Leonard Cohen’s quote triggered in me the many ways and opportunities we have to turn ourselves around. Here’s one recent example :
One of my clients was recently going through a tough time…let’s call her Tess. Tess received many financial gifts from her mother — who attached huge cables of control to each gift. Tess had fought with her mother for years about her spending habits, and was in tears about their most recent crisis level.
Her mother had insisted Tess see a specific financial consultant to help her sort out her finances and get more organized with her money. In order to continue receiving financial support from her mother, Tess was forced to share the details of her spending with this man and felt this was a huge violation of her privacy. Her pain was deep, as a 40-year-old woman, she felt humiliated by her mother’s intrusive ways. She felt weak, exhausted, angry, frustrated and depressed from the fights with her mother.
Towards the end of the phone call, Tess said she felt she was falling apart from it all. She feared she was having a complete breakdown from her mother’s brutal words and actions. I was silently listening and saying small phrases of acknowledgment and endorsement while she spoke.
Finally, Tess declared that she would rather be estranged from her mother than keep going through this agony with her over money. At this point, Tess announced she would sell her large condo, move into a smaller place, and become financially independent from her mother. My comment was, “So, you’re not having a breakdown, now you’re having a breakthrough….this may be for your greatest good…what do you think?”
When I said these words, Tess lit up and became so excited…she had revealed her cracking up process to me, and now a little light was coming through the crack. Plus, she was now being empowered by this emotionally depleting situation to realize that for her to have complete freedom — even her own financial freedom — she would need to detach from her mother’s money.
This is what living and practicing conscious transformation is all about, how do we turn our defeats into a victories? How do we use these cracks in our lives for the evolution of our consciousness?
“There is a crack in everything, and that’s how the light gets in,” resonates for me on many levels…So next time, I want to discuss what it means when we are “cracking up…” The good news, the bad news, the view from therapeutic laughter research….yes, more on “cracking up” to be continued….
© 2010 by Lisa Wessan. All rights reserved.
The Lighter Side of Transformation 
Leave a Reply