Feeling Broken? You’re Actually Cracking Open
There are times in life when we feel fragile, exhausted, or even shattered. It can seem as though life has broken us apart.
But what if that sense of “brokenness” isn’t an ending, but a beginning?
What if you’re not breaking down—you’re cracking open?
The Illusion of Being Broken
When we feel broken, we often rush to fix ourselves. We try to patch things together with “superglue” and carry on as though nothing has changed. Yet beneath the cracks, something deeper is happening. The old layers—outdated masks, protective walls, and identities that no longer serve—are falling away.
This is not weakness. It is transformation.
Cracking Open: A Natural Part of Growth
Think of a seed before it sprouts: it must crack open before new life can emerge. In the same way, your own moments of breaking are really moments of opening. Painful, yes—but necessary.
When life unsettles us, it’s often because we are being guided to release what no longer resonates. This can feel like loss, but in truth it is space-making. As the old falls away, we are prepared to step into who we are becoming.
The Gift of Pausing
One of the hardest, yet most important, things we can do in these moments is to slow down. Our instinct is to race ahead, to leap into action just to feel safe. But like muddy water in a stream, clarity only comes when we stop stirring it up.
By pausing, breathing, and allowing the sediment to settle, we begin to see with new eyes. From this clarity, our next steps emerge naturally.
The Clean Slate
At first, cracking open may feel like loss: dreams dissolving, identities shifting, certainty slipping away. Yet what follows is a clean slate—a rare and precious chance to create life anew.
When you can see this emptiness not as a void but as possibility, the process becomes softer. What is leaving is simply clearing the path for what is aligned with who you are now.
You Are Opening, Not Broken
Each layer that falls away reveals more of your authentic self. And though the process may be painful, it is also profoundly freeing.
So if you are in this place right now, remember: you are not broken. You are opening. Opening to growth, to clarity, to paths you could not have seen before.
Take time to pause, to breathe, to honour what is leaving—and trust that what comes next will be more aligned, more authentic, and more true to who you are becoming.
My Own Cracking Open
I know this process isn’t easy, because I’ve lived it myself. When I returned to Australia after my time in the Netherlands, it felt as though everything I had dreamed of had crumbled. My vision for the future, my sense of belonging, even the life I imagined with a partner—all of it seemed to fall away at once.
At the time, I could only see loss. I felt broken, uncertain, and unable to picture what lay ahead. I even lost the ability to daydream, something that had always been second nature to me.
But what I later came to realise is that this wasn’t a breakdown—it was a breaking open. Life had cleared the path for me, even though I couldn’t yet see where it was leading. That “clean slate” gave me the chance to discover a deeper, more authentic version of myself—one who could carry the lessons of the past but no longer be defined by them.
Explore This Week’s Free Resources
🎥 Watch This Week’s Discussion on 🔗 YouTube or Listen on 🔗 Spotify
✏️ To help you recognise when you are assuming, 🔗 Download the journalling worksheet
🧘 Follow the Guided Meditation, 🔗 Listen on YouTube or on 🔗 Spotify
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