Unleashed Thoughts

A place where my thoughts will run wild!

Kintsugi: the value of broken pieces

This is such an amazing Japanese concept. Kintsugi means “to repair with gold”. It restores functionality to a broken object, but also adds beauty and worth. The Japanese people believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.” Can you Imagine valuing yours and others “cracks” the same way!

“Kintsugi is about understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.”

One of the things I really like about this concept is that it recognizes the history of the object and visibly incorporates the repair instead of trying to disguising it!

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Gratitude Part 2; Starting girl time with celebration not bitching

tumblr_nxp6e5gaGV1uu8d2yo1_1280A month ago I wrote a post about how practicing gratitude everyday could change your life. Since then, I’ve been trying daily to list five things that I’m really grateful for. I haven’t succeeded in doing it everyday, but I’m still practicing and it has opened my eyes towards two things that is really important for me.

Focus on people. It’s been a gift to me focussing on people to whom I’m grateful for instead of things. It has changed the way I look at all the great people I have in my life and it’s been easier for me to show and express my gratitude towards them.

Starting girl time with celebration not bitching – Focus on gratitude has also made me aware of how important it is to share all the good moments in life with your girlfriends. It’s important to have good friends that you talk to when you think your love life sucks, work is difficult and you wish everything would be different. But…. sometimes I’ve felt that bitching with your girlfriends can trigger a negative spiral. The bitching is just for the sake of bitching. By starting out celebrating all the good things that have happened to both of you lately the bitching is talked about in a different light. It’s not neglected, it’s still there, but the talk is more constructive and not just bitching for the sake of bitching. And the best thing is, that it really feels good to celebrate with your girls. Celebrate their life and celebrate your life!

All in all, practicing gratitude for a month have opened my eyes towards the powerful and productive force it can be in your relationships with all the great people in your life. This is undeniably the best thing it has shown me so far. And if there is more, I can’t wait for it to come…

Attitude gratitude

Collage - music

This morning I read about a study, where a group of participants were asked to name 5 things they’re grateful for every day. Only after 21 days their brains were rewired, happiness boosted and physical symptoms such as headaches, nausea, etc dimished. I’ve never explicitly practised gratitude, but lately a couple of my frinds have engouraged me to and after reading this study I decided to give it a try. So here we go.

Today I’m grateful for:

  1. that I can make the best smoothie for breakfast
  2. having spent the weekend by myself, because it has given me time to clear my head and recognize what’s good for me
  3. the sun is shining and the sky is blue
  4. my brother wants to pick up my boyfriend at the airport in the middle of the night
  5. that my tv broke, because it has forced me to listen to all the great music out there

… and the last one on the list leaves this collage for you. Enjoy your sunday!

Working on it…

“Overthinking is the biggest cause of our unhappiness. Keep yourself occupied. Keep your mind off things that don’t help you. Be optimistic. And grateful for the small things in life.

Collage - overthinking

“The soul usually knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.”