Lessons to be learned from Kintsugi for the SOUL
This beautiful Japanese art form provides a metaphor for human experiences.
Ring the bells that can still ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That is how the light gets in. -Leonard Cohen, ANTHEM
I have been reflecting on how our life experiences affect us and how often these events can be considered as breakages that can leave horrible, ugly, messy scars. I often hear about adults carrying baggage from their previous life experiences that weighs them down and stops them from enjoying the journey of life.
I read articles about adults being “covered in mud”, a metaphor for the life experiences that have affected them in a negative way. Each time I hear or read these metaphors I think about the extraordinarily beautiful Japanese art of Kintsugi (golden mend).
Have you heard of it?
KINTSUGI
When a pot or cup or bowl or any item of pottery is broken, the object is mended with lacquer resin laced with gold or silver so that the cracks where the pieces have been joined shine and sparkle and add value to the object in a beautiful way.
How wonderful is that?
How empowering it is to see our breaks and damaged parts healed with gold or silver and adding to our value as humans rather than seeing ourselves as flawed or scarred, or imperfect, or worth less than before our life events brought us this experience.
Believing this, does not mean that I think trauma or tragedy makes us more beautiful, but I do believe that these experiences change us and we have a choice as to how we live, accept and experience that.
WE could easily choose bitterness, anger, regret or denial.
WE could reject our flaws and imperfections, wishing them away or covering them over with a thick layer of self-protection.
Or WE could rely on distraction and keeping busy to avoid having to deal with them at all.
OR…
We can choose to see these experiences as our shiny, sparkly gold or silver seams and embrace them and welcome them as part of WHO WE ARE.
Experience
In my 50’s now, I have had many an experience that I could consider defines me in my life. I’ve had experiences that I could consider have chipped me, scratched me, cracked me and broken me and, in the past I would have stuck with a strongly held belief that my scars were ugly and made me unloveable.
In the past, I would have used these experiences as excuses for not being able to trust life, to hold on to my victimhood with a tight grip, to not take risks or to open my heart to someone just in case it was dropped and broken.
Now, and it hasn’t been easy by any stretch of the imagination, I fully cherish the experiences that have influenced me.
They are what make me unique.
They have given me wisdom, understanding and compassion.
They have influenced me in choosing my mission to empower others and support them to embrace their flaws, cracks and broken pieces with tender love and care. Perhaps it has come with age. Or perhaps it has come with letting go.
I don’t know.
What it has brought me though, is PEACE and wow does that finally feel good!
Life is for living in all it’s messy glory and wonder.
I have chosen to hold myself with kindness, empathy and love and I know you can too.
It doesn’t matter what you have experienced in the past.
What matters in order for you to also find that internal peace that you are searching for often externally, is a willingness to embrace your cracks, scars and hurt bits with love.
Wisdom
Kintsugi, truly is a beautiful art form from Japan, that can teach us wisdom. It really is a valuable metaphor for human life with all its challenges, roller coasters and adventures. It teaches us that our experiences have made us unique and are part of who we are.
Embrace yourself with loving, tender arms and visualise your seams sparkling and filled with resin of gold and silver.
No one else is like you. You are your unique and beautiful self.
To read more of my musings, head to www.shinesparkleradiate.com
