“Today’s going to be a great day!” You brush your teeth, start the coffee maker or tea kettle, and check your emails. Then you shower, get dressed, have breakfast, and get yourself to work — all before 9 a.m.
If you’re having that great day, all of this can feel like, well, nothing. It’s a habit or routine. It’s just what you do.
But when you’re having a hard day, a stressful day, a physically or emotionally painful day, each of those tiny activities adds up, and they cost you energy. And that may be energy that’s hard to spare.
Knowing that about yourself is also known as knowing your spoons. Spoon theory was developed by Christine Miserandino, an award-winning writer, speaker, and lupus patient advocate, as a way to measure how much energy different tasks take. One spoon is a unit of energy. On a low-stress day, you might feel like you have tons of energy — maybe 10, 15, or even 20 spoons.
