Broken Open, what is that?

It was a couple of weeks ago, I got a text and a link from my dear friend Jacqueline saying: “I invite you to listen to this message, this is for you, I feel like you were Broken Open and your inspiring choices are all part of your spiritual Curriculum.

Her message touched deeply me; it also made me curious about this Broken Open, which I did not understand right away. Google took me to Elisabeth Lesser, author of Broken Open book website.

So I started to listen to the link Jacqueline shared : Oprah Winfrey show hosting Elisabeth Lesser speaking about Broken Open. I got so passionate about that I thought I have to share this through my blog. It’s a 45 minutes video. As Jacqueline did with me, I will invite you to enjoy this message, make yourself cozy and listen to it, it’s really beautiful and touching.

What is this Broken Open all about? Elisabeth wrote the first version of the book Broken Open back in 2005.  We all have our special life path, with good times and bad times. Especially during bad times:  a breakup, loss of job, Illness, loss of a loved one, life is providing us with a choice to either break down and close up or break open and accept the transformation coming out of it. For this, we all have our very specific way of doing it and we have to accept our unique pace as well.

Elisabeth Lesser  explains wonderfully how she got to this Broken Open title while watching a rose bloom. The bud of the rose must pierce and break the bud in order for the rose to appear in its entire splendor. Which is comparable to what happens to us too. In her book Elisabeth shares her life path, her challenges and the difficulties she had to face, difficulties which brought her to the ground. We all have our very personal life path, with wonderful times and very difficult times. Unfortunately, it’s is our difficult times: a breakup, a job loss, an illness, the loss of a loved one where life kicks in and offers you to choose to either break down and close or you break open, you pierce that button, and accept the resulting transformation. You start to show your beauty and above all access your spirituality. This spirituality, which is your own path to yourself, your instinct that everything is within you, that life has meaning, that we are all connected. Through spirituality we connect to the beauty of life.

I think my Broken Open story was my break up followed by my job loss. I remember, during a dinner, a friend of mine asked me, how do you do this? I must admit I often thought I don’t know how to do this. And for a long time I really did not know how to do this. Until slowly but surely following my pace, I started to Break Open: accept the fact that my marriage was over, that there was another job waiting for me. I asked myself what is this teaching me, what can I learn out of all that. I started to take care of myself to run regularly, spend time in nature, started my coaching journey.  I started to sail (something I wanted to do for a long time). I connected with new people who became close friends, read books again and really enjoyed time with my daughter. And last but not least, a very important point, I hope I will be able to keep up with, is to slow down, and to listen to my gut.

There is still a scar from that period, which I guess will remain and this is fine. I would say I am still on a healing path and yet I am open to learn every day, ready for new goals. I am embracing the unknown and dance in the moment.  I see the openness, the wideness and the transformation flourishing, taking me into a new a complete different light, which I am simply grateful for.

 

How does broken open resonate for you?

Be curious, be courageous, be bold and be yourself!