Energy Cycling: A Foundation for Healing from Chronic Illness
When you live with chronic illness, energy often feels like a scarce resource — something that must be carefully rationed, or worse, something that disappears unpredictably. The crashes, flares, pain and fatigue can make it feel as though healing is always just out of reach.
For years, I believed I had to carefully pace every movement, avoiding anything that might “cost too much” energy. I tried to follow the rules—measuring my activity, staying within limits—but no matter how strict I was, the crashes kept coming. I kept pushing forward when I could, and my body kept stopping me when I had no reserves left. I felt trapped, stuck between fear of overdoing it and frustration at not being able to do enough.
It wasn’t until I stopped managing energy and started cycling it that things truly began to shift. Instead of rigidly controlling activity out of fear, I learned to create a steady rhythm — one that allowed my nervous system and brain to trust that using energy was safe. Instead of limiting myself in an attempt to avoid crashing, I started expanding in ways that became sustainable, setting the foundation for real healing to unfold.
Introduction to Energy Cycling
Energy cycling is a way of working with your mindbody system rather than fighting against it. It allows you to begin restoring balance and resilience in a way that feels sustainable and nourishing. Instead of living in a constant push-crash cycle, energy cycling helps you create a natural rhythm of activity and rest, setting the foundation for deeper healing to unfold.
In this article, we will explore how this way of creating a sustainable recovery rhythm is an alternative to the push-crash cycle, helping you regain stability and trust in your ability to recover. Rather than restricting yourself through rigid pacing, you learn to support a rhythm of activity and restoration, allowing energy to flow. We will look at the science behind this approach, including insights from Polyvagal Theory, which helps us understand how the body shifts between survival states and rest-and-digest.
We will also dive into the research on emotional wellbeing, self-compassion, and personality patterns in chronic illness, exploring how these factors influence recovery. Studies show that chronic stress and suppression can deeply impact the nervous system and neural pathways, while practices that cultivate emotional resilience — such as self-compassion, wholeheartedness, and meaningful engagement and co-regulation — can rewire the mindbody system for healing. I will share with you how to begin to create stability, how to shift from fear-based energy management to a more expansive way of living, and how research-backed methods can support real, lasting transformation.
Notice Your Energy
Here is a brief exercise to help you get in touch with your energy right now:
Take a deep breath in. As you exhale, rub your hands together for 30 seconds to a minute.
Then slowly pull your hands apart, and stop as if holding an invisible balloon between them.
Do you notice a subtle tingling, or even a sensation of aliveness between them?
If rubbing your hands is too much (if you are severe), then gently press your fingertips together and notice what you feel. Now, if it feels comfortable, softly squeeze your hands.
NOTICING YOUR HABITS AROUND ENERGY
A helpful place to begin is by noticing the patterns of behaviour that shape your behaviour throughout the day. Do you push through until you crash? Do you wake up exhausted and struggle to get started? Are there times when you feel slightly better, only to do a tiny amount of activity and feel like you have to “pay for it later”?
Observing habits — noticing when and how you make decisions about daily activity — can help reveal where the first shifts can be made. Energy is not something that simply disappears or needs to be strictly managed; it will respond to how we engage with it.
Cycling energy intentionally creates a steady flow between effort, pause, and restoration — helping the nervous system begin to feel safer and more supported.
Take a deep breath and then blow it out very slowly. You are on a path of healing. Trust in the process.
WHY ENERGY CYCLING IS DIFFERENT FROM PACING
Traditional pacing strategies for recovering from chronic health conditions focus on carefully measuring activity to avoid exceeding an energy limit. While this approach has been popular in the past, it has often kept the person’s nervous system in a state of fear around energy use — leading people to remain stuck in rigid patterns of avoidance.
Energy cycling takes a different approach. Rather than restricting activity out of caution, it encourages an ebb and flow — where movement, activity and “having a life” can be interwoven with moments of pause and structured rest. This then comes from a place of support, not of fear. Instead of feeling like you need to measure every action or avoid doing too much, energy cycling helps you find a natural rhythm that prevents exhaustion without reinforcing limitations.
The Science Behind Energy Efficiency & Nervous System Regulation
Energy is not simply a matter of mitochondria in the body — it is deeply linked to how the nervous system regulates and how the brain is wired. Let’s consider the autonomic nervous system: many people have been told that their energy “runs out,” but in reality, often real root causes have not been discovered for the illness, and then added to this; energy is being misused, with large amounts being spent on survival responses through the ANS.
When the nervous system is caught in a state of fight, flight, freeze, energy is constantly being diverted towards stress responses rather than into repair and regeneration. According to the pioneers of Polyvagal Theory we see that when the nervous system feels safe, it naturally shifts energy towards resting, digesting and repairing rather than defence. Neuroplasticity research tells us that small repeated actions — such as meaningful connection — help retrain the brain to feel safe in activity without triggering crashes.
Gabor Maté’s work on chronic stress shows that prolonged stress can rewire the mindbody into a state of depletion, and breaking that cycle requires learning and rewiring to regulate the nervous system rather than simply “avoiding activity” via pacing.
Energy cycling is about rewiring how energy flows, rather than seeing it as something that must be strictly measured or rationed.
The Role of Polyvagal Theory in Energy Cycling
Polyvagal Theory helps us understand how the nervous system responds to safety and stress. It describes three key states that shape our experience: the fight-or-flight state, where the body remains on high alert and driven by stress; the freeze or shutdown state, where exhaustion and disconnection take over in an attempt to conserve energy; and the regulated and engaged state, where we feel safe, connected, and able to recover.
For many people with chronic illness, the nervous system becomes stuck between these extremes — oscillating between states of agitation, depletion, and collapse. This creates an ongoing struggle with energy, making it difficult to regulate effort or maintain stability in day-to-day life. Instead of energy flowing in a way that feels natural and steady, the mindbody system spirals downwards — pouring energy into survival responses rather than restoration.
Polyvagal Theory is the foundation of somatic healing and it shows us that energy regulation is not just about what we do, but about the state from which we do it. When the system feels supported, symptoms start to settle. The key to creating sustainable energy patterns is not about trying harder or doing more, but about helping the nervous system feel safe enough to release old stress patterns and return to a state of balance.
Polyvagal Theory and Vibrational (Sound) Healing
One of the most exciting developments in nervous system research is the exploration of how sound and vibrations can be used to directly support healing. I am currently researching and working with ways Polyvagal Theory can be combined with vibrational and sound healing — using certain frequencies, tones, and vibrations to gently encourage the body and mind toward a state of ease and regulation. This is still a developing area of research, but early findings show that we can stimulate the vagus nerve, activating the nervous system’s ability to move out of survival mode and into a state of deep repair.
This emerging modality holds incredible potential for those navigating chronic illness, as it offers a way to work with the nervous system directly — without force, without pressure, and without needing to “fix” anything. It is a way of creating safety, not just mentally, but on a deep physiological and emotional level. If this area interests you, I will be sharing more insights as I continue my research into this exciting field.
How Somatic Healing Supports Energy Cycling
For many years, healing has been approached through cognitive work, focusing on changing thoughts and behaviours in the hope that the body will follow. This is the “top down” approach of many talking therapies, for example. But for those with chronic illness, the challenge is not just in the mind — it is in the body’s deeply embedded survival responses and it is in the linking system that connects mind and body. The nervous system and brain together hold the imprint of past stress, and having learned to stay in a heightened or shut-down state, no amount of logical thinking can convince to shift.
Somatic healing offers a way to effectively and gently unwind these patterns by working directly with the body’s signals. Somatic healing is a “bottom up” approach – we go into the mindbody system as a whole via the body. Through sensory awareness the nervous system learns to release stored tension, step out of hypervigilance, and move toward a sense of safety and stability. Instead of forcing change, somatic healing allows you to naturally recognise that you are no longer in danger, and that you no longer needs to operate in extremes.
Energy cycling works best initially when paired with this type of nervous system regulation. The more you experience safety, the more energy begins to flow and the easier it is to make mindset shifts. The push-crash cycle softens, symptoms become less, and the mindbody starts to rebuild a sense of trust.
Begin CREATING FLOW BETWEEN ACTIVITY AND PAUSES
Energy does not need to be rationed — it functions best when it moves in cycles. Rather than seeing activity or movement as something to carefully conserve or spend (like the way of counting spoons we have heard so much about in the chronic illness community), consider ways to create a rhythm of movement and restoration throughout the day.
Some ideas include:
🌿 Alternating mental effort with sensory reset — such as listening to music, feeling the warmth of the sun, or lying down for a few moments. (If you are bedbound, closing your eyes for sensory reset, or looking at a plant or flower in your room). You can read the article here on activities to end the push-crash cycle for different levels of recovery.
🌿 Shifting your focus towards a journey — noticing when “efforting” is leading the way as the urgency to “get better quick” or “fix this” means stress increases and you find yourself on the hunt for a quick way out. (You can use a somatic healing practice here to help come out of this survival mode.)
🌿 Building in small pauses throughout the day — not just when exhaustion hits, but before it escalates. (You can read about my approach to creating real restorative moments of pause here to help you begin.)
Pauses do not have to be long. It really depends on your window of tolerance (and as you capacity expands, this will change and adapt with you). What matters is the pauses start to exist in your life — so that the nervous system begins to learn that you are helping it rebalance, that it is becoming safe to move between effort and ease without crashing.
Personality Patterns Make it Harder
The way we approach energy is deeply influenced by long-held patterns of behaviour — many of which were shaped long before illness began.
Some people experience a strong need to do everything the “right way,” struggling to let go of control, while others feel their worth is tied to productivity, making it incredibly difficult to step back. Some place other people’s needs ahead of their own, even when they are completely drained, believing they must always show up for others. There are also those who were taught to push through pain, seeing it as a sign of strength, refusing to appear weak or vulnerable… No pain, no gain.
None of these patterns are wrong or bad — they developed as a way to survive in a world that only values productivity, efforting, and financial success. But when it comes to the healing journey, these habits and the entire mindset can unknowingly keep you in a cycle of depletion.
Energy cycling is not about forcing yourself to slow down or restricting what you can do — it’s not actually about “resting more” – it’s about shifting the way you approach how energy is used. It’s not about limitation but about creating a rhythm that allows for more ease, more flow into your life.
The Science of Wholeheartedness and Energy
When we live in a constant state of restriction — carefully monitoring energy, fearing depletion, or feeling trapped in exhaustion — we lose connection with what truly makes life feel meaningful. Research into emotional well-being and resilience shows that those who cultivate joy and a sense of purpose tend to recover more fully from stress-related or mindbody conditions.
Wholehearted living is not about measuring or rationing energy; it is about reconnecting with the things that bring meaning, purpose, and fulfilment to life. This is why energy cycling works so well. Instead of focusing on what you shouldn’t do, it helps you create a life that feels expansive, connected, and worth living — rather than a life spent managing symptoms.
This does not mean pushing through, but rather weaving in small moments of connection throughout the day. It might be taking just one minute to enjoy music you used to love, allowing yourself to say yes to something that sparks curiosity, or moving through your day with a quiet mantra of trust that your mindbody can adapt. The focus is not on doing more but on a mindset shift.
Amari’s Perspective: Finding Stability Through Energy Cycling
At the beginning of my journey, I struggled with crashes that felt impossible to control. No matter how much I followed the medical advice and tried to conserve energy, I still found myself swinging between brief moments of activity and long stretches of being completely bedbound in a dark room. Like many, I believed I had to pace myself rigidly, carefully managing every movement to avoid a flare-up or crash. But the reality was that this approach only kept my nervous system and brain locked in fear and limitation.
It wasn’t until I discovered a new way of relating to energy — not through restriction, but through rhythm — that I started to feel real change. Structuring my day into activity, restoration and building a recovery rhythm helped me break free from survival mode and gave my mindbody the foundation of safety it needed. I didn’t get better by doing less; I got better by shifting my mindset and by changing the way I used energy, time and approach — giving myself a chance to stabilise, rather than forcing through cycles of depletion.
This wasn’t an easy shift for me. I resisted slowing down because I thought it meant giving up. I wanted to push through, to keep going, to prove that I could still live a full life. And when I finally had to stop, I felt defeated — like my body was failing me. But in reality, it was doing everything it could to protect me. My mindbody system gave me no choice — I kept pushing, so it stopped me. I had to find another way.
That’s when I started experimenting. I didn’t just “rest” — I didn’t want to be in a blacked-out room anymore. I structured my pauses in a way that signalled safety to my nervous system. I didn’t just try to limit my activity — I learned how to create a rhythm that worked with my energy instead of against it. These shifts — connecting with nature, co-regulating in gentle ways, and building structured rests into my day — became the foundation for everything that followed.
Recovery wasn’t about doing less. It was about learning to relate to energy in a new way, so I could stabilise, lessen symptoms, and start living again.
LETTING GO OF PERFECTIONISM & TRUSTING THE PROCESS
Energy cycling isn’t about doing things in a perfect way — it’s about shifting how you relate to energy. As you begin you will find that on some days, energy will expand; other days, it will contract. This is natural. The key is learning how to respond without panic, frustration, or overcompensation.
Recovering from a chronic health condition isn’t easy; it takes a certain amount of discipline to put these new approaches into practice. But it doesn’t require strictness or hypervigilance either – recovery isn’t something that happens through harshness to the system or pushing harder — it happens when the nervous system begins to trust that there is no need to operate in extremes.
💡 What would it feel like to stop treating energy as something you have to control, or fear running out of?
Energy cycling offers a way to step out of survival mode and create a foundation where the healing journey can take place — not through force, but through flow.
💗 If you’re ready to explore more, you’ll find articles, meditations, and many healing resources here to support you.
Healing isn’t about speed—it’s about finding ease within yourself. You’re already making progress just by showing up for yourself today. Keep going, gently. You are so worthy of this care.
Why Compassion Helps You Break Free from the Push-Crash Cycle
As discussed, if you are one of these following personality types, then it is possible that you are unconsciously resisting a recovery rhythm because you feel you haven’t “earned” it yet:
- Perfectionist → Feels the need to do everything the “right way” and struggles with letting go of control.
- High-Performer → Associates worth with productivity and finds it difficult to step back.
- People-Pleaser → Puts others’ needs ahead of their own, even when exhausted.
- Overcomer → Believes pushing through pain is a sign of strength and doesn’t want to appear weak.
This can be one of the biggest roadblocks to recovery: the belief that you must prove something. It may become important to understand and rewire to the reality of deserving ease, relief, and restoration.
Studies on resilience show that those who heal and thrive most fully are not the ones who push through pain — but the ones who cultivate self-compassion. Learning to offer yourself kindness rewires your nervous system toward safety and trust instead of survival mode.
Compassion-Based Practices That Can Support Energy Cycling:
- Allowing yourself the same attitude you would offer a friend.
- Practicing self-talk that supports, rather than criticises, your progress.
- Recognising that needing balance isn’t a weakness — it’s the way your system was designed to function.
🌿 If you want to deepen this practice, I have a full post here on self-compassion here → How Self-Compassion Rewires The Brain for Healing
How You Can Start Living Again Without Crashing
Recovering from chronic illness isn’t about limiting yourself or managing energy with fear — it’s about creating a new relationship with energy that feels expansive, sustainable, and aligned with your life. Energy Cycling offers a way to stop merely surviving and start living again — without the flare-ups and crashes that come from pushing through or the frustration of constantly holding yourself back.
By shifting from rigid control to intuitive rhythm, you can begin on the path to rebuilding strength, resilience, and joy.
Next Steps
If this article has resonated and you are ready to step into a life that feels expansive rather than restrictive, here are some suggestions for you:
🌿 Try a Healing Practice: Whether it’s a gentle somatic exercise, a short guided meditation, or a structured pause, small shifts can begin rewiring. Discover a somatic healing practice on the blog here
💡 Discover More: My articles on recovery through self-compassion, book summaries on pertinent subjects, blog posts on nervous system regulation, and energy cycling practices will help you create your own recovery rhythm. Read more on the Resources Hub
💗 Work With Me: If you’d like personalised guidance in breaking free from the push-crash cycle, I offer one-to-one coaching to help you build energy in a way that feels safe and sustainable.
Your journey doesn’t have to be about limiting yourself — it can be about expanding into life again. I’m here to help you get there.
💗 Want to Explore how a Supportive First Coaching Session would be? I would love to guide you on this journey and have prepared a page to help you find out more: Discover more about a First Session
