To Ivtzan and Lomas this highlights the difficulty of assessing whether a situation is positive. They argue that seemingly ‘negative’ emotions can have intrinsic value.
For example, anger is a justifiable response to injustice which can, when properly channelled, drive us to change the world for the better. Equally, sadness is a common reaction to a loss which can lead us to a place where we appreciate the real treasures in our lives like good friends.
In a 2018 lecture, Ivtzan compared these situations to the Japanese art of Kintsugi.
Here broken pottery is not repaired in a way that hides the joins. Rather the restoration is made obvious, often using gold coloured glue to highlight what are described as ‘precious scars’.
The philosophy is that heartache, mistakes and failure are part of life. When we pick ourselves up, we should not seek to mask the challenges we have faced. We should not feel compelled to display a perpetually sunny disposition and behave as if they never happened.
Rather, we recognise them and acknowledge our resilience and what we have learned in much the same way that the Japanese celebrate the mending of broken pottery.
Is it time you started to value your precious scars?
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