Getting To Know You

Today I meditated on the word “love.”

All You Need is Love

I’m good at giving love. I love nurturing, I love seeing people smile, making people laugh, playing with children. I have a lot of love to give.

But sometimes while I am giving all that love out I forget about loving myself. Outwardly I am like an exotic tiger, inside I am like a malnourished child.

Why is it so hard to give back to the body and mind that you take so much energy from every day?

Carrie said it best in Sex and the City:

“Later that day I got to thinking about relationships. There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that’s just fabulous.”

So I have decided to do some spring cleaning (well summer cleaning). I am peeling down all the layers and reaching for the real Sookton. I know she is in there somewhere, ready to get out.

I started with a promise: to do yoga every day for 30 days.

Stop. Meditate. Breathe.

Next I began on a 90 day diet shift: the Fat Smash Diet by Dr. Ian Smith, M.D. (from Celebrity Fit Club). This diet was suggested to me by my new Doctor (who is awesome by the way from the Reproductive Associates of Delaware).

Thirdly, I am cleaning out my closet. I am getting rid of all this clutter that is bogging me down and stagnating my energy.

The yoga every day has proved to me that I CAN work out when I tell myself I can. It has been amazing to do yoga all over the place, whenever I can find time. My favorite places? The beach, with sand between my toes, in the middle of the night as the stars and moon hung heavily overhead. The sound of the waves crashing on the shore while I was in downward dog was just the most awesome experience! I also did yoga on a deck overlooking the bay by the beach in the middle of the afternoon with the sun on my back. That was a great place too. It seems to me yoga is meant to be done out in nature…the place where you are closer to God.

After keeping a food journal and doing this detox diet for a few days I have learned quite a lot.

Spinach = good

• Dark Green, Leafy Vegetables
• Nuts
• Fruits (especially berries)
• Grains (especially lentils)
• Rice
• Seafood

Foods My Body Hates:

• Red Meat
• Milk
• Caffeine *WAAAH
• Alcohol *WAAH WAAH
• Oily/Fried food
• Sugar *WAAH WAAH WAAH
• Refined white carbs: bread, rice, pasta, cake

MAN has it been hard giving up sugars, and cakes and

Chocolate cake = bad

oily food (french fries AAH!) It has been even harder refraining from booze. Don’t get me wrong I am not a booze hound but I love me a nice cold beer in the summertime. And with 4th of July coming up it is gearing up to be super hard!

But having said that, I do feel so much more energized! My body feels good, my mind feels clear, my skin is clearing up. I think I might have found a good combination.

The new combination is: Kick my butt into gear with yoga, eat fresh food following a clean diet, and clear out all the junk in my room.

Clearing out the junk has felt great too. Why I am I holding on to all these possessions? Do I use them? No. Will they follow me to the afterlife? Certainly not. So why must I buy?

In feng shui they call it stagnant energy and all these possessions have felt like a chain wrapped around my ankle. So now that I am getting rid of them, taking them to the Goodwill or ruthlessly throwing them out, I can feel myself getting lighter and lighter.

And soon I will be getting to know the real Sookton, and shedding the layers of the old Sookton that have been weighing me down.

Photo copyright Paul Patton