Spoons…

Cecile Tellier
4 min readJun 29, 2024

What do we do when we run out?

Photo and editing at CanvaPro by Cecile Tellier

Allow me to get a bit vulnerable on here for a moment. I have Lupus and connective tissue disease, which is an autoimmune disease. I have complications from that as well as other conditions such as ADHD, Iron and B12 anemia, Narcolepsy, and IBS. I have a full-time career in addition to my author/life coach/tarot business.

“Why is she telling people that?” You may be wondering. I know many people who are living with conditions similar to mine and who like me, struggle to get all the things they want to get done, done.

This is where spoon theory comes in. Spoon theory is the analogy that someone has a finite amount of energy. When you have a chronic illness you may have fewer spoons than others. Each task (mental or physical) costs spoons, at times there are not enough spoons left to complete the day’s tasks.

Spoon costing activities you may be doing in a day include the following:

  • Planning and preparing meals.
  • Running errands or driving children around.
  • Caring for children.
  • Employment.
  • Cleaning.
  • Medical appointments — if you have a chronic condition you likely have many.
  • Phone calls.
  • Bathing/hygiene routines.

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Cecile Tellier

Cecile is a an author of romance/smut who has a thing for spicy stories.