We all struggle at times. Its part of the human condition. The hard part in dealing with the problems of everyday life is that often times there are just too many things to do and if you tried to do everything it would exhaust you. So the key is managing your day (the exchange of energy and information) with the "most ease" that you can muster given the tools in your toolbox.
This is where my "Spoon Theory" comes in. Spoons represent a unit of energy. If you think of waking up every morning with 20 spoons and its up to you to use these units of energy (spoons) in the most effective way throughout your day.
Normal day vs day with depression
Getting up = -1 vs -5
Meditation and exercise = -2 vs -5
Getting to work = -3 vs -5
Working till lunch = -3 vs -6
Lunch = 0 vs -2
Afternoon work = -4 vs -8
Home = +1 vs 0
Spend time with community = -3 vs -10
Time for self (pursue your passion) = +5 vs 0
As you can see on a normal day the management of spoons is tight, but anything that throws your mind into dis-ease quickly sees an increased cost in doing things that you are familiar with. We inherently know this and most time our own experiences validate this theory, but the real value comes when you can assess your current level of "spoon fullness" and then watch as your spoons come (do things that generate spoons for you) and spoons go (do things that cost you spoons).
When you become adept at assessing this you are capable of awareness of where your current energy level is at, and as different situations happen throughout the day you can self-assess where you are and what the costs will be for a particular thing. Most importantly it provides you with a way to prioritize how you spend your time and energy throughout the day and make a conscious choice to engage in something or not.
Here is an example from personal experience.
I had not been thoughtful of another persons feelings and I was apologizing to correct the situation. As I was apologizing I got several angry texts from a friend offended that I'd been so thoughtless. I simply told them that "I didn't have spoons for this right now", and thus focused my spoons on the repair of the relationship, not what my friend perceived was happening. This was the right way and place to spend my energy not getting into a text-fight about what I did or didn't do.
As I interact with others and plan out my day I estimate how many spoons I think each major chunk of activity will take and as my day goes along I pay attention to the ebb and flow of the energy and information being passed back and forth. This allows me to look objectively at a situation assess the "spoon cost" and decide if i want to engage in that activity and if so, how many spoons am I willing to spend. Remember you are actively choosing in what activity to engage in and what you're are comfortable spending and how many spoons you're willing to spend engaged in that activity.
All in all this framework or theory has helped me to self-organize in a productive way, and allows me a new tool for communicating with my friends who understand spoon theory. I hope that you find the concepts and practices helpful.
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