic outcome? What is the likelihood that _______ will happen? What is the worst that could happen? How bad is that and could I cope with that?
Overgeneralization

Does ___ have to equal or lead to________ ? Have I ever had situations in my life when___ did not lead to____? Am I being too extreme in my thinking? Am I jumping to conclusions too quickly?
Jumping to Conclusions

Do I know for certain what the other person is thinking? Do I have telepathic powers? Even if s/he were to think this about me, does __________ 's opinion reflect everyone else's?
Emotional Reasoning

Is my emotional experience necessarily reflective of the situation? Am I reading too much into my emotions? What do I know to be true? Has my emotional interpretation ever led me to the wrong conclusion? Could my emotions or how my body feels be coloring my appraisal of the situation? Will I come up with the same conclusion if I wait 30 minutes?
Forgetting the Positive

Am I being too critical of myself? Am I being fair to myself? Would I believe this person if s/he were to tell me something bad?
Mental Filter

Am I being partial to what I pay attention to? Am I disqualifying the positive? Am I looking at the whole picture? Am I focusing on a negative detail? Would I be this tough on a friend?
Fortune-telling

Do I know for certain that this will happen? Do I have a crystal ball? Could there be any other explanation? Do I have special powers to look into the future? Have I ever been wrong? How accurate have I been when I have foretold the future?
Magnification/Minimization

Am I being too hard on myself? Would I be this tough on my friend? Am I being fair to myself?
Labeling/Mislabeling

What is the definition of ________? Am I being fair to myself by labeling myself? How useful is it to be labeling myself? Is this the only thing that defines me? What more is there about me?
Personalization

Am I reading too much into this? Am I really that powerful? Are there any other reasons unrelated to me why things turned out this way? Could something else be going on?

All or Nothing Thinking

Am I too extreme in my thinking? Are there other ways of looking at it?
Should Statements

Is this a rule that applies to everyone else? If not, maybe this is a preference rather than a rule.
Extreme Negative Thinking

Am I 100% sure of these awful consequences? Am I jumping to conclusions too quickly? Do I know for certain that this will happen? What other possible outcomes are there? What is the most realistic outcome? What is the likelihood that _______ will happen? What is the worst that could happen? How bad is that and could I cope with that?
Overgeneralization

Does ___ have to equal or lead to________ ? Have I ever had situations in my life when___ did not lead to____? Am I being too extreme in my thinking? Am I jumping to conclusions too quickly?
Jumping to Conclusions

Do I know for certain what the other person is thinking? Do I have telepathic powers? Even if s/he were to think this about me, does __________ 's opinion reflect everyone else's?
Emotional Reasoning

Is my emotional experience necessarily reflective of the situation? Am I reading too much into my emotions? What do I know to be true? Has my emotional interpretation ever led me to the wrong conclusion? Could my emotions or how my body feels be coloring my appraisal of the situation? Will I come up with the same conclusion if I wait 30 minutes?
Forgetting the Positive

Am I being too critical of myself? Am I being fair to myself? Would I believe this person if s/he were to tell me something bad?
Mental Filter

Am I being partial to what I pay attention to? Am I disqualifying the positive? Am I looking at the whole picture? Am I focusing on a negative detail? Would I be this tough on a friend?
Fortune-telling

Do I know for certain that this will happen? Do I have a crystal ball? Could there be any other explanation? Do I have special powers to look into the future? Have I ever been wrong? How accurate have I been when I have foretold the future?
Magnification/Minimization

Am I being too hard on myself? Would I be this tough on my friend? Am I being fair to myself?
Labeling/Mislabeling

What is the definition of ________? Am I being fair to myself by labeling myself? How useful is it to be labeling myself? Is this the only thing that defines me? What more is there about me?
Personalization

Am I reading too much into this? Am I really that powerful? Are there any other reasons unrelated to me why things turned out this way? Could something else be going on?