What are the spoon and fork theories?
The healthy have the luxury of a life without choices, a gift most people take for granted.
Each unit of energy is represented by a spoon.
Some people have more spoons than others.
If you only have five spoons, though, somethings gotta give.
The fork theory comes from Jen Rosenburg,who wrote about it on her blog.
Forks here are external stressors, such as traffic, hunger, or a conflict with a loved one.
Some forks are bigger than others, but at some point, too many forks can bring you down.
Use spoon theory to gain self-compassion
Applying spoon theory to your life is an exercise in self-compassion.
Everyone has limited spoons to some extent, and everyone has a limit, saysDr.
Devon Price,social psychologist, professor, and the author ofLaziness Does Not Exist.
Which goals do you put on your to-do list over and over again, yet never get around to?
An important spoon to jettison is the idea that you MUST do all these tasks.
Regarding both oneself and others, Price says, Your expectations are in need of some serious revision.
What were we doing?
What was the environment like, stimuli wise?
What obligations had we been carrying all week prior to that breakdown?
Sometimes, he says, these stressors are in the background.
Spoons often come from within and represent energy from you going toward an external task.
Forks attack from without and represent obstacles.
Again, to really make your life better with these theories, you need self-compassion.
Hopefully, this compassion leads to less illness, overwhelm, and burnout.
