I regularly get asked “Why Counting My Spoons”? What is that spoons thing? What the heck is all this spoon thing about? This post will answer those questions (and maybe more)
Why Counting My Spoons?
Before I was officially diagnosed I went to my first Fibro Support Group meeting and someone said something about spoons or “the spoon theory” and I had no idea what they were talking about. I asked, and they told me about The Spoon Theory. I had to look it up when I got home in order to really understand it.
What is the Spoon Theory?
The Spoon Theory is an analogy created by Christine Miserandino that attempts to explain how having limited and variable energy affects the lives of those of us with chronic illness. In the analogy, she equated energy to spoons, gathering up all the spoons around her in a diner. She explained to her healthy friend that because she’s healthy she has all the spoons. She can do all the things. However, for those of us with chronic illness, we are running on limited spoons (energy) and often what might take a healthy person a single spoon (if that) to do, will take several spoons away from us.
The Spoon Theory resonated with me and it’s stuck with me since I first heard it. So, when I decided to start a blog and needed a name “Counting My Spoons” was the first thing that came to mind.
Counting My Spoons
Counting My Spoons is akin to “Counting my Blessings”, for on the days that I have more spoons I have more energy, more joy, and more life.
An Alternative Analogy
Think of spoons as the battery bars on your phone, you only have so many before your battery dies or before you have to recharge it.
Sometimes you might have less when you start the day because your phone didn’t get recharged overnight (just like sometimes we don’t get fully recharged when we sleep).
Other days you may wake up with a full battery, but that doesn’t mean that certain activities you do may not run your battery down faster than others. Just like different apps may wear your phone battery down faster than others.
As we live our lives, some activities may only use a half a spoon, or may not affect our spoon levels at all. Other activities can eat away at spoons the way watching Netflix on your phone eats your battery.
When that happens, it’s time to plug in and recharge, and hope like hell that our charger is working correctly and the power doesn’t go out.
If you’ve not previously read The Spoon Theory, please make sure to do so and show Christine some love while you are there. Then please share this post with others to help them understand what being a #spoonie is all about.
Related Posts:
- Sunday Inspiration: Christine Miserandino
- I didn’t write the Spoon Theory, I Just Live It!
- 8 Things Spoonies Need to Know
- What is a Spoonie?
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