How spilling water EVERYWHERE taught me an important lesson

I was standing there, at 5:00am,  aghast at what had just happened, it all happened in the blink of an eye.

Water, everywhere. All over the floor, all inside the fridge. All over our refrigerated food.

Let me backpedal a bit.

I wake up around 5:00am every morning. I meditate, prepare myself mentally for the day ahead, drink my water and coffee, occasionally meal prep, and knock out some work things. 

It’s my time. I value and cherish this time so much each day.

So I woke up, per usual, around 5:00am on Wednesday morning last week.

I was about to fill up my cup of water before starting the coffee (I always try and drink a glass of water alongside my coffee. Yay hydration), and realized our very large, very full, VERY heavy Brita pitcher was in our sink and needed to be transferred back to the fridge so I could fill up my water.

Innocent enough, no?

So I pick up the thing, like I’ve done hundreds of times previously, and it’s super awkward to pick up by the way.

It’s the rectangular kind that has the nozzle towards the bottom, so there aren’t any handles or anything really to grab ahold of, except for a small lip at the top.

Brita really needs to start making their products more ergonomic lol.

So anyway, I had just woken up, it’s 5 in the morning, I am so excited to start my day on my own terms.

As I am attempting to put this extra large, very full and awkward Brita pitcher inside our fridge, my hands gave out and I dropped the dang thing.

Water. Everywhere.

All across our leftovers.

All under every single container on our fridge shelves.

All over the floor.

All over me.

Pretty much the entire thing emptied in the blink of an eye (it must’ve done some crazy flip thing and landed on its side).

And my immediate emotions were, anger.

Anger that my hands had, once again, failed me.

I am a chronic item-dropper in the kitchen. I have dropped it all - full-blown casseroles coming out of the oven, a glass jar of marinara (shattered everywhere…so fun to clean up with kids lol), and of course benign things as well like veggies, snacks, and smaller less detrimental objects.

I had always chalked this up to either a lifelong clumsiness.

But now I know better.

I know it’s because of the hypermobility in my hands.

So I immediately felt anger towards my hands.

How could they do this to me?! 

And now, thanks to my hypermobile hands, I had to spend a very large chunk of my morning cleaning up the mess.

Emptying the entire fridge.

Sopping up everything with 6+ towels.

It took a grueling 30 minutes.

Once it was all cleaned up, I went about my normal routine.

Grab the coffee bag. Grind the beans. Microwave one of the breakfast burritos I had batch cooked yesterday.

And as I went through these motions, I started shifting my energy, thoughts, and emotions about my hands, my body.

I noticed how my fingers were able to pry open the coffee bag.

I stopped to watch my finger push the button on the coffee grinder.

I saw how my fingers could (very awkwardly, but still do the job) push the microwave buttons.

And I began to shift from “I hate my hands” to “My hands sometimes do what I need them to do.”

I went from “My hands are the worst” to “I feel neutral about my hands.”

And for me, this honestly deeply served me and set me up more positively for the rest of my day.

Now we certainly aren’t talking about shifting from “I hate my hands” to “My hands are the best every and I’m sooooo thankful for them” (ew, just, no lol).

Shifting in such a large way doesn’t feel authentic to my true emotions.

It feels like super fake, forced gratitude.

But this neutral energy, this neutral way of viewing my hands or my body?

This is so helpful for me.

If this feels supportive,

If you’re someone who feels fed up with your hands or your body,

If you feel stuck in a negative outlook on your health,

If you’re tired of people writing off your (very understandable) feelings towards your body or your hands and telling you to just ‘ be grateful anyway,’

I invite you to try this shift with me.

“My hands sometimes do what I need them to do.”

“I feel neutral about my hands.”

I will never tell you to force gratitude or force feelings that just aren’t there, but body neutrality can be supportive for many.

Several of you messaged me about this when I shared this story on Instagram, and it resonated with many of you.

One of you said, and I absolutely love this analogy,

“The glass doesn’t have to be half full, but don’t let it be half empty. Just acknowledge there’s water.”

Soooo good right??