THE MANGO TREE OF LOVE

Published:July 7, 2021

How do you eat your mango, do you bite right into it? Do you dice it? Do you cut it into nice slices or do you juice it? Biting into a ripe mango is a fun way for me, having its juices dripping all over my fingers could be messy for some people but for me it takes me back to my inner child and that’s the same way self-care is.
Looking at the tree of self-knowledge a lot goes on but we only care for the nice succulent juicy fruit that ends up on the shelves or vendors and into our stomach and in this case that bubbly, happy go lucky person we have always admired. How did this person achieve such a happy demeanor? We ask. It is simple, they learned the art of self- knowledge.
At the root of the tree of self- love is the awareness (Whitney Houston sang -Learning to love yourself it is greatest love of all). Without awareness nothing can move on, all the best intentions will fail, all you never wanted to do you will do. Everybody needs to know who they are, know your situation, know your thoughts, how this leads to your feelings and how this makes you behave or act.

By the way did you know that there is very little you do in this world without thinking about it? Save for the biological processes that happen automatically like breathing, heart pumping, digestive system hormonal changes and living, most things happen after we have thought about it.
At the trunk of the tree is the beliefs and behaviour. Most of the times you find that your beliefs, whether coming from negative situations, things you have heard or seen or what you have learned from others, shapes your behaviour. In fact your beliefs will create your intentions and in human life our intentions are mainly for survival and avoiding pain. We search for happiness and fulfillment even when it hurts others, without realising that if our intentions are just purely on our own happiness then we will keep hurting. The sooner we realise that our happiness is linked to others happiness the less pain we will get.
The branches and the leaves of our succulent mango tree is the things that we can control. If you have notices with mango trees as well as other trees, they tend to shed off their leaves grow new ones just before they flower. This teaches us that we need to grow and extend the things we can control like our attitudes, positive thoughts, making informed decision, improving our conversations like I am doing at the toastmasters club. We need to shade off the things we cannot control. You know that what people say about you is totally out of your control, what other people do is outside your control. Your past should fall off like the mango leaves and bring forth new leaves then flower.
The flowers and new leaves represent the new power habits you develop as you navigate your life and bear fruits. The king fruit we love to see is made up of power habits like setting boundaries, assertive communication, having values and virtues, setting goals, empathy and embracing yourself and all that you are. All the while the tree engages in using the sunshine and making its own nutrients and giving life. The very same way you need to engage in life sustaining activities, engage in mental stimulation, spiritual awakening, self-care and self-love and happiness for all. In all the life of a mango tree, have you noticed that it only starts feeding others at the tip of the tree? Yes the insects and the bees only feed when its flowering and then other animals including humans feed on the leaves and fruits. It teaches us to love ourselves and care for ourselves in order to give the best to others.

It is said that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, the mango tree teaches us that “A little self-love a day, keeps mental illness away”.

  Lynette Yogo