Have you ever heard of Kintsugi? Kintsugi is a Japanese art form involving broken pottery. Check out this video from Show Me Hope Missouri with more information about Kintsugi and how it may relate to your life right now. 

Post-Traumatic growth is a term that describes the process of looking back and noticing where we have grown over the course of the trauma we have experienced. We have all experienced collective trauma together over the past year and a half of the COVID-19 pandemic. Do you see any places that you have grown? Any places we have grown as a community? 

In Kintsugi when a piece of pottery is broken, instead of gluing the pieces back together to make it look perfect, artists use a gold or silver lacquer to highlight the broken pieces. Check out what Kintsugi looks like in the video above or do a quick google search for a visual image. 

This concept of brokenness may be different or difficult to accept, especially in our world that values perfection, but look at the Kintsugi’s beauty. The creativity that the artist used to make a new creation out of broken pieces can be applied to our own lives. Can you look at your own life as an artist would look at broken pieces of pottery with so much potential? 

Here’s a few ways you may have grown in the past year: 

  1. You may have a greater appreciation for life
  2. You may have a greater appreciation or strengthening of your close relationships
  3. You may have increased compassion 
  4. You may be able to identify new possibilities in your life
  5. You may have greater awareness of your personal strengths 
  6. You may have enhanced spiritual development
  7. You may have increased your creativity 

None of us would have chosen to go through the trauma of the pandemic, but it can be helpful to see the areas where our hardships have been sources of growth just like Kintsugi. 

Take these beautiful Kintsugi images with you as you continue to process the pandemic and look for growth in your own life. 

If you or someone you know is experiencing stress due to the pandemic, call or text Show Me Hope for 24/7 anonymous crisis counseling. We’re here to listen. 

Disaster Distress Hotline: 1-800-985-5990
Tri-County Mental Health: 816-468-0400