Since becoming vegan, I have managed to make progress on several fronts. In fact, before, I focused on the physical level, I neglected the mental part. When you do weight training, when you do anything what sport, you are looking to improve yourself, to become better by focusing on training. And since going vegan, I’ve discovered something that helps me progress mentally.
It’s something I had before, but it was kind of buried, it wasn’t as present. I sincerely think it has to do with my new way of living, combining sport and the vegan lifestyle. This is the consequence of an agreement with myself. I know now I can’t do without it, it’s part of me. It helps me achieve my personal goals.
This thing is wonder. The wonder of nature, of the animal world, of life. It’s like a feeling of weightlessness. Like I’m hovering in the air, like all voices are disappearing.
When I observe nature, I find myself alone in front of others, in front of those whom I do not understand, but with whom I feel so close. I realize more and more to what extent contemplating nature while being silent is a force. It’s hard to stop time in a moving world.
To take a break to observe, without judging, without taking part…. Just observe. Stop time to observe the infinitely small and the infinitely large. I learn a lot from contemplation. It allows me to put things into perspective, to take a step back from the world around me. It allows me to be more open-minded, calmer, more zen.
I’ll never know what happens in return, what they think, but deep down I don’t need to. I don’t need to understand them to be happier. And I realized recently that I don’t have to be dependent on them to progress. Quite the reverse. It’s selflessness that keeps me going. It’s the fact of letting them live, of respecting them that keeps me going.
Sometimes wonder completely overwhelms me. I can’t fight. I find myself there, in front of reality. I have the impression of seeing the world in slow motion, in a kind of transcendence, lost in beauty and in the void of silence. My actions and my choices influence the world in which I live and trigger consequences on the landscape, it is obvious. I am not superior, I am not a regulator. Just an observer, like everyone else.
Wonder allows me to channel my energy, to be calm when I need it, or to be focused and nervous when the time is right. It allows me to give all I can when I devote myself to this, to make a real transition. To be able to transfer all of my energy the moment I decided to use it. Wonder makes me more emotional, more compassionate, more peaceful, happier, more focused, more determined, stronger.
The moments that I spend listening to and observing life empower me. The further I advance, the more I regain my place in the universe. I figured out what to do with this pedestal. The more I go down, the more I grow.
