We like to think we are invincible, full of infinite energy and able to handle anything life may throw at us. It’s understandable considering Western society places a premium on heroic endurance in the face of adversity or challenge.
Truth is, though, our emotional, physical and mental energy are not infinite. We ALL have an absolute rock bottom where we simply cannot do one. more. thing.
And living with child loss means I exhaust my resources sooner than many.
I love this concrete representation of my limitations. It has helped me understand that it’s OK to say, “no” and it’s human to have to.
I hope it gives you courage to do the same.
❤ Melanie
I thought I would follow up yesterday’s post with another one to help folks recognize when they NEED to rest.
I don’t know about you but I have a hard time figuring that out sometimes.
One approach that has helped me is something called “Spoon Theory”.
Spoon Theory was first described (as far as I know) by Christine Miserandino of butyoudontlooksick.com.
The original article pertains to chronic illness. But when I stumbled across it a couple years ago it really clicked with me.
The basic idea is that everyone starts with a finite number of “spoons” representing the energy, attention and stamina that can be accessed for any given day. When you do something, you remove a spoon (or two or three) based on the effort required. When you have used up all your spoons, you are operating at a deficit.
Like a budget, you can only do that so long before you are in big trouble.
The only change I would make is to say that in the first months and years, most bereaved parents have far fewer than 12 spoons.
Grief uses at least half of them by itself.
But it’s helpful for me to recognize that I do not have an infinite supply of energy and stamina regardless of what I think has to be done or how many more hours there are in a day. I’ve written about that in this earlier post: Emotional Bankruptcy: I Can’t Spend the Same Energy Twice
And I think it’s a great graphic to show to family and friends so they can understand why we simply CAN’T do everything we used to do.
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