Heal with Grace

122. Are You Putting Pressure on Yourself to Get Better? With Lindsay Vine

• Grace Secker • Season 1 • Episode 122

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0:00 | 50:49

If you've been doing all the right things and still putting pressure on yourself to heal faster, this conversation might land deeply.

Grace sits down with Lindsay Vine, an ME/CFS and long COVID recovery coach who spent seven and a half years navigating her own healing journey, including a period of being fully bedbound. Lindsay now works one-on-one with clients and teaches mind-body and neuroplasticity courses within the healthcare system in British Columbia, Canada. She also co-created the CFS Programs Guide, a searchable resource covering 34+ recovery programs to help people find the right fit without the overwhelm.

Together, they explore how the pressure to "get better" can become the very thing keeping the nervous system stuck. They discuss the role of goodism — the deep need to be seen as good — and how it drives people to turn recovery into another achievement to get right. Lindsay shares her own turning point of shifting from valuing achievements to valuing who she is, and they talk through what it looks like when brain retraining feels fake, why positive psychology alone isn't always enough, and how doing less can sometimes be the real healing move. They also break down the three pathways that keep people stuck — worry, pressure, and self-criticism — and what to pivot to instead: gratitude, focusing on wins, and self-compassion.

This episode is for anyone who's ever thought, "I should have figured this out by now."

Find Lindsay: 

Website

Post Viral Podcast

CFS Programs Guide

Listen to Episode 14: Healing ME/CFS Using Brain Training and Nervous System Regulation 

Resources from Grace:

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