The Boom-Bust Cycle: A Weekly Template

The Siren Song of a "Good Day"

The story of the siren song originates in Greek mythology, where beautiful, half-female half-bird-like, or half-female half-fish-like creatures known as Sirens, lured sailors to their deaths with enchanting songs. A famous example is in Homer's *Odyssey”, where Odysseus cleverly survives by having his crew tie him to the mast with wax-filled ears, so he can hear the song without succumbing to its deadly allure. The term "siren song" has since become a metaphor for anything deceptively tempting and irresistible. 

I use this metaphor because when you wake up and realize you are going to have a good day when you are a Pain Warrior, it’s a bit like the siren song. Everything is beautiful and wonderful and you are tempted and lured into playing catch up on all the chores and commitments that have been neglected and need doing. The downside to this is that we over do it. Doing too much when you are feeling “good”, often causes a flare, and sometimes it can take days to recover from. It’s taken me years and years to learn how to pace myself effectively. I’m not perfect though, I still overdo it, because sometimes life doesn’t wait and something needs doing whether we have the spoons or not. 

Living with chronic pain is like being at sea in a small boat. Some days, the sun is shining, the waters are calm, and you feel like you can sail forever. These are the "good days," when pain is a distant whisper and energy feels boundless. You look at your endless list of overdue tasks—the kitchen floor that needs scrubbing, the emails piled up, the friends you've been meaning to call—and you decide to make hay while the sun shines.

You push. You clean the whole house. You work for five hours straight. You tell yourself you're finally "getting ahead." This rush of activity is the "Boom."

But just as quickly as it started, the boom collapses. It’s just not sustainable for Pain Warriors to keep up this level of activity on a regular and ongoing basis. I can only go so long before I have a big crash. I’ve talked about pacing in other blog posts, and decided to do another one because of how important I think it is for us all to have the tools we need in order to live the best and most productive life that we can. 

To read my other post on pacing, head on over to this blog post: 

https://www.meredithhutton79.com/meredithhutton79/learning-to-pace-yourself-a-marathon-not-a-sprint 

What is the Boom-Bust Cycle?

The boom-bust cycle is a common and destructive pattern of overactivity followed by forced inactivity. Imagine a rubber band. On a good day, you stretch it further than its comfortable limit (the "Boom"). It feels productive in the moment, but the inevitable recoil is harsh, leaving you in a sudden, sharp spike of pain, exhaustion, and symptom flare-up—the "Bust."

This cycle is also known as the "push-crash" cycle, and it is the enemy of stable pain management. 

Why Do We Get Stuck?

It's tempting to think of the boom-bust cycle as a failure of willpower, but it’s a deeply human, and often logical, response to chronic pain:

• The "Catch-Up" Mentality: You feel an intense pressure to "make up for lost time" or prove to yourself and others that you're still capable. Being in pain all the time often strips away the ability to do this or that, and we feel guilty for that. We feel shame that we can’t do such and such anymore, and so desperately want to hang onto any version of it, even if it’s only a little. Those good days feel like a fleeting window of opportunity you dare not waste. 
• The Pain as the Governor: When you live by the "listen to your body and stop when it hurts" rule, on a low-pain day, you have no natural brake. You rely on the pain signal, and by the time it screams, you've already overdone it. This is something that catches me time and time again, despite me knowing a lot about pacing and chronic pain and knowing all I know about how I pace myself best. This is something I’ve been working on this month, really trying to plot my day out using my circadian rhythms as a guide as to when I do more active work and when I need to rest or do low key work. Our bodies naturally have an energy peak that starts when you get up, then dips in the afternoon, peaks again in the evening, before bedtime. I find if I plan my day’s to-do’s based on this rhythm, I can be more productive and create less of a fallout from doing too much. 
• The Vicious Cycle: The more extreme the Boom, the deeper the Bust needs to be for recovery. Over time, these extended "Bust" periods—days in bed, social isolation, missed work—lead to deconditioning and increased sensitivity in your nervous system. Essentially, you teach your body that activity is dangerous, and the pain response becomes quicker and more severe with less effort. Your overall capacity shrinks like a sweater in a hot wash. It took me a really long time to learn this, because I put so much pressure on myself, and set my expectations too high. In some way, even though I knew better, I was comparing myself to the old me and where I thought the old me would be if I hadn’t had my accidents. This is a really hard thing to stop doing and is something I work really hard at. Once I started healing from my nervous breakdown in 2023, I began to teach myself ways to pace effectively and efficiently. I was working on many different aspects of my mental health and creating good and healthy habits and routines that I could sustain. Not the old me, but this me, the current me, could sustain. 

The Emotional and Physical Toll

The impact of this cycle is more than just physical:

• Physical Health: Escalating pain, increased fatigue, muscle deconditioning, and a reduced ability to tolerate everyday tasks. This is what we want to avoid by finding ways to pace yourself that work for you. To find a way to pace yourself that uses the least amount of spoons. For me, depending on the household chore, depends on how long I can do it for before my pain starts to spike, but for most physical chores, I work in 5 minute bursts, like 5 minutes of sweeping, then do a restful activity, then get up and do another 5 minute burst, etc. etc. You’d be amazed at how productive you can be when you are focused on one task for those 5 minutes, and how much better you feel because you took regular breaks. 
• Mental Health: A rollercoaster of emotions. The initial "Boom" brings euphoria and pride, quickly followed by the shame, frustration, and anxiety of the "Bust." This inconsistent life makes planning impossible and can lead to depression and further social isolation. It’s like being a perpetual borrower, constantly taking out an energy loan you can’t pay back. For most of us caught in this, doing that energy borrowing can take its toll on your self esteem. You feel bad that you used energy for this, instead of that, or feelings are hurt because you have to cancel plans because you did too much earlier in the day or the day before. All of this compounds the guilt and shame we already feel. 

Breaking Free: The Power of Pacing

The solution to the boom-bust trap is Pacing.

Pacing is not about doing less; it's about doing smart—about consistency over intensity. Instead of letting your pain dictate your activity level (which causes the boom-bust), you use a structured, time-based approach to set a sustainable floor, regardless of how you feel on any given morning. This is something that took me almost 15 years to start figuring out. I still get caught doing too much some days, but I have to say that making a conscious effort to pace myself in a way that helps me maintain my good habits and routines is doing good for me. 

What Pacing Looks Like

Pacing is like establishing a minimum, non-negotiable rhythm for your life. It’s about prioritizing yourself so that you can fully engage in the life that you want, with whatever level of ability you have, and not have it come back to bite you. It means:

1. Finding Your Baseline: For any given activity (e.g., standing to do dishes, working at a computer, walking), determine the maximum amount of time you can do it on a bad day without causing a flare-up. This is your safe, reproducible capacity—your "baseline." It’s really important to be honest with yourself when finding your baseline, because it will impact everything else about how you pace, and could negatively impact anything that is trying to adapt and pace in your life. This is so that you can pace more effectively and efficiently and really maximize your energy, mood and pain levels. This will help in allowing you to do a little more. If you are not honest, and try to push yourself too much too fast, because you think you should be able to stand for longer than 5 minutes, then go back and find your baseline again. It’s important to have a true reflection so that you can come up with a pacing plan that works for you and that doesn’t cause crashes, which is what I call it when my pain is so bad, I need to lay quietly, with my eyes closed, focusing on my breathing and getting sleep as much as I can. It’s the only effective way for me to recover from that level of pain and exhaustion. 
2. Stopping Before the Whistle: The key is to schedule breaks before you feel pain or exhaustion. If your baseline for standing is 10 minutes, you set a timer for 8 minutes and stop, even if you feel great. You are proactive, not reactive. I can only stand for 7-10 minutes at a time before this intense pain shoots up my legs and into my back and my legs start burning from the inside out. So I set my timer for 5 minutes. When those 5 minutes are up, I stop doing what I’m doing, even if I’m not finished, and I take a rest. The last few weeks I have been going through the kitchen and dining room organizing everything, and I did it all 5 minutes at a time. It also makes you feel good to be successfully pacing and getting things done, and even nicer when you avoid a pain flare.
3. Micro-Breaking and Activity Shifting: Alternate tasks that use different muscle groups or types of energy. Instead of cleaning the whole kitchen, you might load the dishwasher for 8 minutes (physical), then sit to check emails for 20 minutes (mental), and then lie down for a 15-minute guided meditation (rest/self-care). When I’m on the ball and scheduling my personal and work chores, and activities with my low-energy tasks and rest, I am actually able to be more productive and create a better for myself, that doesn’t utterly exhaust me and put me in bed for days. 
4. Gradual Increase: Once you can consistently maintain your baseline for a week or two without a flare, you can increase the activity by a small, safe percentage (e.g., 10%). This is how you slowly but surely expand your overall capacity, like filling a barrel drop by gentle drop. Slow, steady steps forward, that are done gradually, so that you aren’t trying to do too much too soon, are more sustainable. When I try to do too much it usually results in a setback, so I’ve learned many different ways to pace myself. I don’t always do it, because, you know, life, but I strive for that. By me gradually adding to my routines, I have been able to start and maintain some good habits, and I add, take away, or tweak my routines to suit my goals. 

The positive impact is stability. Pacing helps re-wire your nervous system, teaching it that activity is safe. Your "bad days" become less severe, and your "good days" become more consistent, allowing you to engage more fully in a sustainable life. I know it sounds like such a “simple” thing to do, but as Mel Robbins says, just because something is simple, it doesn’t mean it’s easy. 

The Weekly Pacing Template

This template is a sample designed to illustrate balance. Your personal baseline times will vary, and you should always adjust based on your unique needs. The goal is a predictable rhythm that balances your energy across physical, mental, and rest categories.

To access a free download of this template, as seen below, head on over to my Google Docs link here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d6DOhtYJWWmpN6lnhxpdnzczHNVQxsB9K1ffeo0yeBM/edit?usp=sharing 

Key Takeaways for Breaking the Cycle

• Time, Not Pain: Use a timer for all activities. Stop when the timer goes off, not when the pain flares. This is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned living with chronic pain. Pacing myself effectively took years and years to work out what works for me and what doesn’t. The last few weeks I’ve put my pacing schedule into practice, and I am really happy with my progress.  
• Balance is Key: Notice how this schedule alternates between physical, mental, and rest activities. Don't schedule two demanding tasks back-to-back. Sometimes this can’t be avoided, but it really isn’t great, so when this happens I take a much longer break, maybe even take the rest of the day to rest, because it’s what my body needs. 
• Rest is an Activity: Treat your scheduled rest breaks with the same commitment as your work tasks. They are mandatory and essential for avoiding the bust. I can’t stress that enough. For years I didn’t take the rests as seriously as I should have and it was only when I started to heal from my nervous breakdown that I started to schedule my rests and set timers for my work, that I realized the importance of rest. 
• The Power of "Boredom": On your best days, it may feel frustrating to stop early. Embrace the "boredom" and consistency. Remember: you are stopping short of your limit to preserve your capacity for tomorrow. Repeat this with me: you are stopping short of your limit to preserve your capacity for tomorrow. This is vital for you to maintain a good routine that is consistent. 

Breaking free from the boom-bust cycle is a journey that requires consistent effort and a commitment to self-care. It's about understanding that true progress isn't found in sporadic bursts of overactivity, but in the steady, manageable rhythm of pacing. By actively listening to your body and proactively setting boundaries with a structured schedule, you begin to rewire your nervous system, teaching it that activity can be safe and sustainable. This deliberate approach transforms your relationship with chronic pain, moving you from a reactive stance to one of empowered control.

The power of pacing lies in its ability to create stability. When you consistently honor your baseline, schedule regular rest, and alternate tasks, you minimize the severity of "bust" periods and enhance the consistency of your "good days." This not only improves your physical well-being by reducing pain and fatigue but also fosters greater emotional resilience. The guilt, shame, and frustration that often accompany the boom-bust cycle are replaced with a sense of accomplishment and self-efficacy. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and each small, steady step forward contributes to building a more fulfilling and sustainable life, one where you can engage more fully in the activities that bring you joy, without fear of the inevitable crash. 

You don't have to manage your chronic pain journey alone. Join our community of pain warriors by signing up for my newsletter on the home page or below any blog post on my website:

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For more resources, browse my collection of chronic pain-themed trackers, planners, and journals at my shop: 

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