People often are asking me why I chose a vegan lifestyle or plant-based diet.
And my answer is, for many reasons… however, the trigger was when I started to approach life from a more spiritual point of view. Being able to see through different eyes, one questions a lot of the old habits; by ignoring the signs and not making the necessary changes is a disservice to myself and to others around me.
I’m aware that what I’m about to write will possibly not resonate with every reader and definitely is going to trigger some sensitive buttons depending on each person situation and beliefs. This is my personal story and opinion on the matter and it’s an option for everyone to take on as much as it feels necessary and is comfortable with. Only a small shift in perception can go a long way in questioning one’s current actions and maybe decide to make a change as a result.
So here’s why:
For the animals:
Animals are our friends and they feel just like we do! The fact that we have desensitized ourselves to the point where we’re no longer aware of this, is an issue that most of the world has and is a collective mindset that is difficult to breakthrough unless people start to be more open minded about the subject. Unfortunately, the approach of trying to convince other people is not the best approach in my opinion especially if there is a sense of force involved or “I know best” attitude. I personally feel that everybody has a certain time or wake up call (reading a book/article, attending a course, difficult time on one’s life, illness, etc) that once triggered, people will become well aware that the suffering of the animals is totally uncalled for and we can very well live without eating them or their resources.
Talking about my own trigger and the process I went through several years back, it got me thinking of many scenes when I was a child and living at my grandparents in the country side for summer vacations. They did not have a lot of animals but the ones they had, were enough for a child like me to grow fond of them and make friends with… I was curious about how chickens were born or enjoyed how pets were nurtured by their mothers. It was another world I was immersed in other than playing around and it was fun and joyful… up until, I was seeing my friends disappearing and appearing once more on the table as a meal. This was the first time I felt conflicted, feeling the love and joy for them and then needing to eat them for dinner. Something was off… For a long time, I had painful memories that were surfacing of me being a child running from my grandparents home when they were slathering an animal or me crying that I was not able to save my chicken friend; begging the people that raised me and in the same time asking the chicken for forgiveness….”I’m sorry I cannot save you”. I even remembered negotiating with my grandparents…
Realizing that most of my attempts were futile, I gave up for a long time and just stopped that bleeding wound by not caring, starting to fit in the family and leave that under the rug – just like the majority of us do maybe with different things, sounds familiar, right?!
This happened until, years later, life gave me a wake-up call with a depression period when I was forced to get out everything I was avoiding looking at for a long time. I was releasing guilt and shame related to all the episodes when I did not have the power or authority to make my voice heard and felt a lot like the animals that were killed… The realization brought an instant decision to go vegetarian at that time; then, eventually turned vegan.
For the environment:
Sustaining the animal industry of processed foods, the amount of water, forage and the land that is used to support these industries is one of the main causes of the level a pollution that is affecting our planet at a deep level aside from the fossil fuel and other forms of abuse and misuse of the planet’s resources.
We can considerably reduce these issues by simply cultivating vegetables and stop wasting so many resources to keep an industry that is making us physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually sick and supports the death of so many innocent animals.
Veganism is the future.
Whether people are aware of it yet or not, veganism is the future as it simply represents the world peace diet. Is world peace one of your personal missions? Then, this is one of the ways you can support and invest in that mission.
For my health:
Meat and animal products are considered acidic. Having an acidic diet may cause a lot of health issues and may even contribute to the appearance of cancer on the long run. Having an alkaline balanced diet based on vegetable, fruits and nuts is a more than enough source of all the nutrients a person needs. (and yes, there are plenty of proteins in a plant-based diet).
Also, we need to learn again that our body has its own intelligence and knows exactly what food we can eat and not what our mind (external programming) was made to believe is good for us. However, most of the western society view is based on the mind and this is causing a break between the mind and the body – the major contradiction people needs to face and solve in order to have true integrity and walking the talk.
I leave this section here, trusting that those that want and wish to investigate further will make the effort to learn more about this.
For my spiritual life:
Growing your consciousness or becoming more aware of the deeper as well as the higher parts of yourself requires a level of discipline in order to reach those states. With practice, one’s notices that by eating “cleaner” food such as plant-based diet, their overall state as well as their level of reaching those states becomes easier to access than by eating animal products. It also known that the more you reach higher awareness and higher consciousness, you feel the need of eating less and less food, but this is another topic.
Also, from a Shamanic view and not only, we are all related, what we do to others, we do to ourselves, thus causing a ripple effect on the entire world from our behavior. Just tuning in someone’s energy field you can feel a shift in yourself (if you are sensitive enough) and they can influence you for the best or worst depending on the case. The same happens with the way we decide to live our lives; it affects other people around us whether we are aware of it or not. That’s why taking responsibility for ourselves first is required before trying to make a change outside ourselves. In other words, you are “food” for others and it’s up to you to make the decision what kind of “food” you are i.e healthy and fresh or one that can cause other to turn sick, yourself including.
For my work:
Part of the work that I do (healing and spiritual) consists in dealing with energy and the body’s energy field as well as connecting to altered states of consciousness.
Energetically when the animal is being killed it releases in the blood stream their last emotions (yes, animals feel) such as fear, anxiety or stress hormones. Doing energy work on myself or other people requires the responsibility to take care of how clean my energy is in order to better assist my clients. Being in a high state of love, compassion in order to support and facilitate the healing in the other person. If my energy field would be full of toxins such as stress hormones or low vibration energy such as fear or guilt from eating meat I would not be very supporting to my clients and to my overall wellness in the end.
This subject goes way beyond this article and can be seen from different points of view. My hope is that you, dear reader can see through my eyes for a moment and maybe decide on making a change in your daily habits that can benefit yourself, your family and the entire world at large.
“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
―
My blessings to you!
Isabela
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