I Move and That's Okay

With chronic fatigue or as with my MS, exercising and working often feels contradictory. You’re tired, so you should rest. And rest is sometimes necessary. But completely stopping exercise or work can actually intensify the feeling of exhaustion.

Fatigue Isn’t Just in Your Muscles

That’s because fatigue isn’t just in your muscles, but also in how your nervous system assesses exertion.

When you’ve been fatigued for a long time, your body gets used to a kind of power-saving mode. The brain becomes cautious and sends the signal faster: this is too much. That signal feels real, but doesn’t always mean that moving is bad or dangerous.

The Power of Light and Consistent Movement

By moving lightly and mindfully — consistently every day — a short walk, easy cycling, some stretching — something important happens. Your body receives a calm, predictable stimulus. Your breathing deepens, your rhythm becomes more even.

The nervous system gets the message: I’m active, but I’m safe.

And then the experience of fatigue changes. It becomes less all-consuming. You feel where you’re tired, but also that you can adjust. Slower or faster, longer or shorter. That makes it manageable. Over time, you’ll slowly notice that you can do more and more.

Not Pushing Through, Not Avoiding

The goal is not to push through or perform. The goal is to stay in contact with your body, even on days when things aren’t going well. Not avoiding, not forcing.

Moving in this way builds confidence. It prevents fatigue from determining your whole day, so you regain control over your energy levels.

The Most Helpful Thought

So sometimes the most helpful thought is not:

“I need to rest”

or

“I need to push through”

but simply:

I move and that’s okay.

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References

• Chaudhuri, A., & Behan, P. O. (2004). Fatigue in neurological disorders. The Lancet, 363(9413), 978–988. → Shows that chronic fatigue is a central neurological phenomenon, not just muscle-related.

• Craig, A. D. (2002). Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3, 655–666. → Supports how perceiving and interpreting body signals determines how intense fatigue is experienced.

• Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory. Norton. → Explains how the autonomic nervous system assesses safety and threat and why the body can remain stuck in a protective power-saving mode.

• Porges, S. W., & Dana, D. (2023). Our Polyvagal World: How Safety and Trauma Change Us. Norton. → Builds on polyvagal theory and explains how safety and trauma influence our nervous system and behavior.