You're not Broken, You're Just Out of Water

Happy Buddha Jayanti

In a quiet monastery garden, near an old stone well, sat a traveler who had met a young woman seeking wisdom. She was outwardly successful, with a good job and accomplishments others admired, yet she felt a deep emptiness inside, like she was "falling apart inside" despite trying to hold everything together. She confessed her struggle, asking why, with everything she had worked for, she felt "nothing". She thought perhaps her problem was simply time management.

But the traveler knew it was something deeper. He handed her a ceramic cup and asked her to fill it from the well. She dipped it in, and the cup was full, easy enough, bringing a simple smile.

Then, he handed her another empty cup and asked her to fill it from the water she had in her own cup. She hesitated, noting she only had one cup, but understanding, she poured. Now both cups were half full.

The traveler then gave her a third, and a fourth empty cup, asking her to keep pouring from her original cup. With each pour, there was "less water less joy". Soon, her own cup, her original vessel, was "nearly empty," while the others were only "barely filled".

Seeing this, the traveler asked, "Why do you think you feel the way you do?". After a silence, he explained gently, "You're not broken you're just out of water". He revealed the truth: burnout is not about time management, "it's about capacity". Like the cups, she had been "pouring yourself into everything and everyone without ever refilling" her own inner well. No one had taught her "how to protect your own" capacity.

The lesson became clear through the simple act of pouring water: in life, stop pouring into others before you are empty. The wise way is to refill then give, to heal before you hustle. It is okay not to judge oneself too harshly, but to "give yourself time".

The next morning, the traveler saw the young woman by the well, not busy with devices or journals, but simply breathing, "still not trying to be better just being". The simple truth of the cups had begun to show the way.