Finding Strength in Life's Fractures: How Breaking Leads to Healing

Ever noticed how life seems to break us right when we least expect it? That's what happened to me this week—literally. After weeks of moving boxes, setting up our new shop, and pushing my body to its limits, I found myself flat on the floor with my back completely out. Physical agony has a way of forcing us to slow down and listen.

Broken bones fascinate me. When properly set, they actually heal stronger at the breaking point. The body reinforces what was once weak, creating greater resilience precisely where the fracture occurred. But this only works when we acknowledge the break, get proper treatment, and give ourselves time to heal. Walking on a broken leg isn't brave—it's a recipe for permanent damage.

The same principle applies to our emotional, mental, and spiritual fractures. When dreams shatter, relationships end, or careers derail, our instinct is to push through, paste on a smile, and pretend we're fine. But what if those breaking points are actually invitations? Moments that force us to reset, realign, and finally address what we've been avoiding? 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Personal Injury Struggles
• 1:12 The Metaphor of Broken Bones
• 2:37 Breaks as Invitations to Heal
• 4:15 Finding Meaning in Getting Broken
• 5:37 Weekend Sign-off and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey everyone and thank you for joining me this week on the Mike Muldoon podcast. Thanks so much for being here. Hope you're having a great week. This is a really wild podcast that I'm doing because, well, I want to talk about broken things, but I got to tell you I feel broken physically over the last month between we were moving and tons and tons of boxes even though I had some movers, I still had a ton of stuff to move and we're doing our shop and tons of deliveries and moving, moving, moving, and at one point this week I my knee had just flared up and I was like hobbling around and then yesterday, yesterday, I threw my back out. I threw my back out and, um, I ended up like on the floor of our shop, like in so much pain and it's still. I'm better today. I'm better, but it's still painful. So, uh, yeah, it's pretty crazy Again, but it was weird because all this is happening to me and the podcast I wanted to talk about today you know, stuff I want to talk about today was about broken bones, but not just the physical kind. You know what I mean. I'll start there, but just stay with me on this. It's really about what happens when we break emotionally, mentally, spiritually and why those breaks, painful as they are, might just be exactly what we need, and that's what we're going to talk about today.

Speaker 1: 1:12

Think about a broken bone. When it's set properly, the healing process actually makes the bone stronger at the break point. It's the body's way of sort of reinforcing what was once weak. I mean, that's pretty fascinating, isn't it? But it only works if it's set right. See, if you ignore the break, you walk on it, pretend it's not broken, you're going to risk, basically, permanent damage. That's what I was telling you rest up, right, and that's true in life too.

Speaker 1: 1:59

When something inside of us breaks, a dream falls apart, a relationship ends, or, you know, we fail big. We want to rush past it, right, we want to cover it up, we want to push through, we want to put it behind us, but sometimes we even try to. You know, keep walking on it. I guess you know just smiling at work, trying to be strong for everybody else, even though you know we're broken and like, uh, you know, an untreated fracture. I guess you know, the longer we avoid it, the worse it can get. But what if we saw those breaks as invitations? Uh, a moment to, you know, reset, to realign, to pause and say, okay, this hurts, but what? But what now? I mean, what can I learn from this? I feel like that's kind of what's happened to me this week, because a lot of times physical ailments can also be emotional ailments, and I've talked about this in my past. You know what can we learn from this and what I've learned?

Speaker 1: 3:03

The hard way and maybe you too have times the break is often really where the healing begins right. It's where truth steps in, where we finally listen, where we stop pretending and start becoming. And this week for me it's been more about slowing down and knowing you know what, whatever has to get done is going to get done. I'm going to get done. But for me in the past, you know when you've been broken, maybe it's by, you know, a loss of an opportunity or a relationship or a job or whatever it was. It finally gives us an opportunity to kind of reflect on it and then to start healing, because sometimes we're so blinded by certain things Now we're kind of forced to listen, stop pretending and start becoming and realize what that challenge or what it may have been that was really affecting us then.

Speaker 1: 3:48

So I guess, for anybody out there who might, you know, be feeling this way. I guess the challenge is look at a break in your life. You know, look in the past if you can, or if you're having one now or in the future, but don't look at a break in your life Not as something shameful or embarrassing, but as part of your story, wouldn't that be? You know, makes you stronger If you can remember that break from your past, or if you're going through it, I don't know Journal about it, write it down, talk to somebody you trust, or just sit with it quietly. I mean, you don't have to have all the answers right away, right? Healing isn't instant, you know. Or your healing then wasn't instant, but it is possible and it was possible because you're here now and often it's that very break that shapes the strongest part of us. It's that sometimes it's that break that pushes us in a direction that changes our lives.

Speaker 1: 4:43

So, but as much as I don't want physically anybody to break, as we get older we take on more. Maybe we start reflecting on our lives. You know we start breaking in other ways. You know, as a kid we broke our arms jumping from trees and jumping ramps and you know, I saw a really interesting meme about that recently where somebody was talking about and I remember this too growing up You'd go to school and you'd be like dude, what happened? Your friend would have a broken leg, another friend would have a broken arm, Someone had a broken nose Jumping out of trees, jumping ramps, running. We were wild and crazy. You know, we were just out in the world doing things.

Speaker 1: 5:20

But I think as we get older, those breaks do come in a form of more of an emotional or spiritual or some sort of mental break, some sort of mental break, and that's an opportunity to look at it. Don't look at it as something that's going to set you back. Look at it as an opportunity for healing, to help move you forward. All right, all right. Everybody, thanks for listening to me today. I mean, if this episode is connecting with you, great. If you know somebody who might need it, share it with them. As always, you know, make sure you subscribe on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and share any you know any episodes that might be resonating with you, or friends or family members, and listen. It's the weekend, have a great time, be safe and, as always, I got nothing but love for you. We'll see you next time.