Wow! A lot of changes have been going on within me. As you have probably noticed, I have renamed this here blog to Sweet Surrender which seems to be more heart felt and fitting to me.
The most consuming thing that has been going on for me is my new journey into experimenting with raw foods. I have been eating about 97% raw for the past three weeks. I started out with the intention of going for 10 days, but I just felt so darn good I decided to continue for awhile longer. I really can't believe the changes that just three weeks can bring. I feel like my senses are more alive. I feel increased energy. I haven't really lost weight (I don't own a scale so I can't know for sure), but I definitely can feel my body changing and my clothes feeling looser. I feel mucous leaving my body. Elimination is above average. The appearance of my skin is improving. I feel so much gratitude and blessed. I feel drawn to nature and have been spending tons of time outdoors. I feel less afraid and more at peace. I feel like I am rewiring my thought grooves.
This is a big one for me and maybe the main reason why I am doing this, for reprogramming. I have recently been reminded of the fact that when you think a thought, it creates a thought groove in your mind. The more you think this thought, the deeper the groove becomes. This happens with all of your thoughts, so the ones you think over and over again are forming deep valleys in your minds until they are so deeply penetrated that any experience that you have is filtered through these and you can only perceive reality through these thought patterns you have formed. This really blows my mind especially when I heard that the thoughts you thought today are probably the same thoughts you have had every day for years.
You can gently reprogram yourself, but it defintely takes an awareness of what you are thinking and a redirecting. You have to be quite persistant. Yoga and breathwork can also help a shift in this area to occur. I feel like I am even more aware of my mind chatter while on raw foods and I feel like a lot of the negative self talk that I have been doing for years is being replaced with positive thoughts. This is a liberating feeling.
I am also working right now at freeing the love warrior within myself. This part of me is the woman who is awake at each moment, making the best decisions for herself (myself) with every twist and turn in life. I am learning from the book I am reading The Craft of the Warrior (see book list) that habits can keep the loved warrior suppressed from her true shining self. So, I feel like coming onto a raw foods diet has shaken up every single food pattern that I have had. I am moving into new territory and my love warrior is coming out to play. It is an adventure that so far has been absolute joy.
I am not sure where this diet change is going to lead. A part of myself is concerned with going 100% raw because it is just another belief system that can tie up my love warrior and I definitely don't want that to happen. How I feel right now and goals I am setting for myself is that I will continue this for awhile longer and then if I do decide I want to eat raw foods, I will just try to eat as much raw as possible on any given day. I know, however, that I have several pounds of beans and rice in my home due to being part of a food buying club and I feel like I need to lovingly prepare those for my family. I could just go cold turkey and clear out the cuppboards, but that doesn't feel right to me (especially with the goal of financial freedom so that we can finally buy some land that we have been dreaming of for years!). But right now I feel like if I ate at the maximum four cooked meals per week (oh just typing this sounds like sooo many, so maybe less) I could maintain the good sense of well being I have come into. I think I would eat beans and whole grains and cooked vegetables, and I have been craving eggs, but we have an excellent farmer who pastures the hens that we buy them from. I also think that with ANY cooked meal 50% of it would be raw because it is my understanding that the body doesn't have as severe of a reaction to cooked foods if they are consumed with at least half of them being raw. These are the thoughts that are whirling through my mind.
Honestly right now, I feel like I could eat raw for a long, long time. I am not sure how I would feel in the winter since I live in a four season climate, but I have read some recipes that you can gently warm that sound like they may help. I also know that supporting a local community of grower's and farmers is important to me, so although I have bought tropical items, this week I have only been eating what I have obtained from my farmer's market ( except for two bananas) which feels really right. I also have been really inspired to start growing my own food and although we have very limited sunny spots in my yard, I have double dug two garden spots to plant a fall crop of greens,lettuces, beets, carrots and raddish. This is also making me question if we could create a cold frame for winer greens. I am also quite interested in starting an indoor sprout garden and growing wheat grass, sunflower, and buckwheat greens. I ate some cooked potatoes today that my friend Keith grew organically with love and gifted us with. I felt pretty good after eating them. I read in Viktoras Kuluinskas book Survival into the 21st century, that if you eat some cooked root veggies, that is probably preferable over too many nuts and seeds which I would like to use sparingly because I know if I was shelling all those nuts and seeds that I eat, I would be eating a lot less!
A couple last thoughts. I am really inspire by Victoria Boutenko's book Green For Life.(again look at side bar) I have been making a few green smoothies a week but would like to incorporate them daily. Vicotria has a newly revised book out called Twelve Steps to Raw that I am eagerly waiting to read. I would also like to research more about pregnancy and the raw foods diet because possibly by the end of the year I may like to become pregnant again. I think if I do turn to raw foods, it will be a very gradual process, but I have definitely given up white flour, white sugar, and high fructose corn syrup for life! All I know is that I feel pretty darn awesome right now and let me tell you, yoga in combination with the raw high is amazing! I was practicing advanced pranayama (breath work) the other day and steve called. When I answered the phone (which I had to because he was Really trying to get a hold of me -he called the house phone. my cell phone, and then the house phone once again), I could hardly even speak to him and bring myself down to that earthly level. I was so BLISSED! I have to say too, I love being blissed! I have also found some amazing inspiring raw blogs and websites, so I hope to be updating my side bar soon, so that I can share these with you (Aimee, my only for sure reader tee-hee).
Well, if you actually stopped by here and read to the end of this long winded post, thanks so much!