My 8 Year Vegan Anniversary
By: Troy Haines
Tags: Vegan, Suffering, Awakening, Stress, Meditation

Tomorrow is my 8 year vegan anniversary.

I don’t often talk about being vegan in the content that I share… mostly because I feel our journeys are so varied and most of us are doing what we think is right.

But 8 years in, I thought to share “my why” in case it is the inspiration that any of you might need for your journey. “Why are you vegan?”, is often one of the questions that comes up when being vegan is discussed.

I’ve observed that people often turn to a vegan diet and lifestyle (refrain from using animal products) for 3 main reasons.. Diet, environment or the animals. For me it was the later and the unnecessary suffering that is caused in farming and slaughtering animals.

Jumping back just a little… Over the years I’ve come to understand that I am a highly sensitive person and until I learned how to manage it, that sensitivity caused me a great deal of personal suffering. Overwhelmed by a world that didn’t make sense, it put me on a path of personal development, desperate to move beyond the innate sense of suffering that I felt. The noise my mind would make was cruel at times and this triggered a whole range of emotions which could be punishing. Not sure if you can relate?!

It wasn’t until I’d mastered my meditation practice that I realised that I wasn’t those thoughts and feelings and I could change my behaviour and the internal programs that they had become. And much of the personal development work I was doing to overcome the pain, I was applying to trauma that wasn’t even mine to overcome. My sensitive nature made me predisposed to empathise with those around me and I was suffering as a consequence.

The meditation practice I now teach was key to helping me separate from the noise of my mind and permanently shift that suffering. Whilst I still have tough days and of course there is still so much that I still seek to understand, experience and master in my life, but now… I rarely (if ever) feel that I am suffering.

Meditation has proved to be an incredible ongoing practice which helps me to seperate from the internal noise.

I wanted to share this, because if you are someone who’s internal dialogue is causing suffering — acute stress, anxiety, overwhelm, potentially affecting your sleep and you’re not meditating… then I really want to encourage you too. When we’re able to separate from the conditioned and collective noise in our heads there is a familiar stillness and a sense of wellbeing and contentment. I often find myself filled with so much gratitude at being able to access this stillness. I truly believe that everyone can (many haven’t tried and many have given up too soon).

I want this for everyone who seeks it and I do what I can also for those who can’t. Having realised an end to my own suffering, I became aware that suffering wasn’t unique to humanity. Other sentient beings were suffering for me to exist. So I made a choice 8 years ago tomorrow, to no longer contribute to that suffering. That’s why I’m vegan.

And for me 5 days out from my 44th birthday, I am still as fit, strong and healthy as I have ever been. If like me you’ve had enough of suffering and you feel called to give meditation and/or the vegan lifestyle a try in 2021, reach out to me and I’ll help as best as I can.

Troy

🌱🧘🏽

p.s. who else got a little too much Christmas sun yesterday 😅