S is for Spoons
As many of you know, I recently moved to New England from California. As many of you don't know, I have a lot of health issues. Complex PTSD, a cyst in my brain causing awful headaches, old injuries that didn't heal right, possibly Long COVID... This was a long, drawn-out move at a difficult time that pushed me past physical & emotional exhaustion time & time again. It has forced me to find new ways to understand what I'm experiencing. It has forced me to find new ways of dealing with those experiences. So today, we're talking about spoons.
Spoons have many uses, in & out of metaphor.
Spoon Theory is a concept invented by Christine Miserandino to explain what it's like living with a chronic health problem – in her case, Lupus. I am going to link the entire article here, & I encourage you to go read it whether or not you or anyone you know is dealing with these issues right now. Here's a preview: > I quickly grabbed every spoon on the table; hell I grabbed spoons off of the other tables. I looked at her in the eyes and said “Here you go, you have Lupus”. It's a simple, brilliant idea. You have a limited number of spoons & an entire day to get through. Then another day. Then another. So how do you do it? I have been working on new techniques, because my old ones have not been holding up against everything that's been going on lately. So now I have assembled my top 7 ways to deal with being low on spoons.
Recognize which deadlines are ironclad and which ones you can fudge. I try to get this blog out every Tuesday morning. I do my best. But no one is paying me to do it, so sometimes if spoons are low I post in the afternoon, or on the next day. This article about spoons is coming out late because I am low on spoons, & that's ok.
Have a buddy. I couldn't function without my SO, & that is not hyperbole. Having someone who reminds you to take a break when you're pushing yourself too far is invaluable.
Listen to audio books. Sometimes even holding up a book is too much work!
Have an easy hobby you can pick up & put down easily. I love to paint, but that takes a lot of setup & cleanup. As my spoons dwindle, I shift to hobbies like hand sewing that don't require pots of water or drying time. (Sometimes I spend all my downtime just sitting & holding the thing I want to sew, without putting in a single stitch.)
Eat as well as you can. Food is wildly expensive nowadays! Eating well can be hard, but it is worth it. Eating junk doesn't fuel you the way that eating well does. Veggies like baby carrots or sugar snap peas that can be eaten raw or cooked are my favorite for low-spoon days. That being said, eating something is better than eating nothing. Don't stress if all you have energy for is takeout.
Breathe! Some days you don't have spoons & you have to keep going anyway. Taking a moment for a few deep breathes can make a difference.
Be kind to yourself. I started this list with seven tips in mind & now I can't for the life of me remember the seventh. I'm not going to beat myself up over small lapses, & you shouldn't either.
So that's it, seven scintillating spoon strategies for you. I am going to do a few things that can't be put off today & then I will spend the rest of today putting this list into practice, combining tactics #3 & #4: listening to audio books while I sew. I just started Emergency Broadcast by Boris Bacic. Yes, it's a zombiepocalypse book. Of course it is! It's cathartic- people living through zombie apocalypses are always having a worse day than I am, even when I am running on a deficit of spoons. Do you have a zombie book or movie recommendation for me? What do you think of Miserandino's Spoon Theory? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!
Have a fantastic day, draw something for my art challenge, see you next week!
Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!
Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi
Join us for #ArtABCs, the best art challenge on the internet!
Find me
- All pictures posted are my own work.
- All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.