Welcome Spoonies!

It’s great to welcome you to the Mind, Body and Spoons website, and to our MBaS Community. For those unfamiliar with the term ‘Spoonie’, it directly relates to what has been dubbed ‘Spoon Theory’, which dates back to 2003 to American writer and blogger, Christine Miserandino.

The basis for the idea is that in our day-to-day lives everyone, those with and those without chronic illnesses, has X amount of energy in our tanks, or spoons in the drawer/jar/cup. So, a bit like fuel in your car, or charge in your phone, this resource needs to be managed, conserved, and replenished when it gets low.

But, here’s the catch, not everyone has the same number of spoons (capacity in the fuel tank), some jobs require more spoons than others (longer distances or bigger engines use more fuel), and restoring those spoons can be difficult (finding a gas station or charging bank with your fuel type can be awkward).

So, for a Spoony, there’s a daily calculation of working out the priorities vs the number of available spoons, and how long it may take to wash/reclaim the used spoons. Another example is like a credit card; they have an available limit which you cannot overspend on, but if you want to make a purchase you must first work out if you have enough space on your card. Then the question, how are you going to pay it off?

Suddenly things get a bit more complicated, and that’s not entering into the hideous tax for over spending. You could say that the interest rate on over-usage of spoons is far higher than the APR of a credit card, and it’s a debt you’re never free of, even if you don’t currently owe anything. Being a Spoony means you will always have a Bailiff at your door just waiting for you to over spend.

Mind, Body and Spoons and the Spoon Jar

So, if there’s only so many spoons in the jar, how do you allocate them, is it possible to double-up their usage, and how do you replenish that jar of spoons? Well, that’s what we’re going to explore here under the ‘Spoons’ section of the MBaS website.

It’s here that you’ll find helpful suggestions on restoring your jar of spoons, tools to help you achieve that, and ways to help minimise the spoon usage you may already be experiencing.

Sadly, whilst there’s no miracle cure for our chronic illnesses, there are things we can do to offset some of the limitations and frustrations that our lives now incur.

For now, feel free to follow us on our Instagram page, or YouTube channel, and take a look in our ‘Body‘ section for some helpful advice in the kitchen as we’re still developing and creating the content for this section, as we too live our lives with chronic illnesses.