Dave Johnson, PhD, CNS, BC, LMFT, Parkview Center for Healthy Living, invites us to take inventory of what we need to release from our lives.
Watch the video: Mindful Reset: The power of letting go
Several years back, I heard a story about how, in certain parts of India, there was an abundance of monkeys, like the geese problem in Fort Wayne. To corral the animals without harming them, they would put a bundle of bananas on the street inside a tightly woven bamboo box. The box was not exactly like a cage, the bars were closer together, but the monkeys could see and smell the fruit inside.
Monkeys are curious by nature and so they would force their hands between the bars, which was a tight squeeze, and grab a banana. When the monkey attempted to pull their closed hand back through the bar it would get stuck. Of course they could go free, if only they would drop the fruit. But they wouldn’t.
Like monkeys in a jungle, sometimes we hold onto things. But it's not that we just hold onto things – we sometimes grip. And that gripping is part of a musculoskeletal system. You hear me sometimes say the body keeps the score, and so where does gripping and holding land on you?
What are your bananas?
Maybe a banana is an old hurt, an old anger, an old story, a sense of perfectionism or a sense of righteousness. Maybe the banana is an actual person or a situation that's rotten or toxic. Maybe you can't completely let go for whatever reason, but can you soften the grip through mindfulness?
Begin by naming your bananas. From there, you can breathe into the issue, pray or journal about it, confide in someone you trust. But first, you have to identify what you’re gripping onto. Only then can you work on letting it go.
