“The wound is the place where light enters you” – Rumi
How do you learn to heal and free yourself from your own limiting beliefs? By learning to love every part of who you are and embracing your own flaws and imperfections. This is Kintsugi.
Kintsugi is the beautiful Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. Using Kintsugi as a metaphor teaches us an important lesson: in the process of repairing things that have broken, we actually create something that is even more unique, resilient and beautiful.
Following my breast cancer surgery five years ago, I have definitely been left with scarring, both physical and emotional. My physical scars are going to remind me every day, for the rest of my life of the path cancer traced across my skin and my life.
But scars don’t have to be thought of as ugly reminders of something terrible, of the price your body has paid. By embracing the philosophy behind Kintsugi, I have been able to find a way to accept my scars, those visible and those hidden in my heart and mind. I now tell my story from a place of learning and growth.
Kintsugi embraces authenticity and imperfections and highlights rather than hides the scars. Alongside the scars, these golden threads of repair in the pottery, also show endurance, strength, resilience, determination, sheer bloody-mindedness, and, we hope, recovery.
This same philosophy can be applied to life. We all long for a good life. We want happiness, love and success. Yet things are never easy or perfect. Life is full of successes and failures, and sometimes it can feel broken, damaged and imperfect.
The truth is, it is such struggles and challenges that make life worth living; that make the good that much better.
Candice Kumai, author of Kintsugi Wellness: The Japanese Art of Nourishing Mind, Body, and Spirit, tells us that by embracing your past wounds, scars, pain and internal struggle, you accept their value. Your deepest pain, your biggest fears, all the struggles you’ve gone through have forever changed you. If you could see my heart, you would see there are golden cracks all over it.
Following the philosophy of Kintsugi, what becomes important is how we handle the situations that don’t go our way. We shouldn’t hide them away or prevent them from being part of who we are. Instead, we should embrace them and let them make us stronger.
We should grow and allow them to transform us into something beyond our wildest dreams. Life will never be perfect. Things don’t go as planned and our time here on earth is full of twists and turns. What we can do though, is control how we react to our struggles and challenges. Embrace the imperfections and tell our stories in new ways.
If you found this article helpful, Suzy has developed this accompanying guide: 3 steps to heal your past, embrace the present and reignite your future.
Suzy is a mindset and clarity life coach and her mission is to help as many women as possible to find the courage to know, trust, love and accept themselves so that they can live by their own intentions and realise their dreams both at home and at work.
To Become HER, a woman healed from the past, ready to embrace the present and re-ignited for their future.
You can view Suzy’s coach profile page here: www.careeringintomotherhood.com/suzy-malhotra
June 24, 2022
