Do you know what this is?
It’s called Kintsugi, an ancient Japanese art form of repairing broken pottery with gold.
As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, instead of as something to disguise.
By highlighting the scars, something even more unique, resilient, and beautiful is created.
I love this idea of embracing our wounds and the process of healing (repairing) with such care so as to create something stronger and better than new.
I found out recently that the word kintsugi translates to “golden joinery”.
Coincidentally, the word yoga means “to yoke”, which means “to join”.
Yoga has certainly been my golden joinery since I started practicing in 1998 after a really bad car accident...
Yoga helped to heal my body at that time.
And over the years, yoga has been the “golden joinery” that has helped me to heal my heart the many times it was broken to pieces...
The fragments of my mind whenever it fluctuates to fear, worry, anxiety, limiting beliefs...
My nervous system from anxiety, stress and burnout...
And most recently, yoga helped me to heal through grief and great loss.
So, when I think of this beautiful art form of kintsugi as a metaphor for understanding the art of healing...
I think of yoga.
Not only has this practice helped me to heal, but also to embrace my flaws because they have made me stronger and unique and better than new.
It really is poetic symbolism meant to remind us all that we are better because of our cracks.
As the poet Rumi says, “the wound is where the light enters.”
So, what components of yoga did I practice with to heal myself?
1. I committed to practicing compassionate postural yoga that included breathing techniques and relaxation.
2. I got clear in my mind using meditation & intention.
3. I learned to understand my energy centers (the chakras), how they affect my life, and how to bring them into balance.
And I did this consistently.
Until it became a habit.
And then a lifestyle.
Healing love,
Angela xo
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