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Listen to your body. When your body is telling you something, listen to it.

 

I absolutely loved my conversation with Anaïs. It went further than having a vegan lifestyle. And isn’t it always so? Everything in life is connected and when we consciously look at those connections we are somehow able to see things differently, our perspective shifts. And then it becomes really interesting. :)

 

One of the most important lessons that was given during our talk was that we must be kind to ourselves. When we make a change in our life – whether it’s our mindset, food habits or schedule – we must go step by step. Certainly, in Western culture we feel so pressured to be “perfect” that we put pressure on ourselves to change 360 degrees in a day. And then at some point most of us break and stop completely or we feel stressed by this ‘new’ life. What we seek is conscious transformation. And a conscious lifestyle embodies so much, right? It's about our consumption habits, our health, our relationships and, yes, the connection with food, animals, nature and mostly ourselves.

 

When you start looking at one element, the other pieces also start to move. But it all begins with awareness. Like Anaïs said in our talk: we have options. We may not have been aware of the options because marketing and even our educational systems didn’t provide us with all the options, but we DO have options. We can learn, inspire each other and make change happen. Because one step leads to another. You see, when we look at our consumption habits we must ask ourselves: how will we ever reverse the OVERproduction in the world if we don't start to eliminate our OVERconsumption? It's all connected.

 

Does that mean we all have to become vegan? Not necessarily. But it does mean that we all have a responsibility to become aware, stop for a second and consciously decide which life we want to build. The reason why someone becomes vegan differs from person to person. For some it is about no longer harming animals (stuffed with antibiotics or filled with plastics), for others it's about protecting our planet (which suffers immensely from our way of living) and for others it's about having a healthy body (where our mental and physical health isn’t devastated by our consumption habits). We. Can. Make. A. Change. (yey, cheer, amazing)

 

Isn’t that crazy? We so often forget that WE are the changemakers, that it is up to US to make the choices

 

The other day I heard this: ‘We need to stop looking at animals as if they are there solely to provide us with something.’ Wow. What a valuable point, right? It was in a conversation about chickens. You see, as long as we keep on looking at animals as ‘producers’ of sorts, we will create expectations and wrong habits that lead to misuse of the animals and the resources to provide for them. When an animal is genetically changed so it can produce more for us, we are playing with the laws of nature. And we will lose.

 

It's all about our conscious mindset. Which world do we want to live in? Which world do we want our children to live in? We need to be clear on that. Then the choice becomes really easy.

 

And awareness is key. Most of us are not aware of the consequences of our daily choices. With all the information – or should I say misinformation – out there, it's no wonder. But remember, step by step we can get there. Let’s start with something as simple as food. Do you actually know what you eat, what you put in your body? I know I don’t always know, or at least I certainly didn’t know at all in the past. I cracked up when Anaïs answered me so simply when I asked her how she does her grocery shopping. She said: “When I don’t understand what's in it, I don’t buy it.” Simple as that. And living in India my meals are so simple yet so delicious. A couple of ingredients (veggies, nuts, spices…) but a meal made with love.

 

We need to change our mindset to food and realise it's a blessing. Food isn’t there to make you feel - or stop feeling - some way. Food – nutrition – is there to nourish you. A balanced diet strengthens our physical health (Anaïs is no longer anaemic, nor does she suffer from high cholesterol!), it nourishes our mental health (think of ginger when you have a headache, for example) and nature can finally breathe again. So, let us all get back in touch with food. Use our hands when cooking, regain love for it. You will taste the difference!

 

Would you like to connect with Anaïs?

Connect with her via #inhaleyoga_anais on Instagram.