The Story of the Sprained Ankle
The teacher is uncertainty. The lesson is acceptance. The learning is peace.
This morning, my daughter sprained her ankle.
Again.
She wasn’t upset about the pain.
She was upset because it ruined her plans.
She’d been looking forward to her K-Pop dance class all week. Now? Cancelled. Just like that.
And then the spiral hit:
Why did I have to go for a run this morning?
Why do I always roll the same ankle?
Why does this always happen to me?
I tried to help her out of it.
“The injury hurts,” I told her, “but you don’t have to hurt yourself more by criticising yourself for it.”
And as soon as I said it, I realised: I wasn’t just talking to her. I was talking to myself.
The real pain isn’t the injury
We all do this. Something doesn’t go to plan, and instead of rolling with it, we spiral.
The pain of the moment is real. But the self-criticism? That’s the part we add on.
It’s not the sprained ankle, the missed deadline, or the failed project that does the damage.
It’s the stories we tell ourselves about it.
I should have done better.
This is my fault.
Why does this always happen to me?
Sound familiar?
Uncertainty Is the Teacher
Here’s what life keeps teaching me:
Uncertainty isn’t a bug. It’s the whole system.
Life doesn’t care about your plans. It’s messy, chaotic, and full of sprained ankles—literal and metaphorical.
And when it all falls apart, you have two choices:
Fight reality. Spiral. Beat yourself up.
Accept what’s happened, learn, and move on.
The first hurts more.
Every time.
Acceptance Is the Lesson
For years, I believed that discipline and control could solve anything. If I just stuck to the plan, I could avoid the mess.
Spoiler: I couldn’t. Life isn’t built that way.
What I’ve come to realise is that the goal isn’t control — it’s peace.
And peace doesn’t come from avoiding uncertainty.
It comes from accepting it.
What I Told My Daughter (And Myself)
“This is rubbish, and it’s okay to feel upset. But don’t beat yourself up for it. The injury hurts. You don’t have to hurt yourself more.”
Because the pain of the moment is real, but the spiral?
That’s optional.
And that’s the lesson I keep learning. Stop fighting reality. Stop spiralling. Accept the chaos.
Because when you do, you find something surprising: growth. Perspective. And maybe even peace.