Before I knew that I'm autistic, I'd often get frustrated or angry with myself about my clumsiness*. Now I can immediately remind myself that:
a) it's not my fault;
b) it will keep on happening;
c) I can do things to minimise risks; and
d) a better way to react to a clumsiness incident (for me) is to note it, consider whether I could do anything in future to avoid it, try to find the humour in it, and move on.
This example from today made me laugh out loud, and I think shows how far I've come:
I decided to open the second of the double doors to the living room, explaining to myself, out loud, that "I'd better open that, because I don't want to be banging into it again". Immediately after unbolting the door and opening it, I tripped over the slightly raised strip on the floor between the living room and the hall. And started laughing at the irony of the situation.
It wasn't my first clumsiness incident of the day, and certainly won't be the last - but I'm definitely finding that this approach works better for me.
* Which, for me, is related to differences in proprioception and vestibular processing, as explained in this NAS article:
