A tiny, important decision can change the entire trajectory of your life! If in your gut you feel a sense of rightness, don’t be afraid to transform, to becoming a better version of yourself.

During World Vegan Month, I share how the moment I turned vegan continues to have an influence on my life two decades later. My journey from overcoming resistance to becoming free and clear.

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I was sitting on the La-Z-boy chair next to a window in our cozy, tiny New York apartment. It was late in the afternoon. Whatever sun could come in between the buildings was shining through that window. And I thought…

“Hmm, what if I go vegan?”

I explored that idea, like a tongue going into the gap between teeth to explore. It tasted good. It felt so right.

I’d resisted it for a long time. For months together. But in that moment in my gut, in my whole being, there was a sense of, “this is your path, this is what you need to do.”

I felt the sense of expansion. So I made the decision. I thought, “okay, I’m going to go vegan now.”

It was just a matter of thinking this one thought for one moment, but it changed my entire life!

The trajectory of my life, of who I am as a person, the way I think, the way I work, the things I build, the work I do, all of it. There were ripples and ripples created just by that. The tiny thought, it dropped into my consciousness, into my life path like this little stone on a on a still pond. And then ripple, ripple, ripple, ripple, ripple.

This was more than two decades ago.

I don’t talk about veganism on this podcast much. This podcast isn’t about veganism, though that is my area of speciality, expertise, passion, love, everything. But I do talk about it once in a while because it goes hand in hand with The Feel Good Factor.

I always say, all the things that make me feel good in my life, in my work, in my creativity right now, they lead back to that moment of me turning vegan.

It’s hard to explain the subtle ways in which being vegan has transformed my life, and transformed me as the person I am. And it continues to be a core part of every decision I make. Well, okay, most important decisions that I make.

November 1st (yesterday) was world vegan day, and all of November is world vegan month. If you have a vegan in your life, do something special for them, wish them, show them you’re an ally.

As a vegan that’s so important, the support we get.

Yes, of course, what would make us the happiest ever is if anybody we know says, “hey, you know what? I want to try this vegan thing. I want to give it a good, solid, honest go.” That’s going to make our world!

But next to that would be people who say, “I support you. You’re a vegan, I understand you, I support you. I respect your decision. And how can I make things easier for you, make things better for you?” You know, showing that in actions, showing that in the way they behave, the way they treat you.

So, yeah, if you are a vegan, then a happy world vegan month, but if you aren’t, then go show a vegan in your life how special they are to you.

If this is your first time here, you’re listening to The Feel Good Factor podcast and I’m Susmitha Veganosaurus. I’m so glad you’re here today.

Yes, it’s world vegan month and I’ve spoken about veganism. But the point of me sharing about that tiny decision making so much of a transformation and difference in my life is to tell you, whatever decision you make (it could be veganism, it could be something else), if you’re considering…

• a big transformation in your life
• you feel right about it
• it feels like, “yes, this is the next step”

(not because of outside considerations like societal expectations, what people expect out of you, or what you want to brand yourself as, how you want to present yourself in the world, not that…)

On a very, very personal level, if that decision makes you feel like “this is right”, then go for it! Listen to that gut instinct, because little things make huge impacts.

And sometimes those decisions aren’t going to be easy.

When I initially went vegan, I did it to stop contributing to the exploitation of animals, of them being treated as objects. But there were so many other benefits to it I discovered as I continued being vegan.

It just blew my mind. It opened up a whole new world and a way of thinking to me because all my life I’d been told, you know, “Milk, milk, calcium. That’s the only source. It’s good for you.”

And I never questioned it. I never thought about, “hmm, what about the cow? What happens?” It never even occurred to me that mammals have to keep giving birth again and again so that the mother mammal produces milk again and again.

So cows, buffaloes, they’re all impregnated repeatedly in the industry, just so they give birth to babies. And then the baby’s taken away most of the time and the milk is milked for the consumption of human beings.

That didn’t sit right with me.

And here I was, a person who loved milk by the way. I was one of those rare people who’d drink plain cow’s milk without any sugar or any flavour, nothing. I’d just glug it down. I had gotten that addicted to it. I liked it that much!

But in my mind, when I connected the dots and realised, just for my taste buds I shouldn’t be doing this, I decided to change.

So when it made so much logical sense to me, I thought, okay, if I go out into the world and tell everybody about it, all the people I love, you know, my friends, my family…everybody’s smart, intelligent, logical, everybody’s kind hearted…

Humans are compassionate by default. We like to be kind, we like to be doing nice things. We don’t really want to hurt other beings. Most of us at least don’t, right? We don’t want to do it.

This is the reason things are hidden, why you see not the real cows in the dairy industry, but when the ad for milk goes up, it’s always a happy looking cow playing around, frolicking around in the fields. Not the reality.

Reality’s not shown to us because we want that dissonance. We don’t want to contribute to cruelty.

So I was like, okay, I found out about this, and it was like a no-brainer for me. Yes, I resisted finding out for a few months, but after that, when once I did find out what happens and how I don’t want to be a part of this, it was no brainer making this decision.

So I thought, I’d tell everybody about it and everybody would go vegan!

That did not happen. No. *laughs*

People transformed all right!

They turned into nutritionists overnight! “You won’t get your protein, you won’t get calcium, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah”. Without ever having studied nutrition.

Or they turned into socialists. “Oh poor people can’t afford vegan food. So, veganism is wrong, blah, blah, blah, blah”. All while keeping their expensive phones and in hand and typing this.

So there were transformations of a kind I didn’t foresee.

But also, it showed me who the people are who support me, who are open to this.

Even if they didn’t go vegan, they supported my journey. They were thoughtful. They were open to at least listening and understanding, instead of just simply arguing. Like, “plants have life too”, and “what if you were on a deserted island with only one chicken? What would you eat?”

All kinds of silly arguments because really, they can’t bear it. The dissonance, you know, to be told that what they’re contributing to is not nice. They don’t like to be told, so there were people who argued.

But then there were so many people who weren’t doing that. Who were willing to listen, understand, make at least some shifts in their lives. Some of them went vegan, some of them didn’t.

It made me realise that those who support me on this path are those who respect me, will respect me, in other areas of life too.

So coming back to your big decision, there may be a lot of resistance from others. Push back.

People don’t like to see others changing, making transformations in their lives, because they’re very comfortable being who they are and seeing you as who you are.

So when you transform, there will be push backs first, there’ll be denial. They’ll think you’re going through a phase, trying to convince you otherwise. Then there’ll be anger and fighting and arguments. There’ll be a lot of that.

But despite that, when you stick to your ethics, stick to your gut instinct, to your heart, to your passion, when you stick to that, then the people who will truly support you through various areas of your life will stand by you.

And those who won’t, if they’re not going to support you in this area, they’re not going to support you in other areas also. So it acts as a very nice filter.

Some of these big, important decisions, especially ones where you take a certain way of thinking and living for granted? These are cultural and social norms, and you’re breaking out of those. Especially when you make decisions like that, there will be push back.

And, you know…

The people who push back on one of these decisions will push back on others.

They need to respect and love you and care for you enough to support you in your decision. Whatever decision you make.

Veganism acted as a beautiful filter for me. Some relationships naturally fell off, withered away in my life. But also, there were many new beautiful relationships with like-minded people.

New friends, new acquaintances, people you have really deep and interesting conversations with, or people you have fun and casual enjoyment with. So much of that came into my life with like minded people!

So when you make your big decisions, be ready, you’ll be losing some people, very likely. But also, don’t be afraid of that because you’ll be gaining many more others in your life. More quality stuff.

Because I went vegan, I learned about feminism.

I hadn’t really thought about it that much until it was pointed out to me that in the livestock industry, whether it’s egg laying hens or dairy cows, it’s the female animal body that gets used as an object.

See, we’re trying to fight objectification of women, of the injustices young girls face through every day of their life, every step – trying to break the glass ceiling in their schools, being treated as an object, as a second class citizen. When we’re trying to make that go away, work towards creating awareness about it, how do you think that would even be possible if right on your plate you’re choosing products that are contributing to the exploitation and objectification of a female mammal?

I mean, humans are animals, humans are mammals. And there are non-human animals and mammals. That’s the only difference between us, right?

So while we continue contributing to that, do you expect the world will change the way it looks at women, the way it treats women? A female body is a female body. That observation really blew my mind. I hadn’t ever thought about it that way.

Start questioning beliefs you’ve been told are true, are acceptable…to the point where our lexicon has changed to make it seem acceptable.

For example, pretty much every red meat product doesn’t have the name of the animal. They don’t say cow, they don’t say pig, they say bacon, they say beef, to separate them in your mind. The lexicon gets changed so you don’t think of it as flesh of a being that was alive.

So once I started making & consuming plant-based milks, I realised, why should I say plant milk when the other milk is considered as a given? So I started referring to dairy as animal milk.

That’s all. It was just a simple change. Like pointing out that the liquid you drink in your coffee every day, that comes from an animal.

This particularly irritates the vegetarians who are so proud, who consider themselves ‘pure vegetarian’.

I was like that too. “I’m vegetarian, I don’t kill any animals so it’s okay to drink milk.” I was like that too, so I know very well what happens when a vegetarian hears the word ‘animal milk’, it kind of throws them off.

So these are things where we change our language itself to hide what we’re doing.

And this is not just in terms of veganism and the use of animals, but in all kinds of injustices. At a very systematic level, language is changed to keep on oppressing whoever is being oppressed. And mentally, that’s not a very good thing for us, that dissonance.

It actually affects us at a psychological level because you know the truth, but you’re trying to say other words to hide that truth from yourself. So it’s there in your subconscious. It’s not a very good thing.

Simply acknowledging things for what they are, questioning social norms cultural norms, that itself sets you free.

You start feeling like you see things for what they are, and you’re honestly calling them what they are.

Changing is the next step, but the very first step is even just acknowledging things for what they are. That’s a huge step.

So these are the kinds of shifts that happened with me.

I questioned something that I believed to be true all my life. And once you question one thing, you start questioning other things.

You start thinking, “huh, I just quietly accepted this all my life. That this is right. But now I know that it’s not. So what else? What other lies have I been told? Not even intentionally, just on a societal level what other lies have I been told? And where can I break free of them?”

So these other kinds of changes start happening when you become confident enough to make your decisions, make that shift towards something better, more in alignment with you with your values as a person, with your values as a human being. Being kinder, being more respectful. Not supporting injustices and exploitation. None of us want to do that.

When we start questioning things, we just become, or at least try our best to be better versions of ourselves.

We’re not saying we’re better than others, obviously. Especially if you’re going to work to fight against injustices, or live a life which does not support injustices in the least, obviously you don’t think you’re better than others. You think everybody should be equal, including, in the case of veganism, including animals.

Or if there are injustices against others that you don’t stand for, then you think they also need an equal opportunity.

So when you stand for this, there will be resistance, but stick to it because it just makes us better versions of ourselves.

And that contributes to a kind of world, a more joyful world. You know, add to the feel good factor of the world. *laughs*

So yeah, this is my message for world vegan month. Of course, I would love it if you’d do some more research about veganism, and go vegan, or consider going vegan.

Try it out. Let me tell you, it’s way easier to do it now than it was 20 years ago! So, yeah, give it a go. It’s the way of the future.

But also, not just in veganism…

Ask yourself what lies you’re being told at a societal level that you simply accepted.

Question them and change them with confidence. Without fear of the push back that’s going to come your way because you’ve made that decision.

All right!

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. What are your takeaways? Let me know here. I’ll put your message in one of my upcoming episodes.

Talk to you again next week. Take care. Thanks for listening to The Feel Good Factor. Bye!

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Susmitha Veganosaurus

“I’m a Spiritual Vegan Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur. I read voraciously, find humour in most things, and believe kindness and authenticity can make this world a happier, loving place.

If my content resonates with you, join my free newsletter where I share Life and Business Tips, Vegan Hacks, Holistic Guidance, and more.

Vegan cuisine and holistic business building are my two biggest passions. If you’re looking for guidance with vegan cooking, or want to grow your conscious business with joy and fulfilment, explore ways we can work togetherhere.”

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