The Spoon Theory, created by Christine Miserandino, is a metaphor used to describe the limited energy resources that people with chronic illnesses or disabilities have each day. In her original essay, she used spoons to represent units of energy. Unlike healthy individuals who may have an unlimited supply of energy, those with a chronic illness may have many less “spoons” each day to utilize on daily tasks, thus meaning they need to be a bit more careful about how they use them.
Here’s an example: Imagine you wake up with a certain number of spoons—let’s say ten for a nice, even number. Every action you take and decision you make costs you, from getting ready for work in the morning, to making breakfast, to leading a meeting or dropping the kids at school on time. A healthier person might not have to think as much about these tasks, but someone with a chronic illness may need to be more careful about how they use those spoons or energy each day. Use them up too quickly and we don’t have energy to get the things needed done each day. Those ten spoons could be gone before you even hit lunch if you’re not careful, and then the rest of your day feels downhill from there.
How You Can Apply the Spoon Theory to Everyday Life
While I in no way want to take the The Spoon Theory away from those with chronic illness and disabilities (I found out about this theory from a friend of mine who suffers from a chronic illness herself), it can be a helpful framework for anyone managing the stress of everyday life, trying to balance doing all the things, and recognizing that although we may have a lot more daily spoons, they do eventually run out, so we still need to manage how we use them. So how can we do that? Let’s dive into it.
Prioritize Important Tasks
Identify the necessities and make sure to get done the things that have to be done each day, first as often as you can. We want to ensure we have energy for those things that are most important. This might be your workout, or it might be prepping your food for the week to make other days smoother.
Plan for Recovery
Sleeping enough to restore your spoons, not running yourself into the ground, and spacing out those necessary tasks can also help. Weekends are great for recovery for most, but small moments throughout your day can be great too. A few minutes of meditation, or an outdoor walk to restore you are just a few ways you can do this.
Space Out Your Big Tasks
You may know that certain days of the week are harder than others due to things like meetings at work, childcare changes, or school work that needs to be done. If you know those days are already taking up a lot of your spoons, shift bigger tasks to other days to help. An example could be prepping meals on a weekend day knowing you won’t have the energy or spoons to do so during the week.
Understand Your Limits
You won’t always have the same number of spoons each day. A night of 8 uninterrupted hours of sleep will be different from one with 6 hours broken up due to your child being sick. Those days, you’ve already lost spoons before you started. That’s the time to revert to the first step of prioritizing those necessary tasks and letting go of the rest for a day you have more available spoons.
By adopting the Spoon Theory mindset, we can create a more understanding and supportive environment for those managing chronic illnesses & disabilities—and for ourselves when facing life’s day to day challenges.
So spend your spoons wisely, friends!
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