Interview with Rahel from dontwasteyourtaste.com/en
In the last interview special with Nini from ligayayoga.com I asked her questions about Ahimsa, Veganism and Yoga. In today’s post I will answer the questions that Nini asked me and I will explain what the vegan lifestyle and yoga have in common.
A few months ago, Nini asked me if I would like to cook for a group during the Women Retreat, which will take place in Ibiza from May 15-21, 2021. Of course I said yes! Because there is really hardly anything that I enjoy more than cooking delicious vegan food for others. In combination with the daily yoga practice, the group process and the sea in front of the door, it is just perfect and exactly what I was looking for.
So that the readers of my blog can get to know me and also Nini better, we interviewed each other. So here is part two of this Interview special in which Nini is asking the questions and I’m giving the answers. 🙂
When did you go vegan and why? What has changed since?
“In the spring of 2016, I decided to go vegan. At that time, primarily for ethical reasons. I could no longer justify my contribution to the suffering of animals that the consumption of animal products entails. Especially not after I realized that I could live a perfectly healthy life even if I lived vegan.
Since making the switch, I’ve realized that I live a fulfilling life BECAUSE I live vegan.
This life-changing decision caused a wave of self-empowerment for me and led me onto the path of mindfulness. An incredible number of doors have opened since then. Doors on the inside and on the outside.”
What Made You Want To Do What You’re Doing Now?
“My enthusiasm and joy for vegan cooking and baking has been huge since the beginning of my vegan journey. I just love to spend hours trying out different dishes, inventing new recipes and bringing smiles to others’ faces with my creations. In 2019, the desire to share my enthusiasm with my fellow humans became unmistakably loud and I founded my blog “dontwasteyourtaste.com”. Since then, I have been able to learn a lot as co-host of the vegan YouTube cooking show of the channel “Zentrum der Gesundheit” and have achieved my first small successes as an independent food blogger. After more than two years as a food blogger, I still do what I do because I love it and it always inspires me. There’s really little that makes my heart happier and dance more than when someone tries one of my recipes and reports back that they really enjoyed it.”
What Does Ahimsa Mean To You?
“Ahimsa for me means not causing suffering to sentient beings, both human and nonhuman animals. If I want to truly live the principle of Ahimsa, it is an empathic and also logical conclusion for me to live a vegan lifestyle. I came to this conclusion before I found myself on the path of yoga in 2017. So it was all the more beautiful for me to realize then that my vegan lifestyle is in line with what I consider to be a very basic tenet of yogic teachings.”
What Does Health Mean To You?
“When I feel physically exhausted or ill, or perceive my mind as very unbalanced, I lack the resources to truly enjoy my existence. I believe we are here on this earth to learn to love life in its fullness and infinite, inexhaustible generosity. Living according to this understanding means to me, to live a healthy life.”
What Do You Think we as Humans Should Change?
“In a Vipassana meditation course I learned to observe my inner world with a meditative attitude. What I learned during that very intensive ten-day course is that everything changes. Everything comes into existence and also passes away.
Hence my time on this planet is also finite. So what do I do with the very limited time I have here? Do I want to contribute to more suffering, or do I want to do my best to act more and more out of compassion every day?
When we ourselves get to the point where we understand that we have a choice about how to answer this question, we discover new perspectives. The vegan movement, in my opinion, is a result of the humankind becoming more aware on a collective level that the suffering we do to others always comes back to us in one way or another. That more and more people are choosing the vegan lifestyle and making a strong case gives me confidence that we want to end this cycle and we’re ready to make compassion-based choices.”
What is your motto/phiosophy of life?
“Don’t Waste Your Taste!” This saying can be applied not only to food. Life is here to be tasted and enjoyed in its versatility and boundless abundance.”
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed.
Let me know in the comments – What does Ahimsa means to you?
