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Stretch
This!
My idea of a good workout and my idea of a good meal
sort of changed at the same time. Taking up yoga led
me to move towards vegetarianism and then veganism,
last year. Now I am less apt to sing Hallelujah for
a kickboxing-aerobics class, or spend thirty minutes
on a Stairmaster. I do sometimes still enjoy them as
basic sweating, calorie-burning activities, but I prefer
my ashtanga yoga practice, which challenges my mind
and spirit as well as my body in a way that these workouts
have never done.
Moreover, I take into consideration now the source
of the equipment I use for my workouts. No more leather
sneakers, ball gloves, hockey skates, cross-country
ski boots, wool ski socks... I also boycott Nike, which
I know uses deplorable labor practices (other large
shoe companies may be equally bad, but I haven't found
that out yet), and try to buy workout wear from smaller,
local companies. None of my current sporting interests
is without non-vegan alternatives, and I think that
I will not take up any sport in which I can't be vegan.
My enjoyment of the sport would always be clouded with
discomfort.
I look at sports in a very different light now. I tried
downhill skiing for the first time this winter, in the
French Alps. The scenery was gorgeous; the opportunity
to see snow, lacking in the town where I am spending
a year on exchange, was delightful, but it just seems
so silly to me to take a perfectly good mountain with
its own seasons and litter it with snowmachines and
lodges and chairlifts so people can spend lots of money
to control their slides down it while wearing overpriced
commercialized equipment. I probably would not have
seen it this way before becoming vegan and really thinking
about how my choices affect my environment.
Since becoming a vegan my body has become more flexible
and feels lighter during practice, though I am pretty
much at the same weight (i.e. normal for my height and
age) that I was at before I stopped eating meat. And
the ethical tenets of my yoga practice-- honesty, non-violence,
non-accumulation, non-stealing, and continence -- make
so much sense with a vegan lifestyle. I seek now to
live simply in a way that honors all life, including
my own. Moving towards this goal will be the work of
(at least one!) lifetime.
The esotericism of my yoga practice aside, I have other
mental muscles that have also needed to undergo some
"fitness training."
I have had to build up my tolerance muscle. My world
has been turned upside down in this past year, and I
see outrageous grief and cruelty where most of the world
sees (and I used to see) commonplace, useful items.
If I don't watch it I could end up resenting the world
for not caring about the issues that have come to matter
to me, instead of treating it with the respect that
vegetarians and vegans always accorded me before I made
the change myself. I won't convert anyone by resenting
them.
I have had to do lots of work on humility too. Without
realizing it, sometimes I start thinking the world should
revolve around me and be as convenient to my new lifestyle
as it was for my old one. I begin to resent restaurants
for not having vegan food-- not only because it means
that other people aren't finding out that vegan food
is great, but because selfish little me wants to be
catered to, even now that her dietary choices are outside
of the mainstream. In my current social circle, I'm
the only one who knows how to cook for me. Whose fault
is that? Not theirs!
It behooves me to think about how other people must
feel when faced with my veganism. I am not Saint LM,
the Pure and Spotless Vegan Example. When I gripe about
a non-vegan world to non-vegan friends, I have to remember
how it must be coming across to them. If I make them
feel that I am preaching to them, I am being marvelously
efficient in alienating my friends, making us all unhappy,
and NOT furthering the cause for animals, all in one
breath!
In the end, it all relates to compassion. This is a
muscle I hadn't really exercised, or maybe even realized
I had, until I decided to stop eating and using animals.
I have had to stretch my understanding of the world,
to better see my own place in it and the effects of
my actions. This to me is the beginning of compassion
and ahimsa, in which I hope I can spend the rest of
my life building strength!
LM
Aix-en-Provence, France
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