“In Japan, broken objects are often repaired with gold. The flaw is seen as a unique piece of the object’s history which adds to the beauty. Consider this when you feel broken.”
The philosophy behind the therapy offered at Golden Mend is based on the Japanese practise of mending broken pottery with gold. It’s called Kintsugi. Kin = golden and tsugi = joinery or mend
These visible repairs are seen as part of the history of the object, highlighting the cracks and symbolising fragility, strength and beauty.
We humans are fragile; susceptible to breaks and knocks, whether from grief, mental distress, addiction or guilt. Some of us have experienced drops from a dizzying height.
Too many of us feel broken or damaged – or not good enough. At Golden Mend we will learn celebrate our imperfections. We learn that we are more beautiful for our flaws, our battle scars, our lessons learned.
The gold is a metaphor for embracing your flaws and imperfections. You won’t realise your full potential until you go through the tough times.
Through Kintsugi, the cracks are merely a symbol of an event that happened in the life of the object, rather than the cause of its destruction.
Discover how to pick up the pieces and repair what may have been damaged in your life. Find out how to embrace your emotional scars and make them beautiful.
They are proof that you have suffered: let them remind you that you are strong, resilient and awesome.
We can choose to reject our bitter experiences and flaws, to wish them away, to regret, and to live in the land of ‘if only….’ We can disguise with false-self personas, cover up with defences, and distract with busyness.
Or we can choose to see these experiences for what they are: our golden seams.
The times when we get scratched, chipped, cracked and broken can feel terrible, but there can also be a beauty in the way we process them and the lessons we take from them afterwards.
Your story contains everything that makes you individually precious, and your story is a gift to the world.
“At any given moment you have the power to say: This is not how the story is going to end. It is never too late to be what you might have been.’”
Golden Mend also celebrates the Japanese philosophy of Wabi Sabi: The gift of imperfection
“There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
Wabi Sabi is about celebrating imperfections and living simply. Everyone goes through tough times and leading a life of perfections isn’t necessarily realistic.
Wabi = time and Sabi = the passage of time.
Together they teach us how to embrace the good and bad parts of ourselves and the asymmetry of life. Embracing the imperfect means that we celebrate our strengths. This shift of mindset, from striving for an impossible ideal to embracing our strengths, leads to a more positive and strength-oriented mindset.
Look for beauty in unexpected places. In wrinkles, in kind eyes and kind hearts, in the most giving people. Find beauty in humble people, and those who are honest and sincere.
Perfection is fleeting. And imperfection is nothing to be afraid of.