: Wendy Bryant
: Rest-Do Days How to live with fatigue and get things done
: Hammersmith Health Books
: 9781781612323
: 1
: CHF 14.00
:
: Erkrankungen, Heilverfahren
: English
: 192
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
A practical guide to finding a balance between resting and doing so that readers can recharge their energy levels and also do the things that are important to them. Using concepts from occupational therapy about pacing, occupational balance and creativity in everyday life, this approach is based on the Author's professional experience as an occupational therapist and her personal experience of living with chronic illness through which she has learned how to adapt her rest-activity balance, keeping an eye on what (or who) is controlling her decisions and focusing on doing what's important and satisfying in her life. The book is not a quick-fix but includes ways to think about what is most important and satisfying for the individual reader each day so they can work with their own situation as it changes. It is aimed particularly at sufferers from degenerative diseases that involve high levels of cyclical fatigue with no expectation of cure, including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, vasculitis, Parkinson's and any other chronic autoimmune disease.

Dr Wendy Bryant MSc PhD PGCertLTHE DipCOT began her practice as an occupational therapist in 1984 and has worked across a range of health and social care settings, then becoming an academic in 2003, first at Brunel University and then at the University of Essex. She retired from clinical practice in 2018 but continues to teach and was awarded a Fellowship by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists in 2021. She is one of the three Editors of the latest edition of Creek's Occupational Therapy and Mental Health (Elsevier).

Introducing rest-do days


A rest-do day is a practical approach to living with fatigue. By seeking a balance between resting and doing, I’ve learned how torest more regularly. On the same day, I’ll also be able todo the activities that are necessary to life and those that make mydays worth living. A life worth living involves doing more than existing and surviving. When I rest, often I ask myself what am I resting? It could be any of my capacities: to speak, to move, to think and many more. I can also ask myself what I am taking a break from? Often I am aware of needing to have a rest from worries, noise and busy times.

Rest-do days are a simple and flexible approach to make our daily lives interesting and satisfying. They are not a quick fix, but if you’re experiencing fatigue and there is not much prospect of recovery, it can be a relief to imagine doing anything satisfying in the foreseeable future. My rest-do days habit has seen me through many changes and challenges over the past seven years and I am not giving it up. I am so fascinated by the process that I’ve written this book.

As well as resting more regularly, I attend to the demands of my everyday activities. When I do something like take a sip of a drink, I am making demands on myself – using my senses, energy and many capacities to move and think. The demands vary depending on the activity. Too often activities are assumed to be physical exercise, but we are much more than muscles and bones. In this book any kind of doing is understood as an activity with varied demands.

There are many influences on what we do and why. Activities which we value can offer respite from fatigue, especially if we have control over what to do and how to do it.1 Your fatigue might be associated with health problems like a heart condition, stroke, autoimmune disease, cancer, depression, long COVID, or difficult times that seem to go on and on. For rest-do days, it does not matter why you are experiencing fatigue.

It is important to let go of the idea that rest is the same as sleep, a time when we are inactive.2 Often in research, sleep and rest are assumed to be the same thing. In everyday life, seeing rest as a time when we can do less demanding activities is helpful. There are other misunderstandings about fatigue which I’ve explored in this book. Those misunderstandings can mak