Experiments in imagination

305:

Imagine what it would be like to ‘go vegan’, trying to give things up but always finding it to be an effort - if it was like that we’d surely, eventually feel like giving up and going back to easier ways.
But isn’t that the characteristic of any experiment – finding out whether it is worth putting in the effort and going on, in order to eventually reach a time when it’s no longer such an effort? Once over that hurdle then experiments become all-interesting. I suppose all people want to get to that stage. when they start out on any discipline.
I remember when I first contemplated veganism I’d ask myself if expending the initial energy (to get over the inertia) was worth it. But there’s a double hurdle for vegans, because there’s a huge weight of opinion set against us, trying to drag us back to convention. Vegans are in danger of being scuppered not only by a lack of support, not only by others’ inaction but by open hindrance.
In an ideal world we’d be simply pioneering, setting an example and others inevitably following - ‘vegans doing the right thing’, others alongside lightening the load. But that certainly isn’t the case for most of us, not right now anyway.
So, to break this cycle, to turn things around, to be experimenting rather than always watching one’s back, I found it best to approach this great lifestyle change as if I were forging my own philosophy. I was conducting a big experiment in order to feel a more exciting and effective energy flowing through me. I felt as if I were letting imagination play a part in linking self development with self discipline.
By going vegan I discovered my own potential for jumping the hurdles, for ‘making the effort’, without having to first be certain of anything - it was being done in the true spirit of experimenting, by not needing outside help to confirm my decisions or to keep me on track.