Drop the Banana! 🍌

Watch how monkeys get trapped by their own thoughts! 🙊(and how it can happen to you too 🤯)

Monkeys get captured in the wild by hunters who put a small piece of fruit in a hole in the ground - but there’s no actual ‘trap’. The monkey could escape any time. But it’s trapped by its mind.

Watch this remarkable 30 second video, and see how it works!

The hole is wide enough for the monkey to put its hand in, but when it grabs the banana or melon seeds, it can’t pull it out.  It could release itself any time, just by letting go of the fruit.  

But it doesn’t. The thought of letting go is too much, and the hunter returns to find the monkey stuck with its hand in the hole. 

A similar thing happens to us when we hold onto unhelpful thoughts. We get stuck. Trapped. Unable to free ourselves and move on with our life. 

Imagine someone knocks off your wing mirror on the way to work. They drive away and leave you feel angry and upset. Ten minutes later they are long gone, maybe even unaware of what happened, but you’re still thinking about what they did to you. You’re still feeling just as angry, actually even more angry now your mind has created even more drama. Depending on how long you hold onto the thought, it could last all day. In a more serious situation where you need to get your car repaired, you may even hold onto the thoughts for days, weeks or even months. 

By then, the situation of the person hitting your car is not what’s causing you stress. It’s your thoughts about the situation. You’re still holding onto the banana.

• ‘Why did they do this to me!?’

• I can’t believe they drove off and left me to pay for everything’

• ‘Things like this shouldn’t happen’

• ‘I would have stopped and made sure everything was ok if it was the other way around!’

• ‘What a ***!!’

Our body reacts to these thoughts as if they are real situations happening to us now.

When we get mad, our heart rate, blood pressure and respiration increases. Our mind thinks it’s trying to help us, by getting us ready to fight or protect ourselves. It releases stress hormones including adrenaline and cortisol to fire us up for something that’s not likely to happen. 

This is very similar to what happens to the monkey holding onto the banana. It won’t let go. That’s all that’s needed for freedom. It could be free in a heartbeat, but it refuses to let go.

It’s the same for us when we hold onto unhelpful thoughts. And it happens much more than we realise too - not just for big events. 

So if you get stressed today, see if you can tell whether it’s the thoughts of a situation that’s causing the stress, or the situation itself. 

The good news is that if you learn how to drop the thought (🍌), you can enjoy the freedom from stress too.

More at www.stresslessness.me and in upcoming blogs - stay tuned!