Break Open: The Seventh Step in Becoming

Taylor & Lauren
Mar 1
3 min read

“The cracks are where the light comes through.”

-Leonard Cohen

March arrives with its first warmth, tentative but insistent. The ice softens. The ground splits. Green shoots push through the cracks, unafraid of how fragile they might seem. This month asks you to do the same. To let yourself break open - even if it feels messy, and even if it feels vulnerable - because the breaking isn’t the end. It’s the beginning of what comes next.

Why We Break Open

It’s easy to believe we need to hold ourselves together at all costs - to stay hard, whole, and unshaken. But staying sealed also keeps out the light, the connection, and the growth. There is a quiet courage in softening. In allowing what’s inside to come to the surface - even if it’s raw and tender. When we break open, we create space for new roots to take hold. We show ourselves that our strength was never in being unbreakable, but in being willing to begin again.

Breaking open doesn’t mean falling apart beyond repair...it means letting yourself expand. Like a seed splitting to let the sprout emerge, or the earth cracking to welcome the rain, breaking is not the end of you but the beginning of something larger. It’s how you grow into more of yourself.

Softening and Opening

Here is a gentle way to honor your own tender breaking open.

What You’ll Need:

A shell, seed, or stone
A candle
A quiet space

Steps:

1️⃣ Sit comfortably, holding your shell, seed, or stone - something small and whole.

2️⃣ Light your candle and close your eyes.

3️⃣ Imagine a soft light radiating outward from inside the object and from inside of you.

4️⃣ Whisper (or write): I am allowed to crack. I am allowed to grow.

5️⃣ Place the object somewhere you can see it this month, as a reminder of your courage.

Journal Prompts

For deeper reflection:

What am I holding onto too tightly?
What feels ready to come to the surface?
When have I grown most - and what needed to break for that growth to happen?

For this tender season, choose scents that feel calming yet alive, like earth after rain:

✨ Lavender & Cedarwood - soothing and grounding

✨ Bergamot & Jasmine - fresh and uplifting

🖤 Mist your space, light a candle, or bathe with intention as you move through this month.

We’ve always loved the concept of kintsugi - the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. Instead of hiding the cracks, it fills them with something precious, making the piece even more beautiful than before. To us, it’s a reminder that our own breaks, chips, and cracks don’t make us less - they make us more. Every time we’ve had to pick ourselves back up after something hard, we try to imagine filling those spaces with gold - our resilience, our lessons, and our softness. We carry those glinting lines forward, making us stronger at the end.

You do not have to stay sealed to stay strong. You are allowed to crack. You are allowed to grow. This month, may you let yourself soften and trust that what emerges from your cracks will be more beautiful than what came before.

We’re here, breaking open alongside you.