The V word.

 

It's been around 10 months since meat left my diet and around 8 months since milk walked on out.  Now, for someone who ate meat at every meal (steak for breakfast kinda girl) and didn’t even know the difference between vegan and vegetarian until last year, this a big turning point.
There is this common misconception that everyone who is ‘vegan’ or ‘veggie’ has a shaved purple head, smells of BO and waves their arms up in the air to the infinite from their treehouse in the forest where they have retreated in disgust at human life and now hug trees for an occupation. I don’t make any judgement at people who hold this view because to be honest I was once one of them, quaffing as I chowed down my 3rd steak of the day. 

But it doesn’t have to be that extreme or ‘out there’, I don’t even know that it is/was a conscious decision to stop consuming meat but more of one of deciding to live in truth. Educating myself on what is going on in this crazy world we live in (crazy but amazing world that we live in!) especially when it comes to what happens behind closed doors in the factory farmed, corporate, money making world. No, I'm not about to show you horrifying pictures or describe scenes of animal death but what I will quietly suggest is that for anyone that is continually outraged at corporate and government gain based on deception start to really look into what is happening on our very doorsteps. Not just in the wild USA (that was a common excuse for me when watching factory farm exposing films ‘ oh that terrible but it doesn’t happen here, its just in the states’). Lets not kid ourselves here, USA is worse, yes, but we are not exempt in the UK or Australia. 

 

I say meat and milk made their own way out the door because once I bit the bullet and actually looked at the facts there was no decision to be made. There was no hard struggle involved of self-restraint. I didn’t want to buy into that world anymore. The truth smacked me in the face and I had to take notice.  I sat through difficult documentaries such as the incredible food inc; uncomfortable and difficult because the content was something I knew I had known about and still brought into. I saw the human cost caused by me consuming these animal products, the farmers out of work having undergone the most awful treatment from corporations, from families that have lost children over the chemicals in our food and I thought for what? For the sake of me ‘having’ to eat something that I think will be fitting for my latest fitness trend. Surely I can do better than that? 

I am very much against the current corporate/ media controlled state that we have come to in recent years. Tired of people being exploited, of disparity being so common, of everyday people being so disconnected from each other, choosing hate over unity and mostly of governments and corporations profiting off all of this, rolling this theme worldwide with lies whilst keep looking the other way.                  

I am not stating that dropping meat from your diet will save the world or that you should drop your beloved chicken curry from your diet forever but what I am saying is that we should back up the rally for change that 99% of people I meet want by educating ourselves, living in truth and doing our bit to make a change. For a small act from all of us in unity would change the current system as we know it (and you will feel that little bit lighter knowing that your hard earned cash isn’t going into the pocket of souls that mistreat others so terribly). 

 

I recently was told a story by an amazing Isreali lady who likened a factory farming doco to the holocaust, that it was no different just to animals instead of humans. She shared a story of her granddad who was detained in a detention centre during in Hitlers reign. There was a soldier who clearly opposed what was happening but was, of course, too afraid to stand up through fear for his life. Still, everyday he risked it by leaving crumbs for her granddad after each meal. If it hadn’t had been for that small but very brave gesture he would have died and this whole generation of his family wouldn’t exist. Herself, her sisters, her babies… all through one man's small gesture.  

 

What if we all lived in truth, educated ourselves with the information that is being so desperately hidden, understood that each time that beep is made at the check-out we cast a vote of how things should be. If we all made one small change: be it a meatless meal or day a week, almond milk over cows milk in your coffee, teaching our children that not just cats and dogs should be respected and cared for but all animals - what wave of change would we create? How much further could we move towards that world that we all so desperately crave?

 

If you would like to make a small or big change but aren’t sure how, it’s something that many people struggle with when making transitions. Here are some books and website that I have found so educational and helpful. From where you get protein from (something you will hear every waking moment when you say you are the V word) to living ethically in the city.  Its all there

 

http://ediblethebook.com/

http://deliciouslyella.com/

http://ohsheglows.com/

http://www.peta.org/living/food/making-transition-vegetarian/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKIeWeoqpfc

 

I also highly recommend Sharron Gannons book, yoga and vegetarianism. Don't be put off by the title, the book Is something I read directly after watching food inc and helped reinstate the importance of the change I was about to make. Its educational and inspiring.

 

Hells x

 

Letting that S#!$ go!

Whilst on holiday over Christmas this year I realized there was an underlying theme to the hopes/dreams I had for the year ahead, I had written so many different ideas down that when I took a moment to reread it all I saw it was based on that very simple but extremely difficult practice of, letting go.

In yogi philosophy this is known as 'Aparigraha' Non grapsing, loosening our grips. Letting go of what I think I should be doing, of being concerned with what anyone else is doing, letting go of the past, letting go of fear in all its capacity. Letting go of the stories my mind tells me, not good enough, not this enough, what if this, what if that. Although the past has brought us to where we are and of course is of great value it can also be a hindrance to us ever moving forward.

How often do i hear myself wondering back to why i can’t do something because a past conversation, opinion or story of mine or someone elses? Perhaps If i were to just let go, move forward with a sense of freshness that nothing had happened before, nothing could hold me back, miraculous things could or should I say would take place.

Today I taught my first ever ‘real’ yoga class, to a group of beautiful, diverse yogis. Most of which I had never met before and a style of class I haven’t practiced teaching. I woke up this morning with that nervous/excited feeling of ahh im finally going to teach! After all that time invested in training, it’s happening. Then the usual boring story of self- doubt crept into my head, the naysayer voice spoke up again but something different happened this morning. I didn’t listen! I laid there thinking right you cannot get out of this bed until you are leaping out fist punching the air screaming ‘I CAN DO THIS!’ and that’s what I did! I laid there repeating those words again and again until I believed them and jumped out of bed like a karate kid ready to yogify the world! Well, something like that anyway. As the nerves tried to kick down my door in the lead up and throughout the class I somehow managed to just ignore them and remember that this is fun, this is why I spent all those months training and studying. Let go of that idea that im not this or im not that, im enough and I can do this. So after de-briefing with my Mentor Rachel, I realised that the underlining theme of success throughout the class was just loosening my grip to all of the above. Letting it go.

Isn’t it what we all need to a little more of? After all we have never been here before. We have never lived this moment right here, right now in each part of the world we are currently in. It is all new, it is all a fresh adventure with tracks that have never been walked on before.

Cheshire cat smiles at the end of my first class with my Mentor Rachel.

 If we could engage with all the above every time doubt or fear comes into our minds then I have no doubt that life would be a lot more fruitful and our minds would have so much more space for far more valuable things.

So that’s my tagline into this fresh new exciting year, Let that shit go!

Hellsx