Sometimes spring is not asking us to go faster. Sometimes it is simply inviting us to re-enter life with a little more wisdom.
Seasonal shifts, steadier rhythms, and doing things in a way that costs your body less
Spring can be a complicated season when you live with fibromyalgia. The light changes, the days get longer, and with that often comes a natural urge to move again, take on more, clear things out, and return to all the things that felt too heavy during winter.
That can feel wonderful. It can also be misleading.
Why Spring Can Be So Misleading
Spring can make you feel ready before your body actually is. You may feel lighter, more hopeful, more awake, and naturally want to use that energy well. You want to catch up, enjoy life, and be productive again.
The difficulty is that a body with fibromyalgia does not always follow that optimism. You can feel emotionally better while your nervous system still needs the same steadiness, care, and respect for limits as before. A better mood does not automatically mean a much bigger energy budget.
That is why I think pacing needs an update.
What Changed My Understanding of Pacing
Over the past 12 months, I have started to understand pacing in a more nuanced way. Before that, it often sounded limited to me: do less, cancel more, rest more, reduce activity, and try not to make things worse.
Of course, there is truth in that. Rest matters. Recovery matters. Knowing your limits matters too. But that is not the whole story.
Pacing is not only about doing less. It is also about doing things in a way that costs your body less.
That shift mattered to me because it made pacing feel less like restriction and more like skill. Less like shrinking life, and more like learning how to move through life in a way that is actually sustainable.
That is what I mean by Pacing 2.0.
The Hidden Energy Cost of How We Work
Many people with fibromyalgia underestimate how much energy is spent not only on the task itself, but on the way the task is done. The body does not only react to what we do. It also reacts to speed, tension, sensory load, time pressure, and inner urgency.
Rushing costs energy. Switching between too many things costs energy. Working in visual clutter costs energy. Starting too late costs energy. Trying to squeeze one more thing in costs energy.
What drains you while you are doing something matters just as much as what gets done in the end.
The same task can land very differently in the body depending on how it is done. From the outside, the task may look identical. Inside the body, it is not.
That is why I no longer see pacing as only a question of quantity. It is also a question of dosage.
What Pacing 2.0 Looks Like in My Everyday Life
For me, Pacing 2.0 shows up in very ordinary moments.
When I work, I often make a pot of tea and light a candle. It sounds small, but it changes the atmosphere immediately. I settle more easily, work more quietly, and I am less likely to slip into that driven mode where everything starts to feel urgent.
I also need an absolutely tidy workspace. Only the topic I am currently working on should be on the table. Everything else goes away. This is not perfectionism for its own sake. It is energy management. Visual clutter creates mental clutter for me, and mental clutter increases nervous-system load.
Another example is lunch. In Switzerland, it is quite normal for children to come home for lunch, and my son does too. That means lunch has to be on the table at 12:15 p.m. In the past, I often started cooking at 11:45 a.m. I usually managed, but I did it in a rushed way, with that familiar pressure building in the background. Now I usually start at 11:30 a.m. Sometimes I even have Netflix on while I cook.
Not because I am trying to escape life, but because the earlier start and calmer rhythm make the whole thing much less stressful for my system.
I arrive at 12:15 p.m. very differently: less tense, less hurried, and with less energy spent on exactly the same task.
And when I do not manage that and start too late, my Garmin watch is often embarrassingly honest. It gives me one of those stress warnings and tells me that my Body Battery has dropped. Slightly annoying, very useful — because it confirms something I have had to learn again and again: the body registers rushing clearly, even when the mind still wants to pretend everything is manageable.
And simply being honest: it does not work perfectly for me either. With my additional diagnosis of ADHD and my perfectionism, I still fall back into old patterns again and again. When I want to carry everything at once, when my brain starts doing ping-pong, I need to stop and structure a day plan for myself — including breaks and my beloved little check marks to tick off.
Honestly, that is usually not the exception for me, but the rule. That is not failure. That is support. Pacing is not intuitive for me. I need to make it visible.
The Green, Yellow, Red Plan
One of the most helpful tools I know for this is the green, yellow, red plan.
It reminds me a lot of the signals Tami teaches with her Flare Survival Plan (you can access a free copy here, or listen to Episode 78 of the Fibromyalgia Podcast® to learn more) — I am simply applying the same idea here to work and everyday life.
In the green zone, things are relatively manageable. You may not be symptom-free, but your system is more stable. You still have some room to think, choose, and move through what you are doing without paying a major price right away.
The yellow zone is the warning zone. Something begins to shift. You may become foggier, more tense, more irritable, more hurried, or less spacious inside. Maybe your body feels heavier. Maybe your concentration drops. Maybe you notice yourself pushing a bit harder.
Then there is red. Red is when the body is no longer negotiating. The flare, crash, payback, or shutdown is already happening or very close.
Many of us are not especially bad at recognizing red eventually. The harder part is that we are often still very functional in yellow. We can still work in yellow, sound competent in yellow, and finish the thing in yellow. That is exactly why it is such a dangerous zone.
Being able to do something does not automatically mean it is affordable for your body.
The real skill in pacing is not waiting for red. It is noticing yellow early enough that red becomes less likely.
My Stop Signal Before the Point of No Return
That is where the stop signal matters.
Not the signal after the crash. The one before the point of no return.
For some people, that signal might be rising pain, shakiness, brain fog, dizziness, or irritability. For others, it might be clumsiness, feeling suddenly wired, or losing words.
For me, one of the clearest signs is that I lose a sense of inner spaciousness. I become narrower, more forceful, and less patient. I start moving faster, but with less ease.
From the outside I may still look completely functional, but inside the cost is already rising.
That is the moment I need to take seriously. Because if I ignore that signal, I may still get the task done. But the price will often be far too high.
Spring Invites Expansion — But Not Always Speed
I do think spring, as a season, invites expansion. We are allowed to enjoy that. We are allowed to feel hopeful, welcome the light, and use the energy we genuinely have.
But with fibromyalgia, expansion works better when it is carefully paced.
Not every sign of renewed energy means the body is ready for acceleration.
Sometimes spring is not asking us to go faster. Sometimes it is simply inviting us to re-enter life with a little more wisdom.
That is what Pacing 2.0 means to me. It is not about becoming smaller. It is about reducing unnecessary drain so that the energy you do have can actually go further.
A calmer rhythm is not laziness. For many of us, it is simply the only way things stay sustainable.
Doing More Wisely, Not Just Doing Less
The longer I live with fibromyalgia, the more I see that many of the biggest differences come from quieter adjustments. Starting earlier. Clearing the space first. Reducing noise. Keeping things simpler. Giving the nervous system a better chance to stay with me.
None of that looks dramatic from the outside. But inside the body, it matters.
Perhaps that is one of the gentler lessons of spring too: growth does not always have to look like speed. Sometimes it looks like steadier timing, softer effort, and wiser dosing.
Action Steps
This week, define your own green, yellow, and red zones. What does each one feel like in your body, your mind, and your mood? The clearer you are, the easier it becomes to notice yellow before it turns into red.
Then, look at one ordinary part of your day and ask yourself not only, "What am I doing?" but also, "How am I doing it?" Are you rushing, starting too late, working in visual chaos, or carrying unnecessary urgency into the task?
Choose one activity and lower the energy tax around it. Start earlier. Clear the space first. Put the kettle on. Sit down. Leave more transition time. Notice what helps your nervous system stay steadier.
And finally, pay attention to your personal stop signal before the point of no return. Not the dramatic sign — the earlier one. The signal that tells you the price is rising.
That signal is not there to ruin your plans. It is there to protect your energy.
If You Want Support...
Pacing sounds simple in theory, but in real life, it is often tied to perfectionism, responsibility, old habits, ADHD, and the understandable wish to make the most of the good moments. If this is something you struggle with, you are not alone.
In my coaching, we can look at your personal patterns, your warning signs, your hidden energy drains, and the way your body responds to different kinds of effort. Often, it is not only about doing less, but about finding a rhythm that allows you to do what matters with less payback.
If you would like support, I would be happy to talk with you.
Schedule your consultation with Jeannette today and discover how having someone who truly understands fibromyalgia can make all the difference.
Photo Credits
- Header photo: Jeannette Rechsteiner
- All other images generated with ChatGPT by Jeannette Rechsteiner
About Jeannette Rechsteiner
Jeannette lives in Switzerland with her husband and three children. After 30 years of unexplained symptoms, she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2023 and ADHD in 2024. She is an economist, analyst, and entrepreneur, and serves on the board of the Swiss Fibromyalgia Association. With extensive experience managing complex demands, Jeannette helps high-achievers restore balance, regain hope, and design lives that work – with heart, humor, and practical strategies. Coaching in English or German.
Photo by Jeannette Rechsteiner
