You have been opening your banana the wrong way?

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

“You realize that you have been opening your banana the wrong way?” Hassan stated as we got ready to feast on some amazing Somali food. “What?” I questioned puzzled. “You have been opening your banana the wrong way!” He said again with a grin on his face. I had a feeling there was more to this, so I sat back and got ready to hear what he had to say. When he was finished, I sat back in awe and took in the fact that I had learned something over a business meal that would change my life forever.

Greetings Toronto! Another week here with Toronto Caribbean Newspaper, and I hope that you are all having a fantastic week. It is funny how the simplest lessons in life can have the most impact. So I know you are wondering why the hell I am talking about bananas; so I am going to ask you, how do you open your banana? Are you like the majority of people in the Western Hemisphere who open it up from the thick end? I am sure that many of us have spent countless seconds trying to force a banana open. Some, like my father, have thought it brilliant to just cut off the head of the banana and peel it that way. Well, today’s article is not only going to change the way you open your banana, but it is also going to change the way that you look at other parts of your life.

Here is how you open a banana. It is very much like how a monkey opens a banana (and they say we are on the hierarchy of evolution); you ignore the handle like stem, because in all technicalities, what we see as the top of the banana is actually the bottom. Turn your banana upside-down and focus on the nubby, pointed tip at the opposite end. Pinch this tip between your first finger and thumb – this will split the skin of the banana cleanly, allowing you to peel it back. Easy! I explained this to my partner Dave, and I wouldn’t say he didn’t believe me, but he was hesitant. He asked me to open one the way I had explained and I did. He was shocked but delighted at the same time. I then said to him, “Imagine, many of us have been doing this simple task wrong our whole lives; what else have we been doing wrong?”

This is the question I have for our readers today, what other aspects of your life do you swear are correct because you have been doing them this way for a long time? Many of us are stuck in our lives and we cannot figure out why. We have old patterns that are not serving us, but because they have been a part of us for so long, we stay true to them, even though like the banana, we end up squashing, and bruising parts of our life in attempts of moving forward. No one wants to repeat hindering patterns, but they can be tough to break because they are deeply rooted in our memories. I have spoken of the power of subconscious before; it has the ability to re-create original: traumas, thoughts of neglect, abandonment or lack of love. The subconscious will recreate the original situations in hopes that this time things will turn out differently. Unfortunately, as many of us know from experience, this is not the case.

Time for some self-reflection; take a look at your life right now. What situations do you continue to recreate? Relationships are a good place to start this discovery process. Do you find yourself wondering why you always wind up with abusive bosses, self-centered friends, and withdrawn and unsupportive partners?

The next time you peel a banana, look at it and think, what small changes do I need to make in order to make life less messy?