Managing activity using the 3 P's

You may find that when you live with chronic pain, your patterns of activity can be different every day.

When you experience a lower pain day, what happens to your patterns of activity? When I ask clients this the answer I mainly get is “I try and get everything done on my to-do list, get all the things done I can’t usually”… sound familiar? So then when I ask, what happens the next few days, the response is often “My pain goes worse and I pay for that day of activity for days after!”. This is what we call boom and boost type of activity. Periods of high level of activity followed by prolonged days of low activity.

Managing activity its a balancing act when living with chronic pain and can sometimes mean finding that sweet spot where you’re not doing too much but also not doing too little. The traffic light system and 3 P’s is a really helpful tool.

The three P’s:

Plan:

• Following a plan stops you doing too much or too little activity

• All activities through the day will consume a certain amount of energy, and some will aggravate pain more than others

• Plan in rest before and after a planned activity\

• Ensure you have enough time to do the activity

• Plan to ask for assistance or delegate tasks you find difficult to do

Prioritise:

• Identify what keeps you motivated and focus on the important tasks to you

Pace:

• This helps do ‘bite-size- chunks of activity

• This will allow you increase your activity without increasing your pain

• Pacing activity helps de-sensitive the nervous system and reduce pain

Secondly, the traffic light system is a really great visual tool for managing activity. You can start by keeping a basic activity dairy and then colour code your activities. Then planning for the week ahead, make sure you have a mix off all the red, yellow and green.

Here is a download pdf on managing activity: 3 P's download This will be helpful resource for you to keep to remind yourself how to manage your activity to be in control of your pain. By managing your activity is an important step to thrive in life.

Give this strategy a try, monitor your activity and your pain levels and you will see how this can help you more effectively manage your pain.

For more information please get in touch.