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Kintsukuroi

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“Kintsukuroi” means “to repair with gold” in Japanese, and is the art of repairing pottery with gold and understanding that the piece is the more beautiful for having been broken.

The Purpose of “Brokeness”

So many things seem broken. If we focus on these, we can drive ourselves crazy. If we simply decide to distract ourselves from the pieces that we see all around us, in the form of eating, shopping, medicating, etc., then we still don’t see the positive power of broken-ness.

Golden Glue

Sometimes when we’re bruised (emotionally), the fight seems insurmountable. Many times though, the push and pull is important to learning and growing.  When we battle forces that seems to crack or even break us… we come out on the other side with “golden glue;” self-awareness and how we need to change to grow.

If we can somehow see that the gold is the pain, sadness, fear, and anger that we have overcome, and that it is the gold that holds the pieces together, we recognize that new bowl/person is not broken, but actually more beautiful than ever.

Image credit: The Fable of Kintsukuroi


4 Responses
  • Kelly Robinson
    January 18, 2018

    Love this Debbie, this philosophy is so very true and one that mental health advocates should embrace. The rebuilding of a person includes a tremendous amount of knowledge. When we recall that learning we can repair ourselves should something reoccur.

  • Deborah
    January 18, 2018

    Hey Kelly, from my own experience, while gaining that knowledge is painful (like the broken bowl), the knowledge I’ve gained, when married to self-compassion, stands as a testament to hope and resiliency. thanks for sharing!

  • Katherine Reeves
    January 20, 2018

    Jelly I totally agree and am SOOO thankful right now to Debbie for sharing this!

    I have a girl I’ve been working with for years that I can’t wait to share this mantra with because she is the perfect example of it. I looooove it and will adapt this with my students and clients!!

  • Katherine Reeves
    January 20, 2018

    Ahhhh I meant Kelly. Sorry for the autocorrect good!

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