A Mindful Snack That Changes Everything

A banana on an office coffee break doesn’t sound like the start of a bigger life lesson, but that’s exactly why it works. We tell a short, playful therapeutic story about Mary finally slowing down enough to notice the sweet smell of her snack, and how that single mindful moment shifts her whole mood. It’s a simple reminder that mindfulness isn’t about perfection, it’s about paying attention for long enough to actually feel your day.

Then Fred steps in with a line that makes Mary recoil: “May I keep that?” He wants the banana skin. What follows is funny and surprisingly practical, from banana peel shoe polish for leather shoes to the deeper point behind it: we’re often blind to what’s valuable because it’s familiar, “gross”, or right in front of us. We connect this to sustainability and reuse, but also to relationships, where we can overlook someone who’s been there all along.

We also talk candidly about dating and social pressure, and how mindful awareness helps you slow down, notice your boundaries, and remember you’re allowed to say no. Along the way, we explore the idea of “pre-loved” and why it can be a kinder, stronger way to view your heart after a breakup or divorce, just like vintage clothing with a story and real worth.

If this gave you a breath of space, subscribe, share it with someone who needs a reset, and leave a review so more listeners can find us. What’s one small thing you’re ready to notice again today?

Transcript

indfulness Hiding In Plain Sight

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Mindfulness and how sometimes we can't see what's right in front of our eyes and appreciate it when it's just absolutely there. That's right, and the multiple uses that something can also happen. We did write quite a funny little story about a banana. A banana, and that's what we're gonna be talking about in this week's episode of Get Real with the English system. So we'll go straight into it because this one is you can you can listen to it whilst driving. Yes, I think so. It's for my book stress free in three minutes, and it's called the banana. Right, so I'm gonna let you start with this one. Mary looked at the banana. It was a handy and healthy snack. She took it out of her bag in the office at 11 o'clock and peeled it with care, as she didn't care for bruises. It smelt ripe and sweet. She only noticed that because Fred had pointed out it to her a couple of days ago. She took her first bite and saved the sweet smell, something she didn't often do. As she was used to eating rather quickly. However, today was different because that sweet smell stuck in her mind. And she realized that all was not as it seemed. The banana it's hard to keep a straight face. The banana felt sticky and it reminded her of sticky toffee and toffee apples. And she didn't know why, but she did know that her mind had begun to wander to thinking about banana plants and plantations all whilst in the office on her coffee break. Fred startled her when he said, Hey, as she finished her banana and was about to throw the skin away. May I keep that? he said with glee. Whatever for, she thought, and gave him a look of curiosity and slight disgust. Oh, you don't know why, he said, with a cheeky grin as he looked down and then went on to explain. My leather shoes are dusty and dirty. This banana skin will polish them up fine.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

It's something I'd learnt from a fine woman once upon a time.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

This little tale often makes us laugh. It's because it's got that kind of gleeful thing about it. It's it's and and I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Well, it's a phenomenon. It's a it can remind us of other things. Yeah. It has slight connotations to it.

ating Slower And Saying No

SPEAKER_03 2:44

And I suppose it was intended to have slight connotations. It was intended to how we can we can take things for granted that we have right before us. Yes, and we cannot appreciate them. And often how, like in this case, Mary was disgusted by the skin when Fred said, Can I have that? Yes. She was repulsed by it. She thought, What do you want my old banana skin for? Yeah. But he said, actually, this is gonna be great for my leather shoes. Yeah, to polish them. To polish them up fine. Somebody taught me that, so he'd learnt something from the past. And she learned that Fred, she learned that Fred liked it. She learned that Fred was around. She did. She did learn that Fred was around, yeah. She noticed him. She was in her office in her normal like routine, so that's just every chucking along. And then all of a sudden, by being mindful about noticing the sweet smell of the banana, because she began to become fully mindful of what she was actually eating. Because a lot of the time, I think that's something that we all lack, isn't it? We don't realise. I think we can take that for granted in relationships as well, or when we're dating, we can not fully appreciate what we're going into as well. We can rush into things or rush into dates or rush into and once we're in them, not appreciate how lovely they actually are.

SPEAKER_04 4:17

Yeah.

top Scrolling And Let Minds Wander

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Like we can take for granted that person that's near us, just like you take for granted, you just scoff the banana down. You don't even realise the loveliest if you enjoy bananas, obviously. If you like any other kind of food you're eating, and and you know, you you do you begin to forget how lovely they actually are, and you don't notice it. You don't appreciate it, you don't appreciate it. So I think that's the story was meant for the kind of with that in mind, I think. Sometimes I think it can be the opposite as well. You do you do you get yourself into situations that you might not really want to be in because you're not mindful and you're not like fully conscious of of what you're doing at the time, so you might rush into something where you'd rather just savour it and and maybe not go there so quickly. Right, yeah. So so so elaborate on that, for example. For example, say if you're dating and you get you go on your first date and your your partner says you want to come round and you go round, maybe you might not really, there might be a part of you that's thinking wasn't ready to go away. I'm not ready to go away, but you feel constrained by the fact that you've been offered something without fully thinking that I can say no as well. I don't have to do things all the time just because someone else leads the way to it. Yeah, so in reference to the the sweet banana, if she if if you take more time to savour what you're actually experiencing, to notice how you're feeling, you'll be able to acknowledge it and and realise, oh, I am feeling this or I'm not feeling that, I'm not ready yet. Listen to yourself as well. So a lot of the time I think social etiquette is not was not right, for example, for Fred to say, Can I have the skin? No, but it did bring her out of her normal uh sort of that that made her realise she wanted to just put it in the bin. So she so this was very bold of Fred to say, Hey, do you mind? He was cheeky, you know, he might have been a future perhaps, you know, flirt that she could have had with Fred. She didn't really notice Fred before she hadn't noticed him. Okay, right. And so there may be someone in your life that you haven't noticed as well, and you and you can take a mindful moment to actually notice these people in your lives that you might have not have noticed. Yeah, you might have no. And they're right there, they're right there, yeah, they're right there. Very often it's like that, isn't it? They're just there, and you just can't see them. There's people say that it's very difficult to date nowadays, and the dating game is so different with all the apps and everything, but sometimes you might have just someone just right there in front of you that you haven't noticed. It might be just like that banana skin, you know, that you you you can't you can't really see it. You you you think it's nothing, you think you're it's something that's of no value to you, but it is, it's very precious and or a very precious person could be right there. Yeah, it's it's weird how life can offer us these opportunities that we sometimes we can't see. Well, yes, we can't see them, we can't notice them. It it's so true, and how something can have so many uses as well. We don't we're not aware of. Well, it certainly gets you into lateral thinking. It's a different frame of mind, and it also got Mary in this particular case to think about the banana plantation. She actually drifted away for a moment, which is what we do encourage a lot, is that you actually stop scrolling on your phone and go into some kind of a mindful moment of your own, which you can create. You can like she was eating a simple banana, you could be eating a sandwich, you could be just drinking something or anything. You don't even have to be eating or drinking in any particular it's because that's like your break time, isn't it? A lot of the time.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Where does that come from? You can be we can your mind can kind of wander to where your tea comes from.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

What country does it originate from? Who picked the tea leaves? Were they make you know, were they picked mechanically, or did someone actually pick them with love? It allowing them our minds to wander creates calmness and gratitude within us, and appreciation of what we actually have that we often take for granted because it's normal to take it for granted as well, because we're it's so available to us. It's abundant. Yeah, it's abundant, like you know, you think that people around you can also be abundant and you can take them for granted too. Like Fred was probably taken for granted, but yet he had this cheeky grin on his face. Well, he obviously as if to say you didn't even know about me, you know. Not only do you not realize there's the banana skin, you hadn't realised I was around. You hadn't kind of realized, hey, I exist, you know. Hello, I am and I like you. Yes, that's that's definitely I, you know. I mean, you wrote this particular story, so you are the author of it, so you because we alternate the stories in the book, but also because our mum used to clean her shoes with a banana skin. Really? I didn't realise that. You don't remember that. I don't remember that shoes. I that's the first thing I thought of when I no, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't remember that. You didn't know. I I can't I can't remember she would actually clean the letters. She would use it, huh? She would use a banana skin to clean her shoes. I can't even remember her doing that. I must have been in like somewhere else or something. Yeah, I think that's who the fine woman was. It was our mum. Very sweet. Oh right. That's who the fine woman won.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

I thought it was like a past lover or something of this Fred.

anana Skin Shoe Polish Hack

SPEAKER_03 10:37

She had a lot of wisdom with her. She did, yes. Yes. I think the more you live, the more wisdom you acquire. Yeah, if you are like an intuitive person that is open to learn. Yeah, because the banana skins have they have a lot of natural oils in them which clean leather very nicely. Wonderful. No, I mean, I don't particularly, I I don't do you do that nowadays with your shoes. If I have if I have shoes that are dirty and that are leather, I do. And you happen to be eating a banana at the time. If I see they're dirty, I would do it.

SPEAKER_04 11:10

You would or do you? No one was looking.

unknown 11:13

Ah, right.

SPEAKER_04 11:13

Because it's not the kind of thing you'd do in person. No, but like at home.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

At home.

SPEAKER_04 11:18

At home, I can't say I do.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

No, no. I can't be. I have done it in the past. Right, okay, yeah. I have done it. We might I mean it's really well, yeah. It's an electrical way of reusing something. You clean your shoes and then you put in the compost. Compost here, so you're still it's still not being thrown away. But yeah, it's that got like this extra use that you wouldn't have to buy a chemical shoe polish for. Oh, definitely, definitely. They clean, they do clean them up and then you just buff them. They clean up beautifully. Oh wow, I've got my little leather boots there. Your little black bananas, are you wondering? Yeah, I definitely not have a problem with it, no. Exactly. I mean, there's definitely multiple uses to it. I didn't, yeah, I just throw the bananas in the compost. But yes, there's much to be said, and um it does make you reflect on things, doesn't it? I think if you can take a moment to get away, I just think about the also the to be mindful as well of how how many things can uh that one man's rubbish is another man's treasure.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Yeah, very as well.

SPEAKER_03 12:31

Yes. What we think is we don't want anymore, the people will find absolutely amazing and really beautiful. So it it makes you think, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Yeah, how to reuse things.

re Loved Hearts And Fresh Starts

SPEAKER_03 12:43

I think there is more of a culture of that nowadays, yeah. Because with the vintage and all the you know, you sell your used things, you can or or give them away, which is really nice as well. Pre-loved clothes as well, pre-loved things. I mean, that's a nice way of calling it pre-loved. I didn't even know about that that day. They call pre-loved clothes. How wonderful, yeah. Because it's someone else loved it and then you love it now, and you can buy it and I I had never noticed that, the use of that word, pre-lov. I mean, that's a nice way to think about yourself as well as you enter a new relationship if you've you know, if you've left, if you've had if you just recently divorced and that you think, well, okay, I have been pre-loved, and now I am open again for a new uh relationship, have a new kind of uh relationship in my life. Well, that is a new way of thinking about it, I suppose. Yeah, because my heart has already experienced love, so I have already pre-loved.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

You've had the experience.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

I've had the experience.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

But instead of like thinking of it. Like it was a waste of your time.

um’s Dresses And Family Memory

SPEAKER_03 13:58

Yeah, you gained a lot of love from it. You get you gained love if you if you were lucky to experience love. Obviously, we're talking about relationships where you actually felt love and you gave love, but then for whatever reason it finished, as it often does, and it can happen. But then to think of your heart as you know, like it's it's been pre-loved, so it may not be as new as uh a heart that is never loved, but yet it has it has experience. It's like a piece of clothing that has already been used, it has some wonderful story to tell. It's it it's been pre-loved, so maybe a little bit more gentle with it, you know, because it because it could be a bit vintage, it could be a bit fragile, yes, but at the same time, so valuable, very valuable because it it has a history to it. It has a history. It does. So I mean I I always remember going through Mum's closet. She didn't have that much, even though she was a dressmaker by the time she got rid of all of it. She got rid of loads of stuff, but she did have one of those few little dresses that like that she was tiny, so I'm tall, so she uh they would never fit me. It fits me. It fits you, yeah. You're more in the I mean you're not even tiny. She was tiny, but she was more like a mini skirt, mini dress on it. Mini dress on you, but like those. But they were a bit longer, so even now it still feels quite long. Does it and do you still have some of those? I have one of her petticoats that I could still wear, and then I have one of her one of her handmade silk ones. Well, hey, I've got her engagement dress when she got engaged to dad with. What colour is it? The red one. Oh, that I thought that was like a created. I didn't realise that was actually her. You got so many more stories out of mum than I did.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

You were like off, weren't you?

SPEAKER_03 16:02

Off where first of all I used to sew with her. Yes, that was. So she'd tell me most of the stories then. Then I was probably more interested in clothes and fashion. Yes, yes. So I would ask her where her dresses were and I want to see them. That was like boisterous. I thought that was like her cocktail dress or something. She said it was her engagement dress. Wow. Oh. Because I always wanted to see her wedding dress, and she always told me the story how she'd given it to Tiamari, her sister. Our Auntie Mary, Maria, and uh it was, and that Tiamari had basically butchered it. Mum didn't like the fact that she cut it down, she made it into a dress. She changed it. Oh, yeah, she changed it to get married. Oh, right, yeah, I do remember that bit about her wedding dress, yeah. I didn't actually know that that red dress was her engagement dress. Yeah. So I don't know why we wanted down this. You were so interested in her stories as I was. No, perhaps not. Because I was a bit younger, wasn't I? You were like more you wanted to be running around and doing more stuff like that. Yeah, reading the Faraway Tree and things like that. No, because I used to like reading the Faraway Tree. I couldn't know a film is coming out. Oh, I hope it lives up to my childhood expectations. It we probably won't, but it because it's gonna be different. But I think it's uh I I saw a clip of it and then I thought, wow, you know, it's gonna be coming out with a little fairy, Nicole Nicola, the one who does Bridgeton.

SPEAKER_04 17:33

Yeah.

ilence, Wisdom, And Expanded Worlds

SPEAKER_03 17:35

She's gonna be in it, so it's gonna she's adorable. It's gonna be adorable. I used to love that book. Anyway, I think we wandered down this path because you were talking about the fine woman with mum. Oh, exactly. Oh, yes, going back to it, yeah, you're right. We give the podcast some meaning, and the meaning is definitely there, and it's about pre-loved objects and and how you may not be able to appreciate what you have around you. You may not be able to see it, not appreciate it, because once again your mind needs to have that time to wander, I think. We need to allow ourselves tiny little breaks, as we said in the podcast before. I think our world has become so frenetically that we are so like impatient to even have a moment of silence. And it's really nice. Like the other day, I was listening to a podcast where they didn't cut the silence, and I almost thought, what's happened? Really? Yeah, but then I realized that it was just a moment to ponder on what was being said. Yeah, that's so true.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

I was gonna give you a moment of silence now. It just came like now I'm just gonna not have a moment of silence. It just seemed it did seem much, it didn't it? Oh, I don't know. This is a rather cheeky story, but it's definitely a story that can be has a lot of wisdom, I think.

herapy Support And Sign Off

SPEAKER_03 19:17

It it was it was it was designed to be a therapeutic story, so even though it's a joyful and a funny and a cheeky one, there is there is therapy behind it, isn't there? Well, there's therapy, and it's obviously it's uh allow you to be stress-free and free of your anxiety as well. If you being able to take these mindful moments and open up, you'll notice that your world expands and that you have so much more creativity, and you're so much more inspired, and you're so much more willing to give that person next to you the time of day to actually listen to them to see what they're saying. Yes, yes, I really like what you said, your world expands because we all have our little worlds, and having your world expand is is an incredible thing because you you make new connections, new people, uh your world expands. I mean, how lovely is that? You don't just limit yourself. I think so many of us like instead of it make allowing our world to expand, we we close ourselves off and we make it smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller, more and more stressful, more and more anxiety prone. Whereas if we do the opposite and we take a moment to savour the things around us and look at different, find different uses for things, you can you can get into that really creative space where you you can allow your your mind to wander and experience new things and uh say yes to new things as well and say, hey, yeah, we can use that banana skin for all for all the things. Wonderful, yeah, yeah. They're really exciting. Exactly, yeah. There are so many, there are so many exciting things if you allow your mind to expand, as you said, and to see and to feel and to look around you for a moment, you'll notice so many different things. So, taking a deep breath in. And we are therapists and we are here to help you. And if you would like to book a session with us, we are available online.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Just signing off. Signing off lots of lovers from the English sisters. Bye bye. Come and see our video on YouTube too, and subscribe. I love you lots. Bye.