I rode a horse, I'd ridden horses all my teen to adult life, with a break after college until I'd gotten married and well, 'settled'. I then started riding again, lost lots of weight and was active, but balancing home, work and fun life stuff was challenging. I bought a horse, a 'challenging' but promising one who'd had some hardships and obvious 'mental' challenges to which Horse had acted/reacted in a Horse way. But compared to my prior horse riding life was well, a real challenge. I say this all because some riding teachers speak of something called a 'Circle of Comfort'. That is, the area we feel and can do 'things' safest. Yes, pushing THE ENVELOPE is almost expected of all these days, but when working with another 'mind' of another creature who has a mind that cannot be fathomed is harder to stretch.
It sort of prepped me for my Neuro and other issues. Some things you can try to bulldoze, others tippy-toe around, and yet others sort of work to gently push out in sort of a yeasty dough kneading. No one tactic works for any given situation. But, to not try to push, just maybe learn some limits as to how hard you push in any quarter, just stretch things maybe is to plain old give up. You have to try. Even half-hearted trying can yeild results at times. The more you try to DO the easier it can be to try to DO and then the DOING becomes easier. It takes a real knowing of yourself to even try, and then find the limits and scopes of your trying. In that effort, it can be exhausting. But the effort with prudence and caution [hey, self-preservation] and persistance it can work.
Yes 'guilt' can come into play? Your body says NO! KEEP STILL-Won't hurt as much. At the same time, you have to move or suffer all sorts of worse consequences. You have to learn the real terms/self-definitions of true need to REST versus moving. Even if you do little bits of work, exercise or living, and keep up building up the 'bits', you can find that you can do more than originally you expected. It is not 'raising the bar' as to what can be done, it is simply keeping that 'bar' up to go over, at times again, and again, and again. Keep trying, and then doing and 's do not give up. - j

And yeah, it can hurt, but learning the different hurts, can be a good experience, there are good ones as well as bad ones.