I was recently playing drums with a small group of inexperienced drummers and what started with a base rhythm devolved into a less than pleasant cacophony of noise. If you’ve ever sat in on a drum circle, you know exactly what I mean. To solve this problem, the leader needs to lay down a basic simple beat and hold it. It gives everyone a point of reference to play off of and to return to and it keeps the group cohesive. Experienced drummers already know this and learners usually pick it up when the leader points it out. When you’re struggling with ME/CFS, there’s no leader to set the basic beat.
When a large mother drum is present, several people sit around it and hold down a beat – sometimes it’s a heartbeat. It sounds like an actual heart beating – boom, boom, pause. Boom, boom, pause. Just like the line you’d see scrolling across the screen of a cardiac monitor. Two peaks followed by a flatter line. It’s all about the underlying rhythm - the natural pacemaker.
Unfortunately for ME/CFS patients, it’s a challenge to keep the basic beat – the pace that will consistently get us from day to day without being caught up in a push/crash cycle. It’s a matter of fine tuning. Collect data, make observations, find successful patterns – Repeat. Repeat, Repeat, Pause. Repeat, Repeat, Pause. And eventually Repeat your way back to health.
How do you pace to a basic beat? What strategies have worked for you? Please COMMENT or Send in your thoughts and I’ll post them. You can use the Contact Form or send an email to Martha at DefeatCFS dot net.
Look for a weekly posting on Tuesdays. And consider being part of the conversation.
Be Well Again,
Martha
When a large mother drum is present, several people sit around it and hold down a beat – sometimes it’s a heartbeat. It sounds like an actual heart beating – boom, boom, pause. Boom, boom, pause. Just like the line you’d see scrolling across the screen of a cardiac monitor. Two peaks followed by a flatter line. It’s all about the underlying rhythm - the natural pacemaker.
Unfortunately for ME/CFS patients, it’s a challenge to keep the basic beat – the pace that will consistently get us from day to day without being caught up in a push/crash cycle. It’s a matter of fine tuning. Collect data, make observations, find successful patterns – Repeat. Repeat, Repeat, Pause. Repeat, Repeat, Pause. And eventually Repeat your way back to health.
How do you pace to a basic beat? What strategies have worked for you? Please COMMENT or Send in your thoughts and I’ll post them. You can use the Contact Form or send an email to Martha at DefeatCFS dot net.
Look for a weekly posting on Tuesdays. And consider being part of the conversation.
Be Well Again,
Martha
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