Spoons and wells.
Imagine each day you start with five spoons. If you meditate and journal, you get two spoons. If you workout, you lose one spoon, but gain three later in the day.
By the end of the day, you’ve likely reached a point where you’re “out of spoons.” You have no more to give.
While this is a simple way to view our energy, I found it helpful when learning about those with mental challenges.
Not everyone begins with the same amount of spoons. Some activities take more spoons for me than they do for you. Sometimes we overuse our spoons and find ourselves starting with fewer.
We must become aware of how the spoons move in our lives and avoid running “out of spoons.”
Now onto wells.
Imagine that each of us has a well within us. That well contains the energy or lifeforce we use to move through the day. Without it, we struggle to move forward.
With it, we can move moutains. When you have it, some call it the virtue zest. Meaning, “treating life as an adventure and feeling motivated in challenging situations. People with zest display enthusiasm, excitement, and energy as they tackle life's tasks” (Wikipedia). Think about that, living with excitement and enthusiasm. How much better our experience would be…
To achieve this, it’s up to you and me to fill our well and ensure we don’t over draw from it. The consquences of overfilling your well are signifcant (Which I discuss later).
First, how can someone fill their well?
While it will be different for you, I’ll share what I do and then cover how to approach filling your well categorically.
Each morning, I fill my well by meditating for 15 minutes, doing my Morning Pages, and writing in my journal. Then I’ll either go workout (or run) to exchange a few spoons for more or I will write for 30 minutes. Rarely do I go over 30 minutes as I’m cautious to not overdraw the well.
As my day goes on and my well becomes depleted, I refill it by walking for 15-30 minutes, taking 30-45 minutes to eat lunch and read, and slowing down and staring at something for extra long (mindful moments).
Then, before I go to bed, I strive to write down three wins and plan out my next day to ensure I end by filling my well and preparing for the next day. I’ll also read before bed to
The key is to make your well filling actions your routine/protocol (link to protocol principle). By installing these actions into your daily schedule, you can ensure you never have an empty well. At least that’s what’s worked for me.
And this leads into the three categories I have for well filling activities: