Tip for humans who experience low-energy: *Practice* NOT doing a task even when you have the energy/spoons/capacity for it.
Since our society has linked so many tasks to moral standards (ex: assuming you’re a better person if you have a tidy house). It can feel activating and even unsafe in our bodies to begin opting out of doing things. And then to not feel bad or shameful about it.
But there will be a day, week, month, year when your capacity is limited & you have to cut down on the list of things that get done. That doesn’t make you a bad, lazy, or inferior person AT ALL. But it can be trigger our nervous system if we link productivity with being good.
So I invite you to *practice* not doing things. Think about tasks that you might usually do, but truly aren’t “must-dos.” Be brutal.
Ex: I don’t actually HAVE to make my bed. I like doing it. It’s helpful for keeping my dog from getting dirt in my sheets. But I can still function with an unmade bed. So one day, I decided to not make the bed even though I had the capacity to do it. And the day went fine.
This helped teach my body, my mind, my nervous system that I can remain functional and safe even if I don’t do a task. It’s part of my process of unlinking productivity with being a better person.
It’s building that muscle of safety so when the inevitable day comes that I don’t have the capacity to *make the bed* (or insert other task here) it doesn’t make me feel so unsafe. The stress of not doing it doesn’t add to my already lowered capacity.
Actively not doing things also allows me to use my energy in new ways, explore other tasks, projects, or activities that I might otherwise never get to do or try if I’m always using my energy for the same tasks each day, especially ones that don’t necessarily *have* to be done every day.
I highly recommend the practice of NOT doing tasks for my humans with deeply ingrained perfectionism, over-achieving, and low self-worth.
You are not a bad person for not doing a task.
You are always enough no matter how much gets done.
You are deserving of rest, healing, & joy.