When I was young, I idolised my very much older brother. So much so that I recall he once said something to me about the way I wouldn’t eat my watermelon right down to the white part and it hurt me so much that I decided, there and then, never to eat watermelon again. Note that I didn’t decide to simply eat it right down to the quick as he was suggesting I should!
I must have liked watermelon because I don’t remember ever eating anything I didn’t like without a fair amount of turmoil. But, click, just like that I turned off the receptor that said watermelon was an acceptable food. It has to be said that watermelon has passed my lips in the intervening years – mixed into fruit salad, for example, when it would be a little difficult to single it out and leave it in the bowl – but really I have steered clear of it for more than 40 years on, basically, a whim.
Why am I dredging up about this long-ago piece of unimportance? Because I have realised there is a little gem hidden in its depths that sometimes evades us. And that is, it’s not always as difficult as we think to delete something from our lives. Really. Sometimes it’s a case of the decision being made when the emotional environment is exactly right. There is no further angst, no affirmations required, no need to think about it deeply ever again. From that moment on, it’s just the new normal.
Perhaps we can replicate that accidental success I had when the emotions of the moment made the decision stick so easily. We can spend a little time delving into our emotions and getting them to work for us in a way that helps move us towards our aspirations.
Food for thought. And at least you don’t have to spit out the pips.