Ring, Bowl, Plate, Shame

I recently posted a reel on Instagram that went semi-viral.
I cringe just saying that—but with over 30k views in 24 hours, I guess the story hit a nerve.

So I figured I’d share it with you, too.

It started with a ring, a bowl, and a plate—each one broke in the same week.

The bowl cracked clean in half.
The ring split right down the middle.
The plate? Just a tiny chip on the edge.

And yet that was the one that sent me into a full-blown shame spiral.

Why?
Because I didn’t see it coming.

The bowl already had a thin crack (I had seen it for weeks).
The ring had already been repaired in that weak spot before.
But the plate—’out of nowhere’—was suddenly chipped.

And what happened next was wild…
In a flash, I made that little chip mean something big about me:
Irresponsible! Careless! Incompetent! Useless! 
I got caught in the shame spiral.

The thing about shame is—it isn't logical.
It distorts reality instantly.
Suddenly, a chipped plate meant I was bad, wrong, unworthy—and clearly not responsible enough to own nice things (it was a nice plate, after all…).

Thankfully, I have tools. And in that moment, I walked myself through these 3-steps to move from shame to self-acceptance:

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1. Pause
Step back from the spiral. Take a breath. Interrupt the auto-loop.

2. Get Present
Feel into the body. Name a sensation. Anchor in what’s real—not the story.

3. Reframe with Compassion
Ask: Can this imperfection make me more human, not less worthy?

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It helped me shift from “I'm a loser” (actual thought I had) to “I'm a human, having a moment.”
From shame to presence. From self-blame to self-trust.

Because the truth is, life will chip at us. Sometimes we’ll see it coming. Sometimes we won’t.
But it’s how we respond—how we choose to see ourselves in those moments—that shapes who we become.

So if you’ve ever made something small mean something big…you’re not alone.

You’re not broken.
You’re just human.
And that is more than enough.

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