Not everyone starts the day with the same number of spoons...
Not everyone starts the day with the same number of spoons.
Some of us are still depleted from the day before, or the year before, or generations before.
Some people are doing the work of three people all by themselves, which means they’ve likely got a spoon deficit and are running on fumes.
It's difficult to find the spoons to deal with all the stuff we have going on.
But we can help each other conserve what spoons we have left by asking ourselves before we speak or act, “Am I about to deplete this person’s spoons or ease their burden?”
So many times we judge our words and actions based on what WE find useful or amusing, and have little or no awareness of how it might land for another—as toxic, or nourishing.
I realize more and more that world peace truly does begin with immediate vicinity peace.
So just as I have a keenly calibrated radar for whether or not I’m being treated fairly, I try to remember to check in with myself to make sure I'm not covertly or unknowingly generating toxicity that another person is going to have to work hard to heal from.
And if I do happen to have any extra spoons, I can give them away through my support. Chances are, I know someone who could use them.
-JLK
"Spoon theory is a metaphor that is used to describe the amount of mental or physical energy a person has available for daily activities and tasks. It was developed by Christine Miserandino in 2003 as a way to express how it felt to have lupus. She used spoons to provide a visual representation of units of energy that a person might have and how chronic illness forces her to plan out her days and actions in advance, so as not to run out of energy, or spoons, before the end of the day. It has since been applied to other phenomena, such as other disabilities, mental health issues, marginalization, and other factors that might place an extra – often unseen – burden on some individuals."
